by Alex Tours

Created on: May 20, 2008   Last Updated: May 25, 2008

SUMMARY
An enjoyable, colorful game for young children up to the age of about 10. The game will assist with reading, word recognition, hand-eye co-ordination and powers of observation whilst entertaining youngsters. Overall rating of 4/5 (on a scale where 5/5 is best, 1/5 worst).

DETAILED REVIEW
Yard Sale Junkie is a cartoon based observation game suitable for young children.

This review is based on a 60 minute trial version of the game.

The game is set in the Los Angeles area. The player is in the role of a young lady fresh from graduation who is trying to raise $50,000 to set herself up with her own boutique business in Beverley Hills rather than joining the family business. She needs to raise the money through yard sales. Yard Sale Junkie is a single-player game.

The game play involves a series of time-limited yard sale challenges of ever-increasing difficulty. The basic idea is that a cartoon portrait of a client appears identifying an object that he/she wishes to buy, together with the cost. The player needs to find and select the required item from the many scattered and hidden amongst others around the yard and then drag them with the mouse to the picture of the client. In doing so a sale is made and some of the necessary money earned.

If the player manages to sell all of the items in the yard within the allotted time then an extra cash bonus is awarded. Through this challenge against the clock the player develops spatial awareness, observational skills and, for younger players, will help with reading and word familiarity.

The game comes in three difficulty levels: fewer hints being provided as the difficulty increases. With 10 hints being given at the easiest level, this is sufficient to enable players from the earliest reading age to enjoy the game.

The sound features are fairly basic: soft music accompanying the yard sales plus a few special effects - simple but more than sufficient for the target audience.

Games in progress can be saved and reloaded at a later time - a useful feature as to progress through all the levels will take a few hours!

Young children will enjoy the bright color cartoons and the animated graphics of the more challenging yard sales. There is no violence or obscenity: even the youngest children can safely be left to play with this game.

Overall, then, Yard Sale Junkie is a visually appealing game for young children, Whilst it is perhaps not the most creative or innovative of games, it does work well and should appeal to young children. Therefore for those up to the age of 10, it deserves a score of 4 out of 5.

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