Millie's Math House

The Good
There isn't that much you find to fascinate yourself in this game. I suppose the activity Paint by the Numbers does teach users how to count in 2s and 5s, which is the most advanced math in the whole game. Too bad it isn't a good way to teach how colours work. The rest doesn't get any better.

The Bad
Different from the original version are the overly bold outlines that don't even look remotely hand drawn with some flat, textureless colours paired with them. Because of the smaller resolution, the playroom looks like a crowded, jumbled mess.
The new activities are equally less appealing. Paint by the Numbers uses a disappointingly small amount of colours and you have to colour pictures unrealistically. It's probably for the best that you can't print the pictures. It's more fun to fill in a colouring book with nothing but a hard black pencil. Alien Astronauts seemed like a potentially good theme for teaching about shapes, but falls short of shape variety that it can't teach you what Build a Mouse House hasn't.

The audio is utterly appalling. Instrumentation is shrill, high pitched and out of rhythm for every theme. Every vocalised character coos at you like a mother hen. Does Attainment Company really think that children are dumb and clueless? Choices of sound are mainly stock and mediocre, but a couple of animal noises in Bing and Boing give you the wrong interpretation of what a cow and goat sound like: "Urm" and "Baa" respectively. Seriously? Everyone knows a cow goes "Moo" and a goat goes "Maa". Too bad you can't record your own sounds for much needed improvement.

The Bottom Line
This game really poorly reuses and recycles the content of the original Theatrix version and then sellotapes two more activities to it. If a child is trying to learning something useful, this game that treats everyone like a baby is only going to hold them back and in some instances make them deviate from proper concepts. You would not wish this game on your own child. If you're seeking something to teach, play the original PC version or a different game like Math Rabbit.

The Good
This game and all its activities are simple, straightforward and meaningful. They really reinforce the concept of shapes, the numbers zero to ten and making matches. Whether you prefer to experiment freely or follow instructions, there's always something new to learn. It's impressive that the activities can be configured to cater for older children with a larger number range. Even better the Bing and Bong activity allows custom sounds to record, while Mouse House and Build-a-Bug has the option to print your creations. The extensive use of the mouse pointer is good for eye and hand coordination.

Graphics are just right with bright colours, a playroom theme, easy shapes and quite a big variety of objects to keep it interesting. There is a decent cast of characters to host the activities and draw a user's attention to the tasks.

The Bad
While the teaching material is adequate, one can only nitpick for more learning to incorporate such as names of colours. Perhaps the only flaw in the math and counting is that it might be difficult for certain individuals to relate to due to the different objects used instead of everyday objects like dinner plates and fingers on your hand, something children would be more accustomed to. In the end though, there are no personal problems in the game's core features.

The Bottom Line
What you'll find in this game is what every starting child needs. It's an elementary school class in a can. This game truly is a treasure trove that a child will treasure memories for many years to come. This game is the giant stepping stone on the road to a successful education. Even with their simplicity, every activity was carefully well made. I salute you Donna Stanger. If a sequel to this game titled "Millie's Math Mansion" were to be released, there would be opportunities to teach multiplication, division and make them lots of fun.