Learning with Leeper

The Good
Earlier in the year, I had the chance to play Lunar Leeper, which is the best Sierra arcade game I've played so far. Getting the little prisoners to safety without letting the Leepers jump up and grab them was always a challenge to me. Now one of the Leepers have their own educational game that teaches children about matching and logic, while letting them explore their creativity.

The game greets you with a nice title screen. There is a nice animation of the Leeper walking across the screen and out of sight. The animation of the dogs waging their tails in the first game when you match the dogs with the bones is so cute. I also like the way the game flashes the correct answer if you've got it wrong. The dogs are designed well, and they look to me like dalmatians.

When it comes to sound effects, I enjoyed listening to Sierra's rendition of This Old Man which you match the dogs and bones correctly. There is also this tune in the second game, but I don't remember what it is called. These are the only tunes in the game, but I'm not all that fussed about music when it comes to educational games like this one.

The maze game lets you guide the Leeper around a simple maze without any complications such as lives or enemies. The caterpillar that join you is drawn nicely. Since he will be joining you, there is also no race to finish in first position. When you let him go in front, he just gets through the maze and then goes back to you. Here is just there to assist children in case they get lost. The maze is randomly generated, meaning that children won't get bored completing the one maze with the same layout.

The last game lets children explore their own creativity, painting a drawing. Four pictures can be colored in, so if they finish coloring in one, they can move to another. There are lots of colors to choose from, so they are not limited in any way. If a mistake (as in painting something with the wrong colors), then it can easily be rectified.

Most of the included games are easier, with the only real challenge being in the second game, the one where you use a balloon to match something with what's on the platform. The items you must match start with letters, but when about five of those are correct, the letters are replaced with people, followed by patterns, and then three-letter words.

The Bad
If there is something bad about this game, it would be involving the paint program. It can't fill an entire object in one go, and you have to paint over the areas that it missed.

Since this is a cartridge game, individual pictures can't be loaded into it. Loading their own pictures is ideal for children who are bored even with four pictures at their disposal.

The Bottom Line
Learning with Leeper is one of the best education games available for the ColecoVision. Children have the choice of four games, all combining a mixture of matching, logic, and creativity. The animations are cool, and Sierra's renditions of classic childrens' songs are excellent. The game is similar to Learning with FuzzyWOMP but with the exception of the second game, all of them are easier.