Evaluation of FreddiFish (3/25/99)

"FreddiFish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds" is produced by Humongous Entertainment located in Woodinville, Washington. The producers classify the program as an "interactive animated adventure," intended for kids aged three through eight years old. Gaming Magazine awarded it the "Best Children's Game of 1994." The program is distributed on CD-ROM and plays on both Macintoshes and PCs that have basic graphic and sound capabilities. Since there is almost no documentation, we recognize some of the program's objectives as those described on the back of the box, "Junior Adventures challenge and inspire kids to think for themselves in creative and flexible ways. . . . Your children will direct the journey and overcome challenges at their own pace. . . . Kids learn that teamwork is the key as FreddiFish and Luther solve puzzles and help others in order to reach their goal." Lastly, it is important to note Humongous Entertainment's slogan, "Software that doesn't underestimate your child," for it differs greatly from our perception of the software: this software overestimates your child.

Content

FreddiFish proves to be a challenge to our classic notions of educational software, for it does not cover traditionally "educational material." Instead, it focuses solely on problem solving and gaming. Briefly stated, Freddi and his friend Luther are trying to find their grandmother's kelp seeds, and to do so, they must complete a set of tasks laid out throughout the course of the plot line by other underwater sea characters. Freddi discovers the plot and his tasks through exploration and the completion of other tasks. Many of these tasks demand that Freddi find objects, trade with characters, or go to different places to complete them. Often times there are several tasks and plots overlapping (lose the sharks!), and we find this to be a particularly confusing point of the game. Because Freddi has no map, we also find it difficult to keep track of where things are, where we have been, and where we are going. (Map skills might be a nice addition to the program as well.)

Considering the age range as stated on the box, these factors combined lead us to conclude that this program overestimates your child's ability to solve problems. Because there are few hints, many times throughout the program we find ourselves thoroughly frustrated at finding the next step in the plot, the missing piece, or a combination of the two. FreddiFish is a tremendously detail-oriented program that demands a lot of perseverance and patience. These are not qualities we think three- through eight-year olds alone have. However, having the primary user working with an adult or an older child, this programs turns out to be a more successful piece of educational software. Under this scenario, the software encourages the development of these discoverer qualities because the child can now actually attain the goals. Otherwise, we recommend that children aged five to ten use this program.

Its age appropriateness aside, we have other concerns about its content. Whereas many other pieces of educational software try to incorporate problem solving and gaming into the more traditional topics of math, science, art, and history to add excitement, FreddiFish seems to be exclusively concerned with developing the problem solving and story-comprehension abilities of kids. These really are the only objectives that this program claims to have; however, we wonder whether these are worthy goals in and of themselves. (One character in the game, the starfish, drills math problems. Not only is talking to him optional, but you don't even win anything after getting a problem right!) Perhaps we are stuck on the notion of education strictly as the three Rs, but we do walk away from this program thinking, "What did we just learn?"

Presentation of Content, GUI, and User Interaction

What FreddiFish lacks in content, it makes up for in presentation. The graphics and animation in the program are tremendous. The graphics are colorful, clear, and well placed, then animated at a good pace and with a sense of purpose. Nothing is gaudy nor cheaply done. Coupled with great character voices speaking slowly and clearly, the user has a great understanding of his surroundings. The graphic designers of this program clearly have a strong handle on screen balance and the strengths of simplicity.

The user interacts with the program solely by listening to the characters then acting by way of the mouse.1 There is no need to use the keyboard except when pausing, quitting, saving, or loading.2 Limiting interaction to the mouse during the course of the game is a smart design decision if one intends the audience to be three through eight year olds: the mouse is a natural tool. When Freddi can move in a direction, the pointer in that area will turn into an arrow, then Freddi can be moved. To pick up an object, talk to someone, or just generally interact with things, the user clicks over top of the object. Upon rollover, if the object is interactive to begin with, the pointer will become solid, otherwise it is only an outline. This is another effective tool for interaction. Also, to use an object with a character on the screen, the user simply drags the object from Freddi's bottom-screen bubble containers on to the character. Every user interaction in FreddiFish seems intuitive and certainly does not get in the way of the program's use.

One of the best aspects of FreddiFish is its level of interaction. Almost everything within a FreddiFish screen is clickable. Three quarters of the clickable things have no real purpose other than to entertain, but they do that exceptionally well. All three of us find ourselves laughing out loud at the object's reactions, and that encourages us to keep clicking away. This is an important feature of the program, for if the interactive objects were a bore, then most users would simply try and solve the Freddi mystery without the interaction, yet one must interact to be successful in this game. The highly interactive screens of FreddiFish serve not only to entertain kids but also to advance the plot through user motivation. Few educational software programs manage to do these two things successfully.

Ultimately, the combination of graphics, animation, sound, and user interface creates a thoroughly engaging piece of software. This program is notable for demanding so much user initiative and at the same time providing the tools and incentives to make that initiative worthwhile. Most programs tend to do one or the other well, but typically, not both.

Conclusion

FreddiFish is a very entertaining piece of educational software. With such an intuitive interface, the program is a great introduction to computers for young users. It encourages those users to take risks and to enjoy that which the computer has to offer. Although we question both the program's educational value and age appropriateness, we do thoroughly enjoy the interaction it offers. The developers of this software should be praised for their creativity, however they should also be cautioned that too much creativity can leave the user confused.

1 In the PC version of FreddiFish, the user can only hear the characters' words, however in the Mac version, the user has the option of displaying the words on the screen along with hearing them. This is a great feature for kids trying to learn to read, but we found that the lettering was clunky and disrupted the great screen designs. As a sidenote to this, we wonder why the PC version of this program is so much more crippled than the Mac version.

2 In the PC version, these commands cannot be accessed by a menu. Instead, one must seek out the correct keystroke in the CD-ROM insert to be able to use the command. The Mac version is much simpler-a menu pops up when the command button is pushed that allows the user to choose these commands.