Crayola Magic 3D Coloring Book: Vehicle Voyages
The coloring book goes high-tech in Crayola Magic 3D Coloring Book: Vehicle Voyages. A fire engine roars down a virtual street while a frog and crayon-juggling bear welcome young children ages 3 to 7 to a house with a magical art room containing 64 crayon colors and a variety of tools and textures. Add glitter to crayons for a "sparkly" effect and use either skinny or big crayons.
Options include textured colors or psychedelic patterns, a paint bucket, paint brush or paint hose and an erase function that allows you to undo mistakes or start over. Tools such as the paint bucket and hose can fill in a selected area or an entire picture with a single click of the mouse. When a picture is completed with the hose tool a goofy array of characters and space ships or vehicles dance across the screen and put on a show. Each tool, task or crayon color is described by a cheerful voice when selected.
The 3D aspect transforms a selection of 64 flat 2D pages into 3D still cartoons as shadows and light magically appear under the mouse pointer during the coloring process. Subject matter includes space pictures, vehicles and backgrounds, some with characters and some without. You can choose to color "within the lines" (computer-assisted) or "outside the lines" with color placement dependent on mouse control. A scribble pad allows kids to draw pictures on a plain background and finished results can be saved and printed. ~ Kim Olson, All Game Guide
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Product Details
| UPC: | 743876031135 |
|---|---|
| Release Date: | 1999 |
| Platform: | IBM PC Compatible |
| Genre: | Home |
| Style: | Art/Paint |
Review
Crayola Magic 3D Coloring Book: Vehicle Voyages is a misguided and ineffective effort to replicate a "real" coloring book. It adds the computer-age bonus of music, mini-cartoon animated "vignettes" and 3D characteristics to the traditional charm of a simple coloring book but fails to enhance the fun of using real crayons. While it is clearly not meant to completely replace the traditional paper-and-crayons version of the childhood pastime, it doesn't even begin to approach what it infers with the "coloring book" reference in the title.The biggest and most obvious drawback is the elimination of the need to practice dexterity by the very target audience it's trying to reach. Traditional coloring books help teach the skill of finger control and neatness while the CD program simply "uncovers" a 3D, perfectly drawn, one-color, cartooned picture through the act of wildly moving the mouse around the screen. This might be acceptable if it was but one function of the program but, unfortunately, it's the main purpose.
There are 32 different pictures to "fill in" (no real "coloring" required). When pictures are completed, one of several short cartoon-like "vignettes," such as a goofy astronaut lazily floating by, play across the screen. Once those pictures are exhausted, it's really the end of the program though, of course, they can be re-colored and redone. There are no other challenges or games included to enhance the product's worth.
Preschoolers will most likely be initially dazzled by the funny characters and bright colors of their "creations" but will become bored quickly once the selection of pictures has been used awhile. There is a "scribble pad" included with the program where children can create their own pictures but similar programs have this function as well and have a much broader educational and replay value.
Traditional coloring books and crayons teach better motor and recognition skills than does Crayola Magic 3D Coloring Book: Vehicle Voyages while other computer programs are on the market that provide broader and more educational replay value in terms of teaching computer dexterity skills. ~ Kim Olson, All Game Guide
Credits
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| IBM Corporation | Developer |
| EAI Interactive | Developer |
| IBM Corporation | Manufacturer/Publisher |
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