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> Results: Dora the Explorer: Super Star Adventures
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Join everybody's favorite bilingual explorer on her second Game Boy Advance game, Super Star Adventures. Dora must call on the help of the Explorer stars such as Glowy Star, if she needs a little extra light or Sallador the Jumping Star to reach high ledges. Using these helpful stars our spunky little explorer has to go on six different expeditions to various areas to help out all her friends.
Fans of Dora the Explorer and their parents will quickly discover the game's six levels are set up in a format similar to the show. You start off by calling out for the trusty mat to find out where to go. Once you know how to get to your destination the gameplay starts with a simple point and click, hide and seek level with the regular stars and the Explorer star that will help in the next area. After that, players pass through an action-oriented area either jumping from log to log Frogger-style or Racing the Rocket car through the clouds. The third area varies but has a puzzle solving element of some sort that's usually matching but one area is a maze. The game's graphics are crisp and vibrant with all the characters looking very good. Sound is on par with other Game Boy Advance titles. Gameplay itself is simplified to better suit its target audience. Only the D-pad and A-button are used in game and the B-button readily replaces the A-button if you miss. In the beginning of a stage in the hide and seek area, if you haven't found all the stars or blinked when the Explorer star hid, push A or B to have them reveal themselves. Racing the Cloud Prince with the Rocket car consists of pressing up or down and pressing A or B when prompted to collect a total of 50 Stars. The only time the Cloud Prince gets ahead is when the engines tire and you're prompted to press A or B. One of my favorite features of the game is the lack of parental intervention to make all the levels available. All six stages are available from the beginning of the game and can be completed in any order or repeated as often as your child likes. 
I ought to call this one the parent factor. This game is really tuned into smaller kids: four, five or six. Definitely the under 7 set. The game is simple, safe, fun, and well it's quite impossible to lose. I've tried over and over on various levels and you just can't lose. I would almost go as far as calling this one an activity center more than a game, which should help the frustration factor.
There is one thing missing though, the hidden Spanish lessons. We love learning new Spanish vocabulary on Dora the Explorer, and a lot of the parents I know watch Dora because of that little feature. Parents looking to duplicate that here will have to keep looking. Mostly kids will use sorting and matching skills. Despite the lack of Spanish vocabulary most associate with Dora the Explorer this is really a fun game for all the budding gamers in your family. Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Browse Amazon.com's selection of "Dora the Explorer" themed games Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Dora the Explorer: Super Star Adventures |
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