'Didi' offers a learning adventure

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In a world of violent video games, where dexterity of the thumb and index finger is infinitely more important than the flexing of the cerebrum, there must be a place for children and their parents to interact and actually learn something from that overpriced multimedia computer/gaming system. Take a deep breath and enter the ROMper Room, where learning is a four-letter word -- cool.

Two inquisitive beavers help children hone literacy and math skills in the beautifully animated adventure Didi and Ditto: Kindergarten.

Kutoka Interactive, an award-winning Canadian computer design firm, outdoes itself with this feature-film-quality interactive experience that at times looks like a Pixar classic while incorporating a Wallace-and-Gromit-like group of characters.

To begin, the 4- to 6-year-old player signs in and chooses to play as the female beaver, Didi, or her brother, Ditto. An extended video clip plays, featuring a "Benny Hill"-like chase sequence involving a rabbit thief and a turnip. The sequence reveals that one of the buck-toothed protagonists has been trapped by the vegetarian wolf Zolt, who will release the beaver in exchange for some vegetarian chow.

The player then maneuvers the character, now holding a sack to collect food for the wolf, through Jako's Valley, encompassing six environments. The player must gather six fruits and six vegetables by successfully completing 12 educational activities.

While clicking around forested areas to uncover challenges, the child may discover bugs ready to tell a corny joke, bunches of slapstick animated segments (much better than on most other similar games I have seen) and short scenes of creature shenanigans. (Do not miss the owl Hootdini trying to make a frog disappear.)

The learning games include matching the first letter of words to pictures with the help of scarecrows, helping chickens drop the correct number of eggs into patterned baskets (requiring both timing and number skills), matching a music note sequence using a xylophone, and rhyming words to pictures using flies.

Each game tries to go beyond being just a teaching tool. For example, simply dragging a predetermined number of bees into a hive might get a bit repetitive, but the developers have loaded the insects with sound effects; their eyes even bulge out every time one is grabbed.

Three difficulty settings make the game worth replaying, and with four players being able to save the progress of 10 adventures, it makes for an amazingly flexible and affordable addition to the multichild family.

Didi and Ditto: Kindergarten, Kutoka Interactive, $19.99, cross-compatible for PC and Macintosh systems.