Availability
My eldest daughter is 4 1/2 years old and has never had an interest in any type of computer games, I had looked at this game for Christmas but it was selling at £25 at that point and I felt that it could be a waste of money so didn't buy it. The week after Christmas my husband decided to trade in some old games and we found that the Peppa Pig game was selling for £18 new and £15 second hand so as we weren't spending real cash as such we decided to buy her the game and see how we went.
Packaging
The game is available for the Wii and the Nintendo DS, the Wii game comes in a white case like a DVD box and shows Peppa at the forefront of the picture with George running behind. In the background there is a picture of Mummy and Daddy pig in the car and the house they live in. The front cover attracted out daughter as soon as she walked into the shop probably as it showed everything she knew well from the TV show.
Setting Up
When you first turn on the game you have to enter your name on the first screen, there is space for three different names so more than one person can have a game saved at any one time, the keyboard to type your name in is in the same order as a qwerty keyboard which I found quite strange as the game is for children that would be at an age where they would be learning letters and the alphabet. The second screen of the game allows your child to choose if they would like to play as Peppa Pig or George Pig, my daughter always selects Peppa.
Menus
The main game screen shows 4 different shapes with different pictures inside, three of the shapes lead to further menus whereas the fourth one with a bright yellow star on it takes you to the achievements screen. The first shape shows Peppa Pig in the bath with little chickens running along the bottom, George hiding in a basket and finally a frying pan and plate of pancakes each one represents a different game. The second shape shows Peppa pig in a puddle and an artists palette and paint brush. The third shape shows the family car, a kite and a snowman.
The Games
When you press on each of the shapes listed above you are taken to a further menu screen where you can pick which game you or your child would like to play, below is the choice of games.
Car Trip - This game has the whole family sat in the car with 6 different coloured buttons above, when you play in the untimed game you press the buttons to see what funny things happen to the car and when you play in the timed game you have to watch the sequence of the colours lighting up and repeat the colours in the correct order. My daughter very quickly got bored of the untimed game but is getting quite good at remembering the sequences in the timed session and seems to enjoy the game. I think this game is great when you play it timed as it is helping to improve my daughters memory.
Pancakes - The game is set at the kitchen worktop where you have a bowl of pancake mixture, a hob, a frying pan and a plate. The idea of the game is that you pour the mixture into the frying pan and cook the pancake, you must flip the pancake in the air to turn it in the pan to cook the other side and then flip the pancake out of the pan and land it on the plate.
My daughter hasn't played this game very much as she managed to flip the pancake but struggles to get it to land on the plate, my husband had a go to try and show her how to do it but said that it was really hard to get it to land on the plate even for him.
Car Wash - This is one of my daughters favourite games on the disc and shows the family car very muddy indeed, above the car on one side you have a sponge and on the other there is a hose. You have to pick up the sponge to clean the car by moving the controller over the car until it is covered in soap suds and then use the hose to wash the suds off and hope that you got all of the car clean. My daughter struggled with this game to begin with because she had to hold the button down and wriggle the controller at the same time which got her in a bit of a muddle but she manages to play with it now and she likes that while you are playing George runs across the screen and you can soak him with the hose.
Happy Mrs Chicken - This game is just like on the TV show and all you have to do is to click on the screen as many times as you can to get the chicken to lay her eggs, my daughter didn't really play with this one much as she says it is boring, it would probably be more interesting to a child who is a little older who would try and compete with their best records but my daughter isn't at this stage yet.
Parrot - The parrot game gives three different pictures across the top and each one has an arrow so you can go through the options, the first reel has pictures of characters, the second reel has pictures of blocks of colours and the final reel has pictures such as a monkey and a car. You select which pictures you want and then the parrot will read then out and make funny sentences from them, my daughter doesn't like this game and I find it a bit of a strange game.
Snowman - The snowman game is fun and you literally build a snowman, you have to drag the controller around the screen to collect the snowflakes and when it is big enough it will move into position, you do the same to create a snowball for the snowman's head. Once you have your snowman you dress him up in different clothes and you can change the colour of them, my daughter finds this game funny and she likes to make the snowman look silly the only issue is she now wants snow to build a real snowman whereas I am quite happy to never see snow again!!
Hide and Seek - This game uses different rooms of the house which you can scroll through and George will be hiding in one of them, you simply click where you think George is hiding and see if you are right, when you go onto each room a number of hiding places flash red which seems a little strange to me as I would have thought the child would have tried to find him but all they are really doing is clicking on the area that has flashed. My daughter finds this game boring and doesn't play it.
Muddy Puddles - This game has both Peppa and George along with four muddy puddles, you have to click on your character and then onto an empty muddy puddle to make them jump into it at the same time your opponent is jumping from puddle to puddle too and the aim of the game is to jump into more puddles than your opponent to see who wins the game.
My daughter does play this one but she gets bored with it quite quickly simply because she isn't competitive yet.
Burst the Bubbles - This is one of my daughters favourites, Peppa and George are sat in the bath with a Duck and a boat, they both produce bubbles and you have to pop them, some of the bubbles will raise with the duck or the boat inside which are worth extra points. This game has really improved my daughters accuracy with the controller which is great as this is where we have had problems with previous computer games as she hasn't been able to work the controllers. You can play this game with or without a timer but without a timer it gets very boring very quickly.
Kite Flying - For this game you have to select your kite and then try and fly the kite so that you avoid the raindrops, if a raindrop hits the kite three times then the game is over, my daughter doesn't like this game much either.
Colouring in - This is the final option on the game and by far my daughters favourite, you can pick from 8 different pictures to begin with all of which are well known scenes from the TV show, down the left hand side there are 14 different coloured circles and your child has to click onto the colour they want and then onto the part of the picture they want to colour. My daughter has always loved creating pictures so it doesn't surprise me that she loves this option so much however if you are not careful with the controller you end you colouring the background aswell as the picture and as the arrow that you are using always turns the colour you select it then makes it difficult to work out where the arrow is.
Our Thoughts
The game is varied and has enough that my daughter does enjoy to be worth what we paid for it. Moving through the different screens is easy and to confirm options you press a green tick and to exit things you click a red cross so it is easy enough for a young child to understand. The achievements begin easy and get harder such as colour 2 pictures or pop 100 bubbles moving onto colour 8 pictures and pop 400 bubbles whenever a list of achievements is complete your child gets a reward such as new pictures to colour. The screen are all nice and brightly coloured and show the characters exactly like they are in the show. This game is certainly worth the money for our little girl and we have had to be strict with her since she got it and limit her access or she would play on it for hours at a time, she doesn't seem to be getting bored with it and just avoids the games she doesn't like. To begin with our daughter needed help to set the game up and move through different options but now three weeks later she is independently playing which I think is great as not only does it give me some free time but it also is improving her memory and accuracy.
Come and play with Peppa and George 
