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SuperKids Software Review - The Parent's and Teacher's Guide to Childrens' Software
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spacer all reviews > > > math software

Timez Attack

Big Brainz, Inc

Ages 7 to 10

Rating Scale
5 = great,    1 = poor
Educational Value
5.0
Kid Appeal
5.0
Ease of Use
4.0

Timez Attack screen shot arrow indentSystem Requirements

arrow indentPC / Mac Price Survey

arrow indentProduct Support

Timez Attack is a tightly focused educational software program, cleverly disguised as a captivating video game. The game opens with the information that you have been kidnapped and locked deep underground in the dungeon of Ignorantz. To escape, you must find the keys to a series of doors, and by-the-way, answer a times table math facts problem for each door.

Sound simple? It's not! To open the doors, you must also capture a number of creatures that hold math clues to help you build a solution to the equation on each door. Then, after opening the door, the user is confronted by an ogre, robot, or other creature that challenges the user to quickly and accurately provide answers to a series of math problems based on material previously presented and mastered.

Want more of a challenge? Hand-eye-mouse coordination is as highly valued here, as in any video game. One wrong step, and you can fall off a ledge, stairs, or a moving gangplank, and have to retrace your steps.

Educational Value

Timez Attack utilizes a proven model for teaching math facts that goes beyond the more common 'drill-and-kill' style of many programs that just offer repetitious practice. Timez Attack illustrates the value of the numbers involved in each problem, then forces the user to capture and use the factors in the problem before solving it. This teaching is then reinforced with repetition that helps move learning from short-term memory to long-term memory.

The program keeps track of the user's answers, and forces the user to correctly answer more problems using numbers they have shown difficulty solving.

Kid Appeal

Timez Attack can be fun, or frustrating, depending on the user's hand-eye-mouse (or keyboard) dexterity. In our tests, users who were already familiar with the common video game genre (dungeons), had litle difficulty mastering the required moves. Those with less experience found this more challenging at first, especially if they also had difficulty with learning and remembering their multiplication math facts.

Ease of Use / Install

Timez Attack installed easily on our test machine. Program navigation is typical for video games of this style -- i.e. it may make more sense for young children, than for their parents.

Best for... / Bottom-Line

Timez Attack is a solid multiplication table teaching and review program, that is appropriate for anyone who likes video game-style entertainment. Well-suited for homeschooling, or school computer labs.

See SuperKids' comparisons with other math software titles, and the Buyers Guide for current market prices of the PC and Mac versions.

System Requirements
PC: Windows 98/2000/XP, 450 MHz or faster cpu, 115 MB hard drive space, 256 MB RAM, 3d Video card with at least 16 MB memory, sound card .

Mac: - "coming soon" (as of 5/06).

Reviewed on:
-     Pentium 4 3 GHz running Windows XP Home, with 512MB RAM and 24x - CD-ROM
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