Others say...

"Great game!"
My daughter who is almost four, absolutely loves this game. It can get a bit pricey, so beware of that. Especially if your child goes through the game quickly. I had no problem canceling my subscription. I emailed them from the website and they canceled it the same day, no questions asked. Of course I had to resubscribe because my daughter was so heartbroken. We've introduced her to alot of computer games, but this game is by the far the one she has played the most and enjoyed. I love the learning aspect of it as well, not just pointless running around. I highly recommend it if you don't mind the price after all the updates. I only gave it 4 stars because of the price.

"A Mom's Choice Awards Recipient!"
The Mom's Choice Awards® honors excellence in family-friendly media, products and services. An esteemed panel of judges includes education, media and other experts as well as parents, children, librarians, performing artists, producers, medical and business professionals, authors, scientists and others. A sampling of the panel members includes: Dr. Twila C. Liggett, Ten-time Emmy-winner, professor and founder of Reading Rainbow; Julie Aigner-Clark, Creator of Baby Einstein and The Safe Side Project; Jodee Blanco, New York Times Best-Selling Author; LeAnn Thieman, Motivational speaker and coauthor of seven Chicken Soup For The Soul books; Tara Paterson, Certified Parent Coach, and founder of The Just For Mom Foundation(tm) and the Mom's Choice Awards®. Parents and educators look for the Mom's Choice Awards® seal in selecting quality materials and products for children and families. This product has been honored by this distinguished award.

"Disappointed - requires expensive subscription"
My kids love this program. I was very happy that I purchased it - but I did not realize that it only comes with the first two levels. So for $20 you get your kids hooked and they very quickly master the games in the beginner levels and they can't go to any new "worlds" unless I pay $8 per level. Very Disappointing!! I thought I was buying a package. I would have gladly paid a flat $39 -$49 for an all-inclusive package. But $20 plus $65 (that's the bundled rate) is too expensive!!! (I have a kindergartner and a second grader so I'm in for $170 for both "worlds".) I'm sorry that I bought it. My kids find so many excellent educational websites for free!!!!

"Good Value, enjoyable but caveat emptor !"
Our 5 yr old daughter really enjoys these learning games.
The three things you should know about this software:
1. Its really well done but takes some getting used to. Sit down and run through it with your child, just dont install and set them free. It can be frustrating at first and a bit overwhelming. The program starts and the child is immediately introduced to characters, told about earning gems and badges and playing games and on and on, but after a little patient investment, all of it starts to pay off. I thought it was a bit confusing to begin with, but after 1 month, she and I understand all aspects of the game.
2. While its true you only get 2 units with the starter pack (out of 12), there are numerous activities, games and things to see and explore within those two units. Going beyond those two units, IF you chose to do so, will cost you money, either one at a time or you can buy the rest in one transaction. At first I thought it was a screw job, but I see there is a lot to the program and for $20, I think its a good value and well done.
3. The makers of this program are trying to get you, the parent, involved in monitoring the progress. You will get reports, you can see where your child is exceling and needs more work, etc. If you wanted a simple install and set em free experience (numerous titles available for that), this isn't for you. So far we're pleased and she really enjoys the interaction, characterizations and all that.
For example, there is a portion of the program where you can create cards via a painting routine. That painting routine is full featured allowing for lots of imagination from adding your own pictures, to your own sounds (only if you have a microphone) and lots of options. The quality of that one little aspect of the program is indicative of the time that went into the entire program. She loves it and could just paint and doodle for an hour.
In summary, we're pleased with the small investment; its better than most of the "learning" programs out there. Is it worth $80+ for all 12 units. I can't say. That is a lot of money for a program, but maybe it IS worth it. I can say its a good value for $20, just be advised that you'll be prompted to continue on a subscription basis for additional units, and that is never good. Subscriptions are notoriously difficult to terminate.

May 08 update: We ended up purchasing the whole program; all 12 "units" as their called. My 5 yr old daughter loved exploring this program. Its a great combination of learning activities, task performing and rewards, and just plain good ole exploring a virtual world...on a 5 yr old's level. I noticed she spent equal time doing all 3 and I know that the learning games echoed what she learned in school or will be learning in school. I reviewed her progress on this learning program with her teachers and much to my (pleasant) surprise, she was doing the same things in school. She performed very well in school; therefore I think this program is a perfect compliment to a preschool program.

"My Kindergartener loved it!"
We weren't sure about this game after having a bad experience with Jumpstart Advanced Preschool, but we picked it up on a whim at Costco for our son's birthday. He wasn't excited about it after playing the older game either, so it sat on the shelf for a couple of months. Then he started talking about playing computer games at school so we brought it out, blew off the dust and installed it (on a relatively new vista laptop).

The difference is amazing! Instead of a static cartoon-based game that crashes frequently (Advanced series), Jumpstart World is a 3D world not unlike a simplified version of a Pixar movie. The character is controlled through the arrow keys to walk around and interact with other characters in first person perspective ("camera" behind your character's head so you always see what's in front of you). I can imagine the 3D graphics being pretty taxing on an older computer, but it ran smoothly we only had it crash once or twice in the several months he's been playing it.

The learning games are great and appropriate for a kindergarten level. The progression is logical, and best of all, the "fun" features are slowly unlocked so that your child has to play and pass the learning games in order to continue the fun part of earning "badges" and discovering new areas and abilities.

Our son engaged with the characters and talked about them like they were real friends. Eventually, we had to establish limits on how long he could play each day because he was starting to get addicted! All fun aside, this has definitely helped him in school. We just bought the 1st grade version and he's playing it right now - very excited.

It is kind of pricey to by all 12 adventure packs, but well worth it to me for the many, many hours of entertainment and enrichment. A parent, you just have to be educated and know what you're getting into here. You can register up to three kids, so our three year old is playing too - just at a much slower pace.

Why didn't I give it five stars?

You MUST start the game with the CD in the drive. Totally unnecessary and very annoying considering the content is mostly downloaded from the internet. Just don't lose or scratch the disk and you'll be OK.

You MUST be connected to the internet to start the game. However, once the game is started, you're able to disconnect from the internet and you just need to connect again when you exit the game (records are uploaded to the website for you to view on the parent page and track progress).