'Zippity' brings active gaming, learning to preschoolers

— -- Preschoolers are full of get-up-and-go and love to imitate older siblings and the adults in their lives. While those older role models may be playing active games like Wii Fit or EA Sports Active, those games are too hard for the littlest gamer wannabes. That's where the Zippity Learning System can help.

The result of collaboration between LeapFrog and Disney, Zippity is a video game system specifically designed for kids ages 3 to 5. It is played by kids running and jumping on a special mat controller and using a waist-high joystick called "the bopper." LeapFrog is an expert on creating educational learning in a video game environment, and Disney owns favorite characters like Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Handy Manny and Little Einsteins. The combination works to create a fun educational environment where kids can be in constant motion and yet learn while they move.

The Zippity Learning System works by plugging it into your TV's video/audio input terminals. It uses eight C batteries, four in the mat controller unit and four in the console unit that plugs into the television. The system comes loaded with eight learning games, but additional learning game cartridges can be purchased separately for $25.

The mat has four colored spots on which to step. The bopper can be moved to the right, left, away from you and toward you. Some of the games use just the mat, while others use both the mat and the bopper.

The games introduce the preschool learning skills of memory, following directions, music, numbers, letters of the alphabet, colors and beginning Spanish. All of the games can be played on two levels of difficulty. For example, one of the easy games on level one is played with Goofy, where he shows you how to dance by placing your feet on the colored spots on the mat. He shows you an order in which to step on the colors and asks you to repeat it. As you do, he dances on the screen.

In a level two game with Handy Manny and his animated tool friends Dusty, Pat and Stretch, Handy Manny needs help fixing the park's merry-go-round. You help him by finding letters of the alphabet. On the screen, kids might see Dusty the saw and a board with three colored lines to saw. Above each line is a letter of the alphabet. If Handy Manny asks for the letter C sitting above the green line, kids step on the green spot on the mat. Dusty glides over to that line and then asks kids to move the bopper back and forth to imitate a sawing motion. When they do, Dusty saws through the board.