[{"TitleName":"First Steps with the Mr. Men","Publisher":"Mirrorsoft Ltd","Author":"David Janda, Steve Mercer","YearOfRelease":"1983","ZxDbId":"0010985","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 31, Aug 1986","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1986-07-31","Editor":"Graeme Kidd","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Publishers: Roger Kean, Oliver Frey, Franco Frey\r\nEditor: Graeme Kidd\r\nStaff Writers: Tony Flanagan, Lloyd Mangram, Hannah Smith\r\nAdventure Editor: Derek Brewster\r\nStrategy Editor: Sean Masterson\r\nTech Tipster: Simon Goodwin\r\nContributing Writers: Jon Bates, Brendon Kavanagh, Rosetta McLeod, John Minson\r\nProduction Controller: David Western\r\nArt Director: Dick Shiner\r\nIllustrators: Ian Craig, Oliver Frey\r\nProduction: Gordon Druce, Tony Lorton, Cameron Pound, Jonathan Rignall, Matthew Uffindell\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Nick Wild\r\nSubscriptions: Denise Roberts\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\nEditorial and Production: [redacted]\r\n\r\nMail Order and Subscriptions: [redacted]\r\n\r\nADVERTISING\r\nBookings [redacted]\r\n\r\nPrinted in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistributed by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced whole or in part without written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return any written material sent to CRASH Magazine unless accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material which may be used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates.\r\n\r\n©1986 Newsfield Limited\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"FIRST STEPS WITH THE MR MEN\r\n\r\nProducer: Mirrorsoft\r\r\nRetail Price: £8.95\r\r\nAge Range: 4-8 years\r\r\n\r\r\nYoung children fond of Roger Hargreaves' Mr Men characters will love the four programs in this package. The colourful booklet which accompanies the software tells the story of each game and explains what to do. Mr Greedy's Ice-cream Hunt helps the child with the concept of direction as Mr Greedy is moved round five carefully graded screens in search of ice-creams, while Mr Silly's Hat Game was specially written to develop left/right scanning in preparation for learning to read.\r\r\n\r\r\nShape recognition is covered in Mr Forgetful's Wardrobe Game where the child has to match up pairs of familiar objects such as shoes and socks, and the last game, Mr Forgetful's Letter Game extends this to letter recognition when a random selection of letters of the alphabet takes the place of the objects. This game also gives the adult the option of entering a chosen range of letters to suit the needs of the individual child.\r\r\n\r\r\nThe games are extremely easy for even the youngest child to operate as a colour-coded overlay featuring Mr Clever is supplied. This sits over the keys 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 0. Unfortunately it is very easy for a child to press BREAK inadvertently if a Spectrum Plus is used, and this crashes the program.\r\r\n\r\r\nCOMMENTS\r\r\n\r\r\nControl keys: a colour-coded overlay sitting on top of six number keys makes the commands easy to input\r\r\nKeyboard play: very fast\r\r\nGraphics: clear and appealing for the young child\r\r\nUse of colour: eye-catching","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: Although aimed at children from 4 to 8, I would lower the age range. For most 7 and 8 year olds, the stories and games would be too simple, so perhaps 2 to 6 years would be more realistic.","Page":"79","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Rosetta McLeod","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]