No Minivan

I was generously invited to check out a new computer game for kids called Itza Bitza. The game manufacturers accurately describe the game as “a simulation game in which your child’s creativity powers the construction of the game world.” This one is definitely not just for the little kids. I can see older kids enjoying this game,too. Even I had fun playing it!

It works a little like the JibJab eCards (where your picture becomes part of the action) and even more like The Upside Down Show’s Schmancy Schmashup Game (where your drawing becomes part of the action). Basically, it goes like this: You choose a setting (all but one are locked in the beginning) and choose different items to draw. Once you’ve drawn an item, that item becomes part of the story, exactly as you drew it. Then little stars appear that send you on challenges involving your drawing. If my lame description doesn’t make sense, check out the game trailer on YouTube.

The most fun comes in interacting with your drawings. When we drew a doghouse and clicked on it, a dog came out. The more we clicked, the more dogs appeared! Soon our world looked like the set of 101 Dalmations. We drew a rocket ship and dug craters out of the moon! We clicked on a bee and our little character got stung on the cheek! There a little interactions all over each setting and not just with the things you draw.

This game is great for The Kid. He is a little perfectionist and if things don’t look exactly like they should, he gets frustrated. The game was great for that because no matter how his 4.5-year-old scribble looked, the game accepted it and interacted with it the same as it would if a professional artist drew it. We even had a good laugh when the little character was using his shovel upside down. The colors are bright, the animations are simple but captivating, and the directions are appropriate for all ages.

The game also helps with reading skills. As the directions are shown on the screen, they’re also read aloud (by some adorably voiced child actor). The player can also click on words within the directions to have them repeated. Although, yes and no are voiced with “uh huh” and “uh uh”, respectively.

There were only two aspects of this game that we had some issues with. The first was that it doesn’t appear to have a save feature. The adventures in each setting do progress as you draw more and more items, but if you have to quit at any point, you lose everything. Now The Kid is not quite 5 and doesn’t really care about doing things over and over again, but I found it frustrating and I’m sure any other older children would, too. If there was a Save feature hidden in there, we couldn’t find it. And if not, there really should be.

The other frustrating part was when the game would say that a feature on an item was missing (like a door for the doghouse), but when you try to draw the missing feature, the game wouldn’t accept it. Every time we tried to put a door on the doghouse, our drawing would shatter like glass and disappear. I’m not sure what we were doing wrong, but it was really aggravating. The Kid said this was his least favorite part of the game.

Even with these frustrations, my Kid loves this game and I recommend it for any kid from about 4-10 years old. My budding astronaut said to tell you that his favorite part was finding the aliens on the Space Adventure setting. I’m sure your child will have their own favorite world once they start playing Itza Bitza. Even his 30-some year old mother had hard time sharing the mouse!