Young space rangers calculate their way across the galaxy to stop a renegade insectoid race in Math Blaster in the Prime Adventure (Majesco Entertainment, $19.99).
Knowledge Adventure’s famed Blaster franchise makes its debut on Nintendo’s handheld system to cajole children 6 to 8 years old into learning some addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
The story revolves around a graduate of the Blaster Corps Academy who battles the conquering Hive and is tasked with rescuing a super computer named AIMEE. The action mixes four core minigames in 20 missions with three levels of difficulty.
The most complex and satisfying of the challenges, Nebula Escape, takes its cue from classic space shooters such as Asteroids. A player controls a ship and must fly over numbered orbs to answer a set number of equations. Once that’s done, a second objective requires he capture objects and return them to satellites. Along the way, he shoots hostile enemy ships and avoids a run-in with the all-destructive Terminator.
The top DS screen offers a handy radar interface to display the targets within a rather large area of space to cover.
Next, more math problems arrive with Nest Attack. A cadet who looks like an intergalactic DoodleBop appears on the DS touch screen. He must be prompted with the stylus to move around, grab numbers, drop them into slots and build an equation that equals a number above him.
As he blasts away at enemy bugs getting in his way, he must complete the task before a robotic egg hatches.
In Number Smash, a player flicks numbered pucks, like shuffleboard, at orbs to divide them (smash an “8” and “40” to get a “5”) and use the result to match a cascading row of digits on the side of the screen. Match all the numbers to complete the round.
Finally, Chain Reactor involves clicking sequences of numbered hexagonal spaces on a board. When mathematically combined, the result must stay within a targeted range of numbers.
Although the quartet of mission challenges remains the same throughout each of the five star systems, the numerical conundrums get increasingly more difficult.
Adding to the replayability, each challenge is accessible within a solo and multiplayer arena with up to four friends with cartridges participating.
Overall, players will appreciate the short bursts of educational content mixed with the colorful action, but it is far less complex than its 2005 PC predecessor “Math Blaster: Master the Basics.”
In fact, this game easily could become a download through the DSi system and go for about half the price.
• Joseph Szadkowski’s ROMper Room is a place for children and their parents to escape the world of ultraviolent video games and use that gaming system or computer to actually learn something while having fun. Send e-mail to jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com.
• Joseph Szadkowski can be reached at jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com.
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