If you have a young family, no doubt you would already have come across Dora the Explorer – the little bilingual girl who is worshipped by millions of preschoolers worldwide. Hey, if you thought the Telly Tubbies were big, you ain’t seen nothing yet!

Intended for 3-6 year olds, with that in mind, this game seems to have got everything right. The controls are simple enough for a young player to pick up, the story is compelling and will keep their attention span going and the game itself is easy and forgiving to play. Perfect for kids, in fact. Frustration is kept at a minimum thanks to the games policy of never being able to fail at anything. You just keep on wandering around the levels, jumping to collect coins and exploring as only Dora can.

Super Mario for toddlers, is the best way I can describe it. As an adult, there really wasn’t much point in playing it. After half an hour my head was starting to hurt slightly from everything being over-explained to me. Instead, I rustled my two nieces in to work on this, aged 5 and 7 – the perfect target audience. They both took to it at first, and were more than happy with controlling Dora as she leap about on balloons and collected coins. However, about three hours into the game and they had virtually completed it.

Yes, I said three hours. For a game that costs this much, be it for children or not, three hours playing time is a hell of a tall order to justify paying so much money for it. Some may even say it borders on being a rip-off. Still, the short playing time aside, what we have here is a well polished effort that is guaranteed to bring a smile to the faces of pre-schoolers.

For those with a young family or who are just looking for a gift to buy a Dora fan, you can’t really go wrong. Just don’t expect it to represent great value for money that’s all. Although when you think about it, if it makes them happy (even for a short time) then surely… it’s all been worth it?