Reader Rabbit Kindergarten: Bounce Down in Balloon Town! is a computer game in The Learning Company's Reader Rabbit series of children's educational games. It was released in 2001 for Windows and Macintosh as the successor to the original Reader Rabbit Kindergarten.
Plot[]
Reader Rabbit and Sam the Lion along with Paige and Chester are flying their Dreamship, when suddenly they see a strange island. As they approach the island, giant bubble wrap emerges and grabs the Dreamship. They try to escape, but in vain, as the reverse gear that makes the ship go backwards is caught in the bubble wrap, which later shakes them out of the Dreamship. When they fall onto the island, they end up bouncing and meet the Bubble Wrapper, who explains that the island is Balloon Town and that the Dreamship was bubble wrapped inside the Pointy Palace as it was sharp, and that in order to get their Dreamship back, they have to wake up the Bulldozer (a dozing bull) in front of the Pointy Palace. Reader tries using an alarm clock, but it doesn't work. The Bubble Wrapper explains that the Bulldozer only wakes up when the palace guards play their musical instruments, which Reader and Sam must collect pieces of.
When Reader and Sam give the instruments to the palace guards, they play them, and the Bulldozer wakes up and dances to the music. Reader and Sam enter the Pointy Palace and collect the Bubble Wrapper's hatchlings to get them to unwrap the Dreamship. They bid the Bubble Wrapper goodbye and leave the Pointy Palace, back to Wordville. Just then, the bubble wrap re-emerges and tries to capture the Dreamship again, but they manage to escape when Reader puts the ship into overdrive.
Characters[]
- Reader Rabbit
- Sam the Lion
- Paige
- Chester
- Bubble Wrapper (Scrambled Stories, Bubble Wrapper Reading)
- Rapping, Snapping Turtles (Scrambled Stories, Bubble Wrapper Reading)
- Bulldozer (Bulldozer Music)
- Pointy Palace Guards (Bulldozer Music)
- Piggy (Piggy Plane Math)
- Balloon Butterflies (Cocoon Balloon Patterns)
- Starry (Oyster Memory Matching)
- Mom Ostrich (Silly Phonics Slide)
- Girl Ostrich (Silly Phonics Slide)
- Boy Ostrich (Silly Phonics Slide)
- Shelly (Snail Mail Sorting)
- Bounceketball Announcer (Bounceketball Dunk 'n Rhyme)
- Tosser (Bounceketball Dunk 'n Rhyme)
- Basket (Bounceketball Dunk 'n Rhyme)
Voices[]
American Version[]
- Marina Cashmark - Reader Rabbit
- Terry McGovern - Sam the Lion
- Julissa Aguirre - Paige
- Deborah Ben-Ellezer - Bubble Wrapper
- Maria Brady - Piggy
- Kristina Mulhker - Butterfly #1
- True Heltz - Butterfly #2
- Morgan Blanchard - Butterfly #3
- Derek Sorrentino - Starry
- Sandy Cashmark - Mom Ostrich
- Alexene Farol - Girl Ostrich
- Jake Ellis - Boy Ostrich
- Lee Kitts - Shelly
- Amberly Palmer - Tosser
- Andrew Kawamura - Basket
- Les Hedger - Giraffe
British Version[]
- Caroline Morris - Reader Rabbit
- Tom Eastwood - Sam the Lion, Giraffe
- Claire Morgan - Paige, Butterfly #1, Butterfly #2, Butterfly #3, Girl Ostrich
- Sarah Easton - Bubble Wrapper, Tosser
- Stella Monsell - Piggy, Mom Ostrich, Shelly
- Justin Fletcher - Starry, Boy Ostrich, Basket
Activities[]
Blocked Access[]
- Piggy Plane Math
- Gameplay: Place the correct number of balloons on each side of the Piggy Plane in order to have a smooth flight.
- Skill(s) taught: Counting and adding
Cozy Cove[]
- Cocoon Balloon Patterns
- Gameplay: Help the Balloon Butterflies put their cocoons in the correct order by matching the pattern of shapes and colors on the butterflies' wings.
- Skill(s) taught: Extending patterns with shapes and colors
- Item(s) earned: Drum
- Oyster Memory Matching
- Gameplay: Pick the oysters that are hiding matching items.
- Skill(s) taught: Matching numbers, letters, and shapes
- Item(s) earned: Tuba
Bubbleopolis City[]
- Silly Phonics Slide
- Gameplay: Choose the letter(s) that make the missing sound in each word to reach the top of the slide tower and retrieve a balloon for the ostrich children.
- Skill(s) taught: Letter sounds
- Item(s) earned: Flute
- Bounceketball Dunk 'n Rhyme
- Gameplay: Match bounceketballs that are labeled with words that rhyme with the target word up in the stands.
- Skill(s) taught: Rhyming words
- Item(s) earned: Clarinet
- Snail Mail Sorting
- Gameplay: Help Shelly Snail measure and sort balloons by making balloons smaller or larger than the red balloon, then putting them in order using various heights, thicknesses, amounts of decoration, or shades of color.
- Skill(s) taught: Problem solving and relational values
- Item(s) earned: Keyboard
Pointy Palace[]
- Bulldozer Music
- Gameplay: Give the correct instrument to the correct guard to wake the Bulldozer.
- Skill(s) taught: Musical awareness
- Item(s) required: All five musical instruments (Drum, Tuba, Flute, Clarinet, Keyboard)
- Scrambled Stories
- Gameplay: Help the Bubble Wrapper put story pages in the correct order.
- Skill(s) taught: Placing events in sequence
- Item(s) earned: Rapping, Snapping Turtles
- Bubble Wrapper Reading
- Gameplay: Help the Bubble Wrapper unwrap the Dreamship by placing words correctly to complete raps.
- Skill(s) taught: Vocabulary and reading
- Item(s) required: Rapping, Snapping Turtles
Songs[]
Re-releases and Compilations[]
In 2002, the game was re-released as a Special 2 CD Edition, which includes Reader Rabbit Dreamship Tales as a bonus disc. The game has been updated to be compatible with the Learning Launcher, a program launcher for games released by The Learning Company in the early 2000s. The subtitle has been removed in this version, except in the title screen.
Reader Rabbit Kindergarten: Bounce Down in Balloon Town was also included in the Reader Rabbit Kindergarten Learning System CD compilation in 2008, which also includes Reader Rabbit Dreamship Tales and the DVD movie Reader Rabbit: Wordville Soup.
In 2009, the game was ported to the Nintendo DS. In 2011, it was ported to the Nintendo Wii.
In 2012, the game was released digitally for Apple iOS. In 2014, it was released for macOS.
Trivia[]
- On the cover of the GSP UK re-release of the game, the subtitle is re-written as "Enchanting Balloon Town."
- This is the only game in the Dreamship series to have a Back button for exiting each activity, rather than clicking a particular hotspot on the sides/corners of the screen to do so.
- This is the only game in which the map does not have path lines. Instead, locations in the game are indicated by arrows pointing to them, each arrow being a different color for each sub-location.
- As such, since only activity icons are shown on the map, the player can only go directly to an activity location from the map.
- The Bulldozer Music activity is absent from the list of activities in the game's progress report and level setting screens.
- Some music tracks from this game are re-used in Reader Rabbit 1st Grade: Capers on Cloud Nine!.
- In the Nintendo DS version of the game, locations have a flashing yellow outline for guidance on what to touch using the system's stylus.
- This is the only Reader Rabbit game originally released in 2001 to be released for the Nintendo DS, as well as the only game to be released for the platform in North America.
- This is the last game in the Dreamship series where Reader and Sam's mouths are open by default during gameplay.
Gallery[]
Screenshots[]
Other[]
