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Reader Rabbit Toddler

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Reader Rabbit Toddler (originally stylized as Reader Rabbit's Toddler) is a computer game in The Learning Company's Reader Rabbit series of children's educational games, released on July 9, 1997. A second version, which adds one new activity and a few additional features in other activities, was released on June 26, 1998. A third version, which is based on the 2000s era, was released on July 1, 2002.

Summary[]

Versions 1.0 & 2.0[]

Mat the Mouse visits Reader Rabbit. Mat chooses a book, which takes her and Reader into a Magical Land of fun and games. When the player exits the program, Mat leaves the book and tells Reader about what she saw in the land during the last activity that was played before leaving Reader's house as they wave goodbye to each other.

Version 3.0[]

Reader Rabbit and Sam the Lion, on their Dreamship, visit Mat at her house. Reader knocks on the window, and Mat opens it to greet them. She asks Reader and Sam to take her to the Magical Land, which she describes as "her favorite place," and they agree. Mat then jumps into the Dreamship, and the friends fly to the Magical Land. When the player exits the program, Reader and Sam give Mat a ride home in the Dreamship. Mat then says goodbye to Reader and Sam before they fly off in the Dreamship.

Characters[]

Gameplay[]

Unlike other Reader Rabbit games, Reader Rabbit Toddler does not use a point-and-click interface. Instead, the game is played by moving the mouse cursor over onscreen hotspots or pressing keys on the keyboard for interactions. There are nine (originally eight) activities in this game, each set at multiple levels of difficulty that automatically adapt to the child's learning abilities.

Activities[]

  • Baby Basket Bingo
    • Gameplay: Match the baby animals to their parents by moving the basket to the correct parent.
    • Skills: Animal sounds, matching
  • Castle Counting
    • Gameplay: Pop bubbles with the magic wand and count up to five animals.
    • Skills: Counting
  • Follow-Me Theatre
    • Gameplay: Choose one of eight songs and follow Reader Rabbit's hand movements to each song.
    • Skills: Songs and rhymes, hand movement
  • Musical Meadow
    • Gameplay: Move the bee over the flowers or birds to make them play the rhythm to a song.
    • Skills: Music and sounds
  • Peek-a-Boo Zoo
    • Gameplay: Move the flashlight over the eyes to see what animal is hiding in the trees.
    • Skills: Animal sounds
  • Pop and Play Place
    • Gameplay: Open the wind-up boxes to find the animals inside, and try to match all three of the same animal.
    • Skills: Animals, counting
  • Rainbow Rock
    • Gameplay: Color in the onscreen picture using the mouse or keyboard and watch it come to life.
    • Skills: Colors
  • Sky Shapers
    • Gameplay: Pick up each shape and move it to the correct place on the cloud puzzle to form a picture.
    • Skills: Shapes and colors
  • Alphabet Express (Only appears in Version 2.0 and up)
    • Gameplay: Move each key to the train's boxcar with the matching letter to open it and reveal an object starting with that letter.
    • Skills: Alphabet
  • Fly the Dreamship (Only appears in Version 3.0)
    • Gameplay: Move the mouse around the screen to move the Dreamship across the sky. (Note: This activity acts as its own program apart from the main game, and is accessed from the launcher screen.)
    • Skills: Exploration

Songs[]

* Only appears in Version 1.0.
** Only appears in Version 2.0 and up.

Special 2 CD Edition[]

In 2002, the game was re-released as a Special 2 CD Edition, which includes Reader Rabbit Dreamship Tales as a bonus disc. It has been updated to be compatible with the Learning Launcher, a program launcher for games released by The Learning Company in the early 2000s. This version also has an updated version of Reader Rabbit: Playtime for Baby included on the disc. A few changes were made to this version, such as Reader Rabbit and Sam the Lion appearing in their 2001 redesigns and the addition of a new activity, Fly the Dreamship.

Differences Between Versions[]

  • The game originally had eight activities. Version 2.0 (1998) adds Alphabet Express, and Version 3.0 (2002) adds Fly the Dreamship, the latter of which is separate from the main game, and is accessed from the Learning Launcher screen.
  • In Version 2.0, the toadstool was moved to the other side of the flower to make way for the Alphabet Express.
  • In Version 1.0, activity and exit hotspots must be clicked on by the player to access. Version 2.0 adds a function where such actions are accessed automatically when moused over for a few seconds, as indicated by smaller red stars appearing one after one on each of the five points on the star cursor. This function would also be used in Reader Rabbit: Playtime for Baby.
  • From Version 2.0 onwards, Pop has been added to the top left corner of the screen.
  • A sign-in option has been added to the Pop menu in Version 2.0, in which the user can enter the player's name for use in a few activities and features in the game.
  • Version 2.0 adds a print option to the Pop menu, which allows the player to print out activities, coloring pages, and song lyrics from the game.
    • Version 3.0 removes one of the printable coloring pages available.
  • Version 3.0 also adds Immersion Touchsense touch screen support, allowing players to interact using touch screen features on select PCs. The option replaces the Educational Benefits button on the Pop menu.
  • In Version 3.0, Reader Rabbit's appearances in the game, such as in Follow-Me Theatre, have been changed to match his 2001 design, and he has been re-voiced by his 2000s voice actress, Marina Cashmark.
  • Musical Meadow initially had only a flower garden with one music track. Starting in Version 2.0, a bird garden has been added, which is accessed by moving the bee cursor to a beehive on the top left corner. Each garden now has two music tracks each.
  • Rainbow Rock adds a new picture of the rock itself in Version 2.0, which is only seen if the player's name is entered in the sign-in screen. Version 3.0 also removes the picture of Reader Rabbit's house in the activity due to said character being re-designed.
    • Also, in the UK Version of Version 2.0, the song that plays after the butterfly picture is coloured in is played in D rather than C.
  • In Sky Shapers, initially, only the colors of the shapes were spoken when picked up. Starting in Version 2.0, both the color and name of the shape are spoken when a shape is picked up. Some shapes in the activity were also changed to more common ones.
    • Version 1.0 also has two unique puzzles, including the letters A-D and the numbers 1-3. These puzzles were removed in Version 2.0.
  • In Version 3.0, The Learning Company logo sequence was changed from the original 1994-2000 variant to its 2001-present variant. Also, the title sequence has been removed (although it had previously been removed from the version used in Reader Rabbit Playtime for Baby and Toddler) , and the intro and outro sequences have been changed, showing Reader and Sam, in their 2001 designs, picking up Mat from her house in the Dreamship and bringing her to the Magical Land during the intro, and dropping her off at her house before flying away in the Dreamship during the outro.
  • In Version 3.0, Mat is voiced by Julissa Aguirre in the newly added sequences and activities. However, Laura Rice's voice clips from previous versions remain unchanged.

Quotes[]

See Quotes in Reader Rabbit Toddler

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

Other[]

Trivia[]

  • This is the only Reader Rabbit game to have complex shading in character animations.
  • This is the first game to have animated video clips using Smacker Video Technology.
  • With a total of 30 songs, including ones that are unique between versions, Reader Rabbit Toddler has the most songs in any Reader Rabbit game.
  • The trail of stars left by the cursor from this game are re-used in Reader Rabbit: Playtime for Baby and Reader Rabbit Preschool: Sparkle Star Rescue!.
  • This is the first game in the Reader Rabbit series developed by KnowWare, as well as the first game to be fully 32-bit. It is followed by Reader Rabbit 1st Grade.
    • Due to being 32-bit, the game requires the installation of the Microsoft Win32s extension to run on Windows 3.1.
  • Despite Sam the Lion appearing in the game's logo on the front cover of the original French release, he doesn't appear in the first two versions of the game itself.
  • This is the first game to have a skills chart.
  • The background music that plays on Version 1's autorun screen is the same as that of the main menu, whereas Version 2's autorun screens have the background music from the title screen of Reader Rabbit Preschool.
  • When Mat slides down the bookmark, she is in 3D animation instead of 2D animation.
  • In Version 1, Pop appears slightly lighter than in later versions.
  • In the intro and outro sequences from Version 3, Mat's fur color appears lighter than usual.
  • Reader Rabbit Toddler (Version 3) and Reader Rabbit: Playtime for Baby (2002 version) are the only games in the Dreamship era in which Mat appears in full body.
  • The disc for Version 1 shows Reader holding a magic wand with a star, whereas Version 2's disc shows Mat waving.
  • In the Version 1 and 2, the "Sailing, Sailing (Over the Bounding Main)" plays during the credits.

Goofs[]

  • The disc and title screen for the 1999 re-release of Version 2.0 refers to this version as Version 3.0.
  • The inside of the 1999 box shows the 1997 version of Sky Shapers despite the 1998 version being implemented in the 1999 release.
  • Despite the UK version of V2.0 being released in 1999, the title screen of that version remains unchanged from that of the US version (complete with the 1998 copyright).
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