"Juvenile's Hut" makes a new standard in the field of multimedia: while containing elements typical for multimedia programs, it is enriched with components reserved until now only for games, such as limited number of lifes, shot'em - ups, time limit, high scores and level structure. Colorful pictures and animations are no longer enough to encourage youngsters to go through the whole cd-rom assignment. Kids become bored in a quarter of an hour with a product which doesn't bring enough excitement and fun. That's why we have attached so much importance to the system of marks. Kids not only get grades after every level but they also acquire a certificate of studies with their average result, which they can print. That is not all. Like in many platform games, in "Juvenile's Hut" there is a high score table. As well as the certificates (we have found lots of them printed and packed in our testers' drawers!) the high score table is a first rate rousing element - a score competition mobilizes without fail. The authors have been very consistent about this motivation system: if a child wants to watch animated cartoons included in the program (and he surely does because he's curious), he has to pass all the levels. And to do so he must learn all the vocabulary. Simple and very effective. Next attraction of the game lies in code numbers. They play a saving role, so kids don't need to start from the very beginning every time they turn the computer on, but they can load the last played level.
Even if the system of the game is so important, one cannot underestimate graphics. They are really cool - starting from the inhabitant of the hut - Alex - whom some players identify as a boy and some as a girl, and finishing with an orange monster uttering unappetizing sounds (kids love it !). Pictures and animations are a bit unrealistic - all walls seem deformed, and you exit the game by clicking on ... a toilet plug. The general artistic outline is very rich, colors are warm and the mix of many different styles is favorable to memorizing vocabulary.
   Music is one of the most important elements of multimedia titles. It creates the atmosphere, the ambience that counts very much. On the disk you'll find 20 cd audio tracks prepared with great care. Besides known standards, there are
12 home-composed works - an unquestionable attraction for good music fans. While talking of sound tracks, you should pay attention to lectors' voices. Our young testers liked the idea of their teenage contemporaries dubbing very much (adult voices sound rather strange in the kid environment - the obvious fact many multimedia directors often forget). Every word is pronounced with a special, distinctive intonation - this helps players to memorize new words and associate them with a proper meaning.
The program performs fast and safely. It is optimized to answer quickly after user's every click so that children don't have to wait to start or stop any animation (which happens to be a major disadvantage of many multimedia programs)."Juvenile's Hut" is aimed at 4-8 years old children who want to learn foreign languages. It is composed of four different games (22 levels) and more than 100 interactive screens to explore.