From School Library Journal
Grade 6 Up-Kings of the Ice provides an extensive look at the history of hockey and the players who became legends. Young hockey fans will find the program easy to navigate as they explore a 3D virtual hockey museum, create a photo album of their favorite players, read detailed biographies of hockey stars, and watch archival footage or cartoons about the sport. At the main menu, users can choose "Museum," "Book," "Index," "Animations," "Timeline" and "Album." "Museum" allows viewers to glide through a five-story hockey museum arranged into 12 historical periods. The first floor places users on a panoramic hockey rink (the virtual hockey players, alas, remain stagnant as the user skates past them). The remaining floors allow users to click on photographs of players and learn more about their lives, statistics, and accomplishments. Moving through the museum takes a little time to master but, despite some obtrusive music, is a fun task. The "Book" option links students to an informative, 12-chapter history of the sport. Although the text is dry in spots, and could have included more hypertext links, it successfully describes how the game became such a worldwide phenomenon. The "Index," which provides an alphabetical listing of players, teams, 200 hockey terms, video clips, and humorous cartoons, is the program's most useful, reliable feature. When users click on a player, the program displays a photograph of him in action, audio commentary about the athlete, and player statistics. The article about each player can be printed (unfortunately, this procedure shut down this reviewer's computer every time). The quality of the video clips vary. The best is "The Evolution of Ice Hockey," and the most disappointing is a blurry, badly edited clip of the 1980 US-USSR Olympics match. And where is the clip spotlighting Wayne Gretzky? The "Animations" option might confuse young users-it isn't a link to the funny cartoons sprinkled throughout the program, but rather leads to a short film that features each of the book's 12 chapters in a collage-like fashion mixing animation and photographs. "Timeline" provides a comprehensive chronological journey through the history of hockey. The "Album," which allows users to collect and comment on their favorite photos in the program, works well. While the program might disappoint those expecting more of a slam-bang interactive hockey match, it scores a hat trick as an informative, well-researched look at the history of this controversial sport.
Brian E. Wilson, Evanston Public Library, ILCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
