Number Munchers

There are many math games that I enjoyed playing as a kid, but the one that I remember the most, and the one that really helped me in the future was Number Munchers. This game is intended for third to sixth graders and is published by MECC games. It is played like an arcade game, where the purpose of the game is to "munch" all of the numbers that coincide with the theme at the top of the screen. For example, the rule may be Prime numbers, so the student would have to go around and munch all of the prime numbers. Along the way there are monsters called "toggles" that you must avoid. They come across the screen occasionally and if they eat you, then you lose a life. After the student eats all of the prime numbers, they go on to the next level. After one completes 3 levels, a funny cartoon will appear that involves the number muncher and the troggle, where the number muncher is always victorious.

This game covers a wide variety of math topics such as multiples, factors, primes, equality and inequality. These categories cover a wide variety of math skills used in the third, fourth, and fifth grade. The equality part of the game, is the most challenging part, and this comes at the end of the game. For example, the screen would read, "equal to 2" and the choices for the student to munch would be, Ð''5-3' or Ð''10/5'. It also teaches children to think quickly, and in order to master the game, they must keep their composure under pressure, which is a great skill to have this day in age. That's another thing that is so appealing about this game, is that you have to use both physical and mental skills.

This game is very easy to use, which is part of why I liked it so much as a kid. To much a word, you simply press the space bar, and use the arrow keys to navigate throughout the screen. Also, if your score is high enough you can enter your name into the hall of fame, which is always a big deal for younger kids, especially when they are playing against their classmates.

After playing this game again for the first time since the third grade, I realized that it was a lot more challenging than I had realized for the age group that the software recommends. I can not imagine doing prime numbers in the third grade. This was one of the harder levels, and it should have been the last round, not the fourth. The whole idea of the troggles really does get you frazzled if you aren't on the lookout for them. They do warn you if they are going to be coming out soon, and at the beginning they move very slowly so it is easy to avoid them. Towards the end though, it starts to become more challenging, and there are more and more troggles that one has to avoid. This game was still as fun for me now as it was for me when I was in the third grade. Something about the idea of using the keyboard and my brain at the same time was still very amusing.

One drawback that I noticed about the game was the fact that their were not many levels. There were five levels and then the game was over. Although the numbers did change on the screen every game, it would have been more fun if they used more categories. I remember playing in elementary school