Go, go, go to school
Go to school
Kindergarten, here I come!
Go to school
Kindergarten, here I come!
JumpStart Kindergarten was the first game produced in the JumpStart line of Edutainment Games. Developed by Fanfare Software and distributed by Knowledge Adventure, it was released on November 14, 1994. Fanfare would be acquired by Knowledge Adventure soon afterwards.
This game established the formula that early entries in the JumpStart series would follow. That is to say, it takes place in an interactive classroom with various educational Mini-Games and features an anthropomorphic animal as your Exposition Fairy. In this case, that animal is a rabbit teacher named Mr. Hopsalot. For some reason, Mr. Hopsalot's students are all humans.
In 1997, JumpStart Kindergarten became the first JumpStart game to receive a remake. The '97 version is mostly the same as the '94 version, just with updated graphics and some added content. A much more different version, JumpStart Advanced Kindergarten, was released in 2002.
The 1994 and 1997 versions of this game provide examples of:
- All There in the Manual: The rabbit girl in the clock activity is not named in the game itself. As per the user's manual, her name is Bonnie Bunny.
- Anthropomorphic Shift: In the 1994 version, Bebop is a Talking Animal who wears no clothes. In the 1997 version, he wears clothes, becoming more of a Funny Animal, though he's still hamster-sized.
- The Artifact: In the 1994 version, the clock activity features a rabbit father who resembles Mr. Hopsalot. In the 1997 version, Mr. Hopsalot has an entirely different design, but the clock activity still portrays the rabbit father with the 1994 design for Mr. Hopsalot.
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Mr. Hopsalot doesn't wear shoes in either version of the game.
- The Cameo: In the 1997 version, the dog in "Doing What the Animals Do" is Frankie.
- Cultural Translation: The U.K. version, Jump Ahead Starting School, makes some changes. Aside from redubbing the characters with British voices, the most significant change is with the holidays represented in the bulletin board activity. In the song "Days of the Week," the narrator asks to play with a drum instead of a CD-ROM in order to keep the rhyme after "Mom" is changed to "Mum."
- "Days of the Week" Song: The 1997 version includes one, literally titled, "Days of the Week."
- Difficulty Levels: These don't exist in the original 1994 version, but they're added for the 1997 version.
- Discontinuity Nod: In the 1994 version, "Pattern Blaster" stars a virtual mouse named Roquefort. In the 1997 version, however, Roquefort exists in the "real world" and there's a different mouse in "Pattern Blaster" named Brie. Sometimes, as Brie is eating a hunk of cheese, Roquefort comments, "Boy, I wish I was Brie right now."
- Early-Installment Weirdness: As the first ever JumpStart game, the 1994 version has quite a bit of this. For one thing, there's no goal or storyline beyond the basic premise of playing educational games in a virtual classroom. And while you can click around and make things happen, the resulting animations are a bit more straightforward and less wildly surreal than in later entries. Also, the opening title spells "Jump Start" with a space rather than the CamelCase that would become customary.
- Educational Song: There are five of them in the 1994 version. The 1997 version retains the original five and adds three more.
- Furry Confusion: Despite Mr. Hopsalot being an anthropomorphic rabbit, nonanthropomorphic rabbits appear in both versions of this game.
- Game Within a Game: "Pattern Blaster" is portrayed as an in-universe video game.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Roquefort wears a shirt without pants. In the 1997 version, he's joined by Jack, who wears pants without a shirt.
- Heli-Critter: Mr. Hopsalot flies with his ears during the garden activity.
- Mad Libs Dialogue: Another JumpStart staple that got its start here: "Find the box that... matches the number... three."
- Matryoshka Object: One game involves putting nesting dolls in order by height.
- One-Man Band: In the 1997 version, the radio puppet show includes one.
- Stock Animal Diet:
- Roquefort is obsessed with cheese. However, his fellow mouse friend, Jack, doesn't share his obsession, and when he rebukingly asks Roquefort if that's all he thinks about, he notes he also likes cookies.
- In the clock minigame, all the rabbit family's meals are carrots.
- Video Game Remake: The 1997 version, which features all the games and characters that were in the original. In addition to updated graphics, it adds two more games and three more songs. Also, while the original didn't have any sort of overall goal, this was changed for the 1997 version, in which your goal is to collect stars that will earn you visits to the petting zoo.
