What the CV of the Pink Panther looks like is a mystery to us. When some woman at the start of Pink Panther Mission In Space decides she needs someone to send out into space to fix some problems, it's the Panther himself who gets the call. Why? Having sat through more of the cartoons than this reviewer would care to remember, inter-stellar repairs never really seemed too high on the agenda.

No matter, though, for this bargain-priced educational title has plenty to commend it. The aforementioned animated sequence, with good production values, sets the scene, as you must travel through space tackling an assortment of action and puzzle-esque games.

Do this and you'll find a selection of facts. These tick the educational side of things perfectly competently, although we did find that the facts can be a little dry and preachy. They also have a habit of throwing in long words that younger users may not fully comprehend. In fact they even sent us hunting out our Oxford English.

Everything is well presented and the games themselves are quite involving to play (with scalable difficulty levels). They're clear, and perhaps outstay their welcome a little too much (especially when you effectively have to play the same thing over and over again to progress), but the puzzles in particular will certainly tax brains, and not just those of the younger target audience. That isn't to say that the title isn't suitable for its target age group of 6 to 10, as it clearly is. What's more, it's likely to engage them well with its bright presentation and happy American optimism.

On the downside? The music. It sounds like it's been plucked from a royalty-free music library and smacked over the top of everything. It's the reason why a volume control is built into the Windows operating system, as far as we're concerned. One or two of the games also failed to impress, but then there's enough here to pass on to something else and still get value for money.

And value for money is where Pink Panther Mission In Space really scores. You get a good deal for your £4.99 here, making it a pretty risk-free educational product. The educational sides don't gel brilliantly with the puzzle solving and action aspects, and even though the Pink Panther is welcome, he's hardly integral to the program. Yet the end product is still warmly recommended, even more so given the frugality of its pricing.

Verdict
A perfectly fine educational product that will easily generate sufficient value for money. The Pink Panther himself is spurious to the plot, but nice to have around as a means to draw in younger users.

Company: Focus Multimedia

Tags: pink panther oxford puzzle united states music arts sotheby jeff koons