| Star Wars Math: Jabba's Game Galaxy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Lucas Learning |
| Publisher(s) | Lucas Learning |
| Release | September 1, 2000 |
| Genre(s) | Educational |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Star Wars Math: Jabba's Game Galaxy is an educational Star Wars game released by Lucas Learning in 2000 for Windows and Macintosh. The game used characters from The Phantom Menace to teach kids basic maths skills. [1]
"Our main goal with Star Wars Math was to create an engaging game for kids, that still has all the components parents are looking for: recognizable math content, high replayability, and an overarching goal with lots of rewards and encouragement. We wanted to go beyond the standard math drill and practice software game and excite kids about math in a new and fun way that was well integrated with the Star Wars universe".
— Collette Michaud, project leader for Lucas Learning, The Force [2]
After working on various games as LucasArts - the last of which was Mortimer and the Riddles of the Medallion , Collette Michaud helped to found the children's edutainment-themed sister company Lucas Learning and served as project leader and designer of Droidworks and Star Wars Math Jabba’s Game Galaxy. Early on, a few Lucas Learning employees met with George Lucas at Skywalker Ranch to discuss his goals or creating learning software for children, which led to Lucas offering some early notes for DroidWorks. Lucas soon became preoccupied with the Star Wars prequel trilogy and he didn't offer much interaction after that, including for Star Wars Math. [3]
Star Wars Math was one of the six titles who went into direct-to-school distribution by Lucas Learning. [4] [5]
Buying via the LucasArts Company Store, customers could get a limited-edition magnetic jigsaw puzzle. [6]
The aim of the game is to build spaceships and travel around the galaxy. This is achieved by playing minigames to earn credits, which can then be exchanged with Watto for spaceship parts.
Players play minigames based on popular games such as Dueling Dice (a simplified version of blackjack) and Holochex, called Dejarik in the Star Wars Universe (based on checkers), which was first seen in Star Wars: A New Hope. [7]
Each of the minigames "supports the content standards for primary grades developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)". [8]
Macworld praised the animation, though felt the educational content was lacking. [9] Newsday and The Washington Times liked the "extraordinary" animation and the Hollywood soundtrack, ultimately deeming it a fun experience for fans of the franchise. [10] [11] The Washington Times liked that the game's construction "slyly" taught players basic arithmetic and logic in a "totally fun" way that made the reviewer smile. [12] Daily Campus disliked the character of Watto, though felt he was redeemed in games such as Star Wars Math. [13] Chron felt the minigames were "agreeably atmospheric and offbeat", though felt they were more work than play. [14] Vandal asserted that in the oeuvre of Star Wars titles, this is one of the few educational games, and requires players to do continuous mathematical calculations. [15] Allgame felt the game contained both good and bad elements of design. [16]
The Parenting Center honoured it as a Seal of Approval Winner Holiday 2000. [17]
JumpStart was an educational media franchise created for children, primarily consisting of educational games. The franchise began with independent developer Fanfare Software's 1994 video game JumpStart Kindergarten. The series was expanded into other age groups and beyond games to include workbooks, direct-to-video films, mobile apps, and other media under the ownership of Knowledge Adventure, which later assumed the name JumpStart Games.
The Learning Company (TLC) was an educational software company founded in 1980 in Palo Alto, California and headquartered in Fremont, California. The company produced a grade-based line of learning software, edutainment games, and productivity tools. Its titles included the flagship series Reader Rabbit, for preschoolers through second graders, and The ClueFinders, for more advanced students. The company was also known for publishing licensed educational titles featuring characters such as Arthur, The Powerpuff Girls, SpongeBob SquarePants or Sesame Street.
The ClueFinders is an educational software series aimed at children aged 8–12 that features a group of mystery-solving teenagers. The series was created by The Learning Company as a counterpart to their Reader Rabbit series for older, elementary-aged students. The series has received praise for its balance of education and entertainment, resulting in numerous awards.
Bib Fortuna is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. The Twi'lek majordomo and chief aide of the crime lord Jabba the Hutt, Bib is Jabba's closest associate, succeeding him as daimyo after his death before ultimately being killed himself by Boba Fett. Fortuna first appeared in Return of the Jedi (1983), the final entry in the original Star Wars trilogy. He also appeared briefly in the prequel trilogy film The Phantom Menace (1999) and in the second season of Disney+ series The Mandalorian (2020) and The Bad Batch (2021). The character has also appeared in other Star Wars media, including novels, comic books, video games, and radio dramas.
Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, also known as Super Return of the Jedi, is a 1994 action video game developed by LucasArts and Sculptured Software and published by JVC Musical Industries for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is a sequel to Super Star Wars (1992) and Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1993) and is based on the 1983 film Return of the Jedi. It was ported to the Game Boy and Game Gear by Realtime Associates, which were published by THQ in 1995. The game was re-released on the Wii Virtual Console in North America on September 7, 2009 and in PAL regions on October 16, 2009, alongside the other games in the Super Star Wars series.
Star Wars: Demolition is a 2000 vehicular combat game created by Luxoflux and LucasArts using the Vigilante 8 game engine. It is set in the Star Wars universe, where the Galactic Empire has banned Jabba the Hutt's podraces, so Jabba creates a more life-threatening vehicular combat contest.
Star Wars: Super Bombad Racing is both a racing video game and vehicular combat game with characters from Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Star Wars, and Return of the Jedi. The playable characters are portrayed in a super deformed style. This game is available on PlayStation 2 only, as the Dreamcast, Windows, and Mac OS versions were cancelled due to poor sales of the PlayStation 2 version.
Star Warped is a first-person point-and-click adventure video game that parodies the Star Wars universe, specifically the original trilogy released between 1977 and 1983: Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. It was created by Parroty Interactive, which was a division of the game's publisher, Palladium Interactive. Star Warped was released in the United States and Canada, for both Windows PC and Macintosh, in late 1997 as a follow-up to their debut Myst parody, Pyst. The game is no longer in release, as Parroty's parent company folded after being bought by The Learning Company in 1998. The game invited players to "Be seduced by the power of the Dork Side". Star Warped received mixed reviews from critics: some praised the game's variety, originality, and humor, while others dismissed it as lazy, unfunny, and dull.
Star Wars: DroidWorks is a 1998 edutainment computer game and the premiere title from LucasArts subsidiary Lucas Learning. It uses the same engine as LucasArts' previous title Star Wars: Jedi Knight. The creators aimed to create a game that would be both appealing and nonviolent. The game's original release date was moved up by months, which resulted in the development team cutting some planned game features.
Edmark Corporation was a publisher of educational print materials and educational software developer based in Redmond, Washington. They developed software for Microsoft Windows and MacOS in several languages and sold it in over a dozen countries.
Reader Rabbit Preschool: Sparkle Star Rescue is a game in the Reader Rabbit series by The Learning Company. The title was released in 2001. The game is recommended for ages 3–6. The game teaches "shape and size recognition, letter recognition and listening", among other skills, including maths-related ones. The game was also released for the Nintendo Wii by Graffiti Entertainment, simply titled Reader Rabbit Preschool.
Microshaft Winblows 98 is a 1998 interactive comedy video game for Windows and Classic Mac OS. It parodies the then-upcoming Windows 98 operating system, as well as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Released by Palladium Interactive during the United States v. Microsoft Corp. case and at a time when Microsoft, Windows, and Gates were easy targets for jokes, the game offers a satirical take on this ripe subject matter.
Carmen Sandiego Math Detective is a 1998 Carmen Sandiego video game. It is similar in structure to Carmen Sandiego Word Detective, which was released a year before.
Disney's Animated Storybook is a point-and-click adventure interactive storybook video game series based on Walt Disney feature animations and Pixar films that were released throughout the 1990s. They were published by Disney Interactive for personal computers for children ages four to eight years old. Starting from 1994, most of the entries in the series were developed by Media Station. They have the same plots as their respective films, though abridged due to the limited medium.
Disney's Activity Center is a series of PC and PlayStation games released by Disney Interactive with each title consisting of various activities and minigames to be completed, using aspects of their licensed property.
Early Learning House or simply the House Series is a collection of four main educational video games and two compilations for the Windows and Macintosh platforms, developed by Theatrix Interactive, Inc. and published by Edmark software. Each different game focuses on a particular major learning category with selectable skill settings for preschooler, kindergarten and elementary learners. Millie's Math House (1992) on mathematics, Bailey's Book House (1993) on language, Sammy's Science House (1994) on science, and Trudy's Time and Place House (1995) on history and geography. A spin-off, Stanley's Sticker Stories (1996), sees players create animated storybooks with the series' characters. Millie & Bailey Preschool and Millie & Bailey Kindergarten each contain the combined activities from two of the four software products. In addition the programs can be configured by an adult mode to suit students with special needs. Most of the activities in every game have two modes, one to allow learners to explore and try it out for themselves and the other for learners to follow specific tasks set by the game characters. Learners also have the option to print pictures of creative activities and record sounds in phonics activities. Later the games were re-developed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Learning Technology and re-published by The Learning Company with newer graphics and additional activities.
Madeline is a series of educational point-and-click adventure video games which were developed during the mid-1990s for Windows and Mac systems. The games are an extension of the Madeline series of children's books by Ludwig Bemelmans, which describe the adventures of a young French girl. The video-game series was produced concurrently with a TV series of the same name, with characters and voice actors from the show.
The Arthur video games franchise was a series of learning and interactive story video games based on the American-Canadian children's TV show Arthur. The games were released in the 1990s and 2000s for PlayStation and Game Boy Color alongside Windows and Mac OS computers.
Star Wars: Pit Droids is an educational puzzle game developed and published by Lucas Learning. It was originally released for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh on September 13, 1999. It was later ported to iOS and released on February 9, 2012. The game develops skills such as hypothesis testing and geometry.
Lucas Learning is an initiative of the George Lucas Educational Foundation with a mission to work with partners to combine research-validated project-based learning principles with modern simulation technology for pre-K-12 schools.
| Action |
| ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Action-adventure |
| ||||||||||||||||
| Arcade | |||||||||||||||||
| Educational | |||||||||||||||||
| Racing | |||||||||||||||||
| Role-playing |
| ||||||||||||||||
| Simulation |
| ||||||||||||||||
| Strategy | |||||||||||||||||
| First-person shooter |
| ||||||||||||||||
| Crossovers |
| ||||||||||||||||
| Cancelled games | |||||||||||||||||
