We're lucky to have a unique play-tester situation in our house, with a 2-year old and a 7-year old constantly buzzing around the Wii, and other consoles. Hence the feedback we can offer that more accurately reflects the impressions and preferences of real kids, rather than grizzled twenty- or thirty-something game reviewers... The first impressions, drawn from our kids' faces as we booted up Storybook Workshop, were positive reactions to lots of bright primary colors and cute animated characters. The quick follow-up to this was some fumbling around as we all struggled to figure out the game's interface. Nothing about Storybook Workshop is very intuitive. Rooms with doors in the shape of fruits and nuts are cute, but what does it all mean? We never figured out why the Orange door, leading to the Orange Room, should signify reading stories while the Grape Room controls game settings. Some parental guidance is required to get things going and keep them on track, which may be the first disappointment for parents and kids alike. There are prompts as you wave the Wii-mote around, and even a couple sessions will acquaint kids with where to go and what to do, but this less-than-intuitive introduction to Storybook Workshop carries through most of the game.

Storybook Workshop is built on singing and telling stories, so you can imagine that some time was spent on presentation. Getting past some iffy navigation and interface, we liked the meat of this game. Singing songs is fun, and can be guided by a parent or friend so kids can take more time on a particular line. The option to record songs and stories is fun, but limited in the sense that you can only record one version. In our house, with two performers, this was a downer. An improvised solution is just to share the mic, but what most people would want is the ability to record as many versions of a particular song as memory limitations allowed. The sing-a-long and reading voices are fine, and the graphics are cute enough to keep kids occupied for more than a little while. Miis can be assigned as singers, but there aren't many extended uses of the actual Mii during Storybook Workshop. We liked the voice-changing feature (found in the Apple Room, of course) that gives kids a few presets like "Giant" and "Fairy." Even better are the story segments that use these voices, where kids can listen to their own recorded voice put through a set of these filters.

Classifying Storybook Workshop as a game is almost a stretch, since it's more of an interactive, electronic toy. There are game aspects here, like the story quizzes you'll find in the Apple Room, but the majority of Storybook Workshop is just a chance to play and explore. Fun gadgets like the Voice Painting and Voice Changer devices let kids decorate a canvas using sound and experiment with weird sounding voices. Kids will really get into the Voice Painting, especially at the end of each session when you can overlay a stencil pattern and turn your colored blobs into something cool like a dinosaur. Options to save or send these pics are limited, as are the options for savings and sharing recorded story/song files. The sing-a-longs are hardly like kiddie karaoke, but using the USB mic is a blast and will definitely feel like celebrity time for young ones. The options included to sing with assistance, alone, or with a friend chosen from the list of Mii profiles on your Wii is well done. We wished for more songs, but you can't beat the standards included here: "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," Mary Had A Little Lamb," "Old MacDonald," and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." Especially at the age where kids are beginning to read, being able to follow along with the lyrics and sing is a blast. Younger kids tend to just mumble and mouth the microphone, so keep a wipe handy for cleanup after they've taken their turns...

The other big attraction in Storybook Workshop is the storytelling feature. It's a more varied offering, compared to the songs, since you get 16 stories. The format is the same, as you will choose a reader and listener from your stock Mii profiles. You can have the story read to you, record with assistance, or listen to your own previous recording of the story. The selections are interesting, ranging from easily identified classics like "Little Red Riding Hood" to more obscure fare like "The Little Match Girl." Parents may find some of the story content more or less appropriate for their children, depending on age. Comparing the two stories mentioned, for example, we have one with some unsettling content and good outcome while the other ends on a rather melancholy note. Everything is done tastefully, and getting kids to read or appreciate these stories is a really neat application of various technology interaction like motion-controls and sound recording. At the very least, Storybook Workshop does a good job of making some fancy technology very accessible to the very youngest audience. Parents may be surprised at how much involvement is required, but our 7-year old was happy to show off his reading skills to the 2-year old, so there's that angle if you can work it. Replay value is an open question, since it may only take one extended play session to sing all the songs and listen to the stories. After the reading and singing is done, there's plenty of opportunity for shenanigans with voice changing and painting, and even a sticker book feature, but we'll wager that kids' interest in Storybook Workshop will fade after a short while. Perhaps visits from friends or rainy days will rejuvenate interest, but this is a case where some downloadable content would make a world of difference.

The only thing you'll find difficult to manage in Storybook Workshop is the interface. Nothing is very intuitive, making it necessary in the first round of play to wave your pointer over everything a few times before it becomes second nature. The game breaks with some of its own internal conventions at times, as in the case where it uses two different mechanics for playing back recorded material. Accessing saved content is done one way in one room, and then done differently in another room. Kids will only need one or two passes through the game to figure things out, but there's at least a slim chance that some will get frustrated and pull the ripcord before things become clear. There's a "Reading Report Card" feature in the Grape Room that mostly just reflects your completion rate for the game, and the immediate feedback you get from the Story Quiz feature may be a boon or a bummer depending on your kid's reading level. Parents would be wise to invest the first hour of playtime with Storybook Workshop sitting next to their kids, which will alleviate 80% of these issues. The most relevant age range for this game's activities appeared to be 3-6 years, other than the scenario of having an older child help a younger sibling read or sing along.

We aren't fans of corded mics, but that's what you'll need to run Storybook Workshop with your child. The version included has a decent amount of cord, but not enough to sit very far from the television. You'll be waving the Wii-mote in addition to handling the mic, but the most obvious configuration in the room is to have a parent or older child handling the motion controls while a younger child does most of the microphone work. Motion controls aren't terribly useful throughout the game, but there's at least an attempt to feature a page-turn mechanic through a combination of the (A) and (B) buttons. Since the game turns the page anyway for you after a pause, there's little point in this feature... A smarter feature is the one that prompts you when you've hung around for too long on a page during recording. This prompt only comes up during recording and suggests that you might like to run the tape back for another shot, assuming you're having trouble reading the text. This allows for a better recording in the end, and makes the best use of limited recording time. You can always see the clock running, showing a countdown based on your system's available memory. Since there's a hard constraint on how many recordings you can make of a given song, there's little chance of using up too much space. The microphone implementation was decent but too hot for our taste - where it makes more sense is on the recording, as you hear that your child's voice was carefully filtered to fit in with the surrounding music. It's a subtle thing, but good for instances where your kid is prone to shouting through the story; not as good when your child is a mumbler, but you can turn up the mic to get more from these low-talker kids.

We can't help but like Storybook Workshop for its creative use of some technology and its mission to introduce reading and singing skills to the videogame world. The microphone and the recording option is especially cool, since the game could have been done as a one-way ticket for kids to listen as stories were read to them. Seeing Storybook Workshop really bolds up the need for a game like this with additional content, or at least some sort of editor feature that would let kids and parents construct stories on the fly. The replay value of the game as it stands is greatly limited because there isn't any way to extend the play beyond some gadgets and gizmos kids will likely grow tired of after a few play sessions. Interactive edutainment is still waiting for its watershed moment, but here's hoping that Storybook Workshop is successful enough to send a message that young gamers (and their parents) want more than just licensed shill, side-scrolling copycats, and adrenaline-fueled action games.