Lola's Math Train (Nintendo 3DS) Review

Lola's Math Train shows how learning for children should be handled in the videogame realm, blending cute visuals, clear voice work, intuitive controls, and a nice variety of tasks that adapt to a child's learning level. Starting off, there are three difficulty levels to choose from, ranging from simple identification of numbers themselves, and going right through to subtraction and addition sums, with a smattering of other objectives mixed in to keep everything entertaining for those with short attention spans.

Youngsters - between the ages of 3 and 8 according to developer BeiZ - can learn how to follow voice prompts to choose numbers from a selection of options, find matching numbers that add up to a certain figure, determine the correct pattern trends for different shapes, select what box contains the most squares, figure out the actual difference between numbers and letters, and even place numbers in increasing or decreasing value, plus much more. The beauty of Lola's Math Train is how it adapts perfectly to those struggling or others that excel at the lowest levels, ensuring that children never grow frustrated during the 'math adventure.'

Brightly presented with a very soothing, encouraging female voiceover that reads almost everything aloud for children that either struggle reading or cannot be bothered to do so, Lola's Math Train is also filled with adorable little animal characters and 19 mathematical games that educate whilst allowing children to have fun.

Six other animal friends can join Lola on her Math Train one at a time, meaning that there are seven rounds in total to play through, each with eleven tasks to complete along the way, which is definitely great to get the basics of numerical skills, puzzle solving, character identification, addition and subtraction practised sufficiently until it starts to stick. Where other 'edutainment' titles miss the mark, Lola's Math Train is definitely on the right track!