Earthquake in Zipland

This interactive game is designed to help children ages 7 to 13 cope with the emotional trauma caused by separation and divorce, but a user guide would have been helpful.

Earthquake in Zipland's animated interface occupies your entire screen upon launch. Players must strategically use an inventory of items to advance to the next level of the game and select dialogue choices along the way. The program includes a quest journal so kids can quickly jot down their thoughts and feelings. The graphics are pretty good and the interactive methodology is fun, though some of the program's features such as its map and the Save option are disabled.

A downloadable PDF guide for parents is available on the publisher's Web site, but instructions really should be included so kids won't have to fumble their way through the first levels of the demo. The whopping 52MBs it takes to download this program is a turnoff too. With many of its features disabled and no help file, it's difficult to judge the full potential of this software. However, it proved fairly engaging and could be a useful tool for helping kids deal with tough situations.