JumpStart Around the World

JumpStart Around the World is a game released in 2000 for grades preschool to second grade. It focuses on building a basic knowledge of geography and different cultures.

The game was included in the Deluxe 2 CD Set releases of JumpStart Preschool (1999), JumpStart Kindergarten (1998), JumpStart 1st Grade (2000), and JumpStart 2nd Grade. There isn't too much variance between the different versions. One notable difference is that each grade level has a different character or characters as the player's travel buddy/buddies. Each travel buddy is a mascot of one the four aforementioned games, such as Frankie for first grade, and CJ and Edison for second grade.

In all versions, the player travels around the world with their travel buddy/buddies and collects souvenirs in their scrapbook.

Gameplay
First, the player must pick one of four trips: Rushing to Russia, Can Ya Get to Kenya, Outbound to the Outback, or Cha-Cha to China. At the beginning of a new trip, the player always starts at the JumpStart Travel Agency, which is located on an island west of the United States. The player goes from location to location until they reach their destination. The world map shows all the locations that the player can travel to, which are marked by red dots. If a dot is flashing, that means the player can go to that location next. The locations only become accessible when the player is within a certain range.

After the player chooses a location, then they have to choose how they want to get there. There are four modes of transportation: boat, train, blimp, and plane. Each one has its own mini-game. The player needs to win the game to successfully travel to the next location. Each time the player goes somewhere, they need to use travel tokens to pay for the transportation. The boat and plane both cost two travel tokens, the train costs one travel token, and the blimp costs three. When the player runs out of travel tokens, they have to play the Travel Agency Game to win more.

Each time the player visits a location, they can pick one souvenir to collect. There are four types of souvenirs for each location: a postcard, a fun fact card, a photo, and sounds. Once the player collects all four souvenirs for a location, they get a set of stickers that they can use to decorate that location's scrapbook page.

Mini-Games

 * Boat Afloat - Move the boat from the bottom of the screen to the top of the screen while avoiding the obstacles. You can move up, down, left, or right. Many obstacles will move left or right across the screen. When your boat gets hit, it sinks. If all your boats sink, you lose. Sometimes a power-up will appear. If you get the power-up, it allows you to take one hit from an obstacle without taking damage.


 * Back on Track - Steer the train around the grid using the arrow keys. You have to collect the things that belong to certain category. Each time you collect an item, you get another train car. Your train cars trail behind you. Be careful not to drive the train engine into them. If you hit your own train cars, you will have to start all over. Sometimes a power-up will appear on the grid. If you collect it, it allows you to run into your train cars once without taking damage. You need to collect a certain number of train cars to win. When you've collected as many train cars as you need, the farm will appear. Drive to it to win.


 * Blimp Bounce - Move the blimp back and forth. Your travel buddy will bounce off the top of the blimp and hit the clouds to clear them. Clear all the clouds to win, and don't let your travel buddy fall. Sometimes a cloud will turn yellow. If your travel buddy hits the yellow cloud, you'll get a twin travel buddy to help out.


 * Wings and Rings - Fly the plane through rings while collecting fuel and avoiding storm clouds. Your fuel will steadily run out if you don't collect more, and storm clouds deplete more of your fuel. You need to fly through a certain number of rings to win.


 * Travel Agency Game - Use the arrow keys to move Brady Bear through the maze. Eat all the honeycombs in the maze to win the game. Bees will wander around the maze. If Brady Bear gets stung, you lose one of your tries. If you lose all of your tries, you lose. There are a few honey pots in each maze. If you get a honey pot, you become temporarily invincible. Shapes or math problems will appear at the top of the screen. Each time you get a correct number or shape you get a travel token coupon. If you win the game, your travel token coupons become travel tokens. If you lose the game, any coupons you earned will not become travel tokens.

Characters

 * Eleanor (preschool version)
 * Kisha (preschool version)
 * Casey (preschool version)
 * Pierre (preschool version)
 * Hopsalot (kindergarten version)
 * Frankie (first grade version)
 * CJ (second grade version)
 * Edison (second grade version)
 * Brady Bear (all versions)

Locations

 * California, United States
 * New York, United States
 * Brazil
 * France
 * Italy
 * Egypt
 * Kenya
 * India
 * Russia
 * China
 * Japan
 * Australia

Gallery
For a larger gallery of images from this game, see JumpStart Around the World Gallery