JumpStart

JumpStart is a series of children's educational products released by JumpStart Games, Inc. primarily consisting of children's games (online and CD-ROMs) for PC and some gaming consoles, but also consisting of an abundance of other products, including books, videos, interactive DVDs, and toys.

JumpStart products

 * Games
 * CD-ROMs
 * Console games
 * Online games (primarily World of JumpStart)
 * Workbooks &amp; other books
 * Handheld dedicated consoles
 * Videos
 * Interactive DVDs
 * Toys
 * Mobile apps
 * Other products

Educational value
Nearly all JumpStart products are designed to be educational for children. Over the years, JumpStart has created products for children as young as nine months or as old as twelve years. The subject matter taught varies, but it approximates the same subjects children learn in school.

Grade-based learning
The earliest JumpStart games were all based on grade levels. In the 90s, JumpStart released games for preschool through sixth grade. Games such as JumpStart Toddlers and JumpStart Baby were also released in a similar format to accomodate even younger ages. JumpStart has continually released grade-based games over the years, with the preschool and kindergarten entries in the JumpStart Academy series being the most recent releases to share this format. Some non-game products, such as workbooks, have also been grade-based as well.

Entertainment value
In addition to being educational, JumpStart products are designed to be fun and engaging for children by presenting educational topics in the form of mini-games. JumpStart games also feature settings, characters, and plotlines designed to appeal to the target audience. Games aimed at younger children often feature friendly animal characters in colorful, pleasant environments, while games aimed at older children may incorporate more fantasy, adventure and science-fiction elements along with human characters and the prescence of antagonists.

Common features
Some features found in many JumpStart games include:
 * Sign-in Screen
 * Toolbar
 * Difficulty levels
 * Progress report

Universe
See also: JumpStart universe

Continuity between JumpStart products varies quite a bit. From 1994-1998, JumpStart games were largely unconnected and featured entirely different settings and characters for each game. In 1996, the game KnowledgeLand depicted locations from previous JumpStart games as coexisting on one island, which may suggest a merged continuity, but this was never featured outside of this one game.

Around 1999, JumpStart media shifted to a shared continuity. The main characters from previous preschool to second grade games were established as the main cast. Around 2000, JumpStartville was established as a main setting which served as a hub location for the main characters' homes, and this carried over into the JumpStart Advanced series.

Around 2005, the JumpStart series was rebooted. Two characters that were previously part of the main cast were dropped, but the rest of the main cast stayed the same. Initially, no strict setting was established for this reboot. Camp JumpStart was featured as the setting for the JumpStart 3D Virtual World series. The next major release was the World of JumpStart MMO in 2008/2009, which incoporated the main cast and some side characters from the 3D Virtual World series, but featured a new setting.

In 2018, the JumpStart series underwent a soft reboot with the JumpStart Academy series, which keeps the same main cast and many elements from previous games, but also features some characters redesigns and settings not explicitly tied to the MMO or previous titles.

Current Main Cast

 * Frankie
 * Hopsalot (Hops)
 * Eleanor
 * Pierre
 * Kisha
 * CJ

Previous Main Characters
Note: Italicized characters have been dropped and no longer appear in new games. Other characters listed here have been main characters in the past, but now appear as minor or side characters only.
 * Dee Dee
 * Casey
 * Edison
 * Botley
 * Sally Chu
 * TJ Adams
 * Jo Hammet
 * Zack
 * Jess