Imagine - Teacher USA

Summer break is finished. The baseball gloves have been put away, the bicycles safely stowed inside. The fun, games and outdoor play of the summer months have given way, once again, to fall -- and a new school year. Dire as that reality may be, at least one publishing company sees it, instead, as an opportunity -- Ubisoft has just released the academically-themed Imagine: Teacher, the latest installment in its female-focused Imagine series of DS simulations. And, interestingly, it's a lot of fun. Maybe going back to school isn't such a bad thing after all. Imagine: Teacher casts you in the role of a young woman named April who's just been hired to replace the aging and retiring Mr. Coddleton at the local elementary school. And, as it turns out, you'll be the only teacher on staff there. It's a small school with only four students starting out, you see -- but if you do a good enough job with their educations, more children will be encouraged to enroll. As you're the only teacher in attendance, it's up to you to handle every single subject. Math, reading, history, biology. They're all there. And teaching them all takes the form of touch screen mini-game designs. You schedule a week's worth of courses in advance, then progress from Monday to Friday taking things one class at a time The first mini-game you'll play is common to every day of the week. In it you first assign students to seats in the room (taking care not to place feuding classmates next to one another) and then you open your teachers' edition textbook to do some touch screen tapping and rubbing. A countdown clock ticks off the seconds as you tap away at icons in order on the screen, and occasionally you have to discipline a disruptive student trying to talk out of turn or sneak out of his or her seat. Succeed in this opening mini-game and your students will all earn more respect for you, making them more attentive in the future. That opening game is simple and works well, which is good. But you'll play it so often that it may get to feeling too repetitive for you. Less repetitive is what comes next, as the associated mini-games are all different for every book subject you'll be teaching. "Reading" becomes a game of quick letter recognition, as you're tasked to circle words on the screen containing a specific consonant or vowel. "Writing" challenges you to scribe single letters onto the screen -- with some nice handwriting recognition in the software here -- after spinning a wheel of fortune of different vocabulary words. "Geometry" has you matching triangles to recreate shapes, "Music" is a Simon-style note sequence memorization game, "Pottery" has you sculpting 3D clay pots with stylus strokes and more. Each game is distinct, and each one works well to represent the subject it's named for. Some of the games aren't quite so interactive and fun, though, like "Biology" (it just has you draw lines between animal pictures and animal names). But, on the whole, the mini-game selection forming the foundation for Imagine: Teacher is solid. Mini-game packages are a dime a dozen on DS, of course, and Imagine: Teacher wouldn't be too hot if it stopped at that. Luckily the game wraps everything together with a rich presentation that develops personalities for each of the students and other non-player characters in the game. You'll keep tabs on the progress of each pupil individually, learning what their strengths and weaknesses are academically, and playing extra mini-game sessions to serve as one-on-one tutoring meetings after school to help those who might be struggling. After school activities also include cleaning up the classroom, represented by another brief game design, and customizing the decor found there -- though you're working on a teacher's salary, you can still choose to spend your scant paycheck on improvements for the room, like animal posters that will offer the kids a boost is biology, enhanced desks, art supplies and more. With all of these elements included, and the on-going storyline that keeps your character involved with and interacting with the students, their parents and even the school advisory board, Imagine: Teacher ends up offering a deep and interesting simulation of the professor profession. Though certain mini-game designs here aren't as imaginative as others, and repetitiveness can set in with some parts of the gameplay, the overall experience of Imagine: Teacher is solid fun. You likely wouldn't have expected it, but even more than "imagining" yourself as a Figure Skater, a Master Chef or even a Rock Star, being a Teacher turns out to be the best Imagine experience so far.

regarding the comments, I guess I am gonna try it.

i would like itt:) haaa. i love eeeveerry thingg haa. suggestions for ds gamess??? i like scribble nautsss ") and kira kira pop princess and the cliqueee./ :)

gonna try it just to confirm comments i recken itt would be bad but ill see

this game is so cool it is aged 8 to 13 it is fun for me but some ppl may not like it bc i have to make a puzzle it is a good game download it!

this game is so kool and so easy to complete there are 10 weeks and i know who it is...

my daughter loves playing teachers so she should love this

This 1 really good compare to the other tittle

Pretty good game lots of little things to do gets harder as game continues, story line is a bit dull, but the gameplay itself is pretty good! ^^ *warning* can be very addictive

My mom played this game more than me! i can't even have my ds back till she went to slp!

It gets boring aft a while

Well..i would say it's better than other games in the Imagine series anyway.