Magic School Bus Lands on Mars

Once the Magic School Bus settles, kids can play inside or venture onto the surface of Mars. Both areas are cluttered with gizmos that yield either a game, an experiment, or a compelling fact. (Did you know that Mars's moons are named for the Greek words meaning fear and panic? We didn't.) There's a lot to learn here: kids can put objects like watermelons and marshmallows into the Pressure-O-Meter to see what happens to them in the atmosphere, or try to land a module on Mars while coping with fuel loss and Martian gravity. There's even a rover-building station that hones deductive skills as kids decide whether a solar panel or a battery will work best to power their vehicle during the Martian night.

Attention to detail is what launches Magic School Bus Lands on Mars into the rarefied atmosphere of educational CD-ROMs that entertain as well as they teach; new players can enter how old they are on Earth and learn their Martian age, then later play Mind over Mars, a robot-hosted game show that dishes up tough Mars-related trivia questions and--better yet--elaborates on the answers.

As Ms. Frizzle zips about Mars's surface in her jetpack, we can't help but wish NASA would recruit the Friz to get all of us excited about space exploration again. The woman has the right stuff. (For ages 6 to 10.) --Anne Erickson

Since a full-fledged MSB CD has half-a-dozen or more places to explore, the activity centers represent less than 1/6th the value of a full-fledged MSB CD. Don't buy them unless you get them for less than 1/6th the price of the full-fledged CDs.


Poor Value for Money   January 5, 2003
Paul Ward (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada)
As with MSB Whales and Dophins, this is not a full-fledged Magic School Bus CD, but is just an activity center. The Magic School Bus CDs fall into two categories: full-fledged exploration programs and activity centers. The full-fledged programs are excellent and represent good value for money. Three of my children (ages 7, 5 and 3) spends hours exploring with MSB Oceans, Animals, Solar System, and Dinosaurs. They are great. On the other hand, he is quickly bored with the Activity Centers, such as Whales and Dolphins, Flight, and Mars. They simply present one screen with things to click on.

Since a full-fledged MSB CD has half-a-dozen or more places to explore, the activity centers represent less than 1/6th the value of a full-fledged MSB CD. Don't buy them unless you get them for less than 1/6th the price of the full-fledged CDs.


Not a good MSB choice   May 23, 2001
Robert E. Alexander
4 out of 11 found this review helpful

My 5 year old daughter loves Magic School Bus. She has a few of the games (Human Body, Inside Earth, Dinosaurs, and this one). She plays the others repeatedly, but almost never plays Lands on Mars. Though I haven't studied the game myself, I suspect it just has fewer activities and less interesting activities than the others.


Picks up where MSB: Solar System left off!   August 8, 2000
50 out of 51 found this review helpful

All of the Magic School Bus series is wonderful but now they have gone in depth into one particular subject. My 7 & 9 year old love the programs and must have them the minute they come out! Lands on Mars is packed full of Trivia and Games, tells about Mars Missions and shows pictures! There is so much to do she won't be bored with it for months. Aside from the educational factors it is incredibly easy and fun to play, I usually try them out for an hour or two myself.

If you want to make learning fun for your child, you must look into these programs. As my daughters have in the past, I am sure if the time arises that they need research on Mars, Lands on Mars will be the first thing off the shelf!