Adapted from a popular children story book series, The Travels of Wiglington and Wenks contains loads of fun and exciting games and adventures that promote the spirit of traveling and getting to know the world.

“The Travels of Wiglington and Wenks promises an experience in which players would be able to travel to factual and mysterious places around the world, travel through time and space, meet famous people from the past, play dozens of enriching and fun games, make new friends and party with them, buy exotic islands, build culture-inspired houses, wear clothes from different countries, explore secret locations, solve mysteries and puzzles and become a legendary traveler!”

Parents can look forward to an educational and safe site for their children where they would be learning about history, geography, landmarks, famous people, inventions, animals and more. And for the children, they can expect hours and hours of discovery and exploration fun.

Launched during Christmas 2009, The Travels of Wiglington and Wenks has already gained considerable traction and buzz online and tens of thousands of people from more than 150 countries have registered to play.

Some of the features players can experience in the game are the ability to build culture inspired houses, getting to own islands, throw parties, perform a range of cool actions, own various pets, wear clothes from different countries, meet famous people from the past and present and visit famous landmarks around the world.

Wiglington and Wenks is more massive than any other virtual worlds for kids to date – covering at present 50 over scenes and increasing to almost 200 over the next few months.

The selling points of Wiglington and Wenks is the excellent artwork, level of interactivity, strong knowledge coverage, original background storyline and the promotion of history, geography, famous people, famous landmarks, inventions, culture, general knowledge, wildlife preservation and environmental issues. The virtual world features famous historical characters like Beethoven, Einstein, Edison, Wright Brothers, Abraham Lincoln, Emperor Qin, Gandhi, Darwin just to name a few. The players are given the task of looking for items related to these famous historica characters so that they can recover their memories.

Wiglington and Wenks showcases real world countries like USA, China, Australia, Singapore, UK, Romania, Brazil, Africa, Bermuda Triangle and also imaginary locations like Mars, a Pirates’ Den, Mars, a Jurrasic Jungle, a Samurai Palace and more.

Wiglington and Wenks also features locations like Madgascar, Amazon Forest and the Great Barrier Reef to educate kids on environmental issues and wildlife conservation.

Players will be going about the world searching for items, in the process learning about the world and different items found in the world. This also trains their ability to be observant – much like iSpy games. As a reviewer on Common Sense Media said – “Kids cannot help but absorb historical, geographic, environmental, or cultural facts as they travel the world to help these misplaced historical figures.”

The games within the virtual world are educational and fun. Reviews given by kids usually say that Wiglington and Wenks teaches them a lot about history without them feeling bored.

Independent Reviews and Recommendations

- A recent nomination exercise conducted by About.com for the Best Virtual World for Kids showed that Wiglington and Wenks received majority of the votes

- 4 star rating from Common Sense Media

- A glowing review from an award-winning education blog iLearnTechnology.com

Visit the Travels of Wiglington and Wenks at www.wiglingtonandwenks.com.

You start off by creating your own avatar. You have access to a large selection of templates to pick from, and can create an avatar that mirrors you in real life, or a fantastical version of yourself. You can then proceed to dress him/her up in various clothes, and plunge right into the game.

As mentioned before, Dizzywood focuses on exploration and interaction. Once you have created your avatar, you are plopped down in a little virtual world where you can dig around for architectural artefacts. You can either do this yourself, or take the help of fellow Dizzywood members in this endeavor. The exploration element is very nicely handled, and evokes some of the blockbuster Lucas Arts games of the 1990s.

The purpose of exploration is to earn rewards in the shape of badges, superpowers, and various items. Items can further enhance your abilities, and in this respect, Dizzywood behaves like a typical role-playing game (RPG). The items can be traded among players.

Dizzywood moves through a linear story arc. A lot of importance is placed on completing missions or goals in order to proceed to the next level. All missions are designed to teach kids about certain things – from gardening to organization skills – and work as pretty handy educational tools.

Dizzywood places a lot of emphasis on interaction with other members. You can chat with other kids in a safe, controlled environment. Dizzywood team members take care to remove any abusive or inappropriate language from the chat stream. The primary idea behind this chat tool is to help kids build social skills, although with its limited functionality, Dizzywood does leave something to be desired.

Dizzywood brings a role-play element to the game with various fun activities such as the Explorer’s camp where members can pretend to be away at a camp, roasting marshmallows and sharing scary stories, the Dizzy TV Studios, where members can pretend to be TV hosts, etc Activities like this encourage open expression and the development of various skills in children, and can be very useful in helping kids get over shyness or nervousness that is usually associated with social interactions.

A key part of Dizzywood is its learning engine. Through a variety of mini-games and lessons, Dizzywood aims to teach players about language, science, art, and issues such as global warming, etc. The mini-games are fun to play, and consist of word games, puzzle games, trivia and brainteasers.

Dizzywood is free to play, but to access certain features, you have to buy a premium subscription.

In terms of graphics, Dizzywood pales in comparison to some of its competitors such as Panfu or Pixie Hollow. The 2D graphics can appear dull and boring after a little while, and the animation is a bit jerky in patches. The avatars themselves are lacking a bit of creativity. This is one area where Dizzywood could have put in a little bit more effort.

Performance wise, Dizzywood is a dream. The servers have very little downtime and run very smoothly. Since the graphics are largely 2D, they require very little computer horsepower to run, which means that even your 5 year old PC could run it.

Final Words

Dizzywood is an interesting virtual world with a strong focus on social activities, exploration and learning. With its strong parental controls and interactive game play, it can be a fun filled experience for all kids.

Visit Dizzywood at www.dizzywood.com.