''JumpStart 2nd Grade'' (known as ''Jump Ahead Year 2'' in the United Kingdom) is a

personal computer game A personal computer game, also known as a PC game or computer game, is a type of video game played on a personal computer (PC) rather than a video game console or arcade machine. Its defining characteristics include: more diverse and user-deter ...

released on 26 March 1996 by

Knowledge Adventure JumpStart Games, Inc., formerly Knowledge Adventure, Inc., is an American edutainment video game company based in Torrance, California. Founded in 1991, it owns the ''Neopets'' virtual pet website, and is itself owned by Chinese holding company ...

. As its name suggests, it was made to teach

second grade Second grade (also called grade two, corresponding to Year 3 in the United Kingdom) is a year of primary education in Canada and the United States. Second grade is the second year of primary school. Children are usually aged 7–8 at this grade ...

students. The working title for the game was "JumpStart Adventures 2nd Grade". It was replaced by '' JumpStart Advanced 2nd Grade'' in 2002.

Production

The game was announced as being part of the JumpStart Grade School entertainment system on January 13, 1997.

Gameplay and plot

Like the previous ''

JumpStart ''JumpStart'' (known as ''Jump Ahead'' in the United Kingdom) is an educational media franchise for children, consisting mostly of educational games, produced by JumpStart Games. The series originally consisted of a series of educational PC gam ...

'' products, the game takes place in a school setting, but begins after school hours when a giant

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

named C.J. enters the classroom and frees a

firefly The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...

named Edison. C.J. and Edison (Newton in the United Kingdom) form a

double act A double act (also known as a comedy duo) is a form of comedy originating in the British music hall tradition, and American vaudeville, in which two comedians perform together as a single act. Pairings are typically long-term, in some cases f ...

of sorts with C.J. being an ardent, self-styled "adventurer" while Edison is the more pragmatic straight man, who frequently makes sardonic comments in response to C.J.'s grandiosity. The duo have appeared in many other JumpStart products, such as ''JumpStart Advanced 2nd Grade''; however, their looks and personalities have both undergone enormous changes throughout the years. Edison in the US version has an Irish accent, whereas Newton in the UK version does not.

Reception

MacUser ''MacUser'' was a monthly (formerly biweekly) computer magazine published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. and licensed by Felden in the UK. It ceased publication in 2015. In 1985 Felix Dennis’ Dennis Publishing, the creators of MacUser in the UK, l ...

'' named ''JumpStart 2nd Grade'' one of 1996's top 50 CD-ROMs.

References

External links

* {{JumpStart 1996 video games JumpStart Children's educational video games School-themed video games Windows games Classic Mac OS games Video games developed in the United States Single-player video games