If there's one thing that kids need to do less of these days, it's get out and exercise. Recent surveys of health professionals have indicated that 9 out of 10 experts recommend more time for kids sitting in front of a screen and less time outside in the fresh air. If you have a console unit to plug into your television then making sure your kids stay plump and generally out-of-breath has always been easy, but for those of us with PCs it's a little more difficult. Can you even name one single game aimed squarely at kids that isn't an educational title? Well you can now, thanks to Lithuanian developers Ivolgamus, and that game is Falling Stars.

Falling Stars is an RPG that appears to be aimed at kids of eight to twelve, and mainly girls at that. From the very moment the game loads it is obvious that the developers have taken visual cues from a number of kiddie pop-culture references such as Pokémon and the girls' perennial favourite, Barbie. The plot revolves around Luna, a young girl possessed by a spirit (but in a nice way) who lives in the land of Dazzleon. However, Dazzleon has recently fallen under a dark cloud of nastiness and Luna must travel the land to right the balance of nature once more.

Graphically, Falling Stars is a very pretty game, employing mostly bright pastel colours highly reminiscent of Barbie products from the Nineties. If this is what Dazzleon looks like when evil roams the land then normally it must be so bright and cheerful that your eyeballs bleed! Butterflies and dewdrops, candy canes and frogs, all these things and more adorn the landscape. Needless to say, Ivolgamus have spent a lot of time making this title as "feel-good" as possible, and I strongly doubt there would be many parents who would reject the game for their children on the basis of adult themes or portrayal of violence.

On the subject of violence, as in all other RPGs, Falling Stars involves combat and plenty of it. Parents will be pleased to know however that it is not particularly violent, instead playing fairly similarly to a Pokémon match. The player's pet Komi, a mutant blue Pikachu-style beastie, fights various other monsters in an arena in turn-based combat. Combat involves shooting balls of energy coloured yellow, red and blue and attempting to guess or learn the enemy's pattern of attacks. While it works fairly well in practice, younger players with limited pattern recognition abilities may have significant difficulty in learning the system. In line with the feel-good theme of the game, defeated monsters do not die, instead simply falling asleep. Likewise, a loss in battle only results in the player losing some money.

Komi can be trained and have his stats improved between battles, but again for younger players, this may be a challenge to understand. While most adults can easily grasp concepts such as strength, agility and endurance, and how simple statistics will have a bearing on combat performance, for many kids this may be out of their mental league, leaving many to just randomly guess without understanding the repercussions of their choices. As with any game for children however, a parent should be supervising and can use the opportunity to help their child with some of the slightly more complex concepts of the game, such as pattern recognition. Be warned though, even for adults, the combat patterns that the monsters use can take some time to learn.

Outside of combat however, Falling Stars excels. Most of the land's inhabitants are Luna's friends and she spends a good deal of time talking to them. The text is in a large, clear font and is written in clear, easy to understand English, so kids shouldn't have any trouble reading it. Everybody is friendly - even the bad guy to some extent, though he does nasty things like not sharing and cheating! Children will find it easy to identify good versus bad elements, as everything is very clearly cut. With that said, sometimes your friends won't help you if you're wearing clothes they don't like - Falling Stars can be a little shallow at times. Some parents may not have a problem with this and some might. Different friends prefer Luna wearing different outfits and how they interact with you will depend not on what you say, but what you wear. It's up to the individual parents as to whether this is an issue. For my part I think it's quite harmless and young girls will enjoy the whole dress-up thing that Luna can do at home.

Vacuuming the floor on the other hand might make a few more parents question this title. Vacuuming? Falling Stars has a number of mini-games, which players can attempt to earn more money. Examples of these games include archery, rowing and, yes, vacuuming. Falling Stars is nothing if not conservative. Again, any gender-specific references or feminist critiques are going to fly well over most kids' heads, as the games are quite fun, including the vacuuming, but there's no doubt that some more "progressive" parents may find this objectionable and believe their little girls will be turned into downtrodden oppressed slaves by playing at virtual vacuuming for a while. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Visually the game is very pretty and the music has a bright cheerful tone to it. Ivolgamus have put a significant investment into making the game appealing to youngsters from the start, with bright colours and charming scenery, coupled with light-hearted music and punchy sound effects. As far as a kids' game goes, there really isn't much more they could have done in this area to make it more appealing. From a programming perspective however, they probably could have done better, as the frame rate frequently drops to what appears to be about five frames per second in some of the more complex areas. Kids may find this frustrating and even as an apparently mature adult I found it to be a real bother. For the most part though, the graphics and gameplay run quite smoothly.

Attention span is always a problem for kids, especially when they're experiencing repetitive actions such as found in the combat system. Falling Stars will probably take at least five to ten hours of constant gameplay for a child to complete, and let's face it, if you're letting your eight-year-old play the computer like that then all hope for a future as a reasonably social adult is already lost. Thankfully the game can be saved easily back at Luna's home, which allows for children to play in short bursts before retiring to do something a little more constructive, such as pulling the cat's tail or playing in mud outside. Falling Stars does however avail parents of an opportunity to discuss simple concepts like friendship, being nice and caring for others, as they are explored in the game. Either that or you can use it as a constant babysitter - your choice.

So, is Falling Stars the game for you? If you're much older than about twelve then the answer is no. If on the other hand, you're looking for a mostly harmless, enjoyable game for a young child, especially a girl, then Falling Stars can probably be well recommended. It's not without its flaws and the difficulty level even early on will mean that an adult should be handy to help explain some of the basic concepts, but this game has enough in it to keep the interest of most kids who don't have severe cases of ADHD. Shamed as I am to say it, even though I'm nearing twenty years past the recommended age, I found it quite fun too. Now if you'll excuse me, I have this sudden urge to vacuum my room for a few hours...

Reviewed by Steve Rosenthal for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).