Exploring the wilderness with Arthur in Arthur's Camping Adventure (Mattel/The Learning Company) will appeal to Arthur fans. But others might want to stick to problem-solving type games with a little more depth and better programming, such as the Putt-Putt and Freddi Fish titles from Humongous. In this adventure, it seems that Arthur's teacher Mr. Ratburn has taken Arthur's class on a camping field trip. Unfortunately, Mr. Ratburn twists his ankle, so it's up to Arthur, with young player's assistance, to save the day. Arthur must scour the woods for objects to help his friend Brain build a rescue device. Along the way there are lots of conundrums to solve, such as putting up a color coded set of tent poles, finding a way out of a mysterious maze, and figuring out how to get a bag of food away from a bear. Mr. Ratburn offers a prize to the kid who collects the most sightings of animals, but it's very hard to figure out how to get the nature notebook started. The objects Arthur needs to build the rescue device (there are actually three rescue devices built into the game for varied gameplay) also seem very oddly strewn around the woods. Even kids find it hard to believe a ball of string is going to be right out in the middle of a trail through the woods or that a jar cap conveniently lost by a bear is at the entrance to his cave. We're big fans of these thinking adventures for kids, but this one just doesn't hit the mark.