July 1, 2010 (Vol. 30, No. 13)
URL:
http://www.anatomyarcade.com
Rating:
Strong Points: Games were educational, fun, and easy to load/play
Weak Points: Layout was a bit overpowering
Summary:
It’s not too often that you’ll find an entry for a video game website in this column. But hey, there’s a first time for everything. Anatomy arcade is an addicting and fun website that is also educational and useful! The title of the site doesn’t leave too much mystery—it is composed of a series of games to teach anatomy, organized by body system and ranging from crosswords, to jigsaws, to timed identification drills. Despite the somewhat amateur-looking web design, the games actually run quite well and don’t stall or take long to load. There are also a few links to other anatomy-related sites. As is usually the case with resources-for-free websites, there are a number of advertisements on the page. Yet—call me crazy—I actually didn’t mind the scrolling book recommendations that were catered to the specific body system that I was investigating. (I’d be lying if I said there weren’t a few books that I considered purchasing after completing my round of Whack-A-Bone.)