Arthur is an 8 year old aardvark created by children’s book author and
illustrator Marc Brown. In Arthur’s Sand Castle Contest , he enters a
castle-building contest while visiting the beach with family and friends – the
goal in this game is to complete a castle using pre-made blueprints or your
own imagination. This requires a certain amount of planning, as you have to
collect the ingredients to make bricks: sand and water.

To collect sand, you control Arthur with the mouse in an arcade-style game. As
his dog Pal digs up clumps of sand, you move Arthur and his bucket across the
screen with the mouse, catching the flying sand. Sometimes, Pal will dig up
crabs that inflict a painful nip and cause Arthur to lose his sand, and
sometimes he’ll find special items that Arthur needs to make bricks. Pushing
the spacebar causes Arthur to jump over crabs on the ground. When the bucket
is full you have the option of filling another. Depending on the level, each
bucket of sand can be worth 3 or more bricks.

To collect water you move Arthur across the hot sand through a maze of beach
towels until he reaches the water’s edge and can fill his bucket. There are
dogs, crabs, and large bathers to avoid, puddles of water to soothe hot feet,
and french fries to renew Arthur’s energy. Success at collecting enables cut-
scenes in which Arthur’s friends bring him pretty rocks and shells they’ve
found, to use as decorations.

Arthur’s friend Brain has stumbled upon an old junked Sno-Cone machine, which
he has managed to convert into a sand castle brick-making machine. If you
bring him the sand and water to feed into it, his machine will mold it into
bricks for you. Moreover, if you collect particular items that Brain asks for
he will exchange them for specialty bricks. Finding an old shoe, for example,
may allow you to make a crown-like brick; finding a milk carton may open up a
pyramid-shaped brick, etc.

At the sand tray, drag and drop bricks from Arthur’s wagon onto the grid in
free building or follow the blueprint you’ve chosen, poke window holes, add
decorations and flags and pour water for a moat. When you are done, use the
whistle to call over the contest judge, and if your castle passes muster
you’ll make it into the local paper!

Arthur’s Sand Castle Contest is intended for children aged 4 – 7 and
exercises learning skills; critical thinking, creativity and problem solving.