Word Rescue twice nominated for the SIA "Best Educational Game" is a DOS based games which has been used in schools and by kids for an entire generation. In this side scroller game, you (a girl or a boy) match words with pictures while jumping over waterfalls, sliming Gruzzles (who get taken away for a bath) and collecting prizes for extra buckets of slime and points. This was the first game ever made in which you got to pick whether to play as a girl or a boy.
The game is suitable for some kids as young as 4 and best played by kids learning to read. Pressing "W" in the arcade scene brings up a list of words paired with their pictures, so non-reading kids begin recognizing words and actually learn to read while playing the game.