Abstract: In order to compare a static agent to an animated agent, this study designed two types of Chinese idiom games called String-Up for the static agent and Fishing for the animated agent. All participants in this study were 5th and 6th grade elementary school students. The result shows that the static agent fostered better achievement. In addition, interest in the static agent can be better maintained than that for the animated agent. No difference in gameplay anxiety was detected between the two types of visual agents. The gameplay anxiety of both games decreased slightly with each subsequent playing but did not reach statistical significance. The results suggested that educational game design should consider the use static rather than animated agents when considering helping students achieve better performance.