Right from the very first moment Tim Schafer introduced Once Upon a Monster to the world at Microsoft’s E3 press conference, I was fully on board. Finally, a kid’s licensed game that was being lovingly crafted. Schafer clearly had a genuine passion for this project, and a drive to make the best possible game he could for his daughter.



And it really is a great game. The world of Sesame Street comes alive on your screen – it feels like an interactive version of the TV show, and Kinect is the perfect medium through which to achieve that. Once Upon a Monster is the story of how Elmo and the Cookie Monster discover a furry book which contains six separate stories. The three of you then, quite literally, pull yourselves into the book and play through those stories.

Each story revolves around a unique monster that you must help in some way – a monster who’s all alone on his birthday and needs cheering up, a shy monster that wants to realise his dream of acting in a play, a scary monster who, deep down, just wants to make friends, and so on. Much like the TV show, these stories are designed to teach kids lessons in decency, friendship, generosity and the like, without patronising the viewer too much. After all, kids are often brighter than they’re given credit for, and the impressive vocabulary of a monster like Grover, or the hidden complexity of some of the themes (“a story, within a story, within a story”, Elmo remarks at one point) are a testament to that.



The game is cleverly structured and broken up into bite-sized pieces. There are 6 stories, each of which is split up into small chapters. Each chapter consists of an introductory cut scene, followed by a mini-game of sorts, then finally wrapped up with a concluding cut scene. Each chapter is only five, ten minutes or so, which is a perfect length for playing with children. As it features seamless drop-in, drop-out cooperative play, it’s easy to leave kids to work things out on their own as much as possible, only stepping in to help out when you feel it’s necessary.

Kinect works well, but not perfectly. The mini-games require only simple gestures, which allows Once Upon a Monster to work around many of Kinect’s limitations, and it impressively does this without sacrificing variety (there are plenty of different mini-game types, from dancing, exercise or rhythm-based mini-games, to vocal tasks, and even games of dress-up). However, sometimes gestures don’t register well. For example, one chapter in the book tasks you with collecting trash in the garden and then throwing it into Grouch’s trash can. Grabbing hold of the trash is easy enough, but throwing it into the trash can is complete hit or miss – sometimes Kinect thinks you’re throwing too hard when you’re clearly not, other times it struggles to even acknowledge that you’re making a throwing gesture at all.



Once Upon a Monster cleverly works around these issues as well though. If Kinect is struggling to interpret your child’s gestures, or your child doesn’t understand exactly what he/she needs to do, then they won’t be penalised for this; after a while, the game will complete tasks automatically, which prevents frustration from building up. Those who do manage to complete tasks without the aid of the game, however, will be rewarded with stars. The star system is Sesame Street’s main incentive to replay the game, with a total of 150 stars being obtainable in all. Since it’s a short game – only 4 or 5 hours – and offers no additional modes, there’s not much in the way of replayability beyond repetition and star-hunting. But hey, that never hurt the Teletubbies, and I’m sure kids will love replaying their favourite chapters.

The highlight of the game is in the way it feels so much like Sesame Street. Whilst not technically impressive, the graphics have a certain charm, and Double Fine have managed to completely nail the look and feel of the show. It’s a game that will have fans of the show engrossed right from the start. The voice acting is beyond fantastic. The world is bright and colourful, with many different, varied locations to dive into. The monsters’ characters shine through wonderfully: Elmo’s adorable giggle, Cookie Monster’s lust for cookies, Grouch’s borderline despair at tidying up a ‘beautiful mess’ in the garden, it’s all in there. Elmo and Cookie Monster are, perfectly acceptably, the stars of the game, with other characters making guest appearances, but a lot of characters are MIA - there’s no Big Bird, no Count, Ernie, Bert, etc.



Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster is this year’s Kinectimals - a family game that’s adorable, engaging, and educational. The show’s characters transfer fantastically, superbly voice acted, and full of the infectious charm and banter that they’re famous for. Double Fine Productions have managed to create that rarest of monsters: a superb quality children’s licensed game. Tim Schafer and the team have certainly done his daughter proud.