Review: Once Upon a Monster

3 Nov, 2011

Title: Once Upon a Monster
Developer: Double Fine
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Platform(s): X360 Kinect
TL;DR: A practically flawless family experience
Family Friendly?: Yes! Click here to skip the detail and see if this game is right for your family!
Verdict: Buy it!

This is what the Kinect was made for.

Bold statement? Yeah – I know. But as a parent, it’s impossible not to look at the technology of Kinect and see the vast possibilities. For whilst the Wii undeniably heralded a new dawn of kiddie-friendly titles and brought family-friendly fun direct into living rooms everywhere, let’s face it – even the Wiimote wasn’t without it’s limitation. The peripheral-free Kinect on the other hand truly levels the playing field, uniting all – young and old, newcomer and seasoned pro – in one fell swoop. Not an easy feat, believe me.

And that’s why I was so excited when Double Fine revealed this title. With the studio’s increasingly family-friendly ethos bringing great titles like Costume Quest and Stacked to life, how they would apply the apply the Kinect technology to a pre-school game whilst still ensuring it was enjoyable for the grown-ups?

Let’s find out, shall we?

First up: the story. Magically stepping into the pages of their favourite storybook (entitled Once Upon a Monster, unsurprisingly), Sesame Street stalwarts Elmo and Cookie Monster need your assistance in helping some woeful creatures. Through a series of chapters chopped up into simple yet enjoyable mini-games, you work with Elmo and CM to solve the monsters’ plight. The game has everything you might expect from a licensed Sesame Street product, including not just a fun and engaging experience for children, but also gentle and encouraging “Life Lessons” designed to improve social development and healthy emotionally wellbeing.

Which, of course, is lost on me. I am neither socially developed nor emotionally healthy.

But that’s okay! As I’m probably not this title’s intended audience, I enlisted two volunteers to assist me: eight-year-old Sam and three-year-old Niamh.

So how does it work? As you might expect – and like any Kinect game – there’s no peripheral. The player must hop, skip and jump (in some cases, literally) their way throughout the story through a variety of means, including dancing, pulling up virtual weeds and throwing virtual garbage into rubbish bins. The game’s admirable balance of activities ensures there are also plenty of different actions and skills available, cycling them frequently to avoid fatigue or boredom. Neither I nor Sam struggled physically with the activities, with even my three-year-old companion competently negotiating most of the activities without restriction. Note the emphasis on “most”, though. Yeah, I know Microsoft take steps to flash up regular “take a break” warnings, but it was surprising at just how physically taxing the game could be for younger kidlets, even those with seemingly limitless energy.

The visuals are faultless. Encapsulating all you’d expect from a quality kid-centric title, the graphics are bright, bold and engaging. Puppet animation too is superb. And while Elmo, Cookie et al all but pop against the backdrop, don’t take that as a criticism of the setting; it’s actually something of a marvel that the characters stand out so prominently against such warm and inviting environments. And whilst the game is guilty of occasionally recycling the odd backdrop here and there, this too is forgivable given that the action is focussed very much on the characters and your own interaction with the story.

As for the sound? Here too there’s little to criticise. Using an authentic Sesame Street cast, the script is fun, friendly and informative, utilising – as you might expect – a variety of sounds, songs and signals as you progress through the game. And even though the intended audience is very much toddler-shaped, the soundtrack is certainly not restrictive and more than once I found myself humming along to a particularly infectious tune. Most pleasing of all, the Kinect sensor generally responded well to the often very small movements of children, ensuring that all actions and activities in the living room were properly translated on-screen. Well. Mostly.

So: is it faultless? Regrettably, no. It might be churlish to bring up issues that might fall chiefly at the door of the technology rather than the game, but issues they nonetheless are. For instance; each time one of the kids stepped away from the TV to grab a drink, the game paused play. Trouble is, unpausing was a freaking nightmare. For while the sensor did properly pick up small humans in play, getting going again after pausing the game was, without exception, laborious. The same went for drop in/drop out play. In theory, all you had to do was step in – or out – of the Kinect’s vision. In practice, this was much, much easier said than done. It made for a fractured and frustrating experience that annoyed the kids. And me, if I’m honest.

The good news, though, is that these issues aren’t deal breakers. The positives of this smart and appealing title far outstrip any negatives, not least it’s ability to simultaneously unite younger and older players together. As a fun, feisty and thoroughly wholesome pre-school child experience, there is no better game than this right now. Pinkie promise.

Get it on the Christmas list ASAP!

>Good times!

- Fantastic gameplay guaranteed to appeal to most kidlets
- Easy to play from the outset for almost all ages
- The story is warm and engaging and wholly suitable for the entire family

Bad times :(

- Kinect’s sensitivity is sometimes a problem when small gamers wander off screen
- Lack of game mechanic can get a little stale
- Some activities might be a little too strenuous for very young participants

Family Focus

Kid Kritique: Sammy is an eight-year-old lad of with a burgeoning love of video games, particularly footballs titles and games based on his favourite costume-wearing superheroes. He loves SpongeBob, Doctor Who and Tottenham Hotspur Football Team.

Although Sam has had some help typing and formatting his contribution, the words and thoughts below are entirely his own and have been transcribed without interference.

At first I didn’t want to play Once Upon a Monster. I thought it was for babies and I’m too old for that. But when I saw Mum and Niamh playing, I noticed that it was really good fun and there were lots and lots of different games that all of us could play. Some games were better for Niamh (like picking the clothes for the monsters) and some were better for me (the running and dancing ones). It meant that all of us could play and still have loads of fun and some breaks.

A bad thing was that it was really, really, really annoying when the game went on pause. Niamh tried jumping around and getting Kinect to see her but the pink ball thing didn’t come back and it took us ages to unpause it. It happened when Mum and me changed places too. It got really annoying.

I would definitely think my friends would like this game, specially my friends and family who are a bit younger than me and haven’t played any video games before. Niamh hadn’t played many things before and she loved it – we couldn’t make her go home when we had finished! Cookie Monster was my favourite – he was very funny and silly.

I think you should definitely buy this game for your kids for Christmas!