Sesame Street Once Upon a Monster: Chasing the Clouds Away

Picture the following: you’re a busy, young, college student. Midterms are happening/approached. You’re in charge of two group projects, where a large percentage of the members show up late to meetings and classes or don’t show up at all. They don’t turn in their work on time, and one person in one of the groups plays the Battlefield 3 Beta during class presentations. You are doing a large chunk of the class project. You start thinking “Argh! I’m so stressed out and angry at my teammates, I could just kill them! ”

Then you think, “Why don’t I kill them" 

“Some of them are my friends, sure, but I only took 4 classes this semester specifically to reduce my stress level. Yet they’re just as high as they were last year! Something has to be done. I’ve seen enough episodes of Dexter to know how to kill people efficiently, enough episodes of Psych, Monk, and Castle to hide my trail, and enough episodes of Mad Man to know how to say witty, awesome lines. Holy shit, I could actually pull this off.”

But that plan is tossed into trash bin the moment you start playing Double Fine’s latest game, “Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster.”

“Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster” is a Kinect game where you, with the help of various Sesame Street Muppets, have fun, learn life lessons, and solve the problems of monsters inside of a story book through various minigames. Understand that this is not shovelware, which is a cheap product that sells solely because of the franchise name and not because of its quality. Quite the opposite, in fact; the game is made by Double Fine, a fantastic, funny game studio with heart, under the watchful eye of the Sesame Workshop. The game is in the same league as the show itself.

I’ve only finished the first chapter so far, but the various minigames are a joy to play; they all relate back to the character’s dilemma and playing each minigame, the player learns a little life lesson about helping people and how the world works. Neither the game nor the message is sacrificed to make room for the other; they work together to complete a common goal of edutainment. Sesame Street was always designed to be interactive, and now it really is. Instead of Elmo asking you to wave to him, pausing, assuming you waved, and then continuing to talk, Elmo will not continue until the player actually waves to him. Elmo’s sees me waving at him! I’M ACTUALLY WAVING AT ELMO!

Playing through the first chapter, there were moments where I would become aware of my actions. I was acting like an infant again: I was giggling, I felt a strong urge to keep moving, I was touching my face and hair. I can’t remember the last time I felt I had that much energy. My roommates initially thought I was on cocaine. I explained to them that I’m high on Sesame Street and Double Fine and that those were not the names of some new drugs.

There are a few bumps in the road in my playtime: during the game, I noticed the rare control issues; I was moving too quickly for Kinect. I figured out that if I performed my actions a little slower and a bit smoother, the Kinect would recognize my movements appropriately. Another issue is that the game explains how to play all the minigames verbally, so if you’re talking loudly over the game, you might become lost until Elmo or Cookie Monster remind you how to do things.

The biggest potential problem with the game is that it’s Sesame Street. This is a potential problem for two reasons:

1.   The game is for everyone, but it focuses on kids. The game treats the player like a child, reminding him/her frequently how to play the minigames and offering constant supporting comments. Yes, Elmo. I jumped over that puddle. Hooray. Calm down, dude. It’s designed to be played by one to two people, ideally a child and one of his/her parents to guide him.

2.   People are judgmental. I mean, if I mention that I’m playing “Pokémon”, people respond with smiles, nods, and ask me what my lineup is. If I ask if anyone else if they saw the latest episode of “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”, I’m bombarded by fan-art and animated gifs. But when people ask me “What’s up?” and I tell them that I’ve been playing “Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster”, they laugh, they’re taken aback, and they ask me “Really? What’s wrong with you?” I don’t understand how can people not love Sesame Street. I just mentioned above that it’s targeting children, but it’s still plenty of fun for adults (ex. This Skit, and This Skit). Luckily, high school taught me to ignore people like them. If you’re too old for Sesame Street, you’re too old for fun.

Even with the game’s few blemishes, I’m having a a giggly, great, gay time with “Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster”. Hell, it might even be a candidate for the prestigious “Alex Whitfield’s Game of the Year 2011” Award. If you have a Kinect and either a small child or you’ve learned to block out the hateful comments from “grown ups”, I’d suggest you buy it.

I guess it’s time to leave the land of Muppets and monsters and return back to the real world of stress and work. Excuse me, dear readers. I need to look for something I misplaced in my trash bin.