Mixed-Up Mother Goose

The Good
Typical Sierra style. Funny. And the bonus music CD comes in handy with the kids.

The Bad
Nothing.

The Bottom Line
If you like Sierra style games and you have kids then they will like watching you play this game. And play it themselves when they hit school age.

The Good
The original version of Mixed-Up Mother Goose was released by Sierra in the late Eighties, and when the Nineties rolled on by, the company decided that it was time to remake some of their older games. On the list was this one which already had a remake just before it, made using their SCI0 engine. Seeing that most of their remakes were rewritten with VGA cards in mind, it was common sense for them to remake the game once again. So how does the VGA version compare to the last remake?

The game features much improved graphics over the first two versions. Gone is the familiar title screen with the goose flying to the other side of the sky, and replacing it is Roberta Williams herself reading a book to two children. After you deal with the necessities of selecting a character and entering your name, you are transported to Mother Goose Land. There, you can either start focusing on your first nursery rhyme or feel free to explore the land.

You interact with the environment by using a cursor that shares a striking resemblance to the cursor in Lucasfilm's older SCUMM games (namely Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken). There are a series of icons that you can click, which let you adjust your speed and the sound volume, look at the map, and talk. This last icon is mainly useful if there are other characters nearby, who will ask you to retrieve an object for them so that they sing their nursery rhyme for you. Each icon has a nice polka dot background behind them.

The map is well laid-out with paths showing you the way to different characters. Clicking the yellow pods (they look like pods to me) will tell you about the character that lurks in that area, as well as the item they require.

The hand-painted backgrounds look amazing, and there are some good animations, particularly when you sing along to a nursery rhyme. Your character can be a selection of boys and girls, and I can't help reminding myself that they resemble living, talking Cabbage Patch dolls set to make things right.

The main theme that plays during the game has been reworked, and it sounds a lot better. The CD-ROM version has voice acting, and some of the actors are recognizable from other Sierra games. For instance, the little boys sound similar to Adam from EcoQuest, while the crooked man sounds like the hermit from King's Quest V. The CD version also has the rhymes sung by several Sierra employees, and this is ideal for those children who are bad at singing.

The Bad
In the SCI0 remake of the game, the player is told what the name of the rhyme (the title) is, as the lyrics appear line by line; and I thought that this was pretty neat. However, both the disk and CD versions has this title missing, and I forgot what the title was by the time I played this version. Also, Mary's voice is quite annoying, and I'm glad that that voice actress was replaced by the time 1995's SVGA remake came around. Finally, I don't know why the main game screen is restricted to a small space to make way for the large icons. For consistency's sake, it would have been much better to move your mouse cursor near the top of the screen and a much smaller icon bar appears.

The Bottom Line
This VGA remake arrived shortly after the last one, and it is quite impressive. The graphics are amazing and the sound is very good as well. While you are fixing the nursery rhymes, you are free to customize the game to your satisfaction. Disks and CD versions are available, but the only difference between the two is that the CD version only features voice acting (from actors that you may recognize from other Sierra games) and one hasn't, plus the nursery rhymes are already sung for you.