Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood

The Good
In the early Eighties, Sierra On-Line started life as a small game company and went on to make arcade and adventure games for the Apple II machine. Later on, they were to create some games that featured Disney characters, and one of them was Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood, a game aimed squarely at children. As the title suggests, the game's characters are from the Winnie the Pooh universe.

The game has children finding items scattered in the Wood and returning them to its rightful owner. All the characters from the Pooh universe are here including Christopher Robin, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, Eeyore, Owl, and even Pooh himself. Owl is there if you want help, but players should figure out which items belong to who using their knowledge of Pooh cartoons.

Interferences include the wind that blow items somewhere else, the Myst that you can't see through, and Tigger who bounces you around from one corner of the Wood to the other. Although they are annoying at first, players have plenty of time to explore the Wood and retrieve the lost items.

You will start your adventure in the playroom, and this is where you go to save or restore the game, especially to deal with the interferences. A general rule I follow is save when you know exactly which area contains the item you're looking for, and restore when the wind arrives or when Tigger gets in your way.

As an adventure game, players need to specify what direction they want to go. There are additional commands at the right of those that are fun to execute. Besides taking and dropping items, you can climb up trees to get a bird's-eye view of the city, go into holes and see where they end, and ask questions that get you nowhere. Also, it is easy to get lost without drawing a map, and end up wasting a lot of time finding a specific location or item.

The graphics are colorful, and every Pooh character is drawn as they are in the cartoons. Some of the sound effects are on par with Mickey's Space Adventure, particularly when you pick up items. The music is well composed, with the Pooh and Tigger music playing during the game. There is mouse support in the game, but I rather use the keyboard since it is much quicker. I am used to pressing letters or numbers that indicate the direction or choice that I want to take.

The Bad
When you are down to the last two items, it is easy to go around in circles trying to find them. This is annoying if you remembered the last location of the items but the wind scattered them to somewhere different.

The Bottom Line
In conclusion, the Hundred Acre Wood is a adventure game that has young children find items in an open environment and deliver them to characters from the Winnie the Pooh universe. Although they can be found in their own houses, the location of certain items in one game will not be the same in the next game. Obstacles that get in your way include mists and winds, and of course Tigger is a threat to your quest.

The music reflects what is in the Pooh cartoons, and the sound effects are good as well. The graphics are colorful and every character is drawn the way they should be.

If you have children who are into Pooh, then they would love this game.