Aaron Long: E3 Quick Play: Sesame Street Once Upon a Monster

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

E3 Quick Play: Sesame Street Once Upon a Monster

E3 2011: Hands on with the cookie monster
E3 Quick Play: Sesame Street Once Upon a Monster. Gaming, Dad, kids games, sesame street, xbox 360, Microsoft kinect, e32011, Warner bros, microsoft, Quick play, 0

Sesame Street Once Upon a Monster sees the monsters of Sesame Street head to your computer. But is it as scary as it sounds, is it just another kids TV show cash it, or are you and your kids going to get some reward out of it somehow? We caught up with the game at this year’s gaming expo E3 in Los Angeles to find out more about the new game that should be coming to an Xbox 360 console near you this Christmas.

Read on to find out how we got on:

Name

Sesame Street Once Upon a Monster

What platform is it on?

Xbox 360

When's it due out?

Christmas 2011

What other game is it like?

Any kids game you’ve played as far as the characters go, Kinect Adventures as far as the jumping around bit goes

Does it use any new tech like 3D, PlayStation Move, or?Kinect for Xbox 360?

Yep – Kinect for Xbox 360

The pitch

Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster is an uplifting and funny, family adventure game playable on Kinect for Xbox 360.?Players join favourite Sesame Street characters Elmo, Cookie Monster, Oscar, Grover and all new characters as they discover a long lost children’s book titled Once Upon a Monster. It features active co-op gameplay that is specially designed for sibling and/or parent-child co-play; and teaches social, emotional, and other important life lessons through its colorful and whimsical gameplay.

The storyline

As they read, they join the action to become part of a living storybook adventure, helping new monster friends with their problems by exploring the book chapter by chapter, page by page.

Trailers, demoes, and video

Our first impressions

Gaming doesn’t always have to be about shooting things, or driving fast. In fact that’s exactly what Sesame Street Once Upon a Monster isn’t about.

The idea is that you play with your own “little monster” waving your arms around and completing the different tasks at hand so you get to feel like a parent that’s spending quality time with your kids and yet still play video games and earn achievement points to prove you’ve got it.

There are a range of different mini games to play and we played a copy cat level where you have to follow the actions that Elmo and Cookie monster do on screen, as well as one that involved you having to collect glow worms flying around within a set time.

Because it’s aimed at fat dads and kids the level we played was fairly forgiving and it whisks you through the level allowing you plenty of “high five” moments with you daughter or son.

Sadly in the boozy nightclub, come Xbox party, where we got to have a play there were no kids to “high five” but a random booth babe sufficed. Natch.

The graphics are cute, the mini games fun, and overall it’s a really enjoyable family experience if not a little American and a little saccharin at times, but hey that’s Sesame Street through and through.

If you’re looking for something very kid focused and friendly this will be one to replace Kinectanimals.

Please note

The E3 games convention is a fantastic chance to see the latest games due out over the coming year, as well as, letting us get a glimpse into what is going to be the big titles and the ones to avoid like the plague.

The big problem however is that for most of the titles that glimpse is, well, just that. At the show you'll get to play a level here or a multiplayer map there or even have a product manager walk you through a specific level.

So with that in mind we present you with our Quick Play.

What we've done is broken down the key facts you need to know and then given you our first impressions based on around 15 minutes of?gaming. For us that 15 minutes isn't enough to do a First Look review or even a review. How can you rate a game that offers over 30 hours of gaming on just 15 minutes of play? However it should hopefully give you an idea, a feeling, a notion, of what to expect come launch day.

Tags: Gaming Dad Kids games Sesame Street Xbox 360 Microsoft Kinect E32011 Warner Bros Microsoft quick play