Mixed-Up Mother Goose Deluxe

The Good
Throughout its life, Sierra tampered with the Mother Goose theme more than once. After the original version was released in 1987, the same version was released four years later, but with updated graphics to reflect the company's transition to their new SCI engine. A final disk version was accompanied by a superior CD-ROM version. These two versions improved the graphics once again, and lyrics were added to the rhymes. So, here we have the deluxe version of the game, released in 1995, for Windows and Macintosh (Classic) users.

You control a child - boy or girl – who has to go around Mother Goose Land, talking to characters to find the objects they need to perform the nursery rhyme. If you manage to bring that object back to its owner, you are rewarded with a brilliant animation of the character acting out the rhyme. To make it easier for you, you can enlist the help of Mother Goose herself to find out the whereabouts of each object, saving you from going around in circles.

You always start out the game by choosing your gender (boy or girl) and entering your name using the keyboard or mouse. Then once you do all that, you start off in your bedroom, which is littered with objects unique to each gender. For instance, boys have a robot while girls have a ballerina. Clicking on each object allows you to interact with the object. Because of all this, the game can be replayed with different genders. Only when you click the book common to each gender does your adventure actually begin.

Graphically, the game has a new set of graphics, and every bit of scenery does not look washed out like in the CD/Disk version. The interface is similar to the one in the previous game, only the icons are rearranged. The highlight is the world map which not only can be used for navigation, but you can even use it to hear different rhymes again. This map is more detailed instead of looking bland. It is “greener”, and each character is plastered onto it as soon as you complete their nursery rhyme. The character sprites remain the same.

In the sound department, a catchy theme tune replaces the one in the previous versions of Mother Goose, and this tune can be heard throughout the game. When you enter your name, the game treats it as if you are playing the xylophone. The nursery rhymes themselves are delivered in several styles rather than the standard melodies we got used to. I definitely love the rap version of “Little Bo Peep”. Voice actors were also reused for every character in the deluxe version. In fact, these voice actors are even credited!

The Bad
There are no bad points I had with the game.

The Bottom Line
In conclusion, Mother Goose Deluxe is a great game that Sierra released in the mid-Nineties. It is similar to the last version released, with most of the assets from that game reused here. There are some differences, and these lie in the music in the game. Each nursery rhyme is delivered in a certain style, and there is new theme music as well. The animations are brilliant, with each character performing the action as described in the rhyme. There are many versions of Mixed-Up Mother Goose, and if you played most of them, it won’t hurt to give this one a try.