A fairy tale adventure
Roberta Williams is best known for her work on the seminal King's Quest series of graphic adventures which have provided eager fans with hours of fantasy questing fun. However, she has also created such games as this title for kids which maintains much of what made the aforementioned games so enjoyable but which changes the target market significantly. The game is presented in similar fashion to other Sierra titles with the player being thrust into a fairy tale world which is all at sixes and sevens thanks to the fact that its various inhabitants (all of whom should be well known to players from real life fairy tales) have got themselves rather muddled up and are now outside the stories where they should be. It thus falls to the player to explore the various environments within the world, meeting the characters and figuring out how best to get things back to how they should be. This basically involves finding the missing pieces of rhymes and returning them to their rightful owner and which is achieved by solving the usual Sierra-style inventory puzzles. As far as kids' adventures go, this one is pretty decent stuff. It maintains the high standards in terms of visuals and other production values that Sierra were known for in this period, with wonderfully bright and vibrant graphics that are full of personality. The writing too is of a pleasing standard, and the narrative should certainly keep the target audience happy. The puzzles are straightforward enough, lacking in much beyond fetching and carrying but again, you have to remember this is aimed at a younger market than is usual. So while it might not be suited to older adventurers, for the younger ones just starting out with this genre, this makes for a satisfying and enjoyable old-school treat.
