By Dale Farris, Secretary
Golden Triangle PC Club
October 2002

Game Overview

Welcome to the world of musical adventure! With this superb CD ROM rendition of Tchaikovsky's classic Nutcracker, Kids Music Stage sets a new standard in how to integrate great music with fun learning.

Delight in Tchaikovsky's timeless holiday classic. Have fun with the finest music trivia. Learn how composers put music together, and do it yourself. This is a wonderful introduction to music, and the Nutcracker will also make you musical, even if you did not think you were.

In the genre of "edutainment," CD ROM titles that focus on having fun while you learn, this marvelous new title represents a unique venture in this field with its focus on having fun while learning about music. The program perfectly blends music and technology, while boosting the imaginations and creative interests of all players. You will also sharpen your ear for music in a neat and different way.

The program is built around Tchaikovsky's famous Nutcracker ballet, a timeless holiday season music score that never ceases to intrigue audiences over the world. The Kids Music Stage company has chosen a high standard in this first title, and they successfully exceed their high expectations. This means players will enjoy learning about this famous musical work, while improving basic learning skills, and while all the time having fun.

Learning Skills

This program focuses on enhancing the following functional skills:

Audio and Visual Memory
Critical Thinking
Problem Solving
Pattern Recognition
Listening

Since most all readers are likely to have at least a recognition of the famous Nutcracker ballet and music, we need not here explore in depth the background story to the ballet. However, one of the many features of this fine program is that the developers have included a super, concise history of the Nutcracker, just enough to fill in some of the gaps that might exist in the minds of players.

Briefly, as most readers know, a wicked witch cast an evil spell on a young prince, and he turned into a wooden doll - the Nutcracker. This spell will last until players rescue him! The Nutcracker needs your help, but to save him you must win the games in this marvelous music game collection.

Every time you win a game, you get a magic key and go on to the next game. When you collect all the keys, the spell will be broken, and the Nutcracker will turn into a prince and marry his beloved Clara.

Game Features

In addition, the game features the following additional fun things to do:

The Original Nutcracker Suite
9 Different Games
24 Music Jigsaw Puzzles
Brief Biography of Tchaikovsky
The Nutcracker Story in a Nutshell
Brief History of the Nutcracker Ballet
Super Music Trivia About All Sorts of Music
Animated Encyclopedia of Musical Instruments

The program presents a neat user interface, designed for simple pointing and clicking, and players are guided by a talking horn object that serves as the Help function in the program. The interface provides various objects that represent the various games and information areas of the program.

As you enter and successfully accomplish each of the games, you win a gold key that is stored in a bureau on the initial interface. The design of the interface and all aspects of the game is richly detailed with attention to vibrant, eye-catching colors.

The games are all keenly focused on learning about music, as players attempt to solve the various puzzles and challenges. In one game, players listen to a piece of the Nutcracker suite, and then try and piece together the different musical instruments that play the music. This musical jigsaw puzzle is one of the most intriguing, unique ideas I've seen in any computer game in many years. Kudos to the developers for this wonderful new design that will certainly delight all players.

In another game, you hear different pieces of Tchaikovsky's music, and then you have to select one of various distorted mirrors that when clicked play back a piece of the music but in a distorted manner. This musical fun house turns the tables on how we are used to interacting with a typical carnival fun house of mirrors. Instead of distorting images, the mirrors distort music, and you have to carefully listen to all the distorted music to pick out the particular piece selected in the game. This is another example of the craft and attention that has been focused on this game.

Age Group

While the game is designed for ages 4 and up, I think it has great potential as an educational tool for use in music classes in all elementary levels. Parents can also look forward to having great fun with their very young rug rats, as they play along with them in their journey of discovery of the marvelous music of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. In addition, many young players will likely be able to play alone through the games, while younger players may need a little bit of coaching from adults.

For all adults that may still have little understanding of the Nutcracker or Tchaikovsky, this wonderful program will also serve as a super tool to better understand a bit of the life of Tchaikovsky, as well as some of the background to the Nutcracker story and the famous ballet.

Targeted Customers

While the targeted age group, 4 and up, is certainly realistic, I also think music teachers in all elementary schools will want to give serious consideration to adding this program to their existing teaching resources.

With adult supervision, I also think this super program can be used with small groups of children in music classes to aid in their learning about music, musical instruments, and of course about the Nutcracker music and ballet and the life of Tchaikovsky.

In addition, I think this program belongs in all public libraries. For those libraries supporting Little Bookworm programs, I think this program can serve as the focus in one of these programs. Also, I think the program can be supported in libraries with a layout and design of their children's library area that would support the use of the program in a manner that would not disturb others in the library. Or, you could also support the program on computers with headphones to direct the music directly to the listener.

For schools and libraries, I also suggest considering loading this program on higher end machines with better sound cards and better speaker system. While the program certainly does not require this, I suggest that with this higher hardware players will just better appreciate the marvelous music of Tchaikovsky, as well as have a more rich auditory experience with the program.

Install and Setup

The installation and setup presented no difficulties on my machine. You use the Windows Add/Remove tool to uninstall the game. The entire game will load on a machine, and you will not need the disc in the CD ROM drive to play the game.

Price

$24.95
$39.95 - Special 2-game combo price
$39.95 - Ultimate Nutcracker Audio CD / DVD / CD-ROM 3-Disc Gift Set

Minimum System Configuration Requirements

Windows
Pentium 360 MHz or higher processor
Windows 98 or higher
64MB RAM
250MB free hard disk space
4x CD ROM drive
Mouse
Sound card
Recommend a high-end sound card and speaker system

Note:  The Mac version is due for release during the 2nd quarter of calendar year 2003.

Not requiring a 3d graphics accelerator card, and needing a minimally powered CPU means this game is playable on many more systems, a wise move on the part of Kids Music Stage. While it is true that more newer systems either come with or are being customized with newer, 32MB or 64MB 3dfx video boards and high-end, 3d audio boards, driven in part by the high-end requirements of many computer games, in fact I suspect there are many more legacy systems still working that will likely be fine for this game.

The above system configuration requirements indicate the minimum and recommended system configuration requirements, and as any experienced gamer knows, if at all possible, you just don't ever want to load and run any computer game on minimally configured systems. Computer games are notorious for taking over machines, and this is why users will need to be sure and close out all their other open files, before playing this and any computer game. However, in the case of this super title, I think we have an example of a computer program for children that will actually very likely play just fine even on a minimally configured system.

About Kids Music Stage

The Nutcracker game was created by an award-winning team of composers, animators, and educators at Kid's Music Stage. This new company combines the award-winning talents of Mirek Nisenbaum's Studio Mobile (Best Animation, South-by-South West 2001, Audience Award FIFI 2001) and ProNetMusic (Best Music, FIFI 2001).

Kids Music Stage is a division of Kids Music Stage LLC, with offices in New York and Boston.

Kids Music Stage is dedicated to the creation of quality non-violent edutainment for children. The Nutcracker game is the first release in a series of interactive music game titles.

In addition, at the company's Web site, you will find a link to super sample lesson plans for teachers interested in integrating the program into their classroom.

If you thought this game was super, just wait. In 2003, this fine company plans on releasing still more new titles that will continue their successful venture into the world of having fun while learning about music. Titles on their drawing board include Mozart Music Game, Christmas Carols, Children's Classical Music Favorites, Children's Songs From Around the World, Nursery Rhymes, and Hanukkah and Other Holiday Songs.

Contact Information

Music Games International
121 Thorndike Street
Cambridge, MA 02141
P.O. Box 1376
Amherst, MA 01004-1376
1-877-877-1369
www.kidsmusicstate.com
info@kidsmusicstage.com

You can also order from other retailers or online vendors.