Grover's Music Maker

"Grover looks like he's in major pain after every beep he has to go through to hopefully please a 2 year old."

Grover, one of Sesame Street's most popular, if not most bizarre of puppets in the show, finally has his own debut game! Grover's Egg Catch!, a once anticipated game on it's way to being released for kids around the world to enjoy! Sadly, one of the creators replaced Grover with Big Bird a little while before it's released, and shelves were stocked with the yellow bird's face, while Grover was booted out. Grover was furious! But it wasn't long before Grover was back in business, and the idea for Grover's Music Maker was thought up. Unfortunately, this didn't work either, and Grover's Music Maker was cancelled. The others in the Sesame Street gang, well, except for Telly, as he is probably the biggest loser of them all, referred to him as a reject, and he died of a drug overdose. Poor, poor Grover. Anyway, as for my thoughts of this hideous game...

The basic concept of Grover's Music Maker is simple. You listen to a different song for each of the letters of the alphabet. However, the game is incomplete, so you can listen up to the letter ''T.'' It is natural for somebody to assume Grover's Music Maker is a game in which kids can make their own music, but, as far as I know, this was not intended to be, as I do not see any trace of it in the ''game.''

All you do is listen to tunes while watching Grover dance to the music in the same manner each time, and he doesn't look happy at all, which I will get to later. You scroll through the letters of the alphabet, and each letter has a specific song to it. I don't understand the whole reason for the letters, when the songs have nothing to do with them at all. You might listen to the letter ''O,'' and hear ''Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,'' rather than ''Old Mac Donald had a Farm,'' which to me would have been more reasonable. Oh well, the point is, you watch Grover dance to nice tunes familiar to kids. Well, most of them are familiar, while Q-T were a bit weird. If only the ''game'' had games, then I would siece to putting quotations around ''game,'' purposely to mock the fact that it is not a game at all. It would have been nice if they had a music making option... it is Grover's MUSIC MAKER afterall...

Too be a little less harsh, I will now speak of the graphics in this ''game'' which were not bad, but needed some work. The most you really see is a weird rainbow border around the screen, and Grover. Grover is scary looking, in general, which shouldn't be the case for a children's game. You never see him smiling, and actually, he looks as if every time he has to dance it's a big chore for him, and he looks like snapping at any moment. I can understand why, as you must be very tolerant to go along with dancing to atari music about a million times a day for a 2 year old... that is if the 2 year old can be tolerant enough to sit through this ''game.'' Grover dances like a rag doll being swung around violently by a dog, and he certainly doesn't look happy. If anything, he looks like Edgar Allen Poe reciting ''The Raven'' and ranting about how pissed off he is about everything. The only time I see Grover satisfied with his foolish role is at the end of a song when the audience applauds, and he takes a bow, but he still has that sad face on. Too weird... I wish they fixed Grover up at least enough to where he looked somewhat joyful...

As for the music, it's all good. With 20 tunes, this game probably has the most music out of all atari 2600 games, and they aren't too bad. I know most of you would think of an atari game in which you listen to music solely as being the most annoying thing on this planet, but with Grover's Music Maker the music is not ear-piercing at all, unlike most atari games. It's just those few horrific games that ruin it for games such as these. The music is tolerable, but even better would have been lyrics at the bottom for parents to sing to their kids. Ah well, we must remember Grover's Music Maker was never finished, so not much is expected out of the embarrassing beta.

Overall, Grover's Music Maker was a good idea, and probably could have been something really good if worked on a little bit more. If you wish to check this game out, it is only available as a rom, and quite rare at that. I, honestly, do not think it's worth searching the net for, but if you are a die-hard Sesame Street or atari fan, then knock yourself out...

If only that bastard Big Bird hadn't have stolen his million dollar role at the last second... Poor, poor old Grover...

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 10/21/02, Updated 11/08/02