Looking for something different, fun, and educational?
This CD-ROM works children's brains in fantastic ways as they learn to distinguish
sounds and musical instruments. The premise of this musical game is to save the
Nutcracker by earning nine magical keys through a series of activities.
At the main screen of the program, children are welcomed to the "magic house
of music" and presented with a number of activities to choose from. Many of
these are games and puzzles — and, certainly, the program's most entertaining
and educational offerings are the puzzles. The Nutcracker Game presents eight
musical puzzles featuring an equal number of songs from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.
Children listen to the music (it could be the Russian Dance, March, and so forth)
and then decide which four musical instruments are used in the song. For example,
kids listen to the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, and they experiment with the
given musical instruments, placing them on the stage and deciding whether they
are the correct instruments. In this case, the vibraphone, saxophone, bass,
and violin are the instruments used, but it may take children some time to figure
this out. In the process, they learn to distinguish the unique sounds of various
instruments. Another similar puzzle activity is entitled the Children's Album
Game. This features eight musical puzzles using eight pieces of music from Tchaikovsky's
Children's Album, such as the Neapolitan Song. This set of puzzles is trickier
simply because the number of instruments playing in each song is unknown.
Another fun and challenging game is entitled The Nuthouse. In this activity,
children listen to one of eight different pieces of music from The Nutcracker
(such as Dance of the Reed-Flutes and Waltz of the Flowers), and then decide
which of the eight "crooked mirrors" is playing a distorted version of the song.
Most children who own a fair number of children's software games will find The
Funky Monkey game (which involves repeating notes on a vibraphone) and Musi-Cards
(a memory game with sounds and pictures) rather familiar fare. However, they
are both well done and can be played at a number of challenge levels. Find Me
on the Tree challenges children to match short musical pieces at different challenge
levels. Loopy Tunes doesn't require too much skill or time investment but it
does introduce children to the concept of musical loops.
One of our favorite activities, and one that younger children will likely
enjoy the most, is The Orchestra Game. This wonderful gem of an activity asks
children to match musical sounds to musical instruments. Each time a match is
made, an animal or character moves onto the stage and plays the instrument.
Here, a mouse plays the cello, a hippo plays the harp, a zebra plays the bassoon,
and so forth. Once all of the instruments and players are on stage, the entire
orchestra plays a song. Each instrument or group of instruments is highlighted
as the piece plays. This is a wonderful exercise in sound discrimination. Children
hear and see the parts that make up the whole. The same animals and their accompanying
instruments appear in the game's Musical Encyclopedia. A short verse is recited
for each instrument (such as "Who's cute with a trunk and a flute?" for the
flute-playing elephant) and information is offered about each instrument (such
as the fact that a piano is actually one of the percussions). This latter offering
is text-only, so unless children are fluent readers, they will need someone
to help them.
A Music Trivia game features multiple-choice questions that test children's
knowledge of music, instruments, and facts surrounding Tchaikovsky. Some of
the activities are strictly informational and require kids to read text, such
as Tchaikovsky's Biography and the history of The Nutcracker Ballet.
Kids can travel to the Listening Room and listen to all of the musical tracks
featured in the game. Here, kids choose a labeled disk and drag it to the gramophone
to listen to their favorites, such as the Chinese Dance or March. It is wonderful
to witness young players becoming acquainted with the songs through the puzzles,
and then recognizing and enjoying them in the Listening Room!
Young testers came away from their first experience with the game not only
with a better musical vocabulary, but also able to distinguish the unique sounds
of a number of musical instruments. They continue to enjoy the game, repeating
puzzles and games.
Note that this review is for the 2002 edition, which is an updated version
of the original release.
Also
available: similar games with different featured classical musicians, from the
same company: Mozart's Magic Flute The Music Game and
Alice In Vivaldi's Four Seasons - Music Games Intl.
All three games feature similar, excellent content. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
