 TCHAIKOVSKY'S NUTCRACKER Music Games International PO Box 1376 Amherst MA 01004 USA ISBN 0 9722409 1 8 email Music Games International visit Music Games International's website Before commenting on this review please read the FAQ page Home page Notes for publishers Want to be a reviewer? Anthologies. Books. Audio. Magazines. Software. Video. Artefacts. Web design by Gerald England This page last updated: 15th September 2003. |
TCHAIKOVSKY'S NUTCRACKER | |
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I decided to hand this one over to the family "expert". To be precise, my daughter, aged eleven. I.T. is an important part of the school curriculum and I was interested in finding out her opinion of this music game. The suggested age range is 4-104. Although the animation is clearly aimed — charming as it may be — at the lower end of the scale, some of the games are complex; and even though we had selected the beginner's level, many had to be attempted several times in order to progress to a higher level and thus gain the sought-after gold key and ultimately break the evil spell on poor Nutcracker. Did I say the animations were aimed at the infant section? Well how many infants can spell Tchaikovsky?! The music is delightful, of course. And primary music teachers will find the section where individual instruments have to be picked out of the orchestra a useful aid in determining a child's musical ear. My daughter worked through this section far quicker than I did. But then I'm no Tchaikovsky either! The section which really made her lose interest was where she had to play "Pairs" with cyber cards. She found this part boring and then got frustrated when it let her get so far and then seized up, so she then had to go back to the beginning and start again. However, this was after around 30 minutes of playing with the game. At this point she chose to skim through and explore the other games. There is a biography of the composer and a magic mirrors section where the player clicks on an image which then plays a plinky-plonk version of a selected tune. Musical memory is tested here, as all of the tunes have already been played. So what was the overall verdict? The game was easily downloaded and manageable. The graphics are clear and attractive. A lot of concentration is required of the player, and although I have suggested it would be a useful aid for schools, the background noise generated by a primary class environment would disadvantage the player. Definitely one for the more musically-minded of the population. reviewer: Sarah Crabtree. | |