With the market for video games growing, Atari decided to capitalize on a growing demographic of gamers: young children. Unfortunately, these games did not always give the buyers their money’s worth. In this article, two childrens’ games, Strawberry Shortcake and Big Bird’s Egg Catch, will be compared for design and replayability.

First off, Strawberry Shortcake’s Musical Match-Up.

Games for girls have often suffered from being too graphics intensive while not focusing on gameplay, and Strawberry Shortcake is a case in point. The object of the game is simple: match up the heads, bodies, and feet of six different characters. Any character will do, and then you are treated to a cute little tune and animation of the character’s legs moving. There’s not much to it, and worse, the game doesn’t go out of its way to tell the player when a section of the body was mismatched. The game does have a couple things going for it, such as the random scrambling of the three sections, the time limit, and the beautifully designed characters and background. However, the contrast is rather bad, which is a problem in many Atari 2600 games, and frankly, the game is boring.

This game brings to mind a quote from C.S. Lewis: “ A book worth reading only in childhood is not worth reading even then “

He could say the same for games that only children would enjoy; a game needs to grow with the player, and teach more than simple matching and memory. Strawberry Shortcake is a one-trick pony, a waste of time and parent’s money. There were other games for young children which even adults could enjoy, including a Coleco favourite of my mother’s, Dr. Seuss’ Fix Up the Mix Up Puzzle, which had quite a few challenging ones, and our next featured example, Big Bird’s Egg Catch.

At first glance, Big Bird’s Egg Catch may seem like just another childrens’ game with a Sesame Street theme. Even when you pop it in and play it with your child, it might seem too easy. The object of this game is to maneuver a nicely-rendered Big Bird under brightly-coloured chutes in a henhouse, catching freshly-laid eggs in a basket. As the levels progress, there are more chutes, and sometimes they zig-zag and overlap each other, disappear, and even change shape. In higher levels, they even cover the egg so you can’t see it until it falls out of the chute and either into the basket, or on the floor. There are even ‘golden eggs’ which give a five-egg bonus if caught. Plus, with early levels, Big Bird just automatically appears directly under whichever chute you move him over to, but in later ones, you have to center him yourself. This game is no slouch.

At the end of every level, the eggs that the player gathered are counted up, and Big Bird does a little dance as a happy tune is played. Unlike many other childrens’ games of that day, this one was no one-trick pony; not only did it teach basic counting skills, it also taught children to pay attention. For instance, in the levels where the eggs were hidden in the chutes, one would have to watch the hens to see which one was laying the egg. Even an adult could be overwhelmed and lose the game several times. That, in my book, is one big plus; Mom and Dad will not get bored.

The utmost care was taken in the creation of this game, not only with the gameplay, but with the graphics. The hens look like hens, and are given four or five colours; the gradient of grays and whites for their bodies, and the red for their combs. In most 2600 games, the sprites were only one single colour. The nests were brown and gray, and gave a good ‘nest’ effect considering the capabilities of the system the game was made for. The Big Bird sprite had a whopping seven colours, and actually looked like the beloved gigantic muppet from Sesame Street. The hen house itself was amazingly well-drawn, though the shadow gradient needed work especially since it ran into a gradient used for the sky, and I’m guessing it was a sort of early ‘burn’ effect that they couldn’t fine tune without making the game too big for the 2600 to load. The eggs also look like eggs and the splat animation is a nice touch. The ‘lives’ at the right side of the score look like cracked eggs, sunny side up, and every time an egg is lost, one of them counts down until the game is over.

The music and sounds are nicely-done as well. The tune ‘Turkey in the Straw’ plays during the catching stages, and another tune plays after the eggs are counted up. The notes sound higher and happier when an egg is caught, and take on a deeper quality similar to a moog or one of the other popular vintage synthesizers when an egg falls to the floor. Try the game yourself and see what I mean… the analogue sounds are simply beautiful! The egg-splat sound is also very faithful and believable. The programmers even thought to give the music some percussion - the hens cluck as they groove to the tune. Their ‘bawk bawk bwawk bwawk’ was unbelievably well-programmed for a 2600 game that was already packed. Considering the fact that sound was often added last, adding sound and music to this game was no small feat.

When creating games meant for small children, companies need to think about whether or not these games will still be enjoyable when a child grows up, or if they will simply be grown out of. One-trick ponies are the death of video game companies because they do little to stimulate the mind. Others test the limits of the systems they were made for, and become classics years later. Big Bird’s Egg Catch is a real winner, the one that some will play long after they are considered ‘too old’ for it.

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