Who Kidnapped Mother Goose?

One Sierra game I remember fondly is Mixed-Up Mother Goose. It simply puts a bunch of items in random places around a sixteen-room map, and you must reunite them with their owners. It's replayable because of the randomness. The graphics are cutesy. So when I saw WKMG I expected something like this, what with the last two words of the title being the same. Of course, the first two words may suggest entirely different plots. You, as grown-up Jack Horner, are tasked with finding who kidnapped Mother Goose. (Well, everyone else is too preoccupied.) As you explore the town, you learn stuff about the other subjects of fairy tales and nursery rhymes. For the most part, life hasn't been very kind to them, and there are a good deal of jokes. Most of them land, and it reminded me favorably of the novelty song I heard on Dr. Demento called Charliesomething, where the singer acts as Charlie Brown, all grown up, with all the Peanuts characters running into troubles of their own.

WKMG's not a huge game. The map is beginner-friendly: a north-south street with houses or businesses on each side, and some dwellings have a back room or backyard. But it's big enough, with enough characters, you do feel you've searched high and low by the time you find Mother Goose. (You'll know where she is. You just can't get there right away. It definitely gives you something to pull for.) The detective work is pretty satisfying, as is examining side stuff not needed for your quest. David Welbourn's walkthrough covers a lot of this and gave me a lot more to see than my original run through, where I was just trying to win. There's some riffing on how you are just straight up walking into people's houses, and with Wee Willie Winkie there's the problem of getting his attention without him kicking you out. There's not a whole lot of nostalgia here, which suits me fine -- I was never a big fan of the fairy tales so I'm glad they're not held up in reverence, and the funniest bit for me was learning to distract the kids from a fountain where you yourself want to go fishing for coins.

The puzzles to outwit the ogre and troll are also worthy -- while there are some timed puzzles, it's pretty obviously they're going to BE timed. And the kidnapper's lair outside of town is well designed. I have to admit, the first time through, I was wondering who it could be and suspecting the subject of a nursery rhyme I maybe forgot.

The only real criticism I have is that the humor can be rather blunt. Nothing mean, just everyone is living in squalor an there's the fear it might get old. (It doesn't, with the game at a manageable size.) That and other things speak to good game design. For instance, the tutorial has you look at a coat you find, then wear it, then take it off. The coat is important later.

I'm amused comparing WKMG to The Wolf, another entry in TALP 2024, which had a fairy tale theme. WKMG has everything except wolves, and The Wolf is about the Big Bad Wolf. But they both turn the fairy tales they look at on their heads with, I think, good results. There's a mystery in each, of sorts, though one narrator/main character is more reliable.

Nothing can make me nostalgic for nursery rhymes, but I enjoyed how WKMG kicks them when they're down a bit (or lets me feel it is) while adding a solid murder mystery. It shouldn't be too hard, but if you get stuck, there are rhyming couplets as hints, which is a nice touch that made me feel I wasn't just begging for help.