Monstercise

Summary

Monstercise is the only known version of the game, and like Grover's Music Maker, it offers very minimal gameplay. The screen shows a group of monsters performing what look like Jumping Jacks. At the bottom of the screen is a blue blob, believed to be Cookie Monster, holding a spotlight. Using the # or * buttons on the Kids Controller moves Cookie Monster left or right, and when positioned beneath a monster, the spotlight shines a beam to highlight it. Once highlighted, players can control the monster's head, arms, or legs by pressing the keypad buttons. Each body part has two possible actions (or three if you include doing nothing). The head can blink or nod, the arms can flap or pump, and the legs can kick or squat. After some time, the whole scene starts to resemble a strange exercise routine, possibly the inspiration behind the game's name. According to the copyright notice, Monstercise is part of the Children's Computer Workshop series (the Sesame Street series), but its part number CX-26131 and 1984 copyright date fall outside the usual range for that series. Atari might have been developing a line of games for young children and infants to target a broader audience. This idea is supported by the existence of other unreleased children's games like Peek-A-Boo and Honker Bonker, which share the same part number range. This prototype also uses the Kid's Controller, adding further support to the theory. In 1984, the video game industry was in decline, and Monstercise was likely abandoned due to a lack of market demand or because its gameplay was too similar to Grover's Music Maker (which was also never released). It is unclear whether any further development took place on this title.