Tails and the Music Maker (Pico) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
2,274A playthrough of Sega's 1994 educational "StoryWare" game for the Sega Pico, Tails and the Music Maker.
The Sega Pico is among Sega's least known consoles released in the west, and like it's "sister" title, Sonic the Hedgehog's Gameworld, Tails and the Music Maker is one of the least known Sonic games ever released in the US. It's aim is to teach different concepts in music (like notes, tempo, instrument differences and uses, etc). The two most notable stages are the ones that largely based on the Genesis Sonic titles. The platforming section on page 2 is lifted from the Green Hill Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog (though it is now incredibly flat - like if the Green Hill Zone were somewhere in Kansas where you see signs that read "HILL" on the freeway), while the pinball stage on page 3 is clearly derived from the Casino Night Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
Tails and the Music Maker's production values are markedly lower than those in Sonic the Hedgehog's Gameworld - a lot of the graphical flourishes are gone and there aren't as many things to do - but this is still a really neat novelty that most people don't seem to be aware of despite it's official US release. It's also one of the few games where Tails gets a starring role.
The system was a cool setup for sure. It opened up clamshell-style (similar to a laptop), to reveal a big touchpad, and the cartridge had a book (a small child's type book with thick rigid pages made from cardboard) mounted to it. The image at the top-right of the video frame shows which page is currently in use by the game. The area that Tails is in changes when you physically turn one of the book pages, and tapping on different parts of the picture will activate whatever element on the screen corresponds with it.
Despite its utter failure in the west, the Sega Pico was a giant success for the company in Asia for how well it wed the gaming with learning for kids. The Pico itself was basically a stripped-down Genesis deck: it had no controller ports (there was a d-pad of sorts and a single action button on the console itself) but it had a wired stylus attached to frame. It also lacked the YM2612 and the Z80 of the Genesis. If you find that the Pico sounds more like a Master System than a Genesis, that's the reason.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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