See? The monsters are enjoying themselves... and their cake.

During the Microsoft (more like Kinect) conference this year, Double Fine's Tim Schafer had mentioned that Sesame Street taught him his A-B-Cs and 1-2-3s. So out of respect for this fact, he figured it would be nice to... make a game based on the same series where a ginormous bird dances around as a vampire tells you how to count? You heard me correctly, the brutally legendary man himself announced he was currently working on Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, a children's game exclusively made for Kinect. Schafer also mentioned how his daughter inquired about a game being made "for me," to which he was finally able to respond "yes."

Many viewers, tweeters and blog trackers seemed almost offended by these claims, like Double Fine was disappointing the entire world with an announcement that specifically pertained to younger kids and their families. It's definitely safe to say there was outrage from the fact that their newest production isn't a wickedly awesome monstrosity filled with blood and spiky looking objects, but instead Elmo and Cookie Monster engaging in a collaborative effort to act silly in front of another monster. But really, is that so bad? For a company to briefly step away from the core market doesn't always mean they won't return, not to mention the fact that expanding through other markets is a great way to get other players involved in the future (basically helping Elmo today and setting him on fire tomorrow). I also found it rather neat how Schafer was finally able to tell his young daughter that his newest project was one even she could enjoy.

It may not be the largest groundbreaking achievement announced from Double Fine, but it's still interesting to see such a renowned studio -- which puts a great emphasis on implementing passion into their games -- develop something that's family friendly, as opposed to those who usually rush tie-in products to make an extra dime from the reference alone. I'm personally confident that this could turn out to be well crafted for the target market, and that Tim Schafer and his exceptional crew at Double Fine will return to the bloody-murder-robot theme soon enough -- plus we do still have Trenched, the wickedly awesome mech-shooter (with an insane CRT screen obsession) to look forward to.