Welcome to GamerDad: Gaming with Children. My name is Andrew S. Bub - the GamerDad - and I've been writing about videogames, movies, and children for over 15 years now. After working as a magazine journalist, I switched gears to write about how media violence affects children, educating parents about them, and working closely with magazines, newspapers, major retailers and even politicians. GamerDad is an internationally recognized expert in this field. Games, movies and media are fun, kids and families love them, they aren't going away. So join me in cutting through the hype and lets have a real conversation about the things that matter: Video Games, Violent Media, and their supposed effect on children and families.
Welcome to GamerDad: Gaming with Children. My name is Andrew S. Bub - the GamerDad - and I've been writing about videogames, movies, and children for over 15 years now. After working as a magazine journalist, I switched gears to write about how media violence affects children, educating parents about them, and working closely with magazines, newspapers, major retailers and even politicians. GamerDad is an internationally recognized expert in this field. Games, movies and media are fun, kids and families love them, they aren't going away. So join me in cutting through the hype and lets have a real conversation about the things that matter: Video Games, Violent Media, and their supposed effect on children and families.
Willy’s Wonderland: The Game (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, X/S)
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Posted on July 26th, 2024 by
A couple of years ago, I watched this really horrible horror B-movie that was streaming only on Hulu and it was called Willy’s Wonderland. In the movie, a drifter takes a job as a janitor in a run down kids’ indoor amusement area called Willy’s Wonderland. But when the animatronic animal robots come to life in the restaurant, the janitor must fight for his life. If that sounds like a rip off of Five Night’s At Freddy’s (FNAF), it certainly is. But I think this came out a year before the FNAF movie. Either way, the movie is NOT for kids, as it’s pretty violent and has a gross and unnecessary sex scene in it. But then, FNAF isn’t for kids either but they seem to be drawn to it for some reason. As a kid, I was never really scared of the Chuck E. Cheese robot singers, but then, I was more interested in the arcade games. The funniest thing about Willy’s Wonderland is that Nicholas Cage is the star, but he has NO lines. All he does is fight robots, take breaks, and drink a soda every ten minutes. The only thing he says is sometimes after drinking a soda he’ll go, “Ahhhh!” And now you can play a game based on the movie! You’d think it would be similar to the FNAF games, but it’s actually a side scrolling beat ‘em up. It was originally on mobile devices, if that gives you an indication of the quality. But now you can play it on current consoles (reviewed on PS4 here).
Bouncy Chicken (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, X/S)
Posted on July 24th, 2024 by
Help a chicken gobble up all the ears of corn by bouncing it around the barnyard. Bouncy Chicken is a single screen action game that kind of makes me think of pool, and it’s available on all current consoles but reviewed on PS4 here.
Go Go Jump!!! (Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, X/S, PC)
Posted on July 22nd, 2024 by
Meet Dylan the dog. He’s an overenthusiastic mutt who wants to win all the Jump Master badges. With his owl mentor by his side, he’ll challenge all sorts of crazy cartoon animal characters like a hippie giraffe, goth dolphin, gangster rat, and more! Go Go Jump!!! is a single screen jumping challenge where all you have to do is run and jump to avoid obstacles. The game also has a madcap, tongue in cheek sense of humor, too. It’s available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.
Parasol Stars (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, X/S)
Posted on July 19th, 2024 by
I freaking love Bubble Bobble. I have so many good memories renting the NES version and playing it with my best friend, and then later playing the arcade version on a PSOne collection with my brothers. And it was a very popular game with many sequels and spinoffs. In fact, one of the spinoffs, Puzzle Bobble, is probably more popular than the game it was based on. But back to the main game, it had many sequels and was kind of confusing. There are three games claiming to be Bubble Bobble 2, and three more claiming to be Bubble Bobble 3! We won’t go into it more than that here, as we’d be here all day. But Parasol Stars was one of the games claiming to be Bubble Bobble 3. In the game, two boys Bobby and Bubby (formerly the bubble blowing dragons Bub and Bob), they have just saved the Rainbow Islands with their rainbow making powers. As a reward, they get two magical parasols and go flying off to save some planets from other cute and cartoony enemies. Originally Parasol Stars was on consoles like the TG-16, NES, and Game Boy. But now you can play it on all modern consoles (reviewed on PS4 here). Luckily the version they ported here is the TG-16/PC Engine version, as that was the best one.
Unplugged: Sky Team (Boardgame)
Posted on July 18th, 2024 by
It looked like a scene from a bad TSA checkpoint at last year’s Gen Con when a long line of people queued up to demo the buzz-laden two player cooperative game, Sky Team. Sky Team has two players, a pilot and co-pilot, each place four dice on a central instrument board in an attempt to successfully land a plane. At the start of a round, players can discuss overall strategy, but once they’ve rolled their dice for the round no further talking is permitted. Players must manage the plane roll (tilt), fire the engines, lower the flaps, lower the landing gear, engage the brakes, and clear the path of other planes. Fail to do any of the above and the plane crashes. All this must be accomplished as the plane’s elevation ticks downward. If everything is set by the time the plane hits 0000, the plane lands successfully. Designed with heavy input from licensed pilots it should appeal to pilots, wannabe pilots, and anyone looking for a relatively short but solid two player co-op game.
Sky Team
Designer: Luc Remond
Publisher: Scorpion Masque
Players: 2
Age: 12+
Time: 15 minutes
Glyphs of Gitzan (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, X/S, PC)
Posted on July 17th, 2024 by
Help an explorer discover the secrets of ancient ruins by pushing blocks around that light up glyphs when put in the right spots. Glyphs of Gitzan is a block pushing puzzle game and it’s available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.
Paper Trail (Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, X/S, PC, Mobile)
Posted on July 15th, 2024 by
Help a girl on a journey as she leaves home to follow her dreams in Paper Trail. You view the action in a top down fashion and each screen is a piece of paper. You must fold the paper in various ways to open paths and help her solve puzzles. Paper Trail is available on pretty much anything you can play a game on, but it’s reviewed on Switch here.
Chomp on Pac-Man Flavors at Yogurtland this Summer!
Posted on July 12th, 2024 by
I’ve written about ice cream and frozen yogurt places in the past doing promotions with video game characters and franchises. Yogurtland themselves did a Mario promotion a few years ago. Nekter Juice Bar did the same thing with other Nintendo characters more recently. Heck, even Menchie’s frozen yogurt did a promotion with Dragon Quest Builders! But now we get one with my most favorite video game character of all: Pac-Man! So let’s chomp on the new flavors they have this summer!
Cat Pipes (Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, X/S, PC)
Posted on July 10th, 2024 by
I’m not sure what this game has to do with cats or pipes. Sure the game plays similarly to titles like Pipe Dream, but the “pipes” here are just represented by dotted lines. And I THINK I saw a cat in the background of the stages, but I’m not sure. But it’s still a serviceable puzzler and available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.
Fit My Zoo (Switch)
Posted on July 8th, 2024 by
A bunch of wild animals in all different shapes and sizes are at a pool party, and they all want to get on the pool float. Help them all fit by arranging them on the float in this Switch game that reminds me of tanogram puzzles. It’s also exactly the same as another game I reviewed a few months ago called Fit My Cat.
