After being a Wii U exclusive during its lifespan, LEGO City: Undercover was recently released for nearly all current consoles.  You play as Chase McCain, a heroic undercover police officer who is also a master of disguise.  It plays a lot like Grand Theft Auto, only that it’s also family friendly and full of LEGOs.  It’s actually one of the better LEGO games I’ve played and I recently reviewed it.  Now you can extend the fun of that game with the LEGO City Fun Pack for LEGO Dimensions.  It’s available for nearly all current consoles, but reviewed on Wii U here.

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Tags: Game Reviews

The Goonies was a very popular movie when I was a kid, but for some reason, I never saw it in theaters.  It didn’t hold my attention the way other movies like Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Back to the Future did.  I know when it was on videotape, my friend’s cousin would always visit him in the summer and she’d always bring that movie with her and make us watch it every time she was around, so I got sick of it and avoided watching it again for a long time.  Luckily I was able to catch it on TV a few weeks ago so it would be fresh on my mind and I could be prepared to write this review!  The Goonies are also no strangers to video games, as there were two games that came out on the NES.  The first was only available in Japan but you could play it on PlayChoice arcade machines in the US.  The sequel was one of the earliest examples of a “Metroidvania” type of game and you played as Mikey and used a yo-yo as a weapon as you tried to stop the Fratelli gang again as they kidnapped your friends and Annie the mermaid.  Yeah it was a little weird.  But now, many years later, you can enjoy the Goonies in a video game again in LEGO form with the LEGO Dimensions The Goonies Level Pack.  It’s available for nearly all current game consoles, but reviewed on Wii U here.

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Tags: Game Reviews, Movies with Children

In a subterranean world surrounded by dirt, the people of this land live on the inside of a sphere.  Around the sphere are wind holes that provide its citizens with air to breathe, and those holes are guarded by wind monks.  In the game you play as (mostly) Robert, a young man who was adopted by one of the wind monks.  On a trip to retrieve a missing item for the wind monk, Robert comes across a girl he falls for.  Turns out she’s actually a thief, but they both get caught up in an adventure where they’ll discover Robert’s true identity, and that the wind monks aren’t what they seem.  The Inner World is a cartoony point and click adventure game available to download on PS4, Xbox One, PC, and mobile devices, but reviewed on PS4 here.

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Tags: Game Reviews

The most popular mother in gaming is back on the 3DS with Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop.  This time the recipes you bake are all desserts: cakes, cookies, and other sweet stuff.  Just like before, you’ll use the stylus and touch screen to perform cooking activities like chopping, sifting, cracking, and baking.  Each recipe (over 60 in all) has multiple steps for you to complete in order, and you’ll be ranked at the end on how well you do.  But this time you’ll be able to present your sugary concoctions in your very own Sweet Shop for customers to buy!

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The farming sim that took PCs by storm last year is now available on consoles.  In the game, your dying grandfather gives you an envelope to open later.  One day, while bored and frustrated at your cubicle job at Jojo Co., you open the envelope and find the deed to your grandfather’s farm in Stardew Valley.  So you pack up your things and start your new life out in the country.  Will you be able to work hard to make money and cultivate the land and friendships to find happiness, or will you succumb to Jojo Co. who is trying to buy the land for warehouse space?  Stardew Valley is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PCs, but reviewed on PS4 here.

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Before game developer HAL Laboratory created Kirby and the Smash Bros. series, they were famous for a popular puzzle game trio on the NES called Adventures of Lolo (I loved those games as a kid).  Over the past couple of years, they’ve proven they still have what it takes to make great puzzlers with the BoxBoy! titles, downloadable on the 3DS.  Now the third and final game in the trilogy is out, with more block puzzles, stages, and powers than ever before!

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Can you name a video game where you play as a seed?  Yeah, me neither.  But now you can with TumbleSeed, a new downloadable game for PS4, Switch, and PC (reviewed on PS4 here).  In this game, you must guide a seed up a mountain so it can plant itself at the top to save the world or something.  It’s a very unique, but also very difficult, game.

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Recently I reviewed The Disney Afternoon Collection.  It’s a compilation of Capcom’s NES titles that were based on shows on The Disney Afternoon, a block of Disney cartoons that aired back in the late 80’s and early 90’s.  I really loved watching The Disney Afternoon as a kid, and I also enjoyed the NES games a lot, too.  In fact, many of the games on this collection are more memorable to me than titles like Mario!  They could’ve called this the Cary’s Childhood Collection!  So I thought I’d go into more detail and share my memories of each of the NES games on this collection, and the cartoons they’re based on.

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Tags: Game Reviews, Movies with Children, Television

Back in the late 80’s and early to mid 90’s, Disney had a block of weekday after school cartoons on TV called The Disney Afternoon.  They featured such memorable and high-quality shows like DuckTales, Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers, TaleSpin, Darkwing Duck, and many more.  Tons of people, including myself, have very fond memories watching these cartoons as kids.  I guarantee that if you search for Disney Afternoon on the Web or YouTube, you’ll find lots of folks gushing about these shows.  Anyway, around this time, game maker Capcom published some licensed games based on many Disney Afternoon properties for the Nintendo Entertainment System.  Back then, just like today, most licensed games were not very good.  But Capcom bucked that trend with their Disney games, as most of them were just as good as what the best the NES had to offer.  In fact, Capcom’s Disney and Mega Man games were more memorable to me as a kid than Mario!  Anyway, many other gamers can attest to the statement that these games were good.  And now, Capcom has gathered six of these classics in a compilation called The Disney Afternoon Collection.  Although they might as well have called it The Cary’s Childhood Collection.  Anyway, you can download this set of games on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, but it’s reviewed on PS4 here.

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Tags: Game Reviews, Movies with Children, Television

Back in the day, Wonder Boy was a game series with lots of sequels and spinoffs, and even has ties with the Adventure Island titles.  But you really don’t hear about it much today.  But that may change with the release of Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap.  It’s a remake of the classic game of the same name, now with improved visuals and sound.  It’s really a remake done right, and this 2-D platforming adventure is available to download on PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and soon PCs, but reviewed on PS4 here.

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Tags: Game Reviews