In a magical, pastel-colored land live creatures called Plushkins.  They are like stuffed animals that are alive.  Wild Plushkins live in dungeons and other outside areas, and can sometimes be dangerous to people, so it’s up to trained witches to tame Plushkins so they can help everyone out.  Play as Moco, a young girl witch-in-training and help her to become a Plushkin master in this entry-level dungeon crawler RPG for the Nintendo 3DS.

more…

Tags: Game Reviews

Family Fishing is a quick-play, arcade action competitive fishing game from Arc System Works, makers of popular 2-D fighting games like BlazBlue and Guilty Gear (oh man, wouldn’t it be cool to play a fishing game with characters from those series?).  Play as a member of a family out on a fishing trip, and in a given time limit, try to catch more and better fish than everyone else.  Family Fishing is available to download on 3DS.

more…

Tags: Game Reviews

Usually at the end of summer, I’ll write a blog about the movies I saw during the past few months, as I see a lot of movies during that time. It’s pretty rare for me to see a bunch of movies any other time of the year, but this Fall and Winter I did.  So I decided to write a little blog about what I saw, just for fun.  I’ll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum, but just in case something slips out, you’ve been warned!

more…

Tags: Movies with Children

Originally a short PC project, Octodad is a 3-D action game where you play as an octopus disguised as a human.  Somehow along the way he’s been able to get married and have two kids (best not to think too much on that).  In the original game, you would try and do household chores while controlling the octopus’ legs and arms separately; which isn’t as easy as it sounds and oftentimes would lead to funny sights.  In the new game, Dadliest Catch, not only must you do household chores this way, but you must also take the family to the grocery store as well as an outing to the aquarium, which doesn’t make Octodad too happy to be there.  You’ll also have to make sure not to make too many mistakes or draw attention to yourself or you might get caught by one of the aquarium’s many marine biologists (the game claims they “know a fish when they see one”), or a revengeful French chef who is out to get you!  Octodad: Dadliest Catch is available to download on most of the current-gen game consoles, but reviewed on Wii U here.

more…

Tags: Game Reviews

Ride, compete, and take care of your equestrian companion with Horse Life 4, a downloadable title for Nintendo 3DS.  Honestly I’ve never even heard of Horse Life 1-3, so I don’t know what kind of improvements were made here.  So is Horse Life 4 hot to trot or a stinky pile of horse dung?  Giddyup and read on to find out!

more…

Tags: Game Reviews

Monster High is a popular toy line of girl teen dolls who are based on monsters, and now your little monster can create her own ghoul and explore Monster High in a new game for consoles and handhelds (3DS version reviewed here).  First you’ll need to create your character by choosing her monster type, hair style, skin and hair color, and outfit to wear.  Then you’ll play out your first days as a new student of Monster High.

more…

Tags: Game Reviews

I’ve been lucky lately and have been able to get pretty much all the Amiibo figures that have been released recently, so let’s take a look and see what I got this time!

more…

Tags: Misc

Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang have been delighting readers of the comics section in the newspapers for more than half a century, and have also scored big with award-winning animated TV specials among other things.  And now there’s a full-length computer animated Peanuts movie now in theaters (and it’s actually pretty good, I enjoyed it anyway).  So in honor of that, Activision released a game based on the characters and style of the new film.  In the game, Charlie Brown and his friends are playing hide-and-seek, and Snoopy and Woodstock must find them!  But Snoopy has a pretty vivid imagination, so a bush can become a jungle, a brick fence wall can be ancient ruins, a cardboard box can be a rocket to the moon, his doghouse can be a flying WWI biplane, and much more!  Guide Snoopy through stages inside his imagination and find all the kids in this 2-D platformer available for nearly all the current gaming consoles, but reviewed on Wii U here.

more…

Tags: Game Reviews, Movies with Children, Television

Adventure Time is one of Cartoon Network’s most popular shows, and man, oh man are there a lot of games based on the franchise.  Trust me; I’ve reviewed most of them!  I think I’ve reviewed more games based on Adventure Time than any other cartoon license, and since I’ve been doing this for nearly 20 years, that’s saying something!  Most of the other Adventure Time games imitate other classic titles like top-down Zelda games and other dungeon crawlers.  But when I first heard about the name “Finn and Jake Investigations,” I thought it might be like one of those Phoenix Wright games.  But when I saw screenshots it looked more like a 3-D platformer!  To my surprise when I actually played it, it’s really a point and click adventure game!  In fact, if TellTale Games had this license, this would probably be like something they would make, at least a few years ago.  At any rate, it’s one of publisher Little Orbit’s best games yet!  It’s available for nearly all the current game consoles, but reviewed on Wii U here.

more…

Tags: Game Reviews, Television

Recently I played and beat the new holiday title, LEGO Dimensions.  I was impressed with some of the worlds you explore and licenses used, so I decided I’d write a blog about it.  In short, LEGO Dimensions is essentially Skylanders with LEGOs.  You buy and build LEGO figures and vehicles, and then put them on a special pedestal so you can play as them in the game.  Unlike Disney Infinity, any character and vehicle can go into any world at any time.  That’s one thing that Skylanders and LEGO Dimensions does right.  Half the fun was seeing all the worlds you could go into, and what surprises you’d find.  In fact, brother Jeff (who I always play LEGO games with), described the game as ‘LEGO Kingdom Hearts’ and I like how he put that.  So let’s dive into the portal and see what we can see!

more…

Tags: Game Reviews, Movies with Children, Television