Happy Valentine’s Day! Have you hugged your companion cube today?
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Posted on February 13th, 2008 by
Valentine’s Day is when you let the people you care about know that you really appreciate them (shouldn’t that be everyday?). One way to show appreciation is to give gifts. Well my Valentine’s Day gift to all of you readers is a fun blog to read. It’s a lot less expensive than flowers and much less calories than chocolate, too.
I was strolling through Furu Furu Park one day…
Posted on February 8th, 2008 by
Furu Furu Park is a collection of mini-games on the Wii. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. “Like the Wii NEEDS yet another collection of mini-games.” Well there’s two things about Furu Furu Park that make it stand out. One, most of the mini-games are based on classic arcade Taito titles, which give it some familiar charm. The other reason why Furu Furu Park is special is that it’s only 20 bucks. For the price, it’s pretty enjoyable. It’s certainly better than the Nintendo DS game that Furu Furu Park is based on. There was a collection of Taito mini-games on the DS called Turn it Around that used the touch screen like a ‘dial’ you turned around with the stylus. But in Furu Furu Park, you use the Wii remote in different ways to play the games. So here’s a rundown on all the games on Furu Furu Park.
GamerDad in FamilyFun.com
Posted on February 5th, 2008 by
For the past year I’ve been honored to drive Disney’s video game, DVD, and Film criticism for FamilyFun.com (the website for the insanely popular parenting magazine) and the brand new to the web Disney Family.com. They trusted me to tell them what video games, DVDs and Movies were worth reviewing. I’ve been replaced in 2008 by CommonSense Media – a shame, but they do outproduce little old me) Here’s the initial article I did for them. It’s a Top 10 for 2006. And after you’re done reading that, here’s a bunch more! It is a shame the reviews aren’t linked (all these links are broken it seems). But they are all at GamerDad.com. Go there and do a search, click in here to find the list. Oh and since CommonSense Media sells my work to 3rd parties – I’m still in Disney’s magazines. Only I’m being paid a lot less. Such is the hard-scrabble life of the freelance writer!
Madden ’08 (Wii, 360, PS3, PC) – CrispyGamer
Posted on February 4th, 2008 by
CrispyGamer is a new hardcore gaming magazine on the web. (Yes, that’s my face on the cover. Wish the links all worked but I’m hoping they do well. Right now they’re my best way into the hardcore. My message is for both mainstream and “gamer” parents.) Bless them, they use freelancers for about 95% of their stuff and they pay well enough to have attracted the best in the business. The site’s still in BETA but I’ve done a lot of reviews for them. I thought this would be a good week to showcase my work with John Madden this year. At CrispyGamer I covered the game for the Wii, the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, and the PC. Here’s GamerDad’s official review (from USAToday’s Marc Saltzman) and here’s another one from me, covering the Wii exclusively, in more of a “mainstream friendly” style for Disney Family.com and Family Fun.com. Whew! That’s a lot of Madden! Fun fact, no more football but we’re now roughly half-way to 2009’s edition.
NFL Tour for 360/PS3 (CommonSense Media)
Posted on February 4th, 2008 by
My reactions and ruminations regarding EA Sports’ latest attempt to bring Midway’s NFL Blitz to home theaters – only without all that offensive and outrageous stuff that made NFL Blitz fun. Well, NFL Tour is here… does it improve on where NFL Street left off? In honor of last night’s boring but history making Superbowl I present to you my review and content overview of NFL Tour.
The Games of Atari Classics Evolved
Posted on February 1st, 2008 by
Since I love classic arcade collections, here’s a quick rundown of the games in Atari Classics Evolved for PSP. Since most people here know (or can easily find out) about the old classic arcade titles on this package, we’ll just go over the Evolved versions of these games.
No More Heroes – Wii
Posted on January 31st, 2008 by
It’s far too rare, but every so often a true visionary, an auteur or maybe just a madman, takes the reigns of a video game title and sweeps everything generic, rote, boring, or predictable from the code. A game that posesses singular vision. You’d think they’d be more common in a creative medium as wild as videogaming. No More Heroes for the Wii is such a game. An endlessly controversial, hilariously offensive, mildly sophmoric, and endlessly playable new sword-simulator from a design team that’s clearly off the deep end and ’round the bend. I love this game and at the same time I hate it. Here’s my take on the laundry list of ESRB descriptors courtesy but uncredited by WhatTheyPlay.com. Oh, yeah, I wish I’d remembered certain details like how the only way to save is to go to the toilet. Suffice it to say, it gets our ADULT SEAL. Great game for grown ups though! What do you think?
Advance Wars – Days of Ruin
Posted on January 31st, 2008 by
Advance Wars is a series I should enjoy more than I do. There’s something about the happy, happy take on warfare I always found vaguely off-putting and the series is marred, in my opinion, by way too much writing. Still, they’re great for kids – they’re easy to learn, hard to master, and the tactical challenge is brain-teasingly fun and second to none. WhatTheyPlay has published my takes on Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising for GBA and Advance Wars: Dual Strike, and now they’ve put up my take on Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. An excellent new direction for the series where the story gets darker, the warfare is still happy, and the gameplay is still unparalleled and perfectly safe for kids as young as 8.
GamerDad at Large! – CommonSense Media Edition
Posted on January 23rd, 2008 by
CommonSense Media was the first website to come out and compete directly with GamerDad.com. Compete isn’t exactly the right word. Their board is a who’s who of child advocates and they seem well financed. Hey, they’re a charity. I’m a charity too, but that’s not my legal status… I just don’t make a whole lot of money. Since I’ve been working for them for over a year now, I won’t pick and link each review. Instead, there’s a catch-all link. So go here and browse away! more…
Last Week at GamerDad! 1/21/08
Posted on January 21st, 2008 by
If you’re looking for game reviews you want to move past this page and into GamerDad.com proper. But if you’re too busy to visit that site, and would like a handy weekly Round Up… well, have we got you covered!
