Unplugged: GamerDad Holiday Guide 2024
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Posted on December 7th, 2024 by
Happy Holidays! Boardgaming continues to make inroads to wider audiences, and there’s no better time to get (or get your friends and family) into the hobby than an extended holiday break. There are boardgames out there to meet up with almost any taste.Boardgames are timeless, just as good today as they will be years in the future, so a purchase today will still be serving you well after the lockdowns go away. As we at GamerDad have done for the past 20-odd years, it’s time for an annual rundown of recent boardgames well worth your time. Feel free to delve into some past year’s guides for 2023, 2022, or older as they’re still great candidates for your consideration. You might not find all these titles at your local mega-mart but many can be found online or in a friendly local game store. Some may argue $60+ boardgames (or more) are expensive, but compare that to video gaming (and where multiple copies are required for multiplayer play) and the economics of boardgaming shows their true value. For each game, I’ve provided the publisher (to help you find it), an approximate MSRP (you can probably find it lower), the number of players, the expected time for one game, and the manufacturer’s recommended ages. These age listings are often set for legal reasons and I would say most could easily be skewed lower for experienced younger gamers. (Buy through this link and GamerDad gets a small kickback…)
On with the show!
Alarmo: Nintendo’s…Alarm Clock?!?
Posted on December 6th, 2024 by
Nintendo recently released something weird! It’s a fancy alarm clock called the Alarmo! But you can’t get it just anywhere. It’s only available either at the Nintendo store in New York City, or if you have a My Nintendo account and order it on that website. But one thing they won’t tell you in the ads for it is how much it costs. And the price is 100 bucks! That’s insane! But you know what? I caved in and bought one anyway. Why? Well one, I was in the market for a new alarm clock. Yeah I’m old fashioned and still use one of those instead of my phone. And two, lots of other people spend big money on those fancy Apple watches, so I figured I’d splurge and give this one a try. So is the Alarmo worth 100 bucks? You’ll just have to read on to find out!
Hallmark 2024 Video Game Christmas Ornaments
Posted on November 29th, 2024 by
Hallmark always has a wide variety of Christmas ornaments every year, and in the past few years they’ve even had lots of video game themed ones! I got a bunch of them this year as well, as I always do, so let’s take a look at them!
Pikmin Sprouts Up at Kura Sushi
Posted on November 22nd, 2024 by
There’s a chain of conveyor belt sushi restaurants called Kura Sushi. When you go there, if you eat enough sushi plates, you can win little prizes! A couple of years ago, I went there for my birthday because they had Pac-Man prizes! I wrote a big article about it here, so I recommend checking it out. In October of this year, they had Pikmin prizes and promotions, so I decided to go back so here’s another little article about that.
The Pizza Pixel Podcast Episode 23: Top Favorite Video Game Villains
Posted on October 25th, 2024 by
Halloween is coming up and thoughts turn to spooky things like evil bad guys, so on this episode of The Pizza Pixel Podcast, my brother Jeff and I talk about our favorite video game villains! So please click on the link and give it a listen and make sure to stay at the end for a secret clip!
Unplugged: The Quest Kids (Boardgame)
Posted on September 17th, 2024 by
Do you like adventure games but your kids are a bit too young to be fighting dragons that poisons them and hinders their movement by 5 feet? The Quest Kids is a dungeon-crawling board game aimed squarely at that no-quite-yet reading level or above. Players search a dungeon, discarding the appropriate cards if they need to “scare off” a monster and collect its loot. Once the dungeon is cleared, the player with the most stars (from treasure and defeated monsters) wins the game. The Quest Kids is a pretty cool achievement for its age range, managing to bring in much of that dungeon-crawl fun without a heavy rules overhead. I happen to bring it up now as there is a Kickstarter for an expansion ending very soon.
The Quest Kids
Designer: Dustin McMillian
Publisher: Treasure Falls Games
Players: 2-4
Ages: 5+
Time: 20-45 min
(review copy provided by publisher)
Minecraft Fruit Snacks and…deodorant?!?
Posted on September 6th, 2024 by
Minecraft is one of the most popular video games ever made. I don’t want to say it’s more popular than my favorite game Pac-Man, but the yellow ghost chomper never had fruit snacks or deodorant! Yeah I saw Minecraft fruit snacks and deodorant at Wal-Mart a while back, so here’s some pictures and things. I try to stay away from Minecraft myself. It looks fun, but I don’t want to get addicted to it! Even if that Pac-Man DLC is tempting!
Sonic Sno Cones and Spoons at Bahama Buck’s
Posted on August 23rd, 2024 by
Sonic the Hedgehog is really getting around at eating establishments this year! First it was IHOP, now Bahama Buck’s, a snow cone place. A while back, my mom and stepdad came out to visit, and when they left, they stopped by Bahama Buck’s on the way out. I didn’t go with them because I don’t like snow cones. Too syrupy sweet for me. Anyway, it’s too bad I didn’t go because they had a Sonic promotion at the time. Luckily they took pictures for me and got everything they could, so here’s some pictures and info and things. I’m not sure if the promotion is still going on as of this writing (probably not), as it’s hard to keep up with these things.
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
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!
