Unplugged: Bluey Scavenger Hunt Game
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Posted on May 23rd, 2025 by
I freaking love the Bluey TV show! It’s a kids show but has so much to offer for adults, too. And I even reviewed a Bluey video game last year. The show is set (and animated) in Australia, and stars a family of four cartoon Australian Cattle Dogs, or Blue Heelers for short. The family consists of Bluey, the titular playful and curious six year old, her younger sister Bingo, and their parents: Bandit and Chilli. They all learn lessons through play and imagination, and some of the topics are more serious things that only adults would truly understand. These can range from moving away, infertility, dealing with ADHD, and even death. The show strikes a balance between making things easy for kids to understand, but deep enough to keep adults interested. So when I got the opportunity to play a Bluey board game with my 5 year old nephew and 3 year old twin nieces, I was thrilled and decided I would review it. In the game, up to four takes turns moving around the board, and everyone works together to try and find and pick up all the toys before bedtime. If you do, everyone wins!
A Special Message from Andrew Bub
Posted on May 11th, 2025 by
Hi this is Cary. Andrew Bub, the founder of this site and THE GamerDad himself, asked for me to relay this message here –Cary “My little GamerLad graduated from Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design today … He wants to design videogames or at least the look of them. I taught him how to hold his first controller & he became one of my most valuable game reviewers back when I was active at my website. I’m so proud!” –Andrew Bub
Super Mario Easter Basket
Posted on April 11th, 2025 by
Many stores nowadays have a selection of pre-made Easter baskets you can buy, and while at Target I saw a Mario themed one for only 20 bucks. So I decided to get it and show you all what’s inside.
West Lafayette Game Con
Posted on April 10th, 2025 by
Our local high school has an enthusiastic mentor for its boardgaming club. Once a year, they put on an all-day boardgaming fundraiser, open to the community. As a parent and boardgame fan, I typically chip in and help out. This year, the fundraiser was for the back-to-school program that provides school supplies (and clothes, etc…) to needy students at the start of each school year. The event recommended a $10 donation to attend and sold snacks (chips, drinks, popcorn, pizza donated from a local place, etc…) to raise additional funds. Parents (like myself) could also donate used boardgames which were sold for additional funds. (I somehow managed to donate quite a few games from old reviews and didn’t go home with more than I brought…) The entire event was pretty low-key and since it was open to the public there were several families in attendance that were introduced to modern boardgames for the first time. For those not sure what to play, there were three tournaments over the course of the day, with small donated prizes from local businesses. While I only assisted with the game day, and didn’t run the whole thing, it really wasn’t too hard to pull off. If you have connections with your local school, I highly recommend giving a game-day fundraiser a try. It supports a good cause but also gives a great opportunity to introduce your community to the fun of modern boardgaming.
Unplugged: Baldur’s Gate Minis FTW
Posted on April 8th, 2025 by
The WizKids line of role playing game miniatures is back. After releasing a set celebrating the past 50 years of Dungeons & Dragons, they have now just released a line featuring people and creatures from the popular Baldur’s Gate 3 videogame. Last summer saw the release of a 50th Anniversary set which is fun from a nostalgic collector’s standpoint, but I think the Baldur’s Gate 3 set is the best set I’ve seen in a long time. One of the drawbacks to randomly assorted miniatures is the need to create many different things in order to offer up something new in each box. This can result in opening up a box to find rather specialized miniatures that may be hard to casually work into a game. Both of these sets specialize in the common sorts of creatures one might find in an everyday game of D&D. A half-crystal elf from the far realm (I made that up, feel free to rip it off, Wizkids) may look really cool as a mini, but just how many times am I going to be able to work that into my adventure? With the Baldur’s Gate 3 release, most every box has something I know I’ll be using in the near future.
My Brother and Nephew’s First YouTube Video!
Posted on March 28th, 2025 by
My brother and nephew have just made their first “Let’s Play” style YouTube video, so I thought I’d share it with you here. They play an Xbox One game called Party Animals, where plush toy animals fight to the death. I’ve played it before with them, and while I don’t understand the appeal, my nephew just loves it! Anyway, click on the link below and watch it if you can!
Unplugged: The Dragonlance Novels – on sale!
Posted on March 18th, 2025 by
Before Harry Potter made middle-grade fantasy books “a thing”, there was a rich history of young adult fantasy books that were very middle-grade-adjacent. One of the standout series for me was the Dungeons and Dragons branded line of books in the Dragonlance setting. The initial trilogy follows a stereotypical fantasy gang of fighters, a thief, a healer, and a wizard as they go off to save the world from the machinations of the ultimate evil dragon god. Starting off as an inexperienced, eclectic group of semi-strangers, they bond together through six connected adventures becoming formidable heroes on their way to stopping the BBEG (big bad evil guy.) The first trilogy sold well and spawned many more novels in the same setting. Why am I mentioning it now? Well, the site Humble Bundle has a sale, The World of Dragonlance, featuring many of the books in the Dragonlance setting. For a low price ($1 for just a few books, $18 for 25 books) one can check out a seminal series in the history of Dungeons and Dragons. Folks who have recently jumped on the Dungeons and Dragons bandwagon should enjoy a look back at some of its early beginnings. As will all things on the Humble Bundle site, it is linked in with a charity fundraising event, this time for Room to Read – a charity trying to improve literacy among primary and secondary students.
LEGO Animal Crossing Sets
Posted on February 28th, 2025 by
As you may or may not know, I love Animal Crossing. Pac-Man may be my number one favorite game of all time, but I think Animal Crossing may be my second favorite. So you know that’s a lot! A little over a year ago, they started releasing Animal Crossing LEGO sets, and I finally got a couple of them so I thought I’d share with you all here.
Unplugged: Dungeons & Dragons 2024
Posted on February 22nd, 2025 by
Whether it is streamers, or pop culture icons (I suppose some are both) the role-playing hobby continues to make inroads to mainstream culture. Leading the pack is Dungeons and Dragons. With this week’s release of the new Monster Manual, D&D has just finished a refresh of their 2014 “5th Edition” ruleset. This new, “D&D 2024” edition is fully backwards compatible with the 2024 rules but has smoothed out some rough edges and attempts to provide a more helpful presentation of the material. In brief, the game has punched up the fun aspects for players, provided more concrete advice for new players, and souped up the monsters to provide more variety and more challenging monsters. While there is no dire need for anyone to change over from the 2014 rules (you can even run players running characters from each edition at the same time), new players should certainly start with the 2024 rules and hard-core players will probably see advantages in going with the new, adjusted rules.
Catch Pokémon in McDonald’s Happy Meals!
Posted on February 21st, 2025 by
Pokémon are back in McDonald’s Happy Meals, but this time it’s more of a focus on the card game. I picked one up the other day so let’s see what’s inside.
