GamerDad and family Welcome to GamerDad: Gaming with Children. My name is Andrew S. Bub - the GamerDad - and I've been writing about videogames, movies, and children for over 15 years now. After working as a magazine journalist, I switched gears to write about how media violence affects children, educating parents about them, and working closely with magazines, newspapers, major retailers and even politicians. GamerDad is an internationally recognized expert in this field. Games, movies and media are fun, kids and families love them, they aren't going away. So join me in cutting through the hype and lets have a real conversation about the things that matter: Video Games, Violent Media, and their supposed effect on children and families.
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Unplugged: Runebound, 3rd Edition (Boardgame)

runebound coverBoardgames like Runebound pack the positive feedback loop gaining power in MMORPGs into a few short hours of a boardgame.  This new (3rd) edition of Runebound provides a new-player friendly boardgame where everyone can choose their own character’s path to power.  Players can gain in power by questing to explore locations, interact with the denizens of the land, or simply fight monsters.  The first player to become powerful enough to defeat the final villain wins the game.  With its open-ended options, playing a game of Runebound gives the enjoyment of adventuring in a MMORPG packed into a single evening of face-to-face game play.

Runebound, 3rd Edtion
Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
Ages: 14+
Players: 2-4
Time: 2-3 hrs
(Review copy provided by Fantasy Flight Games)
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Pac-Man Bounce (iOS, Android)

PACBOUNCE_BOXPac-Man Bounce is a free-to-play puzzler for iOS and Android (reviewed on iPad here), and it stars the most famous video game character of all time: Pac-Man! In each single screen level, you must get Pac-Man to eat a key, but you don’t control Pac-Man directly.  You must manipulate arrows and walls so that Pac-Man will follow and bounce off of them.  When you are ready, just tap on Pac-Man and he’ll start moving and hopefully make it to the key so you can progress.

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Cary’s Top Ten Mario RPGs

PAPERThe newest game in the Mario & Luigi RPG series just came out on the 3DS: Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam. It’s a crossover title between Mario & Luigi and the other popular Mario RPG series: Paper Mario.  In honor of that, here is a blog where I rank every Mario RPG game in a top ten list (granted there’s only been ten of them, so, yeah).

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Minions Paradise (iOS, Android)

MINIONS_BOXOne day, all the Minions took a relaxing tropical vacation on a cruise ship. Even accident-prone Phil.  Poor Phil.  When he mistakenly turns the ship’s helm and steers them right into a rock, all seems lost as the ship sinks.  Luckily, Phil finds a deserted tropical island nearby, and all the other Minions survived.  But for ruining their fun, they’re not very happy with Phil as they swim to the island.  Help Phil get the island ready with lots of fun things to do and make, so the other Minions can still have their tropical vacation!  Minions Paradise is available free-to-play to download on iOS and Android devices, but reviewed on iPad here.

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Minecraft Story Mode: Episode 3: The Last Place You Look (PS3, PS4, 360, Xbox One, PC, iOS, Android)

MINECRAFT_BOXMinecraft is an incredibly popular open-world building adventure game with stylishly blocky graphics. It’s become a bit of a phenomenon since its release a few years back, especially with kids.  And now, point and click experts TellTale Games has crafted an adventure based on the Minecraft universe called Minecraft: Story Mode.  It is split up into five episodes, like most other TellTale titles, and this is a review of the third episode.  It’s available for nearly all current home consoles, PCs, and tablets, but reviewed on PS3 here.

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The Mini-Games of Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival

AC_BOXAnimal Crossing: Amiibo Festival is a Wii U game that came out late last year. It’s a video board game featuring Animal Crossing characters, and you use Animal Crossing Amiibo figures to play it.  You must scan them on the Wii U gamepad to roll dice, save your individual progress, heck; you can’t even start the game without first scanning an Amiibo.  But there is a little more to it than that.  Along with the board game, there is a selection of eight mini-games you can unlock that use the Animal Crossing Amiibo cards that are primarily used in Happy Home Designer.  I haven’t read too many reviews online that go over these games in detail, so I’ll do that now since I like covering mini-games.

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Unplugged: Musée (Boardgame)

musee_card_rawIt’s nice when the art of boardgame design meets more traditional art.  In Musée, players place art-covered cards into their three-tiered museum, attempting to place similar cards adjacent to each other in order to score points.  Simple and fast to play, Musée features more than 60 pieces of wonderful licensed art from the fifteenth to early twentieth century.  It is an attractive game appropriate for gamers and non-gamers alike.
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The Delusions of Von Sottendorff and his Square Mind (3DS)

VON_BOXWow, that’s a mouthful of a title! Anyway, Von Sottendorff is a rich aristocrat baron who has gone a little cuckoo in his mansion.  Help him reclaim his sanity by solving puzzles and exploring his mysterious abode in this downloadable action-puzzler game for Nintendo 3DS.

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Bebop Puzzle Beat (iPad)

BEBOP_BOXA jazz band’s singer has been kidnapped and taken to a tower, and now you can help them save her by…solving puzzles? Bebop Puzzle Beat is an arcade action puzzle game with a jazzy theme, and it’s free-to-play for iOS devices (reviewed on iPad here).

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Cary is Looking Forward in 2016!

PHOENIXWell we’re into 2016 now, and with the 2015 Game of the Year stuff out of the way, it’s time to look forward to games that will be coming out this year! So here’s a list of games that I’m personally looking forward to.  Now this isn’t a full list, since some stuff hasn’t even been announced yet since it’s so early.  And my list does tend to lean toward the Nintendo side, because I don’t have a PS4 or Xbox One yet.  But one of the things I’ll be looking forward to is finding out if those systems will have more games that interest me this year.  It could very well happen, you never know!  Well, at any rate, here are some games I’m looking forward to in 2016!

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