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.
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.
Squidgies Takeover (Switch)
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Posted on November 25th, 2019 by
Squidgies Takeover is a downloadable Switch exclusive that mixes physics style gameplay with Lemmings-like puzzles. Cute little baby alien octopus creatures are venturing out from their mother’s tentacles so they can take over their own planets. It’s up to you to distribute powers to them so they can safely reach portals in each single screen level.
The Games of the SEGA Genesis Mini: Part 3
Posted on November 22nd, 2019 by
Like I said, I saved the best for last. These final Genesis Mini games are the ones that impressed me the most, or at least impressed me that they got put on here in the first place! Most of these games have never been on a Genesis collection before, and some have never been released at all! So let’s take a look at them!
The King of Fighters ALL STAR (Mobile)
Posted on November 20th, 2019 by
The King of Fighters is a long running one-on-one 2-D fighting game series featuring characters from SNK’s other brawlers like Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, and more! And now there is a new game with The King of Fighters ALL STAR. But surprise surprise! It’s not a fighting game, but a 2-D side scrolling beat ‘em up! You’d think that kind of game wouldn’t translate well to mobile devices, but it actually works really well and I’ve had a lot of fun with it. It’s available free-to-play to download on mobile devices, but reviewed on iPad here.
Creepy Brawlers (Switch)
Posted on November 18th, 2019 by
Halloween may be over, but you can still beat up monsters with Creepy Brawlers. The main character in this game is watching a horror movie in the theater, but then gets sucked inside! Now he must box his way to defeat all sorts of opponents, like a zombie, wolfman, vampire, and more! It’s almost like a spooky sequel to Punch Out on the NES! It even looks like an 8-bit NES game. You can even get an actual cartridge of this for your NES, but you can also download it on Switch, which is the version reviewed here.
The Games of the SEGA Genesis Mini: Part 2
Posted on November 15th, 2019 by
In this second batch of games found in the SEGA Genesis Mini, we’ll look at a variety of first party and third party games. Some of these have been on previous Genesis collections, but most of these haven’t. The only other thing most of the games in this section have in common is that most of them didn’t impress me much when playing them now. But don’t worry, like I said, we’ll get to the good stuff in the next blog, I promise!
Heist: One Team, One Mission (Boardgame)
Posted on November 14th, 2019 by
Pass items back and forth as the central safe shouts out instructions in this cooperative real time game of bank robbery. Take on the role of one of four characters and follow the instructions on the battery-powered central cube. Pass items back and forth and then “use” them correctly to advance the timer. Success leads to the big payoff, while mistakes cost you money and perhaps the entire game. Heist: One Team, One Mission is a fast-paced game looks neat, is very family friendly, and plays in just a few minutes.
Doraemon: Story of Seasons (Switch, PC)
Posted on November 13th, 2019 by
This is a crossover game but the two properties featured here may not be so familiar to many Americans. Especially Doraemon. Doraemon is a cartoon blue robot cat with no ears who is especially popular in Japan. You may have even seen him and not realized it. He’s been a star of manga comic books and anime cartoons and movies for decades, and is sometimes even called “Japan’s Mickey Mouse.” Some of his comic books have been translated into English, and Disney brought some of the newest iterations of the Doraemon cartoons to the US under the Disney XD channel a few years back (good on them), but other than that, Doraemon has stayed relatively unknown in the States. Some US gamers may be more familiar with Story of Seasons, though, as it’s a farming sim series that used to go under the name of Harvest Moon. And now the two franchises are together in quite the unexpected crossover game you can download on Switch and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.
New Frontiers (Boardgame)
Posted on November 12th, 2019 by
New Frontiers has players taking turns to select an action card, which then dictates the action that is performed by all players. Through the course of the game, players settle planets, build developments, and exchange goods for points or profit. Develop the best economy (be it building, exchanging, settling, or a combination of them) to be crowned the winner of the game. This 2-5 player game is a great, family-friendlier version of the popular Race for the Galaxy card game.
LEGO Duplo World (Mobile)
Posted on November 11th, 2019 by
There are tons of video games based on the popular LEGO building toy franchise, but not so much about the blocks for the younger set called Duplo. That is until now. In LEGO Duplo World, little gamers can learn early concepts like counting and matching, all in the colorful Duplo universe. This new app is available on mobile devices but reviewed on iPad here.
The Games of the SEGA Genesis Mini: Part 1
Posted on November 8th, 2019 by
A couple of years ago, Nintendo made a big splash with their NES Mini and SNES Mini consoles. Now SEGA is joining the bandwagon with a mini version of their most popular console, the SEGA Genesis. But there have already been mini Genesis consoles with pre-loaded games on them, and Genesis collections on consoles, so what’s the big deal with this one? Well, mainly SEGA is making this one themselves, and they’re taking Nintendo’s approach to how they include which games will be on it. So what does that mean? Well you’ll just have to find out in this blog series. We’re going to take a look at the games on this mini console, but there are so many that we are going to split this up into three sections, one a week this month. For this first part, we’ll take a look at the Genesis Mini itself, and a few of the expected games on it. Don’t worry, we’ll get to the good stuff soon!
