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.
Ace Angler: Fishing Spirits M (Mobile)
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Posted on September 1st, 2023 by
There’s an arcade fishing game by Namco where you view the action on a horizontal screen parallel to the ground, like you’re looking into a small fishing pond. It’s called Ace Angler, and I know I played it once in an arcade, or at least another game that was trying to imitate it. It’s been a while. Anyway, the game is pretty popular in Japan and has even gotten a couple of Switch home ports. The newest one even made it to the US digitally this past year. And now anyone can play a mobile version of the game (reviewed on iPad here) with Ace Angler: Fishing Spirits M.
Best Forklift Operator (Switch, PC)
Posted on August 30th, 2023 by
My real life full time job is at a major hardware store big box chain. And if you’ve been inside one of those stores, you may have seen employees driving forklifts around. Since I’ve been blind in my left eye since birth, I don’t drive the forklifts in the store, but I am part of the safety team so I’m pretty familiar with how they work. So when the opportunity arose for me to review a game where you drive a forklift (yeah they’ll make a game out of anything these days), I thought it might be interesting. And of course, forklifts play a part in other video games, too, whether it be your part time job in Shenmue or as a boss in the AtomisWave arcade game DemolishFist. Best Forklift Operator is available on Switch and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.
Pretty Princess: Magical Garden Island (Switch)
Posted on August 28th, 2023 by
Believe it or not, this game is actually a sequel (or spinoff) to one I reviewed a couple of years ago! In the first game, you play as a girl who gets whisked away to a world inhabited by rabbit people. You get transformed into a princess and the rabbits need your princess magic to help rebuild and decorate their castle. The game was pretty much a rip-off of the indoor decorating aspects of Animal Crossing, and the sequel rips off pretty much everything else from that title. In the sequel, you and your princess friends decide they want to try some Princess Cake. Your rabbit butler knows an island where you can get the ingredients. So now you set off for that island, where you’ll farm, fish, and gather materials to build shops and farms so you can make more things to restore the island to its former glory. The game even uses the same ‘rolling log’ viewpoint that Animal Crossing does!
Pizza Pixel Podcast Episode 18: Favorite Transformers
Posted on August 25th, 2023 by
When I was a kid back in the 80s, there were a couple of years when I was really into the Transformers toy line and cartoon. Many years later when my brother Ben was a kid, he got into Transformers as well. So I thought it would be fun for us to talk about them in this episode of the Pizza Pixel Podcast! Please click on the link and give it a listen if you can!
Raiden III x MIKADO MANIAX (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, X/S, PC)
Posted on August 23rd, 2023 by
The Raiden series is a super popular group of 2-D vertically scrolling shooters. I’ve seen them in arcades and ported to nearly every home console since then. Just like NIS did earlier this year with Raiden IV, now you can play the third one with some new features and additions. Still not sure what the MIKADO in the titles mean, but you can play it on all current consoles and PC (reviewed on PS4 here).
Agriculture (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, X/S)
Posted on August 21st, 2023 by
Agriculture is a fast action puzzle game where you must plant, water, harvest, and ship crops in a given amount of time. It’s like the harvesting part of Harvest Moon with an extra dose of caffeine. It’s available on all current consoles but reviewed on PS4 here.
Summer of the SEGA Genesis Mini 2: Part 2
Posted on August 18th, 2023 by
There are so many games on the SEGA Genesis Mini 2 that I had to split this blog into two parts. So make sure to catch last week’s installment if you missed it. Anyway, here we’ll go over the rest of the Genesis games as well as the unreleased stuff and SEGA CD titles. OK let’s begin!
Toodee and Topdee (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, X/S, PC)
Posted on August 16th, 2023 by
Toodee and Topdee literally combines the action of a 2D platformer with the puzzles of a top down style game. The story goes that an all-knowing being created some vastly different worlds. One is 2-D and another is a top down world, for instance. This god-like being created all this with just words, and used a semicolon to unite them all. But the assistant to this god, named Toodoo, he got worried that his master would get rid of him after finishing all his work, since he wouldn’t need an assistant anymore. So he stole the semicolon that provided order to everything. Now all the worlds are mixing up and combining. So now Toodee, who lives in the 2-D platform world, and Topdee, who lives in the top down viewed world, must work together to get the magic semicolon back. Toodee and Topdee is available for all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.
Tiny Dragon Story (Switch)
Posted on August 14th, 2023 by
An evil wizard has stolen all of Tiny Dragon’s treasures, so it’s up to you to help get them back in this retro inspired 2-D platformer on Switch. The black and white graphics remind me of games I would’ve played on the Apple ][+ I had as a kid.
Summer of the SEGA Genesis Mini 2: Part 1
Posted on August 11th, 2023 by
While they aren’t as huge as they were a few years ago, mini consoles are great because they package some of the systems’ best games onto one tiny console you can relive the classics on. But the problem is they don’t put ALL the great games onto one console! Luckily last year SEGA released a second version of their Genesis Mini console with more different games, including some unreleased and SEGA CD titles. I heard it was kind of hard to get, and even though I paid a tiny bit more for mine than I wanted to, it still wasn’t that bad. So let’s take a look at what’s on the Genesis Mini 2!
