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.
Sonic Sighted at IHOP!
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Posted on June 14th, 2024 by
Back in April, Sonic the Hedgehog teamed up with IHOP for a promotion. There were menu items and other online goodies. Unfortunately, the promotion only lasted for about a month. Just as fast as Sonic, this just came and went! Sorry I didn’t get this news out sooner, but I’m only one person and I can only do so much. Plus having such a short promotion was hard to keep up with. But I figured I might as well go over what they had.
Goliath Depot (Switch, PC)
Posted on June 12th, 2024 by
Robots in a warehouse, factory, and even the cold icy parking lot are taking over, and it’s up to you to stop them by…closing all the doors and windows? Hey, who said video games had to make sense all the time? Goliath Depot is a single screen 2D platform action game that takes inspiration from arcade classics like Donkey Kong, Mappy, Bubble Bobble, and even…Hotel Mario? But it’s still a pretty good game and is available on Switch and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.
Tell Me Your Story (Switch, PC)
Posted on June 10th, 2024 by
A granddaughter is visiting her grandmother, and while unpacking, she sees some of her grandmother’s trinkets and asks about them. Turns out in her younger days, her grandmother travelled around the world and had lots of adventures and experiences! Re-create her stories and put them in a scrapbook by playing little puzzle mini-games in Tell Me Your Story. It’s available on Switch and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.
The Pizza Pixel Podcast Episode 21: Saturday Morning Fever
Posted on June 7th, 2024 by
Get a bowl of your favorite sugary cereal ready, because in this episode of The Pizza Pixel Podcast, my brother Jeff and I talk about our favorite Saturday Morning cartoons! Those are kind of a thing of the past thanks to streaming services and whatnot. But for a good long while, they sure were big with kids.
Electronics Puzzle Lab (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, X/S, PC)
Posted on June 5th, 2024 by
Solve switch based puzzles in circuits with Electronics Puzzle Lab. You might even learn a thing or two about electronics and circuitry along the way. Maybe. It’s available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.
Cyber Citizen Shockman 3 (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, X/S)
Posted on June 3rd, 2024 by
Cyber Citizen Shockman was a series of 2D action platformers back in the 16-bit days. They starred a pair of superhero cyborg teens (a guy and a gal) who were created by a crazy professor. They would fight intergalactic baddies with their swords and beam attacks. The first two were on the PC Engine, which was the Japanese version of the TurboGrafix-16. The second game was even brought out to the US. The third game in the series was on the CD add on in Japan. And now you can play it on modern consoles (reviewed on PS4 here).
Little Kitty, Big City (Switch, Xbox One, X/S, PC)
Posted on May 31st, 2024 by
In this unique game you play as a regular old house cat. You are lying on your favorite windowsill when you accidentally roll over and fall out. You land safely via a string of comical incidents, but now you must figure out how to get back up to your owner’s apartment. So you must explore the big city below, helping out other animals and causing cat-like mischief as well. This game reminds me of a mix of Untitled Goose Game, as well as a PS2 game I played a long time ago called A Dog’s Life, which was kind of the same premise except you were a dog doing dog things. The game also has a bit of a Katamari Damacy vibe with the simple graphics and the Japanese style city setting. Little Kitty, Big City is available on some current consoles and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.
Kudzu (Switch)
Posted on May 29th, 2024 by
Kudzu was originally a modern day homebrew monochrome Game Boy game. You could even buy a cartridge for it. And now you can play it on your Nintendo Switch. In the game, a mysterious asteroid falls on a mountain nearby a mansion and surrounding farmland, which causes the plants to become sentient. When the invasive plant species Kudzu was introduced, it takes over everything in a plan to rule the world. A team of botanists are dispatched to research this phenomenon. You play as the gardener Max, and it’s up to you to solve the mystery of the Kudzu and save the day. The game is an overhead action adventure that pays homage to classic titles like The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.
Unplugged: Around the World in 10-15 Minutes (Boardgame)
Posted on May 28th, 2024 by
The Roll and Write genre, where gamers roll dice and use the results to fill in a scorepad, continues to gain momentum. I suspect this is due in part to the low cost of entry. This is particularly true for print and play games. If standard dice are used, all that players need is a printed copy of the scorepad. Variations have appeared over the years, including using a deck of cards to make a Flip and Write game. Around the World in 10-15 Minutes eschews both dice and cards to allow the active player to choose the result for the turn, effectively creating a Choose and Write game. The game sheet consists of a map of the world connected by lines with two icons located on each continent and two on each city. The active player chooses whether everyone moves, marks off a continent icon, or marks off a city icon, with the active player gaining the selected benefit twice. All three choices lead to scoring opportunities and the game runs until one player has visited each continent and returned to their starting city. Points are added and a winner is determined. Since there are no dice or cards involved, the game only requires one maker and one scorecard per player – making it even more travel-friendly. Around the World in 10-15 Minutes is a print-and-play title currently up on Kickstarter until May 30th.
Unplugged: One Page Monster Hunt (Boardgame)
Posted on May 27th, 2024 by
Roll and write games continue to permeate the boardgame market. We’ve come a long way from the days of Yahtzee, where a player would make repeated die rolls and then mark up their scorepad. Current trends still have players marking up their private sheets, but now die rolls are shared by all players, keeping everyone involved in each roll. In a somewhat recent trend, designers have reasoned that if a single sheet of paper has now taken the place of a game board, can’t we also get rid of the game box? The result is a minor explosion of designers publishing their own games in a print and play format. I am happy to stand behind this trend as this style of game is almost always beginner-friendly and, better yet, the game doesn’t take up space on my gaming shelves! One of the recent projects I’ve stumbled across is One Page Monster Hunt, currently finishing up a Kickstarter run, ending May 27th. It has players filling up a dungeon using Tetris-like shapes while trying to manage the attacks of the dungeon’s villainous monster.
