Posted by dkidwell on May 9th, 2006 — Posted in Nintendo DS, console games, parenting, reviews
At the Nintendo press conference this morning, the Nintendo executives drew a picture of a world where older couples practice golf swings in their living rooms, and whole families play tennis and baseball in the comfort of their homes.
I expect parents to be seeking the Wii and it’s wiimote and nunchaku for Christmas this year. It’s is engaging, and my 6 year old will love swashbuckling with the new wiimote. In fact, I can just see my kids jumping off of towered pillows, or the sofa, in fantastic moves that one would expect from only Jackie Chan or Peter Pan. We’ll have our friends over to lob tennis balls at one another, and my daughter will conduct orchestral symphonies – not sure which game that actually is, but they showed alot of conducting on stage.  In fact, WiiSports and Zelda will apparently launch on the same day as the device – hopefully with some nice bundle packages.
The wiimote will have some sounds directly on the device, which they demoed with Zelda’s bow and could be very engaging. And we thought we already had surround sound!
On Thursday I’ll get the grand Nintendo tour and I’ll post over on Killer Betties a full review and specials for families here at Gamermom.
Posted by dkidwell on May 7th, 2006 — Posted in parenting
There is a new PS2 game that is apparently doing very well in Japan – Maiden Love Revolution. In the game, you play an former beauty queen is who is now overweight, but strives to get back to her ‘former self.’ Throught calorie counting and exercise, she can get back to her former weight. In doing so, she is rewarded with a boyfried.
Good golly! I tend to like simulation games, and I don’t tend to be terribly politically correct, but this one just has me aghast. Maybe the reviews are condensing the plot to it’s most banal elements, and the game has some remediation qualities. Maybe. But from the screenshots, that looks unlikely:
It also seems odd that they’ve used the Dance Dance Revolution nomenclature. DDR players have actually reported losing weight as they play. And that makes DDR more of a sport than anything. Did the Maiden Love guys have to fork over some cash to leverage that title?
My daughter isn’t playing this one, and I can’t promise to review it. A terse review and some screenshots can be seen over at Wired: Win a Date With Shallow Hayato.
Posted by dkidwell on May 4th, 2006 — Posted in Nintendo DS
Nintendo announced the US launch of the new DS lite today. It will be out on June 11th and retail for $129. If you were in a market for a DS this summer, it’s probably worth waiting for the new version. Reviews show that it is smaller and has a better (wider) stylus – 2 improvements that should make for even better gameplay for young hands. It also has significantly improved brightness and that is a big plus for gamers that are likely to be in the car for long summer vacations.
They haven’t discussed the release of an Opera Browser or digital TV tuner, both of which have been discussed for the Japanese version.
Check out the release info at: Nintendo.com News2 – New Nintendo DS Lites The Way For Mario
Posted by dkidwell on May 3rd, 2006 — Posted in Electroplankton, Nintendo DS, console games, parenting
Super Monkey Ball Mini at Sega.com is a nice flash version of the real deal. We’ve had many hours of family gaming with Super Monkey Ball on the Game Cube. We’ve even been known to host competitions with our friends. It’s a wonderful party game.
The family got me a version for the DS, and with any luck, I’ll have some time on the plane next week as I’m traveling to E3 to play it and whip out a review for it. Stay tuned…
Posted by dkidwell on May 2nd, 2006 — Posted in parenting
Orisinal is a collection of very nice online games. They are simply beautiful, and the music for each is very sweet and peaceful. The games are engaging variations of some old favorties and a provide a very pleasant pastime. Go check it out:
