Wipeout 2 Nintendo DS

Guest Post –

My 4 ½ year old son, Ethan, has several life goals. One is to grow up and be an astronaut, another is to play football, and the third and most talked about goal is to become a contestant on the game show, Wipeout. So he was ecstatic when I received a new game, Wipeout 2, to review on my Nintendo DS.

Wipeout 2 offers all the same fun of the TV show- racing through crazy obstacles to beat other players and win the $50,000 prize. The game is narrated by John Anderson and John Henson, the hosts of the show on TV.

This is a fun game, but definitely not an easy game that you will complete quickly! When you first start playing, you are limited to playing as one of three characters. As you play more, other characters get unlocked and available for play. You are also limited at the beginning to just one level and you have to be the winner of the level to advance to the next level. Much easier said than done!

I appreciated that the Nintendo DS version of the game offers the ability to skip some of the obstacles. It adds time to your clock, but for me was occasionally worth it. I was a little annoyed by the fact that the game’s default is to do an instant replay of every single time you wipeout. This can easily be skipped with just the push of a button, but since I wipeout more often than not, it got a little old to constantly have to be pushing the button. The commentary from the hosts also got a little repetitive, but that’s easily fixed by turning down the volume or turning off the voiceover on the options menu.

Overall, I think this is a fun, challenging game that has kept me occupied for many hours now, and I know it will continue to do so in the future. I have a very long plane trip coming up later this month, and I will definitely be taking my Nintendo DS and Wipeout 2 along with me! Wipeout 2 is rated E10 for mild cartoon violence and comic mischief. It’s available now, as a game for Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Wii, Xbox360, and Playstation 3.

Purchase your copy of Wipeout 2 at Amazon.com for $27.46.

Disclosure: I received this product to review for myself. All opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone.

Carrie is a mom to two small kids (ages 4 and 2), who spends her days trying to keep her kids out of trouble, enjoying life in Seattle, and blogging at Growing My Kids Reviews.

Monopoly Collection for Wii

I’m a big fan of board games, but I’m not a fan of all the set-up that most games require, and I’m definitely not fond of keeping track of all of the little pieces. So I was really excited when I found out that many of my favorite board games are now available as Wii games! The most recent addition to my game library is called Monopoly Collection. This Wii disc contains two Monopoly games, classic Monopoly and Monopoly Streets. Here’s just a bit about these games, from the EA website:

Become a MONOPOLY mogul as you compete with friends and family to dominate the board in MONOPOLY, or immerse yourself in the MONOPOLY world as the magical metropolis comes to life in MONOPOLY Streets.

 

The classic Monopoly game has everything that you remember from the board game, with many extra features, such as the ability to customize the game with your house rules.  In Monopoly you can either play a regular version of the game, or one of several shorter versions in a game called Monopoly Richest.  The Richest games are a nice twist on Monopoly, with a certain number of rounds determined before the game, and the goal of obtaining the most assets by the end of the game. I really like the Richest games when I’m playing by myself, as they offer a way to take a quick game break without spending hours playing a full game.

The graphics on Monopoly are nice and the animation is well done.  I do wish that you could control the music on the game, as it gets a bit old after a while, but it’s not unbearable. In Monopoly, as you play, you earn stamps in your passport, and with enough stamps, you earn a new Monopoly board to play on, and new playing tokens to go along with it. The most recent board that I acquired is a dessert game board. Fun to play on and yummy to look at.

The second game on the disc is Monopoly Streets. This is a fun update of the Monopoly game, in which you play in a virtual 3D city, with your character traveling the streets of the city. When you buy a property, it changes appearance, and when you build houses and hotels, they actually appear on your property! This is my kids’ favorite game to watch me play, as they love to watch the buildings appear.  Monopoly Streets also has a handy “fast forward” feature, allowing you to fast forward through things like watching the characters actually travel from spot to spot. It’s fun and entertaining to watch all the action the first few rounds, but it’s nice to be able to skip through the unimportant parts in later rounds when you’ve seen it all multiple times.

My favorite thing about Monopoly Streets is that as you play, you earn points which you can use to “purchase” new boards (some 2D and some 3D) and tokens.  You can even purchase the ability to use your Mii character in the game.  This keeps the game new and fresh and entertaining!

Both Monopoly and Monopoly Streets can be played with up to four players, so this offers fun for multiple people. The games are rated E for Everyone, but do require a good bit of reading to understand what’s going on, so they’re probably best for older children and adults.

Purchase Monopoly Collection at Amazon.com for $27.99.

Disclosure: I received these games to review for myself. I was not compensated in any other way and all opinions posted here are mine and mine alone.

Carrie is a mom to two small kids (ages 4 and 2), who spends her days trying to keep her kids out of trouble, enjoying life in Seattle, and blogging at Growing My Kids Reviews.

Drawsome Tablet by UBI Soft

A few weeks ago a snow storm hit Seattle and, since we’re not really winter people here, that meant lots of staying indoors.  Fortunately, my kids (ages 4 and 2 ½) and I had a new toy to play with- the Drawsome Tablet for Wii! This tablet came with two games, Drawsome Sketch Quest and Drawsome Artist.

The Drawsome Tablet is powered by the Wii remote, which fits into a slot on the left side of the tablet. It took me a minute to figure out how to run the wrist strap out of the bottom of the tablet and tuck it away, but otherwise set-up was very easy. Then I just picked a game and started to play.

I started out with the Drawsome Sketch Quest game first.  Each level of this game has a group of animals which need to be lead through the level to an exit on a different point of the screen. It took me a few minutes to figure out exactly how sensitive the tablet was and where my pen needed to be on the tablet. But soon I was drawing lines and bridges and doing everything else necessary to rescue the little animals.  The game was surprisingly challenging, but I’ve still really enjoyed playing it.  I thought the level of instruction offered in the game was good- if a new skill or style of drawing is needed, the game tells you what you need to do, but doesn’t over emphasize it or make it too simple.

The only thing about Sketch Quest that I don’t completely like is that, if you don’t manage to draw a bridge or slope fast enough, and your animals fall off a high surface, the game does show them hitting their heads, then floating off with wings. This caught me off guard the first time it happened, and I wasn’t quite prepared to explain what was going on to my little kids! Otherwise, this is a fun game and we’ve been enjoying it. You can play Sketch Quest with up to four players. This game is rated E for comic mischief.

Drawsome Artist is a simple drawing game. It offers coloring pages, free draw or learn-to-draw mode. And it all features the Smurfs! My kids have been loving the coloring pages and free draw options, and ask to do the “art game” often. At their ages, they can’t quite manage choosing new colors and/or drawing tools themselves, but otherwise they have no problem with it.

I have read some other reviews of the Drawsome Tablet where people complained of the tablet being too sensitive and/or not working properly, but this hasn’t been our experience. All in all, we really like this new addition to our Wii, and we’re hoping for more games for the Drawsome Tablet soon!

Purchase Drawsome Tablet on Amazon.com for $50.95.

Disclosure: I received this product to review for myself. I was not compensated in any other way and all opinions posted here are mine and mine alone.

Carrie is a mom to two small kids (ages 4 and 2), who spends her days trying to keep her kids out of trouble, enjoying life in Seattle, and blogging at Growing My Kids Reviews.

Wappy Dog for Nintendo DS

Just when we thought we’ve seen everything a Nintendo DS could do, along comes Wappy Dog. Wappy Dog is a toy puppy that interacts with the player through the Nintendo DS system.

“Wappy Dog teaches young gamers to raise their very own puppy in both the real and virtual worlds and teach it cool tricks, play mini-games together and even converse! Each pet is a fully personalized experience, enabling players to customize both the in-game version and physical dog with different colors and accessories.”

The Wappy Dog toy runs on 3 AA batteries (included) and has an on/off switch under his chin. Just turn him on, insert the game cartridge into your Nintendo DS system and you’re ready to go. The interaction between toy and game performs better if they’re within 3 feet of each other but I found that it did work well even though I was about 10 feet away.

There are 2 different modes of play: Home Mode & Travel Mode.

Home Mode allows you to interact directly with your toy puppy. You can choose from a selection of commands/questions and see how Wappy responds. For example, you can ask, “Wappy are you hungry?” and he’ll respond by saying, “I couldn’t eat another bite” or “Give me a shortcake.” Although, I would have preferred something more along the lines of “Please may I have a shortcake.” He can also respond by barking, moving, and doing tricks. The more you play with your Wappy Dog the more things he’ll learn how to do as he grows from a puppy to an adult dog.

Travel Mode allows you to play the game without the physical toy puppy in front of you and will save and update your progress for the next time you’re in Home Mode. This is a great feature since it isn’t always feasible to bring Wappy along for the ride.

Travel Mode seems to have more games and activities available for the player. Here you can play with Wappy by blowing bubbles or throwing a ball and watch him run after them. You can also feed him by preparing different types of food like slicing a jelly roll, putting the filling into an eclair, or emptying cans of dog food onto a plate. There are also mini-games to play like catching falling fruit or a “whack-a-mole” type game. We really enjoyed that last one because we had to play against Wappy and he has some pretty fast paws.

In Travel Mode you can also change Wappy’s appearance, the room he’s in, and groom him to your heart’s content. Again, the more you interact with him the happier he’ll be which unlocks more games, appearance & room options, and play things.

After playing with Wappy for a few days he’s now 3 years old. The brochure says that eventually Wappy will learn how to dance and sing which we haven’t come to yet but that should be something cool to see! This game is perfect for any child who loves animals and taking care of them. The game is easy enough for Kiana (6) to play on her own yet cool enough for even Kacie (9) to be interested in it. Even I had a blast playing some of those mini-games.

I think Wappy Dog has made a breakthrough in taking the Nintendo DS a step further in interactive fun. I can see many more virtual pets making a physical appearance in our homes very soon.

Purchase your WAPPY DOG FOR NINTENDO DS at Amazon.com for $48.83.

This post was written for Activision who provided the complimentary product in exchange for our honest review.

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