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Family Game Night video game version at San Jose Best Buy
For dads tired of the same old board games, the Family Game Night series is worth a try. Earlier editions were video game versions of classics like Mousetrap or Clue, where you moved your game piece around a video board with some extra animations and touches thrown in. Now FAMILY GAME NIGHT 4The Game Show, for Xbox 360 (with Kinect functionalty), PlayStation 3 (with Move functionality), and Nintendo Wii, combines familiar games with more of the functionality possible in a video game.
In FAMILY GAME NIGHT 4 The Game Show, you can experience all the fun and excitement of the popular Hub Network TV show. This time you’re playing with larger-than-life pieces in re-imagined versions of your favorite Hasbro games. CONNECT 4 Basketball is more challenging than ever as you shoot hoops to score and YAHTZEE! Bowling puts a whole new spin on the popular dice game. You’ll also find fun new versions of SCRABBLE Flash, SORRY! Sliders, and BOP-IT Boptagon,and win MONOPOLY Crazy Cash, just like the game show.
Shout out to neighbors in San Jose! To celebrate the launch of the new video game Family Game Night 4: The Game Show, EA and Best Buy are teaming up to present FAMILY GAME DAY! Bring the whole family to the Santana Row Best Buy at 3090 Stevens Creek Boulevard Sunday December 4th from Noon to 4pm, and play video game versions of your favorite HASBRO games like Connect 4 basketball and Scrabble Flash. Enter to win a fun-filled, family vacation or a new iPad 2 loaded with your favorite FAMILY GAME NIGHT games! For more information go to FACEBOOK.COM/EAPLAY .
GreatDad.com Review Policy: The featured product for this review was provided to us, at no cost, by the manufacturer or representing PR agency for the sole purpose of product testing. We do not accept monetary compensation for reviewing or writing about products. We only review products that we have personally tested and used in our own homes, and all opinions expressed are our own.
Popularity: 1%
Review: Haba Little Magicians Game
I just finished spending a half hour playing Little Magicians, a memory game by Haba perfect for little pre-readers. The game is pretty simple. Players roll a die that advances a Merlin character 1, 2 or 3 spaces. Each space a player lands on is marked with an animal including a cat, a raven, an owl, and a dragon. The magic begins when the player has to find the matching animal hidden under nine different magician’s hats on the game board. Using a magnetic wand, the player lifts up one hat. If he’s right, he gets a token. Wrong, and the game simply advances to the next player. For extra fun, the game board has a very simple cog and wheel mechanism that moves the hats and hidden animals just enough to complicate memorizing where they are.
While older parent-age players are not likely going to race to play this after the kids have gone to bed, the memory portion of the game is challenging for all ages and mom and dad were happy to play two games each of the game. We especially liked that the game is estimated at 15 minutes for each round (time featured on the box) so we could easily volunteer to play a game without committing to an hour-long endeavor. My six year old son, while perhaps at the tail end of the age range for really being excited about this game, liked it enough to pull it out again and ask everyone, including his big sister to play again.
Dads would be well-advised to read the directions before opening the box and pulling apart the many parts. Dads, including this one, can become impatient when little hands start spreading all the playing pieces before the structured play begins.
GreatDad.com Review Policy: The featured product for this review was provided to us, at no cost, by the manufacturer or representing PR agency for the sole purpose of product testing. We do not accept monetary compensation for reviewing or writing about products. We only review products that we have personally tested and used in our own homes, and all opinions expressed are our own.
Popularity: 2%
Review: Super Mario Bros. for Wii
Family Wii games aren’t a slam-dunk. While the Wii is perfect for family play, too many titles are ported from Playstation or XBox and are really made for single players. Nintendo’s Mario Brothers, however, is a game that has always been available for multiple players (two), and the newSuper Mario Brothers for Wii now allows four players on that the same time. That means dad and two kids can jump, run, swim, and fly in the unique Mario world with familiar characters like Bowser and Luigi. Dads who, almost a generation ago, were experts at the original Mario Brothers, can connect with kids with their own insider knowledge of cheats and tricks.
While the peripatetic action in this game turned mom off, I like it because I can jump in and out of the action (literally and figuratively) and never feel like I have missed a key part of the story. Like a lot of Mario games (think Mario Party 8), some of the “progress” and lots of the “story line” are confusing. In these games, it’s less the destination than the journey unless you have spent enough time in Mario world to understand who these characters are and what they are fighting for or against (evil? coins? getting older?).
Super Mario Brothers is $49.99 at Amazon.
NOTE: We paid for this product with our own hard-earned money, and this product was not sent to us to review.
Popularity: 1%
Fun family Wii Game for 3 players – Alvin, The Squeakquel
As a family with both a little kid (5) and an older one (10), we’re always looking for Wii games that we can play together. These tend to be physical games that require no reading. Here’s a title that we tried recently and all enjoyed because it kept us moving with music, if you call pop covers sung by chipmunks “music.” Alvin, the Squeakquel, for Wii delivers what it promises, a fun music game for kids that older players can enjoy, at least for a while.
Alvin is a classic music rhythm game. Players just use their WiiMotes to match the required rhythm for Alvin and Chipmunks covers of hit songs like “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and “Funky Town,” — titles dad knows — along with some more recent pop hits. Dads who have priced out the expensive Rock Band paraphenalia will be happy to note that there are no added accessories needed. Alvin for Wii works right out of the box.
Wii games aren’t a slam-dunk for family play. While the Wii is perfect for family play, too many titles are ported from Playstation or XBox and are really only made for single players. Alvin for Wii is one game that is made for multiplayers, not as an add-on feature. While Alvin, The Squeakquel can be played solo, it’s far more fun as a party game or played by dad and two kids (3 players max).
Th kids loved the songs and it was fun watching my kids discover Chipmunk versions of music I could sing along with. “How do you know all the words, Daddy?” they wondered. Because I knew the songs, I also dominated in point totals on almost every song. However, while the kids loved the music and played the songs several times, this game got tiresome quickly for older ears and its novelty value wore away after a few plays. For adults, this game will make a fun family hour, but don’t expect to take it out night after night for more replays.
All in all, if you want to try out a music and rhythm Wii title that will work for little kids, that isn’t too complicated, and that does not require a $300 investment in a Rock Band set, this is an amusing title to start with.
GreatDad.com Review Policy: The featured product for this review was provided to us, at no cost, by the manufacturer or representing PR agency for the sole purpose of product testing. We do not accept monetary compensation for reviewing or writing about products. We only review products that we have personally tested and used in our own homes, and all opinions expressed are our own.
Popularity: 2%
Fun phonetics game for pre-readers
Our family has been playing cards every night around bedtime, sadly often in place of reading a book. But, that’s okay in this case, because we’re playing Whizizzle, a new phonetics game.
Whizizzle is not unlike Crazy Eights except that the families of items are phonetic sounds that players must match with cards with similar sounds. Adults, and other players, are supposed to say out loud the word containing the sound so that smaller players get the hang of the phonetic pronunciation.
The game has a few twists with “action” cards that players can use at any time to change the direction of play to force the next player to draw a card. Trumping almost all strategic action though, is the all-important “change the vowel” card, which allows a player to use any sound, usually to win the game.
We think the best toys and games are ones that can motivate the whole family to play. No child wants to stand around begging adults to play some mind-numbing game that they only play once and begrudgingly. While I can’t say they’ll be adding Whizizzle to Las Vegas card game favorites, I’ve been happy playing Whizizzle almost every evening for the past two weeks. My nine year old loves the game and delights in helping her little brother learn the basics of reading. And, my five year old is just starting to get the idea behind the sounds.
The only drawback that I see for the game is that they could have integrated picture clues into the cards so that pre-readers could associate the sound with a word they could identify. As it is now, my little boy has to wait for us to read what is on his card. Eventually, he will read them too, but for now, all he can do is identify the letter without the corresponding, and very important, phonetic sound.
Whizizzle comes in two packs, 1-3 and 4-6. 4-6 is only slightly more advanced. $14.95 at Amazon.
Popularity: 1%
