jedbeetle

You know, the Wonderbook is a pretty special piece of technology. I really have to hand it to Sony for financing something that is so obviously just for families who want gaming time to be more about exploring, thinking, and , god forbid, learning. The wonderbook augmented reality just works, and it's immediately shared by everyone in the room. The AR is fascinating to watch in action. That said, Walking With Dinosaurs is a neat addition to the Wonderbook library. The graphics are occasionally jaggy with low-rez textures, but the dinosaurs themselves look pretty good. The thing plays out like an interactive Discovery channel show - like a vision of future interactive television that never was, but is, here in this niche peripheral experience. Walking with dinosaurs has a consistent order of things - dig up some bones, look for some dinosaurs, answer some quizzes, play some mini games, etc. Each demi-chapter is capped with a quiz to test how much the player(s) actually paid attention - a standard for lesson planning - meaning that the game actually rewards your kids for focusing on the information given. This is great if you're looking for a way to keep your game-loving child in a learning state of mind for a couple weeks during the summer. I'm not sure how much replay value this one will have- it depends on how much drive your kid has to gold-star those silver or bronze starred levels. If that drive is there, they'll certainly learn more interesting dino facts, but nothing too deep, especially in terms of the scientific process, which should have been more explicit in the experience, I think. Walking with dinosaurs uses the book itself in some nice ways - making the player turn the book to get different angles on the scene - but has more removed from the book experience than other Wonderbook games. Since the book is my favorite part of this AR experience, I was a little disappointed by this. Still, this is a worthy addition to the Wonderbook Library- that is to say, if you bought a wonderbook for the obvious reasons, Walking With Dinos is definitely for you.

Well, the game is fun. Especially with kids. I'll give it that. However, it fails on several key fronts: First, there is no reason that this game should have been tied to a toy franchise. The toys merely unlock characters in the game. No significant data is stored on them, and leveling them up does nothing for the characters themselves other than incrementing a numeric value. From a collector's perspective or a child's perspective, it might be nice to have figurines to show off or play with, but from a gamer's perspective, this is an entirely egregious use of resources and a rip-off to boot. They could have made the same game without the portal of power knock-off and the toys that go along with it, charged less, and focused more resources on improving on the game itself, which is lacking, in the end. The Toy Story 3 game, which this one was clearly based on, was great, affordable, and provided fantastic game-play, both linear and open ended. Disney infinity is a stumble in the a half-right, half-wrong direction. Second off, the creative toy box mode is extremely limited and totally buggy. You cannot fill your toy box with much before it maxes out and forces you to delete things if you want to add more. You cannot make any of it interactive beyond the built-in interactivity of the objects you place in it you can't create missions, or dialog, or set up any sort of logic-triggered events. Also, it often breaks. I often will place an object and want to move it around, but half the time the object becomes permanently fixed is space with no way to select it. This is one of several unacceptable glitches in this mode that make it frustrating more than fun, more stifling than freeing. Finally, co-op presents many missed opportunities. I love couch co-op, I love playing video games with my kid. This one is pretty fun for a little while. Still, forcing you to buy more toys to unlock specific characters in order to even play co-op after you're already spent 70$ on the game is an insult. See, you can't bring characters from different movies into each others worlds. This right here is a huge missed opportunity for fun. What's more, there is no co-op specific content. There are no vehicles that can carry two people. There are no missions requiring two players, co-operation, or that particularly benefit from being carried out by two people other than you might finish them faster which means you likely have to split up anyways. Again, it can be fun for kids. Disney Infinity is more creative than its obvious counterpart, Skylanders, provides more interest methods of travel throughout its worlds, and is a fine way to distract or spend an evening with your kid. But it doesn't really live up to its promises, and takes on the excessively wasteful and expensive baggage of real world toys without any clear reason or obvious benefit other than to make more money.

Well, the game is fun. Especially with kids. I'll give it that. However, it fails on several key fronts: First, there is no reason that this game should have been tied to a toy franchise. The toys merely unlock characters in the game. No significant data is stored on them, and leveling them up does nothing for the characters themselves other than incrementing a numeric value. From a collector's perspective or a child's perspective, it might be nice to have figurines to show off or play with, but from a gamer's perspective, this is an entirely egregious use of resources and a rip-off to boot. They could have made the same game without the portal of power knock-off and the toys that go along with it, charged less, and focused more resources on improving on the game itself, which is lacking, in the end. The Toy Story 3 game, which this one was clearly based on, was great, affordable, and provided fantastic game-play, both linear and open ended. Disney infinity is a stumble in the a half-right, half-wrong direction. Second off, the creative toy box mode is extremely limited and totally buggy. You cannot fill your toy box with much before it maxes out and forces you to delete things if you want to add more. You cannot make any of it interactive beyond the built-in interactivity of the objects you place in it you can't create missions, or dialog, or set up any sort of logic-triggered events. Also, it often breaks. I often will place an object and want to move it around, but half the time the object becomes permanently fixed is space with no way to select it. This is one of several unacceptable glitches in this mode that make it frustrating more than fun, more stifling than freeing. Finally, co-op presents many missed opportunities. I love couch co-op, I love playing video games with my kid. This one is pretty fun for a little while. Still, forcing you to buy more toys to unlock specific characters in order to even play co-op after you're already spent 70$ on the game is an insult. See, you can't bring characters from different movies into each others worlds. This right here is a huge missed opportunity for fun. What's more, there is no co-op specific content. There are no vehicles that can carry two people. There are no missions requiring two players, co-operation, or that particularly benefit from being carried out by two people other than you might finish them faster which means you likely have to split up anyways. Again, it can be fun for kids. Disney Infinity is more creative than its obvious counterpart, Skylanders, provides more interest methods of travel throughout its worlds, and is a fine way to distract or spend an evening with your kid. But it doesn't really live up to its promises, and takes on the excessively wasteful and expensive baggage of real world toys without any clear reason or obvious benefit other than to make more money.

Basically, this game is Mod Nation Racers with a few twists and some disappointing omissions. The editor is noticeably easier to use. The biggest advantage over Mod Nation, though, is the load times. You won't be sitting around for two minutes waiting for a track to load anymore. This improvement alone makes the game worth it if you liked Mod Nation but got burnt out on waiting (like me).

Eat Them! IS quite fun. It's become my go-to game for fun, arcade-ish messing around. Letting you build your own monster out of wacky body parts that you collect through level achievements is brilliant and simple, giving you satisfying creative control over each monster, giving you a reason to ace missions, and providing a steady progression of unlockables to match the ever-increasing difficulty. There's a lot here to enjoy, and acing levels requires some effort and thought, both in game-play and monster design. The level variety leaves a little bit to be desired, though - there's not much beyond smashing things to pieces. Well...there is and there isn't. Every mission involves your personalized monster(s) running around a city breaking stuff (intentionally or no) and eating people (it heals you). There's the break everything to pieces mode (strangely reminiscent of Katamari Damacy) and the break these specific buildings as fast as you can mode - these get recycled the **** powers, New cities and more difficult opposition keep things interesting enough, but you do a lot of the same thing. Then there's racing, which is a little annoying due to a poorly implemented waypoint indicator, and survival. It behooves you to break as few things as possible in these modes, since more destruction means more enemies. Then there's the escort missions, which are a bit nerve-wracking since it's far easier for you to kill your buddies than it is for your enemies. They are thankfully spread out, but you are required to beat them in order to progress. Then there's odd little missions thrown in - like chucking animals, or eating lots of people. These are just awkward and don't feel particularly rewarding to accomplish, since there's so little of the breaking things part, which is where this game shines. Targeting is random-ish. It's an issue sometimes, like when you want to target a specific enemy rather than a tree, or if you want to make good use of the orbital laser attack. I'll sometimes laser a car behind the building I'm trying to destroy. It's possible to pick targets - turning your monster about will toggle different targets pretty well, but there could have been something a bit better here. Given the game's similarity to Rampage (it's an homage, no doubt), I was hoping for some good building climbs, but the ability to climb is missing. And I miss it. It would be nice to be able to interact with the environment in other ways - climbing a building and leaping onto another one to crush it to pieces would be satisfying. Reaching the top of a **** and lasering the heck out of helicopters and scenery would be nice too. A little more interactivity would be nice in general - you can pick up stuff and chuck it, but there's not much reason to usually, other than for fun, and the effect isn't as cool as it could be. If I could lift a bus into the air and empty its passengers into my mouth like gummy candy, I would like this game just a little more. Co-op is a welcome addition, and reason enough to get this game if you have like-minded friends to play with.

I'm going to say this first, since it's the most important thing: People have been talking about calibration issues with this game and I can tell they're running into the same problem I figured out early on. If you make changes to your environment during the game, it will confuse the heck out of it. You have to reset the game and make any changes during the very first initial setup screen!! If you make any changes after that, it will just make things worse, since the game bases all image detection on that first moment of calibration. Trust me, if you understand how to make this game work, it works great. And it does NOT require an hour or more of calibration. Took me 10 minutes to work it out the first time, and now it's a 5 minute setup tops for me. Easily the most fun I've had playing a motion-based game. That it uses only the camera and not the move peripheral makes me wonder at all the recent hullabaloo regarding the new motion tech. This can't be considered a full review, since I have only played a little of the game. Due to the aerobic nature of this title, it'll be awhile before I get all the way through it. What's fun about it: *Jumping around, kicking, swinging arms, jump attacks, even swinging an object around the room is how you fight in this game. If you can jump in the air and do the splits, then you can kick 2 enemies on either side of you. As hard and as fast as you can swing is as strong as you will be in the game. And it works, even in less than ideal conditions. *Super moves work very well. Gesture based actions work if you pull of the gesture, and they are satisfying. Learning how to do a backflip onto your enemy and strike as you land on them is pretty satisfying. *Challenging. Flailing your arms around wildly will not get you through the game. You need to learn to dodge, duck, jump, and time your attacks. *Comic book involves you. It's really funny actually. You pose for the camera, and the game sticks pictures of you in the story comic. And it works pretty well. you can even retake the pictures to try out variations on the pose and different outfits. Story doesn't seem amazing, but it doesn't seem too painful, and the fact that it's me up there makes it all the more entertaining. *Makes you sweat. Easily the most exhausting game I've ever played. I had to stop between fights to rest. I got sweaty. Since my exercise generally comprises picking up my kid and setting up my classroom, this is a great option for a workout. Need to stretch before and after. What I wish worked better: *I need a different colored couch. Having a dark green couch and a light-colored wall confused the game a little. Before I changed my pants to be less green, my "avatar" sank into the ground here and there. Suffice to say, the game works best if you have a solid background to play against and clothes that contrast that background. Also, ample, even lighting. The game will still work in less than ideal conditions, but it works all the better if you prepare yourself and your space. *I can't reach that far!! The length of my arms limits my attack range. And I have long arms. I spent some time swinging wildly at nothing before I learned how to quickly move across the screen, since some enemies apparently figured out that the best way to avoid my wild monkey swings is to go somewhere else. *ouch, my foot. I hurt my foot kicking at a badguy where a chair was. You need a lot of space - about 6'x6' - to play this game, and it will not work very well otherwise. I do have enough space, but I had to clear some stuff out of the way. I also knocked over our poinsettia when I was experimenting with using a staff as a weapon - which seemed to actually work, however dangerous it was to me and my living room. Staff aside, I was jumping, kicking, and flailing my arms all over the room, possibly endangering myself and several inanimate objects, and some cats. *I don't like that guy's voice. I wish I could record my own voice, or have several voice options for the voice over of my character. The actor isn't too bad, but I hear something else in my head when I see my picture, and I'd love to have the option to change it. All in all, a successfully innovative and hilariously fun treatment of the old 2d beat-em-up. It's a gem in the hit-or-miss motion controlled genre, and it stands out for using only the old, original motion-based gaming device: The Playstation Eye. Not perfect, but rarely anything like this is.

This is a fun little puzzle game. You're a lab rat solving single-screen physics platforming puzzles, and you have the power of selective telekinesis snf the Sands of Time power (freeze, rewind). The time manipulation has, so for, only worked as a redo or freeze effect (allowing you to move some objects around the screen), which is fine, but I hope it gets a little deeper in the future. I'm only on the 4th "world". The puzzles are designed such that even if you complete one, you may still have to return to get 100% completion (collecting little green pills). Playstation Move support is good - nothing fancy, but fairly straightforward. The rat always carries around a flashlight that can be guided with the playstation move and is used to dissipate fogs in order to reveal exits or pills. You also use the move to grab and manipulate objects when the telekinesis is in use. This is a pretty effective use of the move, and is definitely quicker and more enjoyable with a Move controller than with the analog stick. If you do use a move controller, you'll need to hold a nav controller or a sixaxis controller in your secondary hand in order to move the rat. There was a little glitch once at the outset that caused the Move controller to not activate. I reset the game and it worked fine. Graphics are simple and cartoony, a little twisted. Sound and music aren't bad and compliment the game well. Good for a quick pickup and play game, good to play with other people giving advice on the harder levels, and fun with a move controller.