Joe Gamer

When Redbox game rentals made their way into our area, I was excited to rent Tangled – the video game. There was something about this that reminded me of Shrek the video game. Maybe it’s just because they are both movies and multi-player. I wanted to play it. After months of not finding it for rent, the price dropped to $20. Figuring that was cheap enough, I bought the game about a month ago. Last night Tangled actually made it into the Wii. So months of anticipation finally came together for an impromptu gaming session with the Little Gamer.

I knew she would like Tangled since she loves the movie. Also, I knew that she would want to play Rapunzel. Game play is basically for two players – Rapunzel and Flynn. Two more people can play – if you can count pointing the Wiimote at the screen and picking up loot as ‘playing.’ So with the Little Game as Rapunzel, I was by default Flynn. We finally found our way out of Rapunzel’s tower – the home base of the game – by clicking on the map and going forth on an adventure.

The game is pretty much laid out like the movie. You set out to the forest on your first quest and learn the ropes. Rapunzel can do all sorts of cool tricks – like twirling around flowers to make them grow with her magical hair. She can also swing from trees. Her weapon is a frying pan – that doesn’t seem to do much of anything with Flynn around. Flynn has a knife and can easily clear bushes and fight bad guys. He is there to protect Rapunzel after all. He can climb cliffs. All of these skills are learned through your first journey. You can also hold hands and run together. It’s just so darn cute but not really practical. We kept trying to hold hands while Rapunzel swung with her hair. Anytime you do another action, the hand holding stops.

One really neat part about the game is that you do not have to stay together on screen. If one player wanders ahead or back tracks, the screen splits so that you can explore at your own pace. This was nice because the Little Gamer was enamored with twirling on flowers while I was interested in what lies ahead of us. So this way Flynn could scout ahead while Rapunzel enjoyed just being out of that castle.

Our game ended as many video games session end – with the Little Gamer in tears. She usually gets frustrated about something and will not let it go. With Tangled, the vague game book said that butterflies are always around where Rapunzel could play with her hair. The only butterflies we saw were at places where she could swing by her hair. So their definition of ‘playing with her hair’ is definitely different from a six-year-olds.

Tangled was fun but not worth the wait I put myself through. But glad I waited until it was $20 – instead it would have been a better $2 game rental. We’ll give it another try soon. The Little Gamer is ready to give it another go – so if she can be forgiving of poor game mechanics, then so can I.

© 2011, Lynn Little. All rights reserved.

Watching television recently I caught a movie that I personally had not seen in over thirty years. In this story the protagonist is trying to live free when he has a run in with a crooked law man. The movie is the 1978 story of Western Ruggedness, Convoy.

While watching the film I was struck by how the protagonist, Martin ‘Rubber Duck’ Penwald, was a very reluctant leader and hero. Rubber Duck simply wanted to live his life doing what he loved. When the antagonist, Arizona Sheriff Lyle ‘Cottonmouth’ Wallace, entraps Duck and his friends, the truckers haul tail for New Mexico to avoid a wrongful prosecution.

One might ask why I’m talking about a 70′s trucker film in a gaming blog, and that’s a valid question. Rubber Duck struck me as an archetypal Chaotic Good character. Duck is a genuinely good guy that typically follows the rules of the land, but when those rules are used unjustly he has no qualms about ignoring the rules or those that attempt to enforce them. Duck has no dreams of being a leader or messiah even though others want to thrust such a mantle upon him. Even as others fall in line with him, following him almost blindly, he’s simply driving to be free.

Cottenmouth similarly strikes me as very Lawful Neutral, perhaps even Lawful Evil, but I don’t really think he is evil. Cottenmouth does have a bit of a sadistic streak when it comes to truckers, and he uses his authority to his own ends in these regards. Never during the course of the film did I consider him evil however, though I must admit that right at the very end as Cottenmouth is firing a military machine gun mounted on a Texas State Riot Police tank directly into the Rubber Duck’s truck, Cottenmouth had a bit of a sadistic grin going. I also have to admit that Rubber Duck really pushed all of Cottenmouth’s buttons simply by ignoring the sheriff and everyone gets a little extra sadistic as he or she finally gets to swat at that really annoying bug once and for all. Ignore the fact that it was Cottenmouth that riled up that bug to begin with.

There is one quote that really outlines the two characters and their representations of Chaotic Good and Lawful Neutral. It is:
Sheriff Lyle Wallace aka Cottonmouth: I am the law. Don’t you understand, I represent the law.
Rubber Duck: Well piss on ya, and piss on your law.

Check out Convoy. It’s a fun, if slow, movie. It nicely illustrates how you can have real conflict with very little in the way of violence and between adversaries neither of whom are evil. Also notice how as the conflict escalates so does the violence to the point where I don’t think either of the characters would have seen themselves capable of committing in the beginning of the movie.

© 2011, admin. All rights reserved.

I’ve been a longtime fan of The Knights of the Dinner Table comics from way back in the days when the comic appeared in Shadis magazine. Shadis! That was a while back. For a while the comic appeared in Dragon magazine (DRAGON!) and eventually found its way to comic book format. The guys at Kenzer & Co. STUFF the pages of KoDT and Jolly Blackburn is the writer / artist. Let me tell you KoDT is FUNNY stuff. Actually you don’t have to believe me, the guys at Kenzer are GIVING AWAY a comic in PDF form. Go ahead, download that, read it and come back. I’ll wait.

…

Funny stuff right?! If you said “no” stop reading now and go away, I have no use for you. Philistine!

Anyway, for a while I visited the Kenzer&Co forums pretty regularly. Jolly often posted during those times and you just get to know folks … or at least know what they want you to know about them, but then again that’s all we really know about most folks anyway. Let me just say Jolly is VERY likable and much loved by my wife and I as well as a great many other fans.

So what does this have to do with AEG?

Recently Jolly and his wife Barbara lost their daughter Amber. I can’t imagine their pain. BoardGameGeek (another industry class act) started a drive to raise money for the Blackburn family, and AEG stepped in with some really significant donations. I can’t afford a single one, but I strongly encourage folks to go over to BBG, register, and bid on something neat. Also take the time to look at all the companies and individuals donating items for this family’s cause. Gaming is filled with some really excellent people.

When you are done go hug your kids, kiss your spouse, and remember to let the ones you love know it. You never know how much longer they will be with you, so make every moment count. Now if you don’t mind I’m wrapping this one up to go read a book to my little girl. Hopefully I won’t choke up.

© 2011, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.

The Little Gamer’s love of Bella Sara miniatures has already been discussed here at Joe Gamer. We were familiar with the Bella Sara card game and picked up the miniature horses on a whim. We all love them, so it’s no surprise when JoeGamer saw Bella Sara series 4 miniatures at Target, he bought the Little Gamer a few packs. I’m not sure who was more giddy over them – the girl or Joe.

We have all of series one and a few from series two. Series three we just missed completely. There are 12 new figures for series four. They are -

Lavender
Lilova
Sleetmane
Slypie
Seraphia (pictured. fancy tail)
Venus
Allegra
Bella
Chortlebones
Chromasia (Pictured. Rainbow wings)
Kitty
Kora

When I compare series 4 to the earlier sets, I must say that they are getting better. Series four horses have more detail and just look better than those horse from series one. Also, I love the base for series four. It’s a small purple heart. Each horse has one leg that is slightly longer that fits into the base. It is a lot better than the stands from series one.

Each pack comes with a colored checklist and a code to use at Bellasara.com that unlocks horses, games, and other goodies.

© 2011, Lynn Little. All rights reserved.

The Little Gamer loves unicorns. She loves anything pink and remotely related to princesses and fairy tales. It’s no big surprise that she is wild about unicorns. She keeps telling me to contact the ‘game companies’ to make a unicorn game. Not sure the whims of a five-year-old will persuade developers to make a game. She may have her father and I wrapped around her finger, but the world at large is not that easily swayed.

JoeGamer has been playing Red Dead Undead Nightmare, and the Little Gamer has been enamored with it. She also enjoys zombies – to a certain extent any way. She enjoys watching her daddy play the game and has been cheering him on since she learned there is a unicorn in the game.

It was JoeGamer’s mission this past weekend to find the unicorn. After some Internet searching, he learned what he had to do to unlock the unicorn. He had to kill the Chupacabra since he had already completed the four horseman of the Apocalypse challenge. After working diligently at this task, he finally did it – and there was much rejoicing from the Little Gamer.

The unicorn is pretty neat. She – because everything cool is female according to the Little Gamer – leaves a rainbow trial and has butterflies that constantly surround her. She has limitless stamina and nearly impossible to kill. Apparently killing her can make her fly. The Little Gamer would be heartbroken if JoeGamer ever did that – so we will just have to take the Internet’s word on that.

Here is an article that explains more about the Red Dead unicorn.

© 2011, Lynn Little. All rights reserved.