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.

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.

I have to admit that I haven’t played Magic the Gathering in a very long time. In fact I have sold a lot of our Magic the Gathering collection. The collectible card game was just too much to keep up with when I went back to school. Having a full-time job and full-time school work just didn’t leave much room to learn new rules that were released with each new set.

When M10 was released, I bought a pre-constructed deck that came with an unopened booster pack. Inside that booster pack was a Baneslayer Angel that I later sold on eBay for $30. Needless to say, my interest in new Magic the Gathering cards was renewed. I bought more M10 but never pulled another Baneslayer Angel. I did buy a few packs of the next set but didn’t enjoy it as much as the core set.

So I’ve learned that I really do like the MTG core sets much better than the expansions. The expansions seem to always have these funky rules that I don’t care to comprehend. The core sets seem to stick as close as possible to the basic rules. Also with M11 I have more chances to pull another cool rare card that hopefully bring me big bucks to pay for even more cards.

© 2010, Lynn Little. All rights reserved.

Google is celebrating Pack-Man’s 30th anniversary with a very special logo. Just go to Google.com and wait for the game to load. Then press ‘insert coin’ to play. Once it loads, press insert coin for two-player action with Ms. Pac-Man.

Of all the various logos Google has showcased, this one has to be my favorite.

© 2010, Lynn Little. All rights reserved.