Gamer Mommy & Geek Boy

Pokemon Platinum launches; crowds lined up to purchase game

Pokeman's most famous character, Pikachu, greets Lauren Bergin during the launch of Pokémon Platinum Version video game this past weekend in New York.

Nintendo World store in Rockefeller Plaza is mobbed Saturday, March 21, 2009, as kids and not-so-little kids lined up to preview and purchase Pokémon Platinum Version video game for the Nintendo DS system. Gotta catch 'em all.

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GamerMommy & GeekBoy survive cabin fever with Wii

The sun is beaming today. After enjoying low-double-digit temps with windchills in the single digits a mere two days ago, no one knows cabin fever better than GamerMommy.

And these recessionary times call for creative thinking when it comes to family entertainment.

While GamerMommy and the GeekBoy generally dig cold weather – think sledding and snowball fights – we do not dig high prices and freezing our tushies off. Nope.

That said we like entertainment that goes the distance and spans the seasons. And we like our entertainment diverse. One reason we love the Wii is that Nintendo gets it and the software developers get it too.

Recession-friendly, all-seasons fun is what we're all about.

Here's a list of the latest we tried:

• Nintendo re-invents the old GameCube standard mass action strategy fav – new Play Control! Pimkin. Rated E for everyone, help Capt. Olimar rally his newfound alien Pimkin friends to pick up the pieces of his crashed spaceship before he succumbs to deadly poison. We love PimKin!

• Get some powder with 7,000 vertical meters and two massive mountains to explore without the high cost of lift tickets. Bandai Namco updates its sports hit, Wii Ski, with snowboarding (Wii balance board optional). Wii Ski & Snowboard is in stores now.  Rated E.

• Re-creating the insane multi-player action of the GameCube hit, Mario Power Tennis, join the stars of the Mushroom Kingdom – Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach and more - for Grand Slam action using new Play Control! Rated E for Everyone. Launches March 9.

• Outdoor Challenge with activity mat and jump rope gets the couch potatoes reaching for something other than the remote and a bag of chips. We like this outdoor sports game pack developed by Namco Bandai as an alternative to the madly popular Dance Dance Revolution (some of us do indeed have two left feet), although you should prepare yourself to be embarrassed by your kids.

Cooking 101: Personal Trainer Cooking for the DS

More than I love writing about videogames (and button-mashing too), I love to cook.  Imagine my delight when I got my hands on Personal Trainer Cooking for the DS.

It's fantastic for the beginner or the experienced foodie with close to 300 recipes representing world cuisines, ridiculously easy voice commands, shopping features, equipment and ingredient glossaries, and technique video.

All this is jammed in a system that fits in the palm of your hand and can easily pop into your bag for a quick run to the grocery store.

i assumed there would be no competition from Geek Boy on this one.  Surely a cooking game couldn't beat out sessions on the Wii with Animal Crossing?

Sadly I was mistaken.  Geek Boy grabbed it and began exploring Vietnamese spring rolls, Australian meat pies and Mexican salsa and tortillas.  Will calamari be next?

There is an upside.  He'll learn to cook and I can get kitchen duty off.

Rated E for Everyone ought to know how to cook fabulous food. What a great holiday gift!

MillionHeir Mystery

Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir is high tech I Spy.  We love it and you will too!

Nintendo reports the seek-and-solve game for NIntendo DS showcases "a multitude of beautiful, intricately detailed painted scenes in which players seek out cleverly hidden items to progress through an interactive detective story. There are 12 potential heirs to examine, 30 detailed scenes to peruse and more than 1,000 hidden objects to find."

It's a great game to pick up and play for a few minutes or a full commute. Get ready to sharpen your skills because this game is intricately detailed, a real scavenger hunt.  Rated E for Everyone!

MLB Power Pros 2008: Rated E for Everyone

It's not often you see a high double digits score in a baseball game,  Unless you happen to be a button-mashing, casual gaming Mommy such as myself.

Yeah, I freely admit it. I suck. 

But that didn't stop me from enjoying an hour of MLB Power Pros 2008, the 2K Sports-developed game that is the highest-rated and best- selling baseball title in Japan, available last year in North America.  The little guys, based on the actual major league teams and their big name players, look like bobble heads.  And the way I play, they were pin balling all over the playing field.  I laughed so hard I cried.

With three key game modes, fans can play alone or with another person, choosing from Success Mode, MLB Life or Season Mode.  Success Mode creates the career path of  a rising star in the Double-A minor leagues with players trying to improve their skills and impress scouts while trying to balance their personal lives.  MLB Life simulates the experiences of being a major league player over the course of a  20-year career.   Season Mode recreates the challenges of leading a winning team to the top in the World Series.

MLB Power Pros 2008 is fun, fun, fun.  I love watching the little guys take a big swing, strike out, and spin like the Tasmanian Devil  with their eyes bugging.  Catching a pop fly is a huge skill thrill for an all thumbs master such as myself. 

Kids big and small will love pitting their favorite teams against each other in their favorite stadiums.  I can envision many a Subway Series.  Plus you get to play as your fav players too.

Catch MLB Power Pros Action

I Love Me a Skater Boy!

He was a skater boy

She said, "See you later boy"

And anyone who had to listen endlessly to this puff pop tune from Avril Lavigne knows how this story ends.

Skater Boy rules!  And, well, the geek girl gets the cool guy.

On that happy note, I'd like to introduce Skate It! due out Fall 2008.

The two nine-year-old test geeks I took with me to Everyone Plays sponsored by Electronic Arts in June gave the game enthuiastic High Fives! in both Wii and DS platforms.  Developers Black Box, which is all things skateboard all the time, worked with pro skaters to create the highly intuitive game.  Skate It! features the revolutionary Flickit controls for more ways to shred -- either using the Wii remote or balance board or DS to mimick sick board moves. 

It's not just random riding, however.  The plot goes like this:

A series of freak natural disasters has left the city of San Vanelona deserted and in ruins. Skate It brings gamers back to the former skateboarding mecca where fallen structures, debris and rubble, combined with zero pedestrian traffic becomes the perfect formula for wicked skate lines.

Nintendo players ride with the pros, getting worked in (the) Hall of Meat and raking in sponsorships on their path to becoming Thrasher Magazine’s Skater of the Year. But the story line doesn't end there. Gamers get gnarly in skating hot spots, owning their turf globally.

My skater boys had to be physically dragged from the game to test other Electronic Arts offerings.

I'd say a good time was had by all.

Video Gaming For Good

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing a remarkable young man, Ben Underwood.  Ben is your average  teenager in practically every respect. Ben is into sports -- biking, skateboarding, surfing, rollerblading, shooting hoops, and he is a video game fiend.  A huge gamer, he is pretty much undefeated in Wii Boxing, and dreams of being a game developer./p>

He’s a regular kid, except that he can’t see.

Ben has cancer. 

He has no eyes, but wears prosthethics. Diagnosed with Bilateral Retnoblastoma or cancer in both eyes as a toddler, he had surgery to remove both his eyes just before his third birthday.

His life could have been very different but for his mother Aquanetta Gordan. Gordan decided when her baby lost his eyes that she was going to push him to use the gifts he had rather than feel sorry for himself.

They put their faith in God and only recently decided that Ben would no longer undergo chemotherapy, but take Glyconutrients, an alternative medical treatment.

"I never let him feel my fear. I never let him see me cry," she said. "I just loved him like the rest and I didn't treat him any different.

He uses clicking sounds, or echolocation, to locate objects by listening for the echoes in much the same way dolphins or bats use sonar reverberations to navigate. His sensitivity to sound has allowed him to do everything, and perhaps more, than most kids.

Ben doesn't see himself as different or remarkable.  He's just an ordinary kid with big dreams.  "I'm not blind," he says. "I just can't see."

To the rest of us, he is an inspiration.

Because I am so uplifted by his amazing spirit and grace, I am donating 25% of all revenues generated by this website to a Scholarship Fund to help Ben realize his dream of video game development. Please support this effort by donating to the Tip Jar or supporting this site's sponsors.