Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots -- STAY AWAY!

I went to college in the 90's and my first real console was a Super NES. There were a lot of standout games on the platform, but the ease of writing for the machine also created an industry of crud. Many of these lame platformers were simply marketing vehicles: Beavis and Butthead, Rocko's Modern Life, and even 7-Up had a game (although the 7-Up game featuring the little red spot guy was actually pretty good).

Now, I'm not so puritanical to think that marketing and good games can't mix. In fact, I have a side biz making iPhone apps where we hope to make great apps that just *happen* to have a marketing message as well.

But here's a tip to intellectual property owners: the halcyon days of the 90's platformer craze are over. So don't fall into the same old "jump, run, jump, run, die and repeat ad nauseum" pattern that defined so many ill-conceived games from the 90's.

Case in point: "Nicktoons Attack of the Toybots." While the production values are great, and there are plenty of fun moments, overall the game is hampered by a huge level of frustration. For example: a good 1/3 of the game involves tedious and unnecessary jump leveling. Make one mistake at the end of a sequence and you've got to start back at the beginning of that section, doomed to drive yourself nuts. This might be fun for a bored 10 year-old with no other games on the shelf, but for me it only brought back the nightmares...

So unless you find this for a couple of dollars or you want to waste a free rental and some time (and sanity), avoid it like the plague. Pity, as the game did have a lot of potential. If the levels were designed better, I would recommend it. Unfortunately, there's just too much padding for it to be fun.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

When all the new toys are coming out! Yep, you Johnny-come-lately shoppers out there beware: the hottest toys this season are likely sitting on shelves now. Granted, the economy might make those toys readily available in December, but do you want to risk it?

I'll post the toys we've got our eyes on soon, but for now, here's a sample:

• Imaginext has an entire line of superheroes (Batman and Superman for now)


• Also in that line is Spike the Dinosaur. You might have seen the ads on TV. However, Spike isn't a more animated version of previous dinos in this line -- he's HUGE! He'll be this year's Butterscotch the Pony (remember her from last year?)


• The newest Leapster is out and looks good.


• Anything High School Musical


• And all the major game publishers have a boatload of new games for you... be sure to read all the reviews, but keep in mind: gamers tend to write them. I've had good luck getting discounted games for younger kids because a bunch of snotty core gamers hated the repetitive nature of the gameplay. But kids love the fact that they can master something so quickly! Like old arcade games, your mileage may vary.

Back soon with more holiday shopping tips!

Why the Mario Kart Wii shortages?

When Mario Kart Wii came out we were going on vacation and couldn't afford to grab a copy. Bad move! Just like the Wii itself, the game has been tough to find after the initial release. I'm not sure why-- it's just a disc and a wheel. Before the Wii we had trouble buying the Mario DDR game, and we heard it was because of quality control issues. I applaud Nintendo's efforts, but the Kart shortages don't make sense.

So the other day I was delighted to find my wife happened upon a nice lady at Target who said she had just opened a box of games and there was ONE copy of Kart inside. Just one? What in the world?

Anyway, once I took a look at the wheel it made a little more sense. The wheel isn't like the Monster 4x4 wheel (from Ubisoft), which is just a plastic shell. The Kart wheel has a better gripping system (the 4x4 wheel tends to gunk up the IR transmitter). The Kart wheel also has a hole for the IR transmitter, plus a special button to activate the B-button on the underside of the remote. That has a purpose in the game, but I'll cover that later in a more in-depth review.

How a board game is made

Neat and very detailed development blog of VIKTORY, a board game partly inspired by one of my favorites: Axis and Allies. Fascinating to see the iterative process of designing and building a game system.