Many moms cringe at the mere mention of video games, simply because many children are so addicted to them. I'm not one of those moms. In fact, I spearhead the console-buying and game selection at our household. I can't even blame the kids. Video games give them the variety that their short attention spans require. When they grow tired of playing with a certain game, they can just change the disc or cartridge and it's a brand new experience. Of course I understand that there's a danger that they won't develop patience as a result, but I remedy that by letting them choose a game and telling them to finish it to the best of their abilities before they change. Or I limit the number of games they can change between.

   For the purposes of this blog I will make an example of the game Cooking Mama: Cook Off for the Nintendo Wii. Cooking Mama is my 3-year old daughter Keirra's favorite game. It takes the whole "luto-lutuan" concept to the next level. Since the Wii's controller is blue-tooth driven, Kei can simulate cooking actions and see them get executed onscreen. Like to chop vegetables, she makes chopping motions with the controller. To roll the dough, she holds it like a rolling pin and pushes it back and forth in a rolling motion. The game lets her do everything you can do in the kitchen -- fry fish, grind meat, beat eggs... and even arrange all the food on the plate before serving!      

   I myself am playing a game called Trauma Center: Second Opinion on the Nintendo Wii, wherein I play a surgeon who operates on patients to save lives. You use your controller like a scalpel to cut patients open, use it like a pair of forceps to remove tumors or glass shards... the possibilities are endless.

   These games could very well inspire the next great chef, surgeon, pilot, etc. Who knows? The point is, not all video games are comprised of blood and violence. In fact, they open whole new worlds we could only dream of exploring. I'm not saying that we should drop all other activities in favor of video games, because video games can't provide human interaction skills and complete multi-sensory experiences that the real world can give. I'm just hoping I can shed light on some stereotypes a lot of parents seem to have.

   Both Cooking Mama and Trauma Center are also available for the Nintendo DS.

We took the kids to TimeZone in Trinoma today for some arcade fun, but was rather disappointed by the place. We usually prefer Q Power Station in Rockwell, and why that is so just became more apparent.

For starters, TimeZone's air-conditioning could not keep up with the number of people who were there. It was sweltering hot, we were perspiring within moments of getting our TimeZone cards loaded. They only had four Love and Berry game machines, and they were out-of-date at Version 5 (Q Power Station branches are all on Version 6 already). All of them were packed with little girls waiting for their turn, so our poor daughter had to wait for about 30 mins before she could play... and it was so hot, her hair was already dripping with perspiration by the time she got to sit in front of a Love and Berry machine.

Our son had a slightly better experience since he prefers shooting and racing games, and there were a lot to choose from. If a certain game had too many people playing, he could choose another game. In general though, the place is cramped so it's pretty hard to move around and find yourself other alternatives with kids in tow.

A positive point is TimeZone's games are a somewhat cheaper to play than Q Power Station's. Love and Berry costs P28 per game at Q, here in Timezone it's P26. Timezone also has "yellow swipers" that cost an average of P15 per game.

Next time though, I think we'll take the kids to Q Power Station instead... or maybe try another branch of Timezone. The TriNoma branch isn't worth the sweat and frustration.

*Picture taken from the Time Zone Philippines website.

   Given my video game addiction, it's only natural to find several consoles in our house. I've been playing since the Nintendo Family Computer came out in the early 80s. I upgrade, downgrade, and modify Sony PSPs for family and friends in my spare time... and yes, I also join video game high score contests for prizes -- I managed to land in the top ten high score table of the flash games for the following movies: Superman Returns, 300, Harry Potter, and Speed Racer among others and won some wonderful movie merchandise.

   Our family's favorite video game console at the moment is the Nintendo Wii. Hubby, me, and the two kids usually spend Saturday nights playing together. We love Wii Sports, especially tennis and bowling. Lately though we've been playing Super Smash Brothers, a fighting game featuring various classic video game characters from games like Super Mario Bros, Pokemon, Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Starfox, etc. The game has numerous secret characters which you have to defeat to unlock. Last night, the challenger was Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid (I may as well be speaking in Martian now to non-gamers, but I have a point... promise!). Solid Snake was a super soldier. He moves like lightning, throws grenades, uses a rocket launcher with guided missiles... the works. Hubby, myself, and our son Kenshin all took turns trying to defeat Solid Snake, but to no avail. We were just about ready to call it a night when Keirra grabbed a controller and told us she wanted to play. We were like... what? You don't stand a chance against Solid Snake. Keirra insisted, and she picked Peach (pictured with her above), the princess in Super Mario Bros, to be her character.  

   Thus Peach in her long, frilly pink gown and parasol came prancing on the screen, controlled by Keirra. To our utter shock and disbelief, she started beating up Solid Snake until the referee called "GAME!!!" and Peach won. Solid Snake, defeated in the hands of a 3-year old using Peach, widely perceived as one of the weaker characters in Super Smash Brothers. Our jaws just dropped.

   I wonder if any of my kids will love writing as much as I do...

   Wow, I just found out today that my little boy Kenshin won a Granado Espada Limited Signature Edition set in a recently concluded K-Zone raffle. For those who don't know, Granado Espada is a Korean fantasy online role-playing game. There are only 9,999 of these sets in the world and it's worth about P2,500 at present.

   Wow, my score in the Speed Racer flash game bagged us tickets for the advanced screening tomorrow night! I didn't think I'd make it to the top ten but I somehow did... anyways hubby and son will surely be thrilled. Ken also played and his score made the cut as well, so our whole family can watch! :D

   My friend (the same friend who won an X-Box 360 last year, wow this is her 2nd X-Box prize in 2 years) has won another X-Box from a raffle promo. She's not a gamer at all, so she wants to sell it. Toys R' Us awarded her the prize and insisted that they open the unit in the store for testing. They tested it and it works, and she also got an original X-Men game to go along with the unit. She's selling the X-Box 360 unit for P14,000 plus she's throwing in the game for free. Take note that an unmodified unit costs around P16.5k in Greenhills, and it doesn't come with any games.

   Interested parties may email or YM me at animetric1@yahoo.com, leave a reply or PM, or text me at 09223327175.

   P.S. I'll be in the US from March 14-28, but I'll still be able to respond via email, ym, and pm.

I bought this game like a year or two ago, but haven't really touched it until now. There seems to be a standstill in PS2 releases at the moment, perhaps my console is dying with the advent of PSP and PS3. Anyhow the drought prodded me to dig up the games I bought but have not yet played and this is what I fished out of my cabinet.

Dynasty Warriors 4 Empires follows the tradition of the Dynasty Warriors fighting game franchise. You can slash, jump, do a special... that sort of Tekken-type fighting action. The difference is in the Empire mode. You get to play a Chinese ruler who aims to control all of China. You do so by picking a character (at the moment my favorite is Sun Ce) and then working together with your generals and lieutenants in coming up with a good strategy every turn. Will you work to boost your territory's economy? Recruit new officers? Or maybe forge an alliance with your neighbor? The decision is in your hands. You are initially given one territory, and your ultimate goal is to control the whole of China by invading your neighbors one by one.

After you get the strategizing out of the way, you have to invade territories and fight battles. This is the fun part. You pick a person you want to control and then run off to the battlefield where you will hack and slash through hundreds of enemy troops. Hacking and slashing has never been so much fun. I love it!!! You can cut through everything from foot soldiers, mounted cavaliers, juggernauts... whooo hoooo!

The versus modes are pretty creative as well. You don't fight each other, you try to outdo one another on who can either a. kill the most enemies; b. survive for the longest times; c. throw the most enemies off the roofdeck.

I'm currently controlling 7 territories out of... 20? I didn't really count but it looks like I'll be playing this game for quite a while. YEAH!!!

Just about the only thing that's not so hot is the fact that the female characters get lousy weapons and lower statistics... and thus I'm forced to use a male character.

Love and Berry: Dress Up and Dance! is an arcade game available exclusively at Q Power Station. My 3-year old daughter Keirra is sooo crazy about this.

One game costs 28 pesos. Swiping your power card on the terminal activates the game and a fashion magic card is dispensed. You can get either a Hair and Make-Up card, Dress Up Card, Footwear Card, or Special Item Card (the rarest of all). The player chooses either Love (brown-haired girl) or Berry (black-haired girl) as her character and proceeds to swipe the fashion magic cards she has on hand to dress up Love and Berry for the venue of choice. You can go to the seaside, the disco, the ball, fashion street, street court... but you have to dress appropriately to get max points. After dressing up, you get to dance in your chosen venue by pressing the buttons in time to the beat of the music.

It's a very simple game but the graphics are very pretty and anime-sque. My daughter loves collecting the cards and dressing up Love and Berry in the arcade. The down sides to this are you can't play at home (although in Japan there is a Nintendo DS version which has a peripheral which reads the fashion magic cards) and the game does cost 28 pesos a pop.

So kikay... :D

   What I mean to say is, I got the Dumbledore's Army version of the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie official t-shirt (along with another set of buttons and a cap)! We won the scarlet-colored Order of the Phoenix version from Studio 23 a week ago. I won this one for being one of the top ten highest scorers in the Harry Potter "Kill the Death Eaters" flash game. Woo hoo! I had no idea if my score was going to make it since we were all required to submit a screenshot via email and there were no statistics posted, but apparently 692,385 points was enough to get me a spot.

   Our kikay little girl was only to happy to pose with the shirt again. Check out the Movie Memorabilia 2007 album for a closer look.

   I love the Harry Potter shirts because they're not black. About 85% of official movie tees are black, I like the color black but it gets boring ya know... next movie merchandise on my sights: stuff from License to Wed.

   I've posted this before but again, brand new X-Box 360 for sale. My friend won this in a raffle but since she's not a gamer she can't really care less for it. The price is now down to 15k (negotiable), the picture on the left is the actual console. The unit is unconverted and unused.

   Interested parties can PM me or leave a comment. I really have no idea what the going rate of an X-Box is but if you have an offer please feel free to let me know. 

THIS ITEM HAS BEEN SOLD.

 

...where I go for help when I get stuck in a video game.