While the family and I continue our decent into Super Mario Galaxy 2, I wanted to take a minute and mention two games we rented recently, SpongeBob's Boating Bash and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

Since I want to get the inferior of the two out of the way, first up is SpongeBob's Boating Bash for the Wii. If you walk into any video game section of your favorite retailer you're likely to see about 6,000 SpongeBob games - pick any other SpongeBob game if you must bring yourself to buy one.

Boating Bash is supposed to be a racing game staring the characters from the SpongeBob universe. But I would say it's as close to a punch in the face as it is a racing game. This game is simply awful. The one redeeming quality is that they got the voice actors to do the voices (which I assume is a contractual obligation), outside of that, this game made me want to toss my Wiimote out the window. The controls are clunky at best and the graphics are a complete mess. If you want a racer for your kids I would pick up Sonic and Sega All-star Racing instead. Just steer clear of this game at all costs.

SpongeBob's Boating Bash - 2 out of 10

The second game we played is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs for the PS3. If you saw the movie and enjoyed it I think you'll have a good time with this game - assuming you play with your kids. My family and I absolutely love the movie, and while the game isn't as good as the movie, it's still a good time. The game is a simple 3-D platformer with a storyline lifted right from the film. You play as Flint Lockwood and a second player can drop in and out (ala the LEGO video game series) and play as Flint's pet monkey, Steve. My three-year-old particularly loves playing as the money because, well, it's a monkey and who doesn't love monkeys?

The challenges in each level are simple, the collectables are out in the open, and the controls are simple to learn, making this an easy game for kids to pick up and play with almost no problem. They've simplified the controls so that playing consists of hitting just a few buttons. Pressing the X button jumps, L2 or R2 activates your equipped item, L1 or R1 changes items and you move with the left stick. The graphics aren't great, but given the retro feel of the movie and the audience this game is after, they don't need to be. 

If your an adult gamer with no kids, I would stay away from this one unless you're looking for trophies. An experienced gamer can finish this game with 100% completion in an afternoon easily. But with that completion will come many trophies to add to your collection. Sure, they're from a simple kids game, but they still add to your total.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatball - 7 out of 10 (with kids, 4 out of 10 without)

Oh, and if you haven't seen the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, what are you waiting for? Queue it on Neflix ASAP.

I'm sure any gamer out there already knows this, but tomorrow is the release of the next rendition of Super Mario for the Wii - Super Mario Galaxy 2. This is the third Super Mario platformer developed for the Wii (Super Mario Galaxy, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario Galaxy 2), marking the first time Nintendo has developed three Super Mario platformers for the same system since the original NES (Super Mario Bros.' 1, 2 and 3).

Anyone looking at this game as a potential buy for young gamers should know that this is a 3D platformer in the vein of Super Mario Galaxy or Super Mario 64, and not a traditional 2D Mario platformer similar to the original Super Mario Bros. or New Super Mario Bros. Wii. This may present more of a challenge for young gamers and even some frustration.

There is a two player 'option' in the game, but this is almost identical to the way it was handled in the first Galaxy game - player 2 is given a pointer with which they can collect star bits, freeze some enemies and now drag coins.

So far the reviews I've read make the game sound great, many saying it is better than the original Galaxy, with a few saying this is the best game on the Wii. Check out the reviews below for more:

Gamespot - 10/10

IGN - 10/10

1UP - A

Worth Playing - 9.5/10

Game Informer - 9.25/10

I know I said I would focus on more age appropriate kid games for this, but I am pumped for Red Dead Redemption. It releases tomorrow (Tuesday, May 18) and it looks like an old west version of Grand Theft Auto.

For any hardcore gamer out there, it looks like a winner. But I can say for certain, keep this one away from the kids.

Here is the review from ign.com - http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/109/1090125p1.html

Sonic and SEGA All-Star Racing

Reviewed on - PS3

Also available on - 360, DS, PC, Wii

Overview

Released on February 23, 2010 this is a standard kart racing game - ala Mario Kart - with Sonic the Hedgehog as the lead character and costarring characters from just about any SEGA game you can think of.

Objections

The game features levels and characters from the House of the Dead franchise. Some parents may not be comfortable allowing children on levels based on a game which features killing and zombies. The levels used to represent the game also feature zombies that you can rundown, which may make some parents - and children - a little squeamish. There is no splattering of blood or any thing - actually you just kind of bounce off of the zombies - but it is in the game.

Outside of this, I guess some may be uncomfortable with the way the characters of Space Channel 5 are represented (sexy alien women dancing around). And something that has always bugged me about Crazy Taxi is one of the character's name - B.D. Joe (use your imagination folks) - shows up in the game.

Gameplay

Much like the basic premise of the game the gameplay really doesn't feature anything new. If you have ever played Mario Kart you know exactly what you are getting here - video game characters racing kart-style, on colorful courses. You can pick up defensive and offensive items that help you get an edge over other racers and more experienced racers will be able to pull-off the drift boost, giving you a speed boost coming out of curves.

The game does have the standard rubber band AI, but this can be turned off. This has helped my children compete in many races where they otherwise would not have a chance. Sure winning isn't everything, and this game is fun without winning, but it does help increase the amount of fun.

With that said (any Nintendo fanboys may want to avert their eyes), my children and I have found the karts in this game much easier to control than those on Mario Kart Wii. We have been playing on a PS3 rather than a Wii so it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison, but it's still a relevant point.

The part of this game that I really enjoy however is the level design. The levels are based on popular (and not so popular) SEGA games, for example Sonic the Hedgehog (popular) and Space Channel 5 (not so much). I find it interesting that the designers of this game did a better job capturing the magic of the old 2-D Sonic games than any 3-D Sonic game to date.

The levels that really stand out for my children however are the ones inspired by the game Samba De Amigo, a rhythm-music game that first appeared on the Dreamcast back in 2000. The original game is wild and this is captured perfectly in the level design. You drive your kart in and out of rainbow vortexes surrounded by oversized-sunglass-wearing apes and vivid colors that look absolutely spectacular on any HDTV. You can check it our here.

Sadly though, not all of the levels are great, as with any kart game some of the levels are either uninspired or too hard for your average child (or adult in some cases). For example, I would have younger children avoid the levels inspired by Super Monkey Ball. These levels are frustrating for me, and nearly unplayable for my children. If they were playing alone and got into one of these levels, they more often than not had to quit the game due to high levels of frustration.

While the game has great level design in the races, I cannot say the same for the levels used for versus modes. Maybe it's different in online play, but the courses designed for four player split-screen are gigantic and make no sense if you are playing with just four players. You end up spending most of your time on opposite ends of the level rather than actually competing. It would have been nice if there was an option to scale these down based on the number of players.

Will it Last?

Assuming you enjoy kart racing games, this game will be in your console of choice for a while. In addition to the starting courses and characters there are 16 courses, 12 racers and 32 music tracks to unlock. All are unlocked by spending SEGA Bucks gained in-game by simply racing.  Although winning races and performing special moves in game will get you additional money, you don't need to achieve any feat unreasonable for a child (or adult). The PS3 and 360 offer trophies and achievements respectively, adding to the length of play on these systems.

Verdict

I really enjoy this game, but more importantly my children (and wife) do as well. The game is easy to pick up and have a good time with no matter your level of experience.

7.5 Out of 10

I've tried to do this before - when the new site went up - and I think I'm going to get this blog going again. This time however I'm going to try and focus it on games for gamers with children.

As a long-time gamer with two young boys (3 and 6) it's hard to find games that I can play while they are in the room, let alone play with them or allow them to play on their own. Sure the Halo: Reach Beta is great, but allowing a six year-old watch as as snipe someone in the face (M) probably isn't good for their overall development. I know there are others like me out there, and this blog is for us (although I may delve into more adult oriented games at times as well).

For racing fans out there I'll suggest Sonic and Sega All-star Racing as my first recommendation. The controls are easy to learn and it's fun to play. I could go on, and I will, just not right now.

And hopefully I'll be back before nine months from now.

A follow up to my previous post about deciding on a game ... I went with Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. I've played the game for about 5 hours now, and while it will not win over any hardcore RPG fans, the game is a good time.

Anyway, once I play the game a little more, I'll give a second rate review for the six people who may actually read this.

I recently turned the square root of 1,024 and for this occasion my wife gave me a gift card to Best Buy. With said gift card I plan on purchasing at least one of the following three games: NHL 10, Ultimate Alliance 2 or Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.

As any gamer who might stumble upon this can attest, all three look like a good time, unless you are a 'hardcore' gamer who thinks Mario is for kids. So, if anyone out there was an opinion, let me know.

Oh, and as for people who say who cares, I googled reality as suggested, thanks to you I found a great you tube video, cheers!

After all of the pre-release hype that the new game Batman: Arkham Asylum received, I was forced to pick this game up on it's launch date, about two weeks ago now. I was apprehensive at first because, let's face it, most superhero games as just not that good.

For some reason, a medium that is primed for the comic book audience, cannot get a game about superheroes right. Sure there are a few standouts, such as Ultimate Alliance, but for the most part these games are closer to Superman 64 than Ultimate Alliance.

Fortunately for comic book fans, and Batman fans, Batman: AA has become the most acclaimed superhero video game of all time, and based on the time I've spent with the game, it's a title that is hard to argue.

It's an easy game to pick up and play, the gameplay is very simple (punch, kick, grapple, throw), but once you start playing you realize how much you can really do with the simple controls. There is nothing like sitting on top of a stone gargoyle only to swoop down on top of an unsuspecting victim, smash his face into the floor and swoop back to said gargoyle in a matter of seconds, without being detected.

There are times when Batman will be attacked by 10 or more characters, and, thanks to a slow-motion-counter technique, you never feel like you can't handle the action. The best part is, there is no hardware slowdown during these fights.

The best part of the game however, is the characters. First there is Batman. Sure, if you are playing this game you probably know all about Batman, but the game does a good job of portraying him as The Dark Night, not as the cheese from the 1960’s.

The Joker is as crazy as every, and he's voiced by Luke Skywalker, from the Animated series (actually all of the main characters use the voices from the animated series), so you can't beat that. If you get the PS3 version you can play as the Joker on challenge maps as well. He flails about like a madman as you attack guards and other characters, it’s great. Harley Quinn is completely nuts, but I'm not sure they needed to make her so, um, mature?

One of the best things they did with the characters however is provide character cards for each character, which, through a series of hidden items, you can add to individual cards throughout the game. Honestly, I have not followed comics in years, so reading these cards has been a great way to catch up with story lines. For example, Commissioner Gordon's daughter, Barbara, was Batgirl, as I recall from my youth. She's now a character called Oracle, she's in a wheelchair, and she talks to Batman using an earpiece while he is on mission.

Now, I have not played through the entire game, but the one thing that has disappointed me is the boss battles. There is this amazing sequence leading up to a fight with the Scarecrow where Batman confronts his dead parents, but then you fight Scarecrow, and at best it's a ho hum experience. Unfortunately, the other two bosses I’ve faced (Bane and Zsasz) fall into this same category.

This is a great game, one that I have trouble putting down, much to the dismay of my wife and kids. If you are a Batman fan, or a video game fan, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this game.

So I traded in NCAA 10 because it was like dating an ex-girlfriend again and realizing why you dumped her in the first place - she hasn’t changed in the last 10 years, minus some makeup.

I took advantage of the Gamestop NCAA/Madden trade-in special (I ended up getting $44 in all) and picked up Madden for the first time since I bought a 360, and subsequently got rid of thanks to this, in 2005. The last Madden I played was on my PS2 in 2004, which, by the way, I traded in for NFL 2K5 a week later.

Maybe it's because I've been away for so long, or maybe it's because I'm jaded and expected so little, but I really like this game.

The graphics in the game are wonderful, minus a few issues. The players, for the most part, actually look like they are walking on grass, rather than walking on a picture of grass, the ball rotates in flight and the players look great, well except whey they show their faces. For some reason all of the players resemble Eddie Munster.

There are some other issues with the graphics as well, for example, the now-traditional stadium tearing is still there. And it becomes painfully obvious in a stadium that has large black swatches, like the Jaguar eyes seen at field level in Jacksonville (or are those the tarps covering the hundreds of unsold seats?). It gets so bad at times that it looks like snow.

The gameplay is slightly slower than it has been in the past, but I think that's one of the reasons I'm enjoying the game. When I drop back to pass I actually feel like I can survey the field and look for an open receiver. You don’t have all day, but you have some time.

The big change this year, apparently, is Pro-Tac. Basically up to 600 players can tackle a guy and you get to control, with the right stick, the pile. It's ok, but not groundbreaking, and it only seems to work about 25% of the time. Oh, the other big thing this year is the ability to fight for the fumble - yeah, I turned this off after one fumble. It was more frustrating than fun.

The rubber-band AI is still not fixed, but it has gotten better. For example, I remember throwing to wide open receivers back in the day and seeing D-backs from 15 yards away make a play. That still exists, but instead of beating the ball to the spot, they get there a half second later. So the AI actually pays for blown coverage now, just not as much as in real life.

Another reason I really like this game is because the stats actually mean something. I am a Steelers honk, so my default team is Sixburgh. If I hit a wide open Holmes, he'll take it to the house most of the time. If I hit a wide open Ward, he better be within 10 yards of the goal line if he hopes to take it to the house, otherwise he will be caught. Very few people would argue this is inaccurate. The difference is really seen in QB's though. Where Big Ben can throw fairly accurate on the run, do not try and throw on the run with either of the Mannings - it's not pretty. There is also a difference in overall skill. Trust me when I say that you would rather have Brady over Stafford.

Overall, this is a good version of Madden. As always, there are flaws, and one could make the argument that the exclusivity deal with the NFL has hurt this game. This is still the best Madden I've played since my PS2, and one that I hope I'll be playing throughout the season, or at least until NHL 10 comes out in September.

Another year, another incarnation of EA Sports' NCAA Football franchise. I buy this game every year just hoping that it will make some evolutionary leap, and every year I am disappointed.

Is this a bad game? No

It's just the same game I've been playing since 1999. Sure the players on the field look better than in '97 (the game runs at 60 fps with very few hiccups), but at some point you would think EA would take a real leap with the gameplay. I've been playing this game for a few weeks and I can't think of one new gameplay feature worth mentioning.

Heck, the big draw this year is that Erin Andrews is the host of the Road to Glory mode. Sure, she looks good, but how does this make the game play any better?  

Oh, that's right, it doesn't.

There is some tweaking of how the game is played, you can choose how aggressive or conserviative you want your players to play. You can tell your O-line to block longer in an attempt to break longs runs, but the only thing that seems to change is the number of holding calls. These options seem to work best with the receivers. The more aggressive you are, the quicker they tend to run deep ... and I mean really deep. To the point where if you are scrambling around as a QB, you might as well tuck and run. That said, if you are losing (which does not happen often), you can run all of your receivers on hitch routes, and almost as soon as they end the route they run deep. So, you get to run a Hail Mary without actually calling a Hail Mary.

I can still throw a 50 yard bomb and complete it 90% of the time and if you have a halfback with 95 speed, just run to the outside and you get 20 yards each play.

The AI is still more than a little odd (an AI Tim Tebow can break one on the option and randomly run out of bounds), but they do play the option better. If you are an option team, they will defend you as an option team. There are some nifty D-line controls with the analog stick, but I found they only responded about 50% of the time.

There are the usual stat glitches with the game. Your defensive end starts year two of your dynasty with the 54 tackles and 12 sacks from last season. It's great if you are trying to break an all-time record, but frustrating if you are not an EA fanboy.

But the thing that bothers me most about this game? The crowd and the sidelines. They are still using the same 16 bit pixilated crowds that they have for years. This does not affect the gameplay, but when you finally get a close game and you get wrapped up in the action, seeing the same row of 10 fans jump up and down in perfect sync ruins the experience. Or better yet, you get a pick-six and as you are running past your team on the sideline, the seven guys standing there jump one every few seconds, and it appears to be in slow motion. Oh and where is the coaching staff?

Sure the game is still fun, but it wears thin very quickly. It's like running into an old friend at the mall. You might have lunch with them and enjoy it, but once you notice that uni-brow and how they eat with their mouth open, you find a reason to leave early and trade them in for a better friend.