A cross between a Pokémon game and Animal Crossing (with a bit of “Carnival Games” tossed in), PokéPark 2: Wonders Beyond lets you play as one of four different Pokémon, including Pikachu, Oshawott, Snivy, and Tepig, as you make your way through PokéPark and try to save the missing Pokémon. Once you get to the Park (an exotic theme park) you can try your hand at different game attractions that can be played with up to four players using the Wii Remote. These include a shooting gallery, dancing, and flying through space in a race around the stars. As you explore, you can make friends with other Pokémon by playing games such as Chase or Hide and Seek. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Designed specifically around the unique attributes of the Sony Vita handheld game system, Little Deviants is a collection of thirty games that provide a good test of your problem solving abilities and reaction time. In Hole Roll Control, you touch the back of the Vita (the back side has a sensitive, capacitive screen, like the iPad) to see the “bump” of your finger on a floating landscape. By moving the bump around, you push one of the deviants (they roll) toward a hole. Other games include House of Whacks, Depth Charge, and Botz Blast — the latter an augmented reality game that uses the outside-facing camera to let you target bad guys who are floating around the room. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Your child can help Dora and Kai-lan perform vet checkups, bathe, feed, groom, and potty-train the animals, who do tricks for thanks. Animals include bunnies, birds, puppies and kittens. Features include the ability to save up to three games. The microphone is also used (e.g., say hi to the new pet). Children can also play backyard games, dress-up the pets, and teach them tricks to earn treats, toys, and hats. Developed by Black Lantern for 2K Play. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Once you get past the idea of touching the swarms of realistic roaches, ants, or bees, children quickly fall for this collection of 18 counting and classification activities. There are two modes. You can move through a series of structured challenges progressively (progress for one player is bookmarked), or you can freely explore. Management features include the ability to toggle on/off scores, achievements, visual instructions, extended introduction or the background music. The leveling causes the app to get easier if a child struggles. A “bonus mode” presents the hardest challenge. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Transform your iPad into a zany Dr. Seuss horn, with eight buttons, arranged as a whole-tone. Content includes 10 songs, including the soundtrack from The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss’s ABC, Hop on Pop and more. There are five horn-style instruments with different voices, and fun effects, including an echo-chamber fish bowl. The GameCenter feature lets you match scores with others. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Two years after the the original Mindflex (CTR Feb 2009), comes Mindflex Duel — with two headsets for two players instead of one, and a higher price. The headset fits tightly onto your head so it can capture information related to your body’s electromagnetic energy, by way of two sensors — one you clip on your ear lobe, and the other that you fit on your forehead. The levels of energy are fed into a computer that controls a small blower that causes a small foam ball to go up or down, Bernoulli Blower style. When in two player mode the game is like a tug-of-war — the idea is to move the ball across the game’s obstacle platform to your opponent’s side. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Dressed in bright orange and white colors (to make sure it doesn’t get confused with a real gun), this is a plastic gun that houses your camera-equipped iPod Touch, iPhone 3 or greater in a plastic case that snaps onto a gun barrel, about where the sight would be. So instead of looking down the barrel, you look into your iPhone screen. The first step is to download one of the apps. We tried AlienAttack, a game that plays exactly like many Nintendo DSi and 3DS games, where you see creatures floating around your room as seen through the camera on your device. A radar screen clues you into the creature location — the more you shoot, the harder the challenge. There are just two buttons on the app, one for each trigger. When you pull the trigger, the capacitive energy from your finger is passed to the screen, through a little plastic pad that presses against your screen. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
In this one player game you navigate through the maze-like stages by learning a series of two-step swipes. For example, to get Kirby to float, you have to drag a star onto him, and then draw a line. In the story, Kirby is split into 10 pieces by an evildoer with a magic cane. You use the stylus on the DS touch screen to control a group of Kirby characters (up to 10) as they set off on a journey to return to their original form. The number of Kirby characters you control is important, because some challenges require a specific number of Kirbys in order to be solved. When the number of Kirby characters is increased, you can gain the upper hand. You can control each Kirby in a variety of ways, for example, a Kirby character can be launched into the air with a flick of the stylus, or you can make a swarm of Kirby characters dash to a given point by tapping on that spot on the touch screen multiple times. You can also swipe the touch screen to launch them in a mass attack against enemies, then tap the enemies into submission. The goal is to collect medals hidden throughout the various stages and to unlock additional minigames. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Disney’s virtual world for kids, Club Penguin, is reaching into your mobile device with this game built around a series of cannons that float in the air. The cannons shoot a ball-shaped Puffle (the furry pets from the Club Penguin virtual worlds) through a course full of moving hazards. To make it through, you steer your puffles from cannon to cannon by touching the screen. As the Puffles float, they bounce off balloons. The better you do, the more levels you unlock. The challenges are arranged in 24 levels that can be unlocked. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This unique game uses two styluses at once. You start by creating and customizing your own own avatar. Content includes seven “sports,” including Home-Run Challenges, Archery, Soccer Penalty Kicks, and more; Rank Match – Play to be the best and earn points in each sport; Score Try – Practice each sport with specialized trials and challenges; Today’s Challenge – different sports challenges every day; and Tap Exercise – Hone your touch senses with these activities requiring you to perform feats of dexterity using both hands. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This app features Olivia, a talking pig who is also a magician, as featured on the Nickelodeon show. Content includes 16 magic tricks, each performed by gliding your finger over the screen, copying a pattern. You start by finding a hidden object in a scene, and then trace a pattern over the screen. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This collection of six cartoons consists of adaptations of nursery rhymes, each with word highlighting. For example, in Three Blind Mice, Mother Goose first reads the story. Children can then explore the screen where they discover animated routines, hidden acorns and games; in this case a game of “Whack-a-Mole” where you whack Mother Goose. In “Humpty Dumpty” you get to put Humpty together again by dragging and dropping the parts. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This collection of 20 action, strategy, puzzle, trivia and card games has something for everyone. Most are variations on a theme of familiar casual games. In Feeding Frosty you move a snowman around the screen to see how big you can grow it, while avoiding bad guys. In Boxdrop, you create stacks of number blocks that add up to 21. If you don’t like a game, it’s easy to exit and play something else. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This one player exploration game is only Pokémon’s second appearance on the Wii. Using the Wii Remote turned sideways (handlebar style), you navigate through the PokéPark or participate in one of the races or other skill games that are scattered around the park. In the story, the rare Pokémon Mew summons Pikachu to the PokéPark to find the missing Sky Prism Pieces. You play as Pikachu in each zone of the PokéPark, exchanging bits of dialog (reading required) with different characters who need things, in order to get to the next level. Once you befriend a Pokémon, you play as them in a puzzle, making this game a fun way to meet a variety of better known Pokémon characters. It also keeps things interesting. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
I Love You Through and Through is a nice adaptation of the book by the same name, by Bernadette Rosetti-Shustak (illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church). It is part of Scholastic Media’s “Touch & Tilt” line of apps. There are two ways to explore the 13 pages, which you swipe to turn. You can lean the screen from left to right, or tap on the text or the illustration to launch a one-step animation. Options allow parents to turn off the music and narration so the child can read the story on his/her own, or have the story read to them. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Inspired from the animated movie with the same name, this game features two wolves, named Kate and Humphrey, who are featured in two games: Log Racing and Goose Golf.
The goal is to score in both games in order to bring peace to Jasper Park. There are 30 levels in each game. Teaches: fine motor coordination. Storm City Entertainment. www.stormcityentertainment.com, $30. Best for ages 8-up.
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This game features play-by-play announcing by Tim Kitzrow, two campaign modes (Classic and Remix Tour), realistic looking players modeled after famous NBA players, Boss Battles against basketball legends, the rosters and logos of 30 NBA Teams, plus 100 unlockable items that include teams, characters, privileges, and mascots. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
The game of Marbles moves to the iPad screen, with Marble Mixer, a four player game with three modes: Monster Picnic (see how many times you can hit a monster’s mouth in 1 minute), Space Mania (try to get your marble to stop on a score ring, or push your opponent’s marble into the hole in the middle of the turntable) and Table Tactics (a turn-based game where you try to score as many points as you can with ten marbles). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This mini-golf simulation can be played alone, or with up to four players on the Wii or two players on the Nintendo DS. As you play, you collect achievements, purchase Gummy Bear merchandise, and customize nine holes using the Gummy Bear course customizer. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
One of two toy helicopters released this year from Spin Master (the other is the Air Hogs R/C Hawk Eye), this “Sharp Shooter” has two tiny foam missiles that are about the size and weight of a Q-Tip. Six missiles are included. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
The game mechanic is very similar to Guitar Hero, requiring timing, matching and beat awareness. Modes include Freestyle (mix, scratch and sample during set points), Play (start and stop spinning on the fly, drop-in or drop-out of lyrical gameplay, and switch difficulty level without interrupting the party), Competitive (includes DJ Battle, Star Battle, Accumulator, Checkpoint and Streak) and Empire (start as an up-and-coming DJ and become head of a major entertainment empire). Developed by FreeStyleGames for Activision. Prices are $60 for the standalone game, $100 bundled with one turntable controller, and $150 bundled with two turntable controllers and a microphone. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This game features Harley-Davidson sponsored content, so you get to ride real-looking bikes. There are five modes of play including Free Ride and Time Trial Modes. To ride, you grip the Wii Remote like handlebars, twisting to speed up, and leaning into curves. You can unlock assignments and more bikes, including the Softail Cross Bones, the XR1200, Softail Rocker C, Nightster, and Dyna Fat Bob. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
After you sign into one of the three game-save slots, you can select the gender of the pilot in this flying game. You then begin a tutorial that helps you learn to fly through some rings by holding the controller like a pair of handlebars. Next you try putting out a fire with a water canon which involves carefully buzzing a building, and then clearing sheep from train tracks with carefully aimed buzzes. There are 40 missions including hunting for lost pirate treasures, abducting cows in a UFO, and eventually becoming the Sky Captain. You can play alone, or invite a friend to fly cooperatively (in split screen) in any of the missions. You can also compete head-to-head in mutliplayer mode. Developed by Torus Games for D3Publisher. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
“Up With A Fish” is a fast-paced stacking game, not unlike “Scoops” (both are made by Nimblebit), where you lean your iPhone or iPad left or right to collect falling objects, which are balanced on the Cat in the Hat’s head. Catching fish bowls increases your life. Dodging trouble-making kids will also increase your score. You can pause the game at any time by tapping the screen. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Lean the iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone left or right, to steer a single balloon through a maze of tree branches or clouds that gradually get harder. The higher you go, the more points you score,and high scores can be posted on a leader board. The free version has less content. The $.99 version contains more mazes and balloon options. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
ColorPlay for the iPad is a ten page coloring book featuring farm animals and looping banjo music. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This open-ended drawing program gives you the best of both worlds — free one finger scribbling on a blank screen, or coloring on one of 50 traditional-looking coloring book pages. There is a color palette with 20 common colors,12 stickers and eight pen sizes. You can also toggle on/off voice instructions, and it is easy to save work, continue works in progress which are presented in the startup menu, or import pictures from your photo library. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This is an electronic flannel board app. Content in version 1.0 for the iPad includes three themed sticker sets (Africa, Military Aircraft, and Underwater), each with a set of approximately 20 stickers. There are two types of sounds: Sticker Sounds and looping Ambient Sounds. Other options make it possible to share a picture via email (if your device is setup), and one touch saving to your photo album. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Strikingly beautiful graphics, a fun format, but limited game play and content are the hallmarks of the iPad version of Disney Fairies Fly (called just “Fairies Fly” in Apple’s App Store). Note that limited versions were previously released for iPhone and iPod Touch. The beauty comes with a price. This is a large (458 MB) download. To fly, you simply tilt the screen to control your fairy as you progress through a side scrolling maze, moving up or down to collect items such as flowers or orbs, while avoiding hazards like stinging bees and thunder clouds. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
In the story, you help Sylvie Leroux, a young archaeologist, as she travels to Malta at the request of her uncle, a world renowned historian. When she arrives, she discovers he is missing and it is now up to you to help her save the professor and decipher the clues to the secrets of the Knights Hospitaller order. Content includes 50 locations, 14 minigames, and a special game mode called Hidden World, that allows you to play classic hidden object levels. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Easy and fun to play, Pony Friends 2 gives you what you’d hope for in a virtual horse game. After you customize and name your pony, you can earn points with good care, love, and winning at contests. In the Wii version, the Wii Remote and Nunchuk become the reins. Lift one higher to turn, or pull back to stop. We did not test the PC or DS versions, although we did notice that the DS version lets you talk to your horse using the microphone. Created by Tantalus and Eidos for Square Enix. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Like a lot of horse care and riding simulations, this one follows a familiar script. You are in charge of a horse, and must keep it healthy and happy by completing a variety of tasks. You start by signing into one of three game save slots, and choose a horse: French Saddle, English Thoroughbred, or Arabian. You can assign your horse a name and coat color, which is saved on the game cartridge. You can use the touch screen and microphone to soothe your horse, ride it and feed it treats. To ride in a ring, you must carefully follow a moving dot in a circle. If you get behind, you are faulted and must start over. Other times, you must tap on a set of dots, in rhythm. If you do a good job, you can purchase up to 80 items. The goal is to do well in the competitions to earn enough money to be able to unlock a hidden horse breed. Created by Neko Entertainment for D3 Publisher. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Are you hungry for more virtual cooking? This third Cooking Mama game for the DS includes new recipes, the ability to shop, dish combinations and multiplayer cooking challenges. Using your DS stylus, you will chop, grate, catch falling marshmallows and much more — in over 200 minigames. You can create 80 new recipes including chili con carne or mushroom quiche, and the recipes progress from simple to complex, from small to large dishes. Based on the quality of your cooking, you can earn bronze, silver and gold medals from Mama, while impressing your friends with your dishes. Developed by Cooking Mama Limited. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
If you like follow-the-leader types of rhythm games like DDR, you’ll like this easy-to-learn 100 MB rhythm game for your iPhone or iPod Touch. You first see and hear a sequence of beats, presented in one measure, and then get the next measure to try to copy what you’ve seen and heard. Content includes five rock-style songs with two challenge levels, each. Created for Disney Interactive Studios by Muppet Studios and the Chinese-based enorbus (www.enorbus.com) studios. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
How’d you like to become a sea turtle? This interesting app puts you inside the shell of a large sea turtle, and asks you to explore a 3D undersea environment in a race to label radioactive waste canisters. The game takes place in the future — the year 2016 and scientist have figured out how to turn turtles into living robots. Developed by Hiccup Studios. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Zap moving flies with a frog’s fast tongue, in this fast-moving, thumb exerciser. You see a frog surrounded by moving flies, which can be tapped to be eaten. But don’t wait — the clock is ticking and the flies get smarter. After 60 seconds (marked by audio countdown), the frog burps and the flies escape for another round. Developed by 360KID for People Operating Technology. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This very addicting $.99 app is best described as a vertical maze game, where you tilt your screen left or right in order to move a bouncing bug to the next floating platform. As you bounce higher, you run into harder challenges; some of which require shooting. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
DJ Hero Renegade Edition Turntable
This game expands on the gameplay mechanics of Guitar Hero but instead of pressing buttons, you use a turntable controller which, at times, has you bending streams of notes to earn a higher score. There are 100 songs highlighted in 93 mixes that blend genres of music, including hip-hop, R&B, pop, rock and electronica.
The turntable controller allows you to use and master various DJ techniques including scratching, crossfading and sampling. So you can learn some real DJ techniques. The game features five levels of play: beginner, easy, medium, hard and expert. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
In PES 2010, you take your team to the Champions League. Your roster can include real life players, each with unique characteristics. The improved AI will now help your offense to build attacks or close down your opponents attacks. Other new features include a Master League where you can create and manage your team for a longer period of time. Prices are $40 for the Wii version, $60 for the PS3 and Xbox 360, and $30 for the PS2 and PSP versions. Developed by Winning Eleven Productions. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
New features of this edition include: Game Styles, which give you control over the way the game is played using a slider bar that ranges from casual to serious; and a board play physics engine that lets you shield the puck with your body along the boards, kick-pass it to teammates, or pin an opponent.
Other features include a new Battle for the Cup Mode, a GM Mode that puts you in charge of your favorite NHL organization, and an enhanced Be a Pro Mode that includes a prospects game before heading to the draft. Please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.