Mommy Review: Disney's Epic Mickey

I recently talked about spending time with my family playing video games, so I thought that a review might be helpful.  I am not a video gaming expert - not by far!  This review is from a mom to other moms.

Summary of Epic Mickey (for the Wii):
Mickey Mouse has to return through the mirror to where the Sorcerer has created a special land for lost and forgotten characters to repair the damage that he (Mickey) created by spilling paint, thinner and magic on it.  Mickey has to use his paint brush to fill in things with paint, thin out others, and battle "blots" and other creatures that he had accidently set loose on this world populated with characters like Oswald the Happy Rabbit.

Family Pros:
It is very engaging and everyone seems to enjoying watching what happens next.  I loved that you can repair this land and help creatures.  Another cool thing is that it is a mock Disneyland.  Each of the lands in Disneyland are represented here with a slight name change - Tomorrowland becomes Tomorrow City, Main Street is Mean Street,  etc.  Rides are changed as well - Space Voyage, instead of Space Mountain.  While exploring each area, you can go up to a character and it will ask for your help (ie there is a pirate that wants helping getting a gift for his love interest. You have to ask her what she likes and then find them and get them back to the pirate. In this case, you have to go to multiple lands to find the 3 things and then only offer the right one to the pirate.)  In a time when so many video games are all about shooting and killing, I like that in this game you stop the bad characters by thinning them or best is to cover them in paint and making them your friend and helper.  They get little blue Mickey heads over their head like hearts and they will help you stop other bad guys.  My entire family can play this game, too, although there are some parts that are difficult (like the battling parts) and we hand the remote to the more experienced players.  There are a ton of parts though that younger members can just paint and thin to their hearts content, exploring an area.  The more you explore each area, the more that you can discover hidden items like e-tickets, pins, film reels and extra content.  The controls are fairly easy to do (move with nunchuck, paint with B, jump with A, and thin with Z.  You can change you view with the directional pad and see the map and quest list by pressing 2.  Later in the game - and + are used as well.)  Another cool element is that when you travel from one land to another, you do via an old film reel of a Disney cartoon (Steamboat Willy, Clock Cleaners, and even some Oswald ones).

Family Cons:

It is a 1 player game, so all the rest of your family will have to sit and wait for their turn.  It is also a very dark game, meaning some of the screens are very hard to see.  Periodically, you end up in a spot for some reason that you can't see what's happening, you view shifts radically away from what you were looking at or it won't let you look at something.  Because the "bad guys" are made from the blot (a dark blob of paint and thinner), there are some area that are a little scary.  Not so bad that my kids left the room, but they really worried for poor Mickey.  There is no talking in this world, so all dialog has to be read.  If you have younger pre-readers, it has to read to them.  Most of these, you can take your time reading, but some of it goes really fast and even I had trouble reading it fast enough.  There a ton of side quests that it seems you can never complete.  It keeps track of them for you (I hated seeing "failed" under a quest).  They published a guide to help out.

All in all, it is a great family game, but probably best for the 10+ crowd.  We did not buy the guide and are almost to the finally battle, but I could see use getting the guide and replaying to find what we missed the first time.  It keeps you interest enough that you want to go back time and again.  I give the game a B+.

Good luck on your gaming,
Meagan

How to Comment on the Blog

I have learned a few things to help you navigate my (and other's) blog easier.

Commenting

There are different types of blogs. Wordpress, Blogspot or Blogger (like this one) are the most popular and they have different ways of accepting comments. I am just going to talk about how to comment on Blogger blogs, but many of the other types are similar.

If you want to leave a comment, I have set up a few options.  You need to pick the one that is right for you.  The default is to leave a comment using your google id.  Until recently, I did not own one of these myself.  Don't have one?  No problem 

Writing a comment can be easy, once you know the steps 

Find the word "comment" under the post that you want to comment on, and click on it.  It will either say "0 comments" or "1 comment", etc.  

A comment section will open directly underneath the post (on some websites, this opens a separate window or pop-up box)

1. Fill out your comment

1.  Select your "Comment as" (aka your name/login).
• google id - this is the default, if you have one, it posts your id and avatar for you 
• LiveJournal, Wordpress, TypePad, AIM, OpenID - all other types of accounts that you would have set up.
• Name/URL -your best option if you do not have any accounts.  You can leave a comment just as you are.  Just type the name that you want to have appear, you can ignore the URL if you do not have one.  It's that easy  
•  Anonymous - this leaves your comment without an identity

 Click "Post comment" That's it!

For more official google blog info, click here.  For a very indepth how to with screenshots and everything, check out Darragh's blog.

Did this help?  Are you interested in knowing more about "sharing" or "following" posts.  Did you know that you have those options? Let me know what you think.
Meagan

How To Have Family Time in the Digital Age

The world we live in moves at the speed of light sometimes.  We all rush around trying to get this or that done and once we get somewhere, we are in a hurry to leave.  Each generation seems to get worse than the last.  We plug into our devices (t.v.s, computers, phones, game systems, etc) and block out the world.  We communicate via texts, tweets, ims, and Facebook statuses.  We can't seem to put them down.

Now, I am not saying that I am innocent, as I sit here plugged into my computer, but what I saying is that the most important thing we need to learn and teach our children is to set limits.  We tell our children all the time, "It's ALL about moderation".  Not that you can't play a video game, but you should also play outside.  Not that you can't have a treat, but you also need to eat something healthy.  Give yourself equal amounts of things.  Don't go overboard on any one thing.

Epic Mickey

So, how do you spend family time together when kids want to play video games and plug in their head phones?  One thing that we like to do is play on our Wii game system.  We got it because it was a great mix of games that sit and games that move.  We purposely purchase games that we can all play together.  We challenge each other with our Wii Fit and we take turns with our new Epic Mickey.  The thing to remember is that you all work together as a team.  If only one person plays, the others will get bored and leave the room.  We each take turns controlling the character, but the others are calling out suggestions and helping point out key areas.  With the new Wii Fit Plus, you can literally go head-to-head on sporting events like Ski Jump, Snowball Fight and others.  It's fun to see if we can beat each other or our past records.

Half Dome April 2010

That is not the only thing we do as a family though.  We spend a ton of time doing outdoors stuff, too.  We take our kids to Yosemite every year.  We camp with them, we hike, boat, bike and take day trips. 
Ironically, our children think that all kids get to do these cool things.  They do not realize how lucky they are.  They easily jump from one to other - being "unplugged" for a week, enjoying nature, or spending an entire day battling blobs on a video game.  They enjoy both.  The best thing, they will go off and adventure together and create their own games. 

Speaking of Yosemite and enjoying nature, All of the national parks offer free days each year.
America's Best Idea – the national parks – gets even better with several fee-free days at more than 100 national parks that usually charge entrance fees.
Mark your calendar for these fee-free days in 2011:

• January 15-17
  (Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday weekend)
• April 16-24
  (National Park Week)
• June 21
  (First day of summer)
• September 24
  (Public Lands Day)
• November 11-13
  (Veterans Day weekend)

We went last year during National Park Week and saw gorgeous water falls.  The weather was perfect.  It had warmed up to 72, but there was still snow on the ground in some places.  We saw deer with their fawns and tons of other animals.  Take my advice and check out your local national treasure!
Slow down and enjoy a day with your family!
Meagan