Club Penguin Rocks…literally

So, have your spawn been keeping cool at Club Penguin this Summer? (If you don’t know what Club Penguin is – think ‘Second Life’ for kids.)

Incidentally, Knucklehead spent some significant time playing there last night, and I happened to notice a couple of things that I thought I should mention here.

Using your musical instrument:

Are you wondering how your penguin can play a musical instrument? If so, try purchasing a backstage pass. (With your arcade winnings, of course). The backstage passes can be found in the lighthouse section of Club Penguin, at the t-shirt booth.  Once you equip the backstage pass, head over to the ice castle section and there will be a rock-n’-roll stage with the backstage door on the right.

Once your backstage, go to the box of instruments on your left and buy your instrument. If you want to play it, you’ll need to remove everything your penguin is wearing and equip only the instrument.

Afterwards, select the option that you would normally use to ‘dance’ and your penguin will start playing the instrument. If you have drum sticks, find a drum set around the various sections of Club Penguin, get behind it, and then select your ‘dance’ option. Your penguin should start banging away in no-time.

(Please, don’t ask how long it took us to figure that out. lol!)

If you’re looking for a free instrument; head over to the sandy beach and you’ll find a box of free maracas. And if you look hard enough near the main Club Penguin strip, you’ll find a booth giving out free rock t-shirts for your penguin as well.

Free Chat Option

Secondly, the super-regulated chat feature of Club Penguin got old really quick with Knucklehead, so with my parental blessing, I unlocked the option that allowed him to chat a little more freely.

That being said, it took all of 5 minutes for me to report someone. This person was basically a penguin terrorist; mouthing off and making the other kids miserable. I watched the shenanigans go on for a while, but finally wrangled the mouse away from my son long enough to report the menace.

Interestingly, within a minute of the complaint being filed, the bully penguin disappeared. I don’t know if he went away, or if he was pulled out of cyberspace by the moderators, but either way – he was, thankfully, nowhere to be found.

Incidentally, I spent the rest of my son’s session moderating the conversations, and I have to say I was very impressed with what I saw. There was only one other penguin that acted a fool, but overall, the rest of the penguin population played and chatted very nicely.

Overall, it was a nice experiment, and I think as long as a parent is lightly moderating the conversations, the open chat is fine. The Club Penguin moderators seem to be doing a very good job of weeding out the bad apples and allowing the rest of the bunch to have a fun time.

Parent Tip: If you want an easy way to moderate the dialogue in Club Penguin, click the blue arrow in the top, middle area of your screen. It will show you exactly who is saying what, and will keep you from having to look at all the speech bubbles in the room.

Until next time, happy gaming!

- Mommy DX

Monkeys on Halo?

Did you know there were monkeys on Halo 3? Too cute!

Booooo.

Bungie’s site

E3 08: Bungie confirms that E3 announcement was pulled

No worries Bungie, we’ll wait… <3, Mommy DX

E3 and Parental Gaming

Is everyone checking out the E3 coverage this week? I haven’t watched much on t.v., but here are the few things that i’m loving so far:

Xbox 360 avatars

New controller colors

The success of Xbox Live

LEGO Batman

I really want to be excited about Halo Wars, but i’m not much of a strategic games kinda gal. I want to be down there killing the Covenant myself, not directing the little guys to do it for me.

Perhaps the thing i’m MOST excited about, is this article. More than HALF of Canadian parents play video games with their kids? SWEET!

Happy Bungie Day!!

Have you downloaded your FREE Cold Storage map for Halo 3?

It’s in the XBL marketplace today ONLY! Go get it!

For more details, check out the video right here, or visit Bungie.net

Another reason to love Bungie and Halo 3

 

Something incredibly cute and profound happened this morning and I just had to share…

A little background first…I’m a SAHM, but i’m a WORKING SAHM; meaning, I stay at home with my child, AND I work a full-time job from home. Usually, while i’m earning a paycheck, my 8 yr. old son, Knucklehead, spends his time playing on one of our two Xbox’s with what I like to call his ’summertime Xbox buddies.’

Now, these regular gamer-buddies range in age from 8 to 12 yrs. old. Yes, they are the young kids that so many of us adult gamers complain about. Not because they are vulgar or rude, but because they are loud – and happy – and ask lots of innocent questions during matchmaking – and are blissfully unaware of how their yappiness grinds the nerves of us…mature gamers.

Now, these little ones don’t always make the most ideal teammates on H3, but when a room full of 8-12 yr. olds get into a room together for a little forging – it becomes quite magical.

For example, this morning, i’m upstairs programming away, and suddenly I hear my son say, ‘We’ll put our merchandise over here…’; ‘wait, wait – let’s put the parking lot here…,’  ‘Ok – i’ll work the cash register…,’ ‘what would you like? Ok! Thank you for shopping with us!’

Now, I thought for sure he was playing H3, but his dialogue thoroughly confused me, so i went downstairs to have a look at what he was doing. Sure enough, there he was, controller in hand and headset on head, forging with his little buddies. Only this time, they weren’t seeing how many times they could stick one another with a grenade, counting how many different ways a mongoose can fly up a man-cannon, or chasing each other around on ‘Snowbound.’

No, this time, they were playing in a supermarket that they, (or someone else), had forged out of shipping crates. There was a parking lot and a store front; aisles for products, and a customer service counter; there were even displays for weapons and vehicles. Each child had assigned himself a job: a customer, a cashier, a stock boy, even a merchandiser who’d make displays. 

I sat there for a while – watching and listening to their clever banter, and I realized how much they, (and I), were learning from this experience. They were cooperating, performing job-related tasks, and architecturally designing their own store. They were being kind, asking if anyone needed help, and assisting each other with their purchases.

And i’m left sitting there, totally amazed, not only at how well these children were playing with one another, but wondering why I ever worried about how much time they were spending on a video game in the first place. Watching these young children build something together in this virtual sandbox…cooperating, learning, experimenting, playing…it was very inspiring to see. 

I almost feel bad…no, I DO feel bad, for those parents who listen to the politicians, and parental groups…to those who say that video games are bad for our children. Their kids may never know what it’s like to play in Bungie’s world. They may never know what it’s like to create, to learn, and to role-play online with friends. This technology is truly the wave of our future, and I can only hope that as the gaming industry, and Bungie, grows – that they spend more time reaching out to parents who DON’T game, so that their children will get to make their own virtual supermarkets one day too. <3

- Mommy DX

RooGoo

Don’t let the rainbows and brightly-colored shapes fool you; this game is not just for kids. Sure, RooGoo may look like a title fit for pre-schoolers, but after playing a few rounds of this 3-D puzzle game, you AND the rest of your family will be hooked.

The RooGoo are cuddly, little creatures who need help stopping the evil, purple MeeMoos from taking over the world. To do this, players must guide colorful shapes through matching holes until they stack and fall through the lowest disc.

Sounds easy, right?

Well, try adding a time limit, spinning discs, and holes that close intermittently, and players have themselves quite a challenging game. Throw thieving butterflies and bats who steal your shapes, on top of pesky MeeMoos who won’t leave until their given a ‘headache,’ and you’ll be wondering why you thought this was just a kids game in the first place.  

Overall, RooGoo, which is ESRB rated ’E’ for ’Everyone,’ is a surprisingly fun and challenging game fit for the whole family. It is available for 800msp at the Xbox Live Marketplace, and with 45 levels of 3-D puzzle action, and lots of fun achievements, gamers will definitely get their money’s worth with this little gem.

Rating:    

 

 

Spotted:

Halo 3 Legendary Map pack advertisement on a billboard in Crackdown. ROFL!

SEGA Superstars Tennis

 

 

The Xbox 360 family game of the month is SEGA Superstars Tennis. This title is rated E 10+, for ages 10 and up, and according to Xbox.com, includes several mini-games that can be played on ten-brilliantly themed tennis courts.

 

Additionally, Sega Superstars Tennis also features four tournaments that can be played by up to four people simultaneously either locally or on Xbox Live. Sonic, Shadow and Tails from the Sonic the Hedgehog series, AiAi from Super Monkey Ball, and Alex Kidd – SEGA’s unofficial mascot of the late 1980’s, are just a few of the familiar characters from which children can choose, and there are a total of 16 playable characters in each game.

 

Parents can download a demo of Sega Superstars Tennis from the Xbox Live Marketplace, or view a trailer for the game here. However, this game is not limited to just the 360; it can also be played on the Wii, Nintendo DS, Playstation 2 and Playstation 3.

 

- Mommy DX

Speed Racer

By: Mommy DX

The movie Speed Racer is coming out in theatres this weekend and CandyTracks.com has created five, new Speed Racer games just for kids.  Children can immediately play in demo mode, where they can choose a car and speed down their choice of five different tracks. Alternatively, if parents set up an account, children can compete for prizes that include a Speed Racer game for the Wii, or a trip for four to the Bank of America 500 race in Charlotte, NC.