Gaming Gift Ideas!

...is also for Gaming!

You may know that I am that rare bird, a Mom Gamer.

I know some of you who don't game get frustrated with your kids sitting in front of the TV playing games.  When the Wii came out with fitness games and sports to play with the family, I was really glad, too, that more kids were getting off of the couch and into the action.

But don't forget the benefits of gaming: improved concentration and focus, better hand/eye coordination, attention to detail, etc. And kids who game with online connections use gaming as a social community. Gone are the days of the lone gamer in the basement. Now, we are all connected! And even offline, the whole family can game together.

So, here are my favorite gaming gift ideas this season!

Top of my list: Xbox Kinect. It's amazing what this thing can do! Imagine: no controller, just your body doing the work. Talk about getting off the couch! And no more batteries to buy for the controllers, or trying to find lost controllers buried in the couch cushions, either!

The Kinect comes with Kinect Adventures. Recommended additional games: Kinect Sports, and Dance Central. Each of these games can be played with at least two players and will keep you moving AND entertained.

The Kinect sold one million units in just 10 days (!), and topped 1.5 million at the end of last month. If you can find it, you'll be someone's favorite Santa this year!


Games I personally reviewed and can recommend:

The Sims 3 (Xbox, PS3, Wii, Nintendo DS).
I had never played a Sims game before, and was a bit overwhelmed with all you can do in this game. It's incredible the way you can customize it! I created a family with two teens just like my kids (really, not only do the avatars look like them, but you can give them personality traits like, 'doesn't like outdoors.' 'social,' 'clumsy,' or 'computer genius'!).  I learned that my own Sim lady needed cooking lessons after the oven in my little Sims 3 kitchen caught fire twice. And my Sims husband ended up delivering coffee for a living, while our oldest son in the game worked in a hospital and the youngest slept in and skipped school! Uh oh. Very, very cool game, with nearly endless possibilities for customization. I like this one for older kids and adults, as there is a learning curve (though tutorials help you get the hang of your options).

There's also a Sims game for younger kids, MySims SkyHeroes, which is just adorable. Cute little Sims fly through the skies, defeating dangerous enemies in aerial dogfights. What's especially nice about this title is the cooperative gameplay option for two friends (so many games have competitive multiplayer without offering a co-op one!). So kids can work together to defeat the bad guys.

If you are a fan of traditional board games, you'll really enjoy Monopoly Streets (Xbox, PS3, Wii) and will probably end up taking over the controller from the kids and playing it yourself! To celebrate its 75^th anniversary, the world of Monopoly comes to life through a living, breathing city that you can build, own, and monopolize. MONOPOLY STREETS has everything you love about the board game, presented as a street level tour of Mr. Monopoly’s (okay, I never knew that was his actual name, did you?!) fully animated world. You can customize the game and play with your own avatar on Xbox 360 or Mii on the Wii, and when you play online the virtual board is populated with all your friends' avatars, too! 

The Tony Hawk: Shred (Wii, Xbox 360, PS3) bundle has the coolest controller I've ever seen outside of Guitar Hero: a skateboard with flames on it! The board has special motion-sensor technology, allowing you to lift, rotate and tilt the board to get "big air" on your tricks, and the gritty surface allows the player to stay on the board and "ride like the pros." The game is intended for ages 6 and up, and I think adults will like it, too (I did!). And if you have any skaters on your list, they will LOVE this game! Kids can play as one of 11 professional snowboarders/skateboarders, and unlock an additional mystery 4 through gameplay. You can even use the board controller to snowboard down mountains. To really get a feel of what the game play is like, screenshots don't do this game justice. Check out the videos here. Oh, and I have seen the bundle on sale on Amazon, with the board, for the price you would normally pay for just a game! That's a great bargain.


I received a copy of Sims 3, MySims SkyHeroes, Tony Hawk: Shred with board controller and Monopoly Streets to facilitate my review of the games. I received no other compensation (though, hey, if anyone wants to provide a Kinect...j/k), and my opinion is purely my own.

Modern Rock!

There's no doubt that Mom Central is full of cool Moms--they've teamed up for a blog tour with Activision's Guitar Hero on Tour: Modern Hits for the DS.

You may remember that I recommended Guitar Hero on Tour: Decades in our Holiday Gift Guide. Well, this latest version of the Guitar Hero series not only doesn't disappoint, it delivers even more fun with 28 master tracks from influential artists including Coldplay, Fall Out Boy, Tenacious D, The Strokes and Weezer and LOTS of new multiplayer options.

I am hardly, by the way, a Guitar Hero myself. I've played the games, and I'd say I stack up more as a Guitar Goat. Or possibly a roadie.

But despite my lack of hand-and-eye coordination (or any musical talent whatsoever), I had lots of fun playing Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits on the DS.

I worked my way through the "Opening Act" songs and I'm ready to become a big star--if only I DON'T play against my (much more talented) kids.

I do find the DS interface a little more challenging than the console version of the game. It's very well-designed, in that it comes with a special attachment that allows you to "play" the notes with one hand while strumming your stylus on the DS with with the other. If, you know, you're coordinated.

I'm left-handed, and the game even offers an option for us that allows us to switch the screen around completely and even flip the colors of the notes so that it is left-hand friendly.

Even so, it's a bit of a stretch to get my fingers around and push down the color-coded buttons. And my fingers are pretty long.

I found it easiest to work with the DS not completely "open", so that my fingers can wrap around but I can still work the stylus with the other hand and see the screen fully. I was able to play pretty well this way, meaning that I can get "Star Power" on the first few songs and even get the audience (obviously not too picky) behind me.

My kids can generally get 100% through a whole song, but I am challenging myself to reach a 90% level once I'm past the easy intro music.

GHOT: Modern Hits doesn't stop with just challenging yourself, though. I'm really impressed, as someone who likes to game and really values repeat playability (which may be a term I just invented, but you know what I mean), with how many multiplayer options this game has.

First off, there's Face Off, which lets players each choose specially designed guitar tracks and play head-to-head, each with their own personal difficulty level chosen. This works well when one player (me) is not as advanced as another player (my kids).

Then there's Pro Face Off, which has the players go head-to-head with the same track, and the same difficulty level.

But it doesn't stop there, and this is what really makes GTOH: Modern Hits rock, to me.

Players can opt for Co-Op multiplayer, where they play a song together, one player taking the lead guitar and the other playing Bass or Rhythm.

Or they can have a Guitar Duel, which is really fun. Players pick up "battle items" as they play, like broken strings and dud notes (bombs), which they can send to the other player to mess them up! Hilarity ensues. At least when I play, anyway. Broken strings freak me out so much I just fall completely apart. This option had me laughing out loud.

Finally, if one player has the older GHOT: Decades and the other has the newer GHOT: Modern Hits, they can use the multiplayer capability for Song Sharing, sending approved songs to each other!

If you can find the right fit for your hand and really get to rockin' with the DS, I highly recommend Guitar Hero on Tour: Modern Hits for parents, tweens and teens to all play against each other. If you, ahem, listened to my recommendations last year, you'll already have Guitar Hero on Tour: Decades, and you can all play against each other!

My take: Guitar Hero on Tour: Modern Hits is a Must-have for your DS games collection!

Have you been waiting for this?!

"Hey, Viv, what's the next product you are going to review?"

Well, I'm so glad you asked!

My next review is coming up soon, and I'm really excited about this one. I'll be posting my take on a brand new safe, self-contained online game system designed just for tweens! And here's the exciting part: all of you Cool Moms will get a look at this baby before it even comes out on the shelves! See? I wasn't kidding when I told you it was brand new!

It's called NetJet, and you will all be familiar with the group putting it out: Hasbro!

Only Cool Moms Rule has this exclusive review. And you'll be reading my personal take on the NetJet this Monday, May 21st!

You won't want to miss this one, so make sure you drop by!