You all know by now that I am a Mom
and a gamer. I play all kinds of games, from Scrabble to Stronghold, from strategy to shooters.
If you ask me how I feel about a certain game, I'll tell you. On
Cool Moms Rule, the blog posts you read will only review games that have been tried and tested.
There's plenty of games, for example, that I don't like, or that I did like but quickly became bored with.
For instance, I used to enjoy
World of Warcraft, which is an MMORPG (that's Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), because the graphics are great and it's fun for the first 30 levels or so.
But then I got tired of
WoW, because it grew harder and harder to level up, and you could never find other people to go on quests with, and it costs ~$15 a month for the online subscription, and you can only play online, so you have to cough up the dough every month, even if that month all you did was get frustrated or not even play. So I quit, and I have no problems letting you know why.
[They have a new expansion for the game, though, called
Burning Crusade, and in one day it sold more than any online game. Ever. So it is still going strong without me, and I'll tell you that, too.]
And I know that a lot of you Moms don't care about console gaming, but the fact that you are online now and reading this shows that you know your way around a computer.
So when I tell you to try the computer game
Fairies, please don't just scoff and laugh and point your finger at me. I had a free demo of this game, and yet I bought the whole version because it is so addictive. And then I got MY MOM, who doesn't even game unless you count Scrabble, to try it.
And she said, "It's hypnotizing. And it's beautiful."
Faeries is one of those games, and any of you that have gamed will understand right away what I mean, where you have to line things up. You need to get three of the same colored
Faeries in bottles in a row.
Wait a minute, I hear you saying.
Three Faeries IN BOTTLES?!Yes. In bottles. Apparently someone has been catching beautiful
Faeries in bottles like fireflies in glass jars, and you have to set them free. They are counting on you to do it. You slide lines of bottles up until three matching colored bottles of
Faeries are all in a line, and you set them free.
So, very simple premise.
And, when you set them free, their souls or light or something goes onto this scale (I don't know who thinks this stuff up, but bear with me, okay?). And if you get enough weight on the scale, you win the level. Win a level and you get a piece of a puzzle; win enough levels and you put together the whole puzzle, which is generally a beautiful portrait featuring, you guessed it,
Faeries.
There are roadblocks to make it more difficult, and bonuses to help you, but that's the basics. There are a lot of matching types of games, and some of them are okay, but this one, in my opinion, is the best.
And here's why I like this game. First of all, the graphics are stunning. Absolutely beautiful. The colors, the images in the background, are pretty just to look at. And I am not a cutesy kind of girl, so I worried that
Faeries might be too cutesy for me. It's not.
That's another thing I like. The
Faeries themselves. They are women, yes, and they have wings, and they are gorgeous. But they aren't anorexic little slivers of women. You could feel good about your daughter playing this game. The
Faeries look healthy, and serene. They aren't cutesy. There's no babies with curly hair and puffy red cheeks or silly pixies with blue Smurf skin.
Along with the images, there's music in
Faeries (which sometimes I mute because the Engineer is watching TV, or the rhino is trying to beat a level on Starcraft and I am in the same room), but when I have it turned on, it doesn't annoy me. It's not tinny, or repetitive, or speeding up into it culminates in some cacophonic, clashing finale. The music is melodious and flowing.
And that's the thing I like the most. However you do at the game itself, you don't feel frustrated and worn out at the end. You feel uplifted, and calm, and like you helped save the day.
Which is why it is the perfect game for Moms. You NEED to feel that way.
So, this one particular game,
Faeries? I'm recommending it to you all without reservation.
They have Mac and Windows versions of
Faeries. Go try one out by clicking the pretty
Faeries graphic below. You'll thank me for it later:
, and the game play has you fighting against panzer tanks, whether to shoot them before they shoot you, or to protect your headquarters from their attacks, etc. The display for the game is set up in such a way that it appears you are playing with a military model set up in a box at the center of a children's desk. The desk is decorated with colored crayon drawings and the like. Inside the box (hence the name Tank 0' Box; can't understand why it isn't Box O' Tanks), the realistic-looking little tanks turn into black smoking hulls when hit and then disappear. Your tank can roll over randomly appearing starred icons in blue and green to earn upgrades like faster speed, heavier shielding, or double-shooting guns. The Rhino enjoys games with "army guys" or a military theme, and after playing Tank O' Box for about 15 minutes, he said, "I like this game!" He enjoyed the arcade style immensely. However, when playing the "extra" section of the game, which gives you the opportunity to keep going after other tanks until you have beaten 100 of them, he became bored about halfway through and was ready to be done. My take: At $19.95 for the full version, this game is over-priced. You can play the first five levels in the trial version, however, for free. Here's the link to the trial version: 
