Posts Tagged ‘Action’

Ladybugs Review

Action, Children, Puzzle | Posted by Meg
Sep 02 2010

ladybugs2
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Ladybugs is a Mac game for very young children. You will have a lot of fun with your little toddler “working” on the computer. There is much opportunity here to teach your child the basics of the keyboard and mouse and have loads of entertainment as well.

There are short instructions where you can practice reading letters and words with your child. The white letters outlined in black make it easier to clearly see and read out loud, however it would have been more age appropriate with block lettering. Very young kids are able to learn so much it’s almost unbelievable. They can learn their letters and words if given a chance, enough instruction and patience on your part.

Ladybug 2The game has 3 modes of play and each one should be enjoyable for your child. Color Trouble is a section where you match the color of your ladybug to her house. Following the flower path, you guide the ladybug to the same color house. In the Ladybug Race you are racing the blueladybug to the houses. I think the blue ladybug is a little confused because she sometimes loses her way. This will give Ladybug 1your child a chance to beat her. In the Tangled Maze you guide your ladybug through a maze to her like color house.

All 3 games will help your child with color recognition, coordination, direction and learning to win or lose. Even if you must control the mouse and keys for your tyke, I think a 2 year old would still appreciate the cute ladybugs and colorful scenery. All of these factors are very important in the development of young children. I think it would have been perfect if the developers added a memory game mode to the puzzles. It is incredible how much a toddler remembers.

The simple graphics, large cursor and the happy music will set the stage for a lighthearted afternoon of fun while at the same time learning new things on a cute, joyful game like Ladybugs. An extra bonus is the priceless bonding with your little one.

Features of Ladybugs:
-Fun Hands on Play
-Colorful, Cute and Simple graphics
-Happy Music
-3 Modes of Play
-Non-violent

Rating: ★★★★☆

Plants vs Zombies Review

Action, Shooter | Posted by Meg
Aug 29 2010

Plants vs Zombies

Keep the zombies out of your house no matter what or they’ll eat your brain! Plant vs Zombies, an unique play, is not only fun, but it will get very challenging as the levels go higher. The cartoon artwork will alleviate any blood and gore worries you may associate with walking zombies. The only concern for young kids may be when the zombies are beaten will lose their heads and body parts.

The play is to click on the available seed packet, drag it to the green sod, plant it to stop the zombies. Clicking on the suns will gain you more seed packets. When you plant sunflowers, it will produce more suns to click on. After a certain number of points, Plants vs Zombies 3you will get different packets to stave off the monsters. The pea shooters can down the zombies, the sunflowers produce only suns (but are needed to increase your score to access more seed packets), cherry bombs will blow up your enemies, potato seeds only block and slow down the zombies, freeze shooters are similar to pea shooters but more effective, purple devourers will eat the Plants vs Zombies 6zombies and more seed packets will become available as you pass each level. Some plants shoot, destroy zombies and others slow them down. You decide where to plant each type of seed depending on what they do.

The higher the level, more zombies will be lumbering towards your home. Some zombies with poles can vault over your barriers. If they should get passed all your blockades, the last form of defense is the lawnmower. It will mow down the zombies in that path.

One of the mini games is the bowling for zombies with potatoes. The potatoes will roll across the top of the screen. When you click on a potato, drag it to the sod path where a zombie is walking towards the house. It will roll down the grass and knock over the zombie. This is a fast action game and you must quickly grab a potato and use it appropriately. The red, hot potato will explode the zombies but they are few and far apart.

Plants vs Zombies is just a fun action packed game and nothing more. Well, maybe you would like to protect your brain from being eaten so it’s prudent of you to keep pace with destroying the dreaded zombies.

Features of Plants vs Zombies:
-5 Game Modes
-Crazy Dave’s Shop with Special Plants and Tools
-26 Types of Zombies

Rating: ★★★½☆

Smashing Tennis Review

Action, Sports | Posted by Meg
Aug 27 2010

smashing-tennis
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Practice, practice, practice, that was my tennis coach’s daily drill. I spent many hours hitting the ball against the wall, throwing it up to serve, and volleying back and forth with a partner. No one got better unless you put in the time. Smashing Tennis is the same for me. In tennis, I used 2 hands only for my backhand. I used my feet for running back and forth, not the arrow keys. So I practiced, practiced and practiced Smashing Tennis and got better.

Smashing Tennis with its simple 2D graphics and accurate sound effects is a challenging action game you must practice to have any fun with it, but once you hear the “pong” of the hit ball, you are hooked. To serve the ball you use the space bar once to throw the ball up and again to hit it. The Practice mode will show you when to hit the serve. The arrow keys moves your player around the court. For the beginner you can limit the arrows to the right and left ones moving the character side to side until you are comfortable with the play. When you are ready, you may choose the advanced mode using all the arrows for a multidirectional play.

Smashing Tennis2It is very important to choose the correct ability of yours and your opponent’s skill level. This must be done carefully or your play will not be fun. You can adjust the skill, speed, strength and precision of each player. In addition, you can choose different court surfaces (grass, clay and decoturf). I’ve played on grass (fast) and clay (slow) courts but I have Smashing Tennisnever come across a decoturf court in real life.

The different strokes were amazing. I could actually see the drop shot. How do they do that? At this posting I have not mastered the lob or hitting the ball hard so I’m waiting to see the visual on it. Also the 2 player mode is still in the future for me, but it will be intriguing to see how everything works with 2 people playing on 1 computer. The tournament challenge is still out of my reach but for all those advanced players it should be quite entertaining.

I guess there are 2 negatives for me regarding Smashing Tennis. One is that it is difficult for casual players (I’ve watched gamers pick it up and play right away) unless you practice, and also there are no girl tennis players represented. What about adding the Serena Williams, Dinara Safinas and Justine Henins of the tennis world? The simple graphics did not bother me since being an avid tennis player and fan concentrating on hitting the ball back is what captivates my attention. It would be fun to be able to design your players. I also am familiar with the thrill of hearing the ball hit the sweet spot and beating your opponent. You have all this with Smashing Tennis so try it out and don’t forget to practice.

Features of Smashing Tennis:
-For all ages
-1 or 2 player mode
-Difficulty Options
-Adjustable Skill Levels
-Tournament Play

Rating: ★★★½☆

Sushi To Go Express Review

Action, Adventure, Sim | Posted by Zeke
Aug 26 2010

Sushi to go Express 7

Tony Tortuga’s company went out of business like many companies now a days, and the administration did not help it out with a stimulus package. That means poor Tony the turtle is out of a job, but his wife always knew it was about time for Tony to start his own delivery service. He quickly gets orders from different sushi restaurants to deliver the food to their customers.

The play is your basic sim game to click on the restaurant with the type of sushi the client is ordering. After waiting, the sushi is ready to be delivered to the home. You click on the sushi then click on the house with the order and Tony will swim first to pick up the sushi and then to the home. In addition you have to supply the restaurants with fish from the factory when they run out of items. You know when to click on the factory for your fish order when you see the closed sign at the restaurant. Each level is timed but there is plenty of time to Sushi to go Express 5make the sushi and deliver it. Every few levels there are puzzle games to get more points. One such mini play is to go through a maze collecting bags of rice before the stingrays eat them. If you find the wasabi, Tony will swim faster for you.

I felt Sushi To Go Express is a game for kids. The graphics are simple and cute. The sushi is easily identifiable. I didn’t see much difference in the difficulty levels, but it could be because the game kept quitting on me. I have a Mac Book Pro with Mac OS X, version 10.5.8. I even made the screen smaller to see if it would help. It got me a little further in the game before quitting. I’ve talked to others Sushi to go Express 2who were able to play the game without any problems. The game is repetitive with not much action. I found after delivering sushi to one house that same home kept ordering more items. This makes figuring out who ordered when a little difficult, but it really makes no difference in the play. I guess that kept the game going without having different customers rotating through the screen like other sim restaurant or store games like Miriel The Magical Merchant. Another very annoying factor is the strange sound Tony makes when he gets paid. Even though I didn’t find this sim game exciting, I can see some kids and casual gamers enjoying it.

Features of Sushi To Go Express:
-50 Reef Levels
-Upgrades
-Mini Games

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Sprouts Adventure Review

Action, Adventure, Sim | Posted by Meg
Aug 24 2010

Sprouts Adventure

Sprouts Adventure is a sim play where you are the one controlling the lives of young, small creatures called Sprouts. Darkness fell on the land of Sprouts leaving just a few Sprouts to survive on their own after a terrible storm. They are out of food and do not know what to do. You are there to guide the Sprouts back to their original prosperous life in this interesting Mac game.

The play is to meet the needs of the Sprouts, build their homes and buildings to make their lives easier, happier and healthier. The 5 Sprouts in your careSprouts Adventure 2 are called: Tulip, Basil, Rosa, Cypress and Pina. They will let you know what they need with the picture above their heads, and they will verbally let you know with their cute, squeaky voices. In order to feed them, you must click on a Sprout and drag him/her to a patch of dirt to till and work the ground. Afterwards you click on the rain button, drag it to the patch, then click on the sun, drag the sun to the patch, and the plants will grow. Click on any hungry Sprout, drag him/her to the patch to eat. Also dropping any Sprout on a flower will provide food for them.

In addition, you need to click, drag a Sprout to magic stones, butterflies, gems and weeds. This will increase their life attributes. All of which are important for the welfare of your group. In addition earning Karma points will open up various spells for your Sprouts. This can be done by the Sprouts’ offerings, fulfilling wishes from the well and by fishing. There is a day meter to display the time of day. This is important because some spells can only be done during certain times of the day or night. The map when you click on it will show the overview of the entire Sprouts’ world. This will allow you to view when the wild flowers, gems, magic stones and weeds are available. The weeds are important to click and drag a Sprout to remove them.

When a Sprout gets an idea, there will be a light bulb above his head, and by clicking on it you will be able to find out what kind of thought it is. If it is to erect a building since they will need a place to rest, sleep and work in, you drag the supplies to an available site. The first building takes many days to erect but is essential for the Sprouts to sleep in and rest so they will be able to work on all the projects. The more Sprouts you have working will get the job done faster.

The Sprouts will be better when they are happy, curious, nourished, motivated, and rested. In this state the Sprouts will do wonderful things for you. This Mac game is like Virtual Villagers and My Tribe except it is a little easier to play since you can accomplish many things Sprouts Adventure 3without killing your little Sprouts. This game will be appropriate for younger children to learn a sim play of this type. There are achievements and discoveries to collect and find. Since the area is confined to a small area, and with the overview, it is easy to collect all the items for increasing life’s attributes. In addition, spells are locked and open up slowly one at a time for you to incorporate it in the play. Increasing your population comes from the earned eggs. You click on the egg, drag it to an open area and wait.

Sprouts Adventure is an adorable sim play for children and casual gamers to have fun raising a group of Sprouts who will become a useful, lively and responsible citizen of their world. I think the sounds effects and artwork are appropriate assets to this game. The play is enjoyable, if not a little slow, and fun to establish new inhabitants in their own village.

Features of Sprouts Adventure:
-Be a Deity
-Earn Karma to Unlock Spells
-11 Structures
-Dozen Sprouts

Rating: ★★★½☆