Tag: video games

Mario Switch Games

- Ann Leave a comment

Guest post by Wesley B.

If you own a Nintendo console, you’re doing yourself a disservice if you aren’t playing any Mario games – the mustachioed plumber is Nintendo’s mascot for a reason. The Switch is no exception to this rule, and we have several Mario Switch games available here at the Library!

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Mario Party likely need no introduction. Either can be played alone, but they shine in their multiplayer modes (which the Switch is perfectly suited for). While Super Mario Party fails to fully recapture the magic of some of the earlier games in the series, it’s still a great way to spend an evening battling, betraying, and bickering with your friends – and laughing uproariously the whole time. Mario Kart 8, on the other hand, is probably the definitive Mario Kart game ever made. Chock full of courses, characters, and karts, there’s enough content here to last quite a while, and it’s customizable enough to be just as fun and accessible to newcomers as it is to series veterans.

Unlike the previous two games, Mario Tennis Aces might have flown under your radar. However, it’s just as strong a candidate for game night with your friends as the other two. You can play singles or doubles, one-off matches or tournaments, and with conventional or motion controls. Plus, unlike Mario Party and Mario Kart, it has a robust single player campaign!

And then of course we have the more traditional single-player platforming experiences: New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe and Mario Odyssey. Mario Bros. is classic 2D Mario at its finest. It starts off a little slow, but before long the levels start to get fiendishly difficult. Odyssey, on the other hand, is the latest 3D Mario entry, and in many ways the culmination of all the games that came before it. With over 900 Moons to find across its 16 worlds, it should keep you busy for quite a while.

Last but not least, I want to leave you with a recommendation for a strange game whose very existence is surprising, and that has no right to be as good as it is: Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. This game is actually developed by Ubisoft, not Nintendo, and is a new genre for Mario: turn-based strategy. While some people may be turned off by the Rabbids, strange creatures previously relegated mostly to background roles in Ubisoft games, they’re depriving themselves of a shockingly great game. You’ll eventually unlock eight characters, from whom you choose three to make your battle team. Each character has customizable skill trees as well as a variety of weapons to choose from, lending a surprising amount of depth to this bright and cartoonishly stylized game.

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Nintendo Switch

- Ann Leave a comment

Guest post by Wesley B

Nintendo Switch games have arrived at The Library! We now have 40+ games for Nintendo’s new portable console available for checkout, with more on the way. I have thoughts on lots of them, and they’re all worth playing, but I have to start with what has become one of my all-time favorite games.

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is aptly named, as it breathed fresh life into what is perhaps gaming’s most storied franchise. Since the release of A Link to the Past in 1991, Zelda games have followed a familiar formula: the hero Link adventures from dungeon to dungeon, finding a unique item within each that you use to solve its puzzles and slay its guardian, before finally fighting the final boss, rescuing the titular princess, and saving the kingdom of Hyrule from the forces of darkness.

Breath of the Wild marks a radical departure from this formula. Within the first hour or so, Link already has every item he’ll need for the rest of the game. More importantly, after clearing the initial tutorial area, the entire map opens up to him. He is, as Sartre wrote, “condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. It is up to him to give life a meaning.”

In real life, the concept of radical freedom can be a curse – hence Sartre’s use of the word condemned. Fortunately, life in Hyrule is a lot less complicated, and so exercising your freedom is an unadulterated blessing. The developers at Nintendo have crafted a vast, beautiful open world for Link to explore, filled with rolling plains, verdant riverlands, lush rainforests, vast deserts dotted with oases, snow-covered mountains, and more. Best of all, Link’s paraglider and ability to climb basically anything he sees make traversal a true joy, uninhibited by the pitfalls of invisible walls and insurmountable terrain so common in every other open world game.

Of course, there’s more to the game than sightseeing (although admittedly I’ve spent a large portion of my playtime with the game’s camera feature). Hyrule is not just vibrant but vital as well; there are settlements teeming with colorful characters to meet, and the wilderness is filled with outposts manned by enemies who will test your mettle. I could go on endlessly about this game, but ultimately its true joy is to be found in exploration and discovery, so rather than spoil any more of that experience for you, I’ll simply suggest that you check it out and see for yourself.

Angry Birds Trilogy

- Stephanie Leave a comment

angry birds trilogyFor those of you unaware, Angry Birds is a game that was released by Rovio in 2009 as an app downloadable on your smartphone or tablet. In this game, you use your finger as a slingshot to catapult angry different shaped birds at green pigs hiding within flimsy makeshift shelters. The less birds you use to knock down those shelters, and most importantly destroy the pigs, the more points you receive. Once the pigs are gone, you can advance a level, earning yourself achievements and even trophies. Said pigs seem to laugh at you if you fail a level, making defeating the game all the more important in your mind.

In 2012, Activision released the Angry Birds Trilogy, a videogame available across multiple platforms, that allowed people without smartphones or tablets to revel in the glory of wiping the smug look off those little pigs’ faces when you knocked down their structure and were finally able to advance a level. Angry Birds Trilogy brings together three different Angry Birds games: the original Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, and Angry Birds Rio for a total of 19 different episodes, which, to make each game different than the downloadable app, gives players an exclusive new level within each game.

Don’t have an Xbox 360? Never fear! This game is available on multiple different platforms accessible through the library’s catalog. Angry Birds Trilogy is available on the following platforms: PS3, Wii, WiiU, and 3DS. Be sure to click each link to find out at which library the game is located. As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact the reference librarians.

We Sing 80s

- Stephanie Leave a comment

we sing 80sI love karaoke, but I’m not fond of the whole “getting up in front of other people and embarrassing yourself” part of karaoke. Let’s be honest: when you go to do karaoke, you’re stuck in front of people in a semi-awkward situation, and unless those people are all your relatives or you are a professional singer in disguise, you’re going to be nervous. Conquering these nerves can be accomplished through practice. A new way to practice, besides spending money on lessons or singing in the car or around the house, is to play a singing videogame. My favorites are the ones similar to Rock Band that show you note length and highlight varying changes in pitch, so you’re essentially learning the songs without having to pay for sheet music.

Some of the most popular songs to play on karaoke nights are songs that almost everyone in the audience is familiar with. I have noticed that songs from the 1980s seem to be picked a lot, so I was excited when I found We Sing 80s, a videogame available for the Wii, that provides players with 30 of the biggest songs of the ’80s (21 worldwide No. 1 hits!) along with their music videos for the ultimate 80s experience. Players will be able to play three different modes, from solo to party to karaoke with up to four people jamming together. If you’re unsure how a song goes, you can even take singing lessons and figure out how to add different effects to your voice. You can also change the level of difficulty to make everyone comfortable. So grab your friends and get ready to rock out to a night of Queen, Culture Club, Tears for Fears, Cyndi Lauper, and many more.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

- Stephanie Leave a comment

teenage mutant ninja turtlesTeenage. Mutant. Ninja. Turtles. With the recent reboot of the movie, which came out in 2014 starring Megan Fox, and the fact that our summer reading program is superheroes, people of all ages seem to be asking for more information about these pizza-loving, crime-fighting superheroes. Seeing as I like the out-of-the-ordinary superheroes, I found myself looking more into TMNT and their many different reboots. One of the games I found was the 2013 release of Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game for the Wii. (This game is also available on 3DS and Xbox 360.)

Now I must admit that I am a fan of the 1987-1996 run of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show, as I grew up watching them and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers at my neighbor’s house, so my review may be a bit skewed. (Find Season One of TMNT here.)Nonetheless, I shall prevail. Graphics aside, which is where my major grumpiness resides with this game as they differ from the original, this game is still entertaining to play. Having seen episodes of the Nickelodeon show, I can say that the characters in this game move just like the characters in the show, flying through the air battling bad guys and chowing down on pizza to get their health back. Players are allowed to choose which of the four turtles they wish to play as with, of course, the option being that you can play with as many as four players. This game was clearly marketed and more or less made for younger children to play, but there are elements that will draw in older fans of the show as well.

The graphics are good, but not amazing, similar to the Nickelodeon show. There are fifteen different action-packed levels for players to maneuver through, as well as more than twelve different environments of play to muck through, be they subways, city streets, sewers, docks, and many more. Fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, both young and old, will enjoy playing this game as they battle to stop Shredder and the Kraang from unleashing a mutagen bomb that, if detonated, will turn the hapless residents of New York City into mindless mutants.

If you’re interested in being a green superhero for a little while, join Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo, as they battle to save New York. Booyakasha!

Carnival Games

- Stephanie Leave a comment

carnival gaemsSummer is my favorite time of year. School is out, the weather is getting warmer, summer reading programs begin, and the best part of summer starts: carnival time! Fairs, carnivals, and rodeos are my favorite way to spend a hot summer night with friends. Confession: I am not very good at carnival games. My hand-eye coordination is, to put it politely, lacking. This does not lessen my desire to play and actually makes me strive to become better every year. My newest way to practice, besides going to the arcade or setting up a mini-carnival with the kids in my neighborhood, is to play Carnival Games, a videogame available at the Davenport Public Library for the Wii.

You may be wondering how playing a videogame actually prepares you to play real carnival games. The use of the Wii remote, instead of a regular game controller, allows players to practice the motion as they are throwing the sledgehammer to test their strength, as they are throwing the ball in Skee Ball, or even as they are trying to dunk someone at the dunk tank. One major bonus to this game is that it allows up to four players to play at a time, which makes each carnival game more of a competition, just like a real carnival! Carnival Games offers over 25 different games of chance and skill that can be found at carnivals across the nation. In addition to allowing players to customize and accessorize their own character, this game revels in the carnival spirit: with bright lights, patterns, and people of all kinds milling around the game.

Check out this game today and play games like Balloon Darts, Ring Toss, Hole in One, Shooting Gallery, Meter-O-Love, and many more. And if you’re lucky, you will beat the rest of the people you are playing against and win one of the over 250 virtual prizes available.

Pet Pals: Animal Doctor

- Stephanie Leave a comment

pet pals animal doctorAll throughout college, my teachers told me that the best way to entice a child to learn was to make learning fun. You’d also get bonus points as a teacher if you could trick kids into learning without them even knowing it. One of the best ways that I have found to do this is to slip that learning to them in the form of a video game or even a classic novel that has been re-done as an illustrated graphic novel.

As I was searching for new titles to intrigue the kids I know, I stumbled upon Pet Pals: Animal Doctor, a game available for the Wii. It allows players to pretend they are a veterinarian and perform surgeries using the Wii remote. What I found most interesting about this game is that the level of learning is high. More than thirty medical cases, that are based on real events, are presented within this game with mini- and micro-games that allow players to play, feed, and clean the animals and to also perform some specialized procedures. Players will be able to operate and interact with a variety of animals that range from the familiar to the exotic. This game won the Editor’s Choice Award of Excellence from the Children’s Technology Review and also the Parents’ Choice Silver Award.

The Lego Movie: Videogame

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lego movie videogameThe Lego Movie Videogame lets players act out as Emmet, the main character in the Lego Movie. Emmet’s ordinary, perfectly normal, and rule-following life is completely disrupted when he is mistaken as the Special, the key, the one person who can save the world. People who have seen The Lego Movie will recognize the plot of the movie as being the plot line in the video game as well. After he is seen as the Special, he is thrust in with a group of strangers to help them stop evil Lord Business as he tries to put his evil plans into action.

The Lego Movie Videogame allows two players to play at once as they travel through 15 levels of play. You are also allowed to play as a variety of different characters, but only after that character is introduced into play. Playing as a different character lets you use that character’s specific skill set to help Emmet on his quest. In order to save the world, players build AWESOME creations to defend themselves. Everything is made of Lego bricks and players are transported into the Lego World as Emmet and his friends battle to stop evil Lord Business.

This game is also available for Nintendo 3DS, XBox 360, and WiiU.

Pac-Man Party

- Stephanie Leave a comment

pac man partyI love old/classic/retro video games. This can be attributed to my father. When I was little, he used to come home from the store with joystick retro video game consoles that had to be plugged into the front of the VCR for us to play. We also used to visit a restaurant in town once a week that had old pinball machines and other arcade games in the basement that we would play for hours on end. My favorite to play was Pac-Man. (Things got a little dicey when you added Ms. Pac-Man into the mix, as no one really wanted to be stuck playing as her…)

In 2010, as a celebration of 30 years of Pac-Man, Namco released Pac-Man Party and I was one of the many who purchased the game for the Wii. So did the Davenport Public Library! If you have grown nostalgic for the “Wakka Wakka Wakka” sound, check out Pac-Man Party. The whole game is set up as Pac-Man’s birthday party. In addition to offering the classic 1980s arcade games for Pac-Man, Dig-Dug, and Galaga, Pac-Man Party also strives to appeal to those not familiar with the classic Pac-Man game by including mini-games and challenges for up to four players. You won’t get bored playing Pac-Man Party as there are 45 mini-games available and three different modes accessible to play. So gather up your closest friends and family members and challenge them to see who can survive the longest as Pac-Man. Let the games begin!

Michael Jackson: The Experience

- Stephanie Leave a comment

michael jackson the experienceNow that it’s finally spring, it is time for “the wiggles” to come out. This happens every year when the weather gets nice outside and kids are fit to bursting to do anything outside. But what about those rainy spring days when they’re stuck inside? I turn to video games, but ones that people of all ages can enjoy playing (and ones that *hopefully* won’t lead to fighting matches between the players).

My favorite go-to games like this are any of the singing and dancing ones. I just discovered Michael Jackson: The Experience and was pleasantly surprised with the game as a whole. This Wii game allows four players to play with the only requirement being that each has a Wii remote.

If you want to practice your moves before you compete against your friends, the game offers a practice space in Video Training mode. This game also allows you to battle your friends in a Challenge Mode, have the other players be your back-up dancers, or even make your own dance crew. Dance along with Michael to 26 of his iconic hits that range from “Beat It” to “Billie Jean” to “Smooth Criminal”.

So next time it’s rainy outside or you need a new distraction, head to the library and check out our collection of musical video games.