The Gadgets Page

There are lots of games available for the iPhone, but one that I’ve downloaded and really enjoyed is Electronic Arts’ Sudoku. You can see it here:

• Electronic Arts: Sudoku – iTunes Link

At only $4.99, it’s a reasonably priced application for the iPhone and it beats all of the free versions out there. It’s easier to use than any other version and I rarely press the wrong number with their user interface.

My only problem with this game is the splash screen. I can turn off the music and sound effects in the game, but EVERY time I load the game, it plays a LOUD flute tune while loading. I don’t mind the fact that it takes a while to load. I don’t mind the hubris and vanity of Electronic Arts and the visual graphics while the game loads, but the music is SO LOUD that I can’t just pull out my iPhone and play a little Sudoku in public places.

Just imagine being in church. You’re bored out of your mind because Sister Christiansen is bearing her testimony AGAIN about the way genealogy work has brought her closer to Jesus. You KNOW she’s going to be talking for at least fifteen minutes before they will be able to wrestle the microphone out of her hands. Time to check out with a little Sudoku, right? NO! Don’t do it! The second the splash screen plays that flute music on FULL volume, the entire congregation is going to turn around and look at YOU! You can’t even disable the noise by turning off the ringer on your iPhone. NOTHING STOPS IT!

It’s not like the game hasn’t had multiple updates, but each one has failed to give me the option to TURN OFF the audio on the splash screen. I can turn off the audio while the game is playing, but I can’t load up the game without EVERYONE getting an earful of Asian flutes.

Until EA realizes that we need to be able to discreetly load up their games on our iPhones and play them when no one is noticing, they are going to FAIL in the casual gaming market.

I never played Viva Pinata on the Xbox 360, but I have been looking for something fun to play ever since I finished filling my museum on Animal Crossing: Wild World. Unfortunately, Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise for the Nintendo DS isn’t anything near as inviting as Animal Crossing was for me. Here is a video describing how to play and a general review of the game:

The video clips look great. The tutorial was thorough in teaching me how to play. I was never confused on what I was supposed to do, but I just didn’t find it interesting enough to return. In fact, I’m more tempted to load up Animal Crossing: Wild World and visit my old friends there. I just didn’t feel the need to make my garden great enough to attract rare pinatas because there is no real reward to attracting them. Sure, they get on my list of pinatas and I unlock an achievement, but that wasn’t enough for me.

The reason I wanted a complete catalog in Animal Crossing is because sometimes my little animal friends wanted something. If it was in my catalog, I could order it for them and make them happy by giving it to them. That was a HUGE payoff to me. I wasn’t just checking off every item on a list. The items could be used to make my animal friends like me.

This is an aspect of Viva Pinata that just never materialized for me. WHY do I want to attract pinatas? They aren’t that cute. They don’t talk to me. I can’t even pet them or teach them tricks like I could with Nintendogs. I just didn’t see the point of investing any time in the game and this comes from a girl who played Animal Crossing at least thirty minutes a day every day for two years.

In the end, a game needs to give me a bit of relaxation and a bit of achievement. I got neither from Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise.

Check out this awesome hack of a Wii Balance Board by Matthieu Deru and Simon Bergweiler from the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence.

They are using their Wii Balance Board to send input to Google Earth, so it appears that they are flying over the planet using the board. It’s like a virtual hoverboard. This has Scott Westerfeld rather excited because his Uglies book series features hoverboards quite prominently.

Anyone out there willing to create a video game for his books that use the Wii Balance Board?

Hands down, my FAVORITE booth at CES this year was Mattel.

They had a new toy that’s going to be out in the Fall of 2009 that blew my socks OFF. It is called B-Nails.

It prints cool designs on your fingernails. This nice girl demonstrated it to me.

First you stick your finger into the machine. It takes a picture of your finger.

Then you choose the design that you want on your fingernail.

I chose this classic Barbie silhouette. At this point, you can resize the image so it will fit on tiny little girl fingers or big fat thumbs or anything inbetween.

After it prints on your finger, you cover the image with clear polish. I couldn’t feel it printing on my finger. There was no heat and I didn’t feel the ink squirting.

Unfortunately, I painted my image too soon, so it smeared a bit.

I had better luck the second time. I sized the image a little too small that time, but it worked perfectly.

They had this toy connected to a PC and running software to control it, so I suspect it will be like the Barbie iDesign and work on Windows only. Hopefully, they won’t make us upgrade to Windows 7 just to play with it.

I am continually impressed with Mattel and their ideas for toys for little girls. B-Nails is just another great toy to add to the list.

I’ve been playing Animal Crossing: City Folk pretty regularly. I’m not as obsessed with it as I was Animal Crossing: Wild World, but that’s mostly because I have to play it on the Wii instead of the DS. The whole house can hear me when I play Animal Crossing: City Folk and the town is 52 inches wide. When Mike can see my obsession in HD greatness, I’m a little less willing to play for hours on end. The DS was a more private way to obsess.

Since it’s winter in the game, there aren’t very many bugs to catch, but one of the bugs that I can still get are mole crickets. Imagine my shock and surprise when The Bloggess showed me a photo of a REAL mole cricket.

If I saw that thing running around, there’s NO WAY I’d catch it! Butterfly net or not! After reading her comments, they are harmless:

dewde says:

LOL it’s a mole-cricket. Pick it up and it will try and “dig” into your hand much like a puppy digs in the dirt. It tickles, actually.

In the game, when you hear the mole cricket, you have to get out your shovel, dig a hole and then hurry and get your butterfly net to catch the cricket scurrying away. When I’m playing Animal Crossing, mole crickets look so cute. In real life, not so much. I think I’ll stick with the fantasy for now.

The reason most adults play video games is to RELAX. We have a few minutes before we go to bed or maybe want to unwind during a stressful flight. The Zenses games from The Game Factory understands that perfectly. The games come in two flavors: Ocean and Rainforest. They both have beautiful soundtracks with relaxing sound effects that make playing the games fun and meditative.

In fact, you can download the soundtracks right now. Go to their website and click on the Music Downloads section:

• The American Game Factory – Zenses

I bought the Ocean Edition while I was traveling so I could have something to do on the four hour flight that would distract me from the cramped quarters. Instead of turning off the audio (which is what I do on many video games), I put in my headphones and listened to the calming water while I moved around seashells. All the games are fun, casual gaming type of games that are easy to learn and addictive to play.

Here is the trailer for Zenses: Ocean Edition:

Here is the trailer for Zenses: Rainforest Edition:

I am getting the Rainforest Edition for my next trip and the flight should be an easy escape.

I have gushed many times about the game, Animal Crossing: Wild World. You can see my entries here:

• Gadgets Page » Nintendo DS: Animal Crossing

• Gadgets Page » Nintendo DS: Animal Crossing Update

• Gadgets Page » Animal Crossing: Gulliver

Almost two years ago, I first heard about Animal Crossing for the Wii:

• Gadgets Page » Animal Crossing for the Wii

It has finally arrived and I’m just head over heels happy with it. My favorite part of Animal Crossing were the daily conversations with my little animal friends, but after three years of playing the DS version, I had pretty much memorized the game. The writing for Wild World was spectacular and you can see the quotes I gleaned from that wonderful game here:

• Animal Crossing: Wild World Quotes from The Quotations Page

My biggest fear for City Folk was that they would recycle the writing. As spectacular as it was, I was a little sick of hearing Elvis tell me the SAME things every day. Fortunately, they have rewritten the entire game. Right down to what Nook says when you are buying a house. Almost all of the writing is new. There is a little bit of recycling here and there, but unless you’re an insane woman who memorizes everything she hears, you probably won’t even notice. They even went to the trouble of inventing new catchphrases every time you catch a fish. And Blathers will tell you about the zoological quirks of fish rather than go on and on about how tasty they are.

I was also worried about how the transfer for the DS would go. I had heard that I could transfer my character from my DS game to City Folk. I worried that it would work like a move. For example, in Wild World, you can move from one city to another, but you lose everything in your bureau, bank account and you arrive with only what you can carry in your pockets. THAT is how I thought the move to City Folk would go. Instead, the only thing that transfers is hair color, eye color, sex, name and my catalog. My character in Wild World is still there and I didn’t lose her when I transferred to the Wii game. It was a huge relief.

I had completed my museum collection in Wild World, so I thought that starting a town with an empty museum would be depressing, but surprisingly, it’s not. It gives me all the reason to fish, dig and hunt for bugs again. By the way, fishing and hunting for bugs can be done just like on the DS and Gamecube versions, but they have added features to let me fish a little more realistically with the Wiimote. Now, I can cast my fishing rod, just like a real rod with the Wii controller. To catch the fish, I pull up, just like I would if I were really fishing. Swinging a net is exactly the same.

There have been lots of talk about visiting the city. Here is a video talking about those features ad infinitum:

For me, I’m just happy to talk to my new little animal friends. The writing for City Folk is looking to be just as enjoyable and witty as the writing was for Wild World, so I’m looking forward to laughing with my imaginary friends for many days this year!

I had previously talked about MillionHeir and how fun it is to play. You can see that review here:

• Gadgets Page » Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir

After a few weeks of playing, I have enjoyed many quiet hours playing. It’s a wonderful and relaxing way to end my day. Finding a few objects in a picture right before I go to sleep may make for interesting dreams, but they ARE relaxing ones.

The other day, I was watching House on USA and this commercial for the game came on:

This is exactly how it was playing the game with my sister. The first few games, we played against each other, but we really enjoyed the cooperative mode where we found objects together.

It’s such a quiet and relaxing little commercial that it caught my eye and it portrayed the game perfectly. It’s not about the story of a lost millionaire. It’s about finding the celery before your sister does.

Grand Theft Auto IV was heralded as the AntiChrist and the premiere in video graphics and story telling. It was hated and loved. I tried playing with it at Dan’s house and after accidentally blowing up his car with a grenade, I decided that it was too stressful for me to play and thought I was alone in that decision. My friend Ernie, however, has redeemed my judgment. Here is his review of Grand Theft Auto IV:

• little. yellow. different. – Grand Theft Auto 4, in a nutshell

Seriously, I don’t care if this is the highest rated game on the Playstation 3 — if I wanted to be screamed at in an automobile, I could driving my mother around the Bay Area and tell her I was gay.

If an accidental push of a button can blow up my car and put me in the hospital, I don’t want to play the stupid game. I didn’t even get to the part where someone else screams at me while I’m trying to get away from the cops.

Why can’t all games be like Animal Crossing?!!

When we talk about design, sometimes things just seem a little familiar. Take this design for a yo-yo, for example. It’s used to charge your iPhone.

• Peter Thuvander: Yo-Yo Charger

It’s a design for a yo-yo that has a LI battery cell that gets charged when you play with it. Ingenious, isn’t it? Who would have ever thought of something like that?

Well, it just so happens that Chris Aimone and Tomek Bartczak thought of it a full two years earlier:

• Gadgets Page » Gadgets of the Future? Yo-Yo Powered MP3 Player

They actually were the grand prize winners for the Pop-Sci Core77 Design Challenge. Sorry, Peter. Try again and this time come up with your OWN idea.

Via: Popgadget, DVICE, TreeHugger, Engadget and Boing Boing. NONE of whom noticed the similarities.