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Happy Valentine’s Day!  I got Valentines for all of you!  Game reviews I’ve written recently over at GamerDad.com!  Hey, it’s better than nothing, right?  Anyway, please click on as many links as you can and maybe even post a comment or two.  I’d appreciate it.  But first, let’s play a silly Valentine’s Day game!

Valentine’s Day can be pretty depressing for a lot of people, so let’s try and lighten things up with a silly quiz.  If you could give a Valentine to any video game character, who would you give one to?  Please let me know in the comments section.  And I want to see if you can guess my answer as well!  OK, onto the game reviews!

O.K. K.O.: Let’s Play Heroes (PS4)

O.K. K.O.: Let’s Be Heroes is a new show on Cartoon Network.  It’s about a boy named K.O. who lives in a world full of super powered heroes.  He aspires to be a hero himself, so he gets a job at a convenience store in a strip mall.  But this isn’t just any convenience store, this store has all sorts of supplies for super heroes.  In the show, K.O. gets help from his friends, family, and co-workers and learns what it means to be a true hero.  And now you can help K.O., too, in the video game based on the cartoon show called O.K. K.O.: Let’s Play Heroes.  I didn’t get into the cartoon much, but I did enjoy the game a bit more.

Nintendo PEZ Dispensers

I saw these at the 5 and Below store at a little more than a dollar each and picked them all up about a month or so ago.  Many years earlier when I was at E3 in LA, we visited a candy store at Universal City Walk and saw Nintendo PEZ dispensers for ten bucks each!  Sheesh!  So it was nice to get them so cheap now.  Redemption!  So the four in the set are Mario, Peach, Yoshi, and Donkey Kong. Wish they would’ve done other characters, too, like Luigi and Toad.  And how about doing other Nintendo properties BESIDES Mario for once, like Zelda, Metroid, or Kirby PEZ dispensers?  Did you know that PEZ was created in Germany over a century ago, is an abbreviation for the German word for peppermint, and was originally intended as an alternative to smoking?  Interesting. 

Puzzle Fighter (iPad)

Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo is one of my top three favorite puzzle games, right on up there with Bust-A-Move/Puzzle Bobble and plain ol’ Tetris.  So I was really excited when Capcom announced a new Puzzle Fighter game for mobile devices.  Unfortunately, the free-to-play stuff ruined the game for me.  I didn’t mind most of the rule changes, except they don’t let you dump garbage blocks on opponents unless you get a high enough ranking, and it takes forever to do that.  And you have to pay money to play as characters I would want, like Mega Man X, a Servebot, and even freaking Phoenix Wright are in this game but you can’t play as them unless you pay money.  When I first played this game at PAX, I could choose to play as Mega Man X and dump garbage blocks on my opponent.  They did say the game would change for it’s final release, but I didn’t think it would change that much!  I almost kind of feel lied to.  I wish Capcom would make a console version of this game and let you play as anyone you want and ditch all the free-to-play stuff.  I’d buy the game at a fixed price if they did that.

Amazing Katamari Damacy (iPad)

As you know, I’m a big fan of the Katamari Damacy games.  I missed out on the first couple of the mobile versions, so the last few I’ve tried to get when they came out.  This one is a 3-D continuous runner, but at least they got the spirit of the game intact and it is a lot better than their last Katamari mobile game (an endless clicker).  The graphics in this game are even better than what they are in the regular games!

Snoopy Pop (iPad)

As I said earlier, Bust-A-Move/Puzzle Bobble is one of my top three favorite puzzle games, and I also like the Peanuts comic strip and cartoons, so I had to try this.  It’s cute and they use the Peanuts theme well and it’s one of the better free-to-play bubble popping puzzlers I’ve played.

Bust-A-Move Journey (iPad)

There are TONS of bubble popping puzzle games on mobile (see above review on Snoopy Pop), but how did they all get started?  Well, the very first one was Taito’s Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move series.  It started way back in the 16-bit days on consoles like the SNES and NEO GEO, and featured characters from their popular Bubble Bobble arcade game.  And it’s been on practically every console since (although not lately), and again, it’s one of my top three favorite puzzle games.  You’d think Taito would’ve been more strict on their copyrights for this game, since there are tons of bubble popping puzzlers on mobile now, but maybe they don’t mind, as even back in the day, Taito licensed out that idea to another company who made a similar NEO GEO game called Puzzle de Pon around the same time (not to be confused with Nintendo’s Panel de Pon).  Anyway, now the Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move series has gone full circle and is now a premium mobile game again (meaning not free-to-play).  I didn’t get to review it when it came out, but recently Taito had a sale on mobile games so I picked it up for two bucks (I think it’s normally five).  So I decided I’d do a quick review of it now on iPad.

Tortuga Racing (iPad)

This is a math game for elementary school kids who need to practice their addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication tables.  When you answer the math problem correctly, your turtle goes faster in a race.  I’ve always had an interest in educational games for kids, so I’m always up for reviewing these kinds of games at GamerDad.com.  The neat thing was I learned about this game from the developers at PAX South, and I talked with the music composer of this game.  But that’s not his full time job, though.  He’s usually a band director!  He even knew the high school band I went to and its band director as well!  He also guessed what instrument I played!  (Well, he guessed trombone, but I played bass trombone, so I’ll let that slide).  That’s how you can tell he’s a REAL band director!

Reader Review: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)

My brother liked this game so much that he wanted to review it on the GamerDad site, so who I am to refuse?  So you’d better read it since my brother wrote it!

And that’s all for now!  Thanks for reading and posting comments!  I really do appreciate it.  Happy Valentine’s Day!  --Cary