Looking forward to playing The Swords of Ditto, co-op, with my 9 year old son. 9 years… where is time going?
Kirby Star Allies
Wyatt and I recently finished playing Kirby Star Allies on the Nintendo Switch. Per standard Kirby game mechanics, Kirby has the ability to steal enemies powers. In Star Allies, Kirby goes a step further and becomes a thrower of hearts. Throw a pink heart at an enemy and they become your friend/party member, for life.
So here are Wyatt and I, adventuring across the HD candy-coated world of Kirby. We are the buddies of co-op. The ultimate father and son duo to take on the evils of Dreamland.
“Wyatt, slow down.”
“Wyatt, we just missed a puzzle piece.”
“Wyatt, why did you just die? How could you have done that?”
A chunk of our playtime consisted of Wyatt mixing powers, trying to see what Kirby powers he could create. This power mixing killed the flow of gameplay and DROVE ME NUTS!
How Kirby Power Mixing Works:
Let’s say Kirby steals the powers of a warrior. Now the pink puffball has a sword. If you have a party member that has ice, fire, or lightning powers, you can call them over to buff your sword. Your standard sword is now the Ice Sword of Doom or the Fire Ball Slicer from Heaven. In Kirby Star Allies, friendship is all about the perks.
Kirby Star Allies must be about driving your dad crazy.
It wasn’t until I started listening to myself speak to my son that I noticed I was freaking out.
So I adjusted my tone.
I listened to myself get upset over missing secret doors and passing up on puzzle pieces.
So I changed my expectations.
We started having fun.
Snow levels became a chance to sing terrible Frozen “Let It Go” parodies.
Running past puzzle pieces were a moment to become super silly and let things go.
Kirby Star Allies was a $60 reminder of what co-op gaming with my son looks like. A reminder that I need to chill, play, and allow myself to have fun.
Thank you, Kirby, for the gentle reminder.
4/5 – A perfect game to co-op with someone you love.
Title: Kirby Star Allies
Developer: HAL Laboratory
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Reviews on: Nintendo Switch
MSRP: $59.99
Bedtime Story: The Prince Who Talked Too Much
(I told Wyatt this story the other night at bedtime.)
There once was a prince who talked too much.
So his father, the king, banished him from the kingdom to a cave in a forest nearby.
Everyday, a knight would come and bring the prince food.
Now the prince was all alone. He had no one to talk to. So he named a pine cone Paul and a stick named Sam. They were his friends.
One day, after a really bad storm, the knight did not come and bring food.
The prince waited and waited, nothing. So he decided to travel back to the castle to see what was wrong.
Traveling through the forest, past hills and a river, the prince came upon the castle.
Both outside and inside there looked like a battle had occurred. Dead soldiers lay everywhere.
He looked for his family but they were no where to be found.
The prince was alone.
And so he crowned himself king and ruled over the pine cone named Paul and the stick named Sam.
70 years went by. Two children happened to come upon the castle that was now falling apart.
Entering the throne room, they saw a skeleton sitting on the throne. On the ground, in front of the skeleton, was a pine cone and a stick.
The End.
(The look on Wyatt’s face at this point was priceless. Pure shock. I could tell that the story was far too bleak. I scrambled quickly to make things right.)
But that wasn’t the end. When the prince entered the castle, he searched for his parents.
In their room, on his dad’s dresser, sat his father’s crown. The prince put it on.
He noticed then that the dresser had swung back away from the wall, revealing a secret passage way.
The prince entered and walked down a set of stairs that ended at an underground river. There was a boat and a note:
“My son, if you are reading this, something terrible has happened and we have escaped to the mountains. Use this boat to come join us.”
And so the prince got into the boat and floated his way to the mountain fortress his family was now living in.
The prince was no longer alone.
The End.
Also, turns out that the skeleton that was sitting on the throne, 70 years in the future, was not the prince but just a random guy. The pine cone sitting in front of the throne was just a pine cone, and the stick just a random stick.
The System is Already in Place
Wyatt and I were in Gamestop recently to trade-in some games. As we waited in line, TV’s blaring about some upcoming entertainment, I noticed the father and son being helped ahead of us. Looking on the counter, I saw that they were picking up two games, both rated M for mature. The kid didn’t look like he was much older than 10 or 11 years old.
Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.
Did the ratings system fail in this case? No. This kid’s parent either:
A. Didn’t care
B. Was not educated on the existing video game rating system (ESRB)
C. Really wanted to play the latest M-rated game with his kid
D. Insert some sort of non-judgmental / get out of jail free card here
We had a little boy move into our neighborhood a few months back. He lives with his dad (parents are divorced). The kid seems to have free reign over the media he consumes. He is 8.
Often at night, as I am driving down the street to our house, I’ll catch a glimpse of what is playing on their TV. Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, etc. are all normal sights. Maybe the kid gets to play these games with his dad? Maybe video games are the only thing they bond over? I’m not trying to judge my neighbors parenting skills nor the choices he makes for his son.
One day, shortly after they had moved in, my son and the neighbor boy got into an argument. Wyatt came in crying. The neighbor boy had threatened to come into our house, at night, and kill all of us. On top of that, he was also going to destroy all of Wyatt’s toys.
At what point does the media we consume start to affect us on some level?
I’m not saying that violent video games cause violence. But what I am saying is that the things we choose to consume affect us deep down. Doing something as slight as causing us to use words such as “death” or “kill” more frequently. Or even normalizing the use of weapons and violence as a way to solve all problems.
In the wake of recent school shootings, President Trump has decided to sit down with members of the video game industry. A Presidential effort to hash out the topic of violence in video games. What I’m hoping, is that President Trump is educated on the rating systems already in place. I’m hoping that he realizes that the problem starts in the home; the solution starts with parents engaging their children.
Walter and Frank Blow Up the Moon
I have been telling Wyatt bedtime stories for years. This is one of those stories… a story about a boy named Walter and his pet alligator named Frank. We created this story in Twine. Go ahead and download the file, save it to your computer, and play it in your web browser.
Download file here: Walter and Frank Blow Up the Moon
JohnnyBGamer 