We've all seen the ads - girls play nicely with pink dolls while boys bang around with cars and action figures. Play Monster Toys want to help you bust such gender stereotyping with their range of Wonder Crew dolls that are specifically aimed boys.Starting off as a Kickstarter project back in 2015, they were created […]
The post Wonder Crew Dolls Bring Out the Inner Superhero in Boys (And Girls Too) appeared first on Kids Love This Stuff!.
Leave it to Nintendo to drop a little teaser and get the internet out-of-control stoked.
That kid-friendly "new interactive experience" is Nintendo Labo, "a new line of interactive build-and-play experiences that combine DIY creations with the magic of Nintendo Switch." Just... watch:
Nintendo Labo will be available April 20, 2018 with the Toy-Con 01 Variety Kit and the Toy-Con 02 Robot Kit. I'm genuinely not sure what to make of all this yet, but Nintendo's name game is on point.
Breaking it down further, the Variety Kit will cost $70 and include five "projects": two RC cars, one fishing rod, one house, one motorbike, and one piano. The Robot Kit is a little steeper at $80 and comes with a full-on cardboard getup you can strap yourself into. Both kits include software, too.
Variety Kit
- Toy-Con RC Car: Insert the Left and Right Joy-Con into your newly built RC Car and control its movement using touch screen controls on the Nintendo Switch console. The HD Rumble feature in the Joy-Con controllers will cause vibrations that move the car in the direction you choose. Materials to construct two RC Cars are included.
- Toy-Con Fishing Rod: Construct the Fishing Rod with an active, rotating reel that is attached by string to a cradle holding the Nintendo Switch console. Catch one of many exotic fish shown swimming on the Nintendo Switch screen by casting your Fishing Rod and unwinding the reel to lower the hook. Once you feel a vibration from the Joy-Con inserted in the reel, you must tug the Fishing Rod upward and crank the reel quickly to try and complete the catch!
- Toy-Con House: By inserting various assembled blocks into openings in the sides and bottom of the House, you can interact with, play games with and feed a cute creature on the front-facing Nintendo Switch screen. Each differently shaped block is detected by the IR Motion Camera on the Right Joy-Con inserted on top of the House.
- Toy-Con Motorbike: Insert each Joy-Con into an assembled set of handlebars to drive a motorbike on the Nintendo Switch screen. Pressing the ignition button starts the engine, while twisting the right handle activates the throttle. Leaning your body or turning the handlebars left and right controls the motorbike.
- Toy-Con Piano: After assembling a beautifully crafted 13-key piano and inserting the Nintendo Switch console and Joy-Con, you can experiment with your own musical creations by pressing different keys. You can even insert different assembled knobs to create new sound effects and tones!
Robot Kit
- Toy-Con Robot: Create a wearable Robot suit, and insert the Left and Right Joy-Con into the designated slots on the backpack and visor to assume control of the robot, which is shown on the TV when the Nintendo Switch console is docked. Enjoy a variety of fun game-play experiences, including Robot mode, in which you can destroy in-game buildings and UFOs.
There will also be a separate Customization Set with stencils, stickers, and colored tape for $10.
Speaking to TIME, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé said the Toy-Con concept could "certainly" be used for "other forms of gameplay" down the road. For now, though, the plan is to "communicate the power of the idea with Nintendo Labo [and] really enable players to make their creations, personalize them, and enjoy the [inherent] gameplay experiences ... We think that's going to be a great way to start and then progress down the path."
This initiative feels like Nintendo going back to its roots. I just hope that cardboard is sturdy!
Escape the room, a genre of games about tricky and often obtuse solutions for leaving a place, has never been done better than in the original Saw film. It's the purest distillation of what these games try to accomplish. Hack your own leg off and then you get to escape the room. It's a devilishly cruel and simple dilemma.
Saw seems to have some admiring fans that are keen to pay homage to the movies. A new game released today on Steam that's called Play with Me. It goes whole hog into the Saw iconography -- grungy dungeons, makeshift medical equipment, a creepy doll. The aesthetic is unmistakable.
The execution seems to be more Saw II through Jigsaw, though. At first glance, the puzzles look as if they might veer into the elaborate. A series of hanging keys, using CDs to catch odd-angle reflections, using matchsticks to somehow open doors. However, the trailer is explicit in stating that this isn't a game about combining items; it's a game about using items as you could in real life.
Play with Me is $8.50 right now and maybe that's a reasonably-priced gamble for Saw enthusiasts. About once a month I think of Saw II and how terrible it'd be to fall into a pit of used heroin needles. If nothing else, Play with Me has kept me right on schedule for remembering that ridiculous phobia.
Play with Me [Steam]
One of the things my girls love to do is create things with their hands. Whether it’s crafting or creating the one way I know I can get my girls attention is to have them busy with their hands. My oldest is a teen now so she is all about soap making lately. I was...
The post DIY Valentine Soap Bars appeared first on Our Ordinary Life.
Fate/Grand Order might be one of the crueler varieties of mobile gacha game, but that hasn't stopped it from achieving some measure of popularity, if the game's latest announcement is to be believed. The FGO website has announced that the English version of Fate/Grand Order has been downloaded 2 million times since its release last year, and they're celebrating the milestone by making it a good time for folks to actually start playing. Starting tomorrow and running through the 25th, players that just log in to the game each day will receive 25 units of Saint Quartz premium currency, as well as a handful of summoning tickets and other goodies. Further, a special Craft Essence accessory featuring unique art of the characters featured in the game's intro movie will be made available alongside a character outfit based on Saber's casual wear from Fate/Stay Night.
Everyone gets that stuff, but it's new players that get the most, as the game is re-running its "Start Dash" introductory campaign. Newly created accounts that clear the introductory chapter of the story and log in daily for a week will net up to 40 more Saint Quartz (in addition to the celebratory campaign rewards) and various other rewards.
Naturally, Aniplex have provided a place to spend all that newly-acquired Saint Quartz, as they'll be running a special summoning banner featuring the limited 5-Star Lancer-class Servant Brynhild. A war goddess, Valkyrie, daughter of Odin, Wagnerian archetype, and hair-alike to Pokemon's Lusamine, Bryn is a top-tier Lancer that does extra damage to characters that remind her of her heroic ex Sigurd. Other characters like Irish fella Fionn mac Cumhaill and Beowulf, hero of the Geats, will be available from the same banner, but unlike Brynhild, will remain summonable after the celebration's over.
While I couldn't in good conscience recommend playing FGO, folks with an appreciation for Type-MOON and strong willpower would be well-served by starting this week.
Last year Resogun maker Housemarque revealed it was getting out of arcade game development, much to the disappointment (but also understanding) of fans. The studio cited "lackluster sales" for Nex Machina and an industry trend toward "multiplayer experiences with strong, robust communities."
"Our purpose as a company remains the same, however – to create enjoyable and memorable gaming experiences for players while simultaneously creating a great workplace that allows people to flourish both professionally and personally," Housemarque said at the time in a letter to fans.
As a progress update of sorts, the studio is seeking testers for "an unannounced project for PC."
"It is rather early in development but as the production moves forward we are going to need testers for it," reads a listing on the Nex Machina Steam page. "If you get accepted, you will receive an electronic non-disclosure agreement that you need to sign. After that you will receive more information about the project and its future tests. Expect something other than an arcade game."
I'm still bummed out about this whole turn of events, but I'm eager to see what's next for this team and wish these folks all the best with the new direction. They sure went out on a high note with Nex.
We are looking for game testers [Steam]
Casual Game Insider is a quarterly print and digital resource for hardcore and casual fans of tabletop games, as well as game developers.
TAKARA POWER OF THE PRIMES - Takara presents popular characters from Transformers Generations as part of the Power of the Primes series! The Power of the Primes is a series of figures that can be combined with other sizes of transforming robots called Prime Masters that convert into weapons and spark cores.
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Site sponsor Robotkingdom has put up their preorder of Movie Masterpiece Ironhide, complete with new photos! On top of which, we now have a release date of July 1st for the impressive figure. Keep reading for the images, mirrored here for convenience!
It's been a contentious issue over the last couple of Prime Wars installments, and it's only getting more intense. We can see the appeal of stickers to solve budgetary problems, but we can also see the stickers peel - often before we've even bought the toy! In this editorial, RAC goes over the hows and whys of stickers and cites the remarkable consensus growing in a consensus-resistant collector community: Hasbro, Please Stop. Click through for thoughts on this sticky situation.
