Nicole, Linda, and Simone are joined this week by Lisa Jaech, recent college graduate, animator, artist, and Linda’s daughter. We talk about news, PAX Prime 2015, and the awesome ability of kids to play video games in ways they were never meant to be played. Listen up!
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News & Views
- Simone is a veritable encyclopedia when it comes to the much anticipated LEGO Dimensions toys-to-life game. So many entertainment franchises will be available, including Wizard of Oz, Portal, Ninjago, Superman, Doctor Who, and tons more. And you actually build the figures and the very cool-looking portal that reads the figures’ chips. Launching September 29.
- The Nintendo 2DS is getting a price drop. But even so we’re not sure why you’d buy it instead of a 3DS. (You’ve got to check out Courtney’s chart that explains all the ins and outs of the various Nintendo handhelds.)
- There’s a new yarn Yoshi amiibo. Which we want.
Yoshi yarn amiibo. Too cute!
- Nintendo announced their PAX Prime 2015 lineup: lots of games will be featured, including Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash on the 3DS. The release date is October 9.
- There are free games coming out all over the place. PlayStation is giving out free games (for the PS3 and the PS4) every month and so is Xbox (for the 360 and the One). Simone recommends Race the Sun. You have to be a PlayStation Plus member or an Xbox Live Gold member to get the free games.
- YouTube has launched Gaming.YouTube.com. This new website curates gaming videos for you. Pixelkin’s in there, too. We’re excited! You’ve got to watch Ana’s Apps. Ana says, “I want to watch that baby.” And so do we.
PAX Prime 2015
We are going to cover PAX Prime 2015 like crazy this coming weekend, and we’ll be posting dozens of stories about new games and interesting panels. Simone’s panel is on Monday, all about how to engage with problematic media like the game Catherine. PAX Prime is all sold out. But guess what we have? We have a couple of extra one-day passes for PAX Prime 2015 for Monday. Listen to the podcast to find out how you might get your hands on them.
Kids Who Creatively Subvert Games
Lisa used to watch her older brother Chris play video games. She “had way too much fun being annoying.” She’d cheer him on and make noises and watch the games (like Final Fantasy VII and VIII) as if they were movies. Simone played City of Heroes in her brother’s room while he played Counter-Strike.
Lisa and her friend Grace would figure out ways to play games outside of the intended structure and rules. Like playing Diddy Kong Racing while pretending they were getting their driver’s licenses. Driving very slowly, singing to create a radio station, and so on. Simone played a racing game on the PC, but instead of racing she would pretend to be a real-estate agent and offer a guided tour of the track. She also played real-estate agent with Barbie Riding Club.
What We Played
- Nicole played the very popular role-playing game for middle-schoolers, Star Stable, which she’s going to review for Pixelkin. She’s also playing Hearthstone (the expansion was released Monday) and Heroes of Might and Magic 3. She played Toca Store with Ana.
- Linda is playing Mountain Goat Mountain. (Thank you Mark DeLoura.) And she and Simone tried out the new alternate-reality game BattleKasters.
- We’re ALL playing Alphabear. There are 80 bears now and new challenges. We like this game a lot.
- Simone played LittleBigPlanet 2 and Mountain Goat Mountain.
- Lisa played Crossy Road, a very addictive endless runner. Her high score is in the 300s! “I just run…I just go so fast!”
Credits
This podcast was recorded in the studios of the Jack Straw Cultural Center in Seattle. The music is by Pat Goodwin at Novelty Shop Creative. Nicole Tanner, Linda Breneman, Simone de Rochefort, and Lisa Jaech participated in this podcast. Thanks for listening and if you liked this episode, please rate us on iTunes and find us on BlogTalkRadio!
