Age: 9

Tell us about the game.

Max: It’s not just Spyro you play as, there are 32 different characters to play. You don’t get them when you start the game. You can buy characters at Game and other game stores. The characters aren’t virtual, they’re plastic figures that come in a box. You’ve got to put them on this portal thing, which is a platform that plugs into your console. When you put them on the platform they light up and they show up on your screen right away, really quickly. There’s different elements and classes of characters, elves, tree things, fish men. They aren’t all dragons. They have different moves, like Stealth Elf, who can go invisible for a small amount of time and go behind enemies and attack them and she has these little bone daggers that she slashes around with.

The game is a 3D platformer, but you can’t jump in it, which is strange. Two people can play it but it’s just as good on your own. Another player can plug their controller in and put a Skylander on the portal and they’ll join the game. Only two people can play together though, not any more than that.

What was the best bit about the game?

Max: It’s so cool when you put down your Skylander on the platform. The animation when they appear in the game is awesome. The characters that come with the game aren’t as cool as some of the ones you can buy separately. My favourites are Flame Slinger and Stealth Elf.

What was the worst bit about the game?

Max: There’s nothing that’s bad in the game. It seems weird that you can’t jump but there’s no point in jumping or anywhere to jump to so it doesn’t matter.

What are your final thoughts on the game?

Max: It’s a very good game and I totally think there should be a sequel. It is much better than I was expecting. It’s definitely not hard to play, it’s very easy. With most games having it be easy is boring but this is really fun. It’s more of a kids game and I think most kids would like it as a Christmas present although it might be difficult for those not used to playing games to understand. Even though it’s for kids I think older gamers would still like it so they might want to buy it too.

Age: 11

Jamie: I’ve played loads of Lego games. I like them all. What I like is just that you can be Lego people and build buildings. In Lego Ninjago you get to do that. It starts off with Sensei Wu and his brother who is the evil one. Sensei Wu has four Elemental ninjas: ice, lighting, earth and fire, who have to learn something called Spinjitzu, it’s a way of fighting, they turn into a kind of tornado. In the game they all try to defeat the brother and his army of skeletons.

You can control more than one character at once. You can have the four ninjas and the Sensei and a samurai and a builder all at once. You tap the touch screen to choose the character you want to use, and then tap the screen where you want them to go. If you want to fight someone you click on them. If you want to build something you select the builder and can choose which buildings to build.

You can click on a power up button and there will be two options for you to choose. I and II. II is more powerful, but you need more gold bricks to buy it. The power ups give you more health and damage. The ninjas can unlock elemental powers. The ice ninja can freeze things, the earth ninja can have rock-hard skin, the fire ninja has a fire blast, and the lighting ninja has a lighting bolt, or he can have a really fast sprint.

I liked Lego Ninjago. I liked that you could be the ninjas. I liked the story, it was cool, with the different elements, and the cutscenes were good. I also liked that once you complete the ninja campaign you can play as the skeletons.

Ready Up Junior: Shannon

Age: 9

Shannon: I haven’t seen the film yet but I really want to now after playing the game. The game is really enjoyable and the graphics are good.  You have to complete mini-games as one of the characters from Rio. These games include having to duck and jump under things on a train, shooting fireworks, dodge being hit by bouncing balls, finding a dog with a torch in a dark garage and loads more.  If you are playing the game yourself the computer plays against you with three other characters, which makes the games more challenging and a bit tricky.  Also, because it’s a party game you can play with other people.

What was the best bit about the game?

Shannon: The best bit was doing all the different mini-games and winning them! My favourite mini-game would probably be where you have to collect fruit and go on a perch.  I also liked the musical statues game where you have to press a button when the music stops to stay still; it was really easy.

What was the worst bit about the game?

Shannon: Some of the mini-games were a little hard. In one you had to fly under and over things and I kept bumping into things very quickly and that was the end of the game.  Other than that it was good all round. There are not too many bad bits about it.

What are your final thoughts on the game?

Shannon: It’s a very good game; nice bright colours, good graphics, very enjoyable and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys games and shouting at your telly.  It’s really good for a game that’s based on movie, unlike some other games I’ve played. This is probably the best game I’ve played that is based on a movie.

Ready-Up Junior: Shannon

Age: 9

Tell us about the game.

At first I couldn’t decide what mask to wear because I thought I would look stupid, but my dad put one on, he was Wolverine, he looked very silly.  I decided to wear the Spiderman mask, it felt strangely sore on my nose and it just doesn’t look right.  The five characters are Spiderman, Wolverine, Iron Man, Thor and Captain America. They have all been transported to another dimension by the Grandmaster. The only way you can escape is by smashing a dome after you have played round the game board.  The first level I played as Spiderman, where you had to get around by swinging on your webs and shooting robots with your webs, too.  With our masks on it looked good sometimes when you were swinging in to the screen, other times it wasn’t as good.  Once we had had our turn we had to try and smash the dome by swinging our Wii remotes.

When you break the dome, after about six tries you then have to fight a boss, who could be Doctor Doom, Red Skull or the Lizard.  Once you have done this the game is finished and you can go on to the next level.

What was the best bit about the game?

The best bit was beating  my dad on some of the levels.  I beat my dad by defeating all the robots on a few of the levels. To beat them you have to follow the instructions on the screen that tell you how to move your Wii remotes.  You get about three seconds to do the action or you will get hit and fail the level.

What was the worst bit about the game?

The worst bit was the 3-D at times because sometimes you would see double of the stuff on screen and it would occasionally go quite blurry.  It got a bit annoying so we turned the 3-D off and put it to 2-D mode. This was much better and my eyes didn’t feel as sore.  The other bit I didn’t like was when my dad started beating me on some of the levels and I was dying more in the game.

What are your final thoughts on the game?

I enjoyed playing the game with my dad because it was fun for a while and I would recommend it to anyone who likes stuff to do with Marvel comics.  The masks were funny to see on other people but not the best thing for 3-D, the game would have been just as good if it was sold as a 2-D game.  There should be characters that are girls because I enjoyed it and I’m a girl. I would have liked it better if there were girl characters in it because more girls might want to play it then.

Ready Up Junior: Max

Age: 8

Tell us about the game.

Max: The game’s all about Sackboy and some people he meets through his adventure. He’s trying to stop the Negativatron that turns Sackbots into evil sackbots. To stop it he must go throughout the land and get advice from the people he meets along the way as to how to stop it. They’ve added in cutscenes since the last game. You can use bounce pads and grappling hooks, the Grabinator and the Creatinator, a very cool helmet that fires out lots of different types of things.

There’s also now a music sequencer where you can make your own tunes and so many other things. I couldn’t really tell you them all. People have added their own levels online and are including all the new things in them so they are quite different from in LittleBigPlanet.

What was the best bit about the game?

Max: I think the Creatinator is best because it fires really cool things. You can choose anything to fire out, even pretend poo. You can make a poo object, then capture it. Stephen Fry says “Don’t just make an object and leave it in your level, capture it!” Once it’s captured you tweek the Creatinator, click the object box which will show all the object you’ve collected including ones you’ve captured like your poo. So that becomes equipable. (Is ‘equipable’ even a word, Mummy?) Then you choose that to be fired out your Creatinator helmet.

What was the worst bit about the game?

Max: I don’t think there’s anything at all that I don’t like. Sometimes the bosses in levels are a bit hard but that doesn’t mean I don’t like those bits still.

What are your final thoughts on the game?

Max: It’s very very fun. I think lots of other people would like to play it. Oh and it’s much better than the last game. Before this game I think I probably thought that LittleBigPlanet was the best game in the world but this one definitely is.

Ready Up Junior: Max

Age: 8

Tell us about the game.

Max: The games are very simple and quite short but there are a lot of them, you have to do a different thing on each game. Some are quite hard and some are easy. The graphics are nice and bright but not as good as some other games like this on the Wii. All the different games use different things you can do on the Wii controller, like different buttons to press, waving it around or pointing at the screen to aim.

What was the best bit about the game?

Max: I liked the shooting games best, like the archery and disc shooting. Playing catch with your dog was cool but pretty hard. Playing multiplayer was pretty good because it’s exciting to see who gets the best score. I think that would be fun to play with lots of friends or family at Christmas.

What was the worst bit about the game?

Max: Sometimes it’s not very clear what you have to do in a game, it doesn’t always tell you the buttons to press on the instructions but you can guess most of them. Also there are only a few characters to choose from and you can’t change how they look, that would have been good.

What are your final thoughts on the game.

Max: It’s quite fun to play with other people and there are lots of games to choose from, they are all quite different. Maybe too many, I couldn’t remember all the names of my favourite games so it was hard to find them again sometimes. At first I didn’t like that you needed to unlock games but when I’d played for a bit I enjoyed it as it was exciting to see what was next. Some of the games were too hard for me to get the high score at so I needed help.

Ready up Junior: Shannon

Age: 9

This is the first Kinect game you’ve played, what was it like?

Shannon: It’s easy to control and it is fun because you get to play with lots of wild cats. The Kinect is good because it gets all your movements and it’s really good how it picks up your voice well.  It’s actually really easy to use and I prefer it over using a controller, because with a controller there’s more chance of you smashing the telly, if it flies out your hand.

What is your favourite thing about the game?

Shannon: My favourite thing is that you get to play with wild animals and teach them tricks, play with them and take them to different places.  It looks really good, it looks like there is actually wind blowing about.  The cats look really good, the fur looks really fluffy, it looks like real fur.  It’s good that there are shadows too because it makes everything look real.  I just noticed that the water has reflections too!

You can play games with your cub, what are they like?

Shannon: They are really fun because you can teach it tricks and play with toys like footballs and skipping ropes.  You can play volleyball where you hit the ball backwards and forwards to your cub to see how many hits you can get. Volleyball is my favourite game and the highest score I’ve had is 16 hits.

You can take care of your cub too, tell us about that.

Shannon: When you are looking after your cub you have to brush it, pet it, feed it, give it drinks and wash it.  You can also put collars and pendants on them.  My favourite part of looking after my cub was brushing it because it makes it look all fluffy and you know you are looking after it.  I also like that when you clap your cub it purrs like a kitten and it’s cute.

What is your favourite part of the game?

Shannon: My favourite part of the game is teaching all the cubs to do tricks.  There are Tiger, Cheetah, Leopard and Lion cubs that you can play with and change between them at any time you like.  To get them to do a trick you can use your voice or actions for the cub to remember what to do.  My favourite trick is “Play Dead,” because when you do the action your cub sticks it’s tongue out and falls over, every time I see the cub do it, I laugh.

What did you not like about the game?

Shannon: There’s nothing that I don’t like about the game, I found it really easy to control, the actions and voice commands work amazingly.  Only, sometimes your cub doesn’t react, but mostly it does. It’s the best game I’ve played so far.

Final thoughts on Kinectimals?

Shannon: Kinectimals is a really good game and I could play it for ages and not get bored.  If there was another Kinectimals game it would be nice to see house pets or other animals.  It would be good to get if you couldn’t have a real house pet but the cubs just now are extraordinary.  Everyone should at least try the game because they would probably really like it and it would make them want to have a real wild cub as a pet. This is the best animal game ever.

Parent’s comment: It is really hard not to be taken in by the charms of Kinectimals, I’ve never seen such furry animals in a game, ever.  I am totally amazed at how well the camera works; it’s a joy to watch Shannon interact with the animals on screen with such ease.  I have to admit that it is a game that I really like to play, too. It is easy to get in to, visually astonishing and generally good, clean fun.  It is unusual for a launch game of any new peripheral to be of such high quality but Kinectmals bucks all trends with great aplomb.  If you are considering getting a Kinect, this should be at the top of the list of games to buy with it.  Charming, adorable, cute and impressive are a few words to describe it. We could rave about this all day but that would waste valuable time with our cubs.

Ready Up Junior: Amber

Age: 10

What can you tell us about Jungle Party?

Amber: Well it starts off with you getting to choose which colour monkey you want, then you get to choose its clothes. Then there are all these minigames to play. I liked the one game where you were sat in a jacuzzi with a gorilla and you’re blowing bubbles, which are farts, and you have to not let the gorilla see you cause he doesn’t like it. If he catches you, he will smack you on the head and you’ll lose points. I also liked the one where you had to whack a squirrel on the head, so that it wouldn’t touch the snake, otherwise it would spit at you.

Was there anything you didn’t like about the game?

Amber: Some minigames were easy but some were hard. The one with the elephant throwing balls for you to whack at a mountain was hard, because I kept missing the ball. I got the hang of it in the end, though. The Lion taming was hard, but not that hard. You had to put your head in the Lion’s mouth and make sure it didn’t bite you.

What did you think about how the game looked and sounded?

Amber: The graphics were okay for a kiddy game, because kids don’t really care about that stuff do they?! The music was a bit boring, I couldn’t really hear it because the monkey’s voices were loud over it. I would have liked to choose different colours for my monkey; the only colours are blue, green, yellow, and orange.

Do you think you’ll play Jungle Party a lot?

Amber: I might play it again one day but it’s not my favourite game so I wouldn’t play it every day. My brother (aged 11) and I played it together but he didn’t like it. He didn’t like the graphics or the mini games, he said they were too stupid. But he’s older than me and he’s in comp so he thinks lots of things that I like are stupid. There aren’t a lot of minigames to choose from, though. I would have liked more. You can change the order that you play them so you can choose the ones you like best over and over again.

Parent’s comment: Jungle party kept Amber and her brother occupied for around an hour or so, then maybe another hour as we played it all together. The mini games are simple and easy to get to grips with. The kids had fun while it lasted but I can’t see them investing much more time into it than they already have.

Tell us about the game.

Shannon: I was asked to play and review Galactic Taz Ball and the first thing I noticed was it was quite hard to control, because when Taz got faster he started to spin in circles and sometimes I lost control and went over the edge of the level.  At the beginning when you are being shown what to do you aren’t told that you can’t swim, I thought you could so I went into the water and drowned.  The only way to get across the water is to make Taz start spinning then you get over the water.

The levels are quite big and it starts easy but as you get further in you can fall off the edges easier.  You can smash through things by spinning but not everything can be smashed, there are metal gates that you have to find different ways to get through.  At one bit I had to go underground and go across conveyor belts that you can change their direction to avoid dying.  When you go through the level you collect gold coins and gold boxes and also there are ducks that you have to find but Icould only find one as they’re hard to find.

What was the best bit about the game?

Shannon: I liked to see Taz running about because he looked funny when he ran.  I also liked the wee cartoon you saw at the beginning when you saw all of Marvin’s spaceships going over Taz’s head.

What was the worst bit about the game?

Shannon: Controlling, definitely. It was so hard to control Taz through the level and it made it very annoying sometimes.

What are your final thoughts on the game.

Shannon: If I wanted to have fun playing a game I might play this but it might not be the first game that would come in to my head.

Name: Max

Age: 8

What did you like about Lego Harry Potter?

Max: I liked casting the spells and riding on things such as the sweeping machine. I liked pretty much all of  the game I have played so far.

Who was your favourite character?

Max: I really like Ron Weasley, he looks funny and using Scabbers, his rat, to run in pipes is cool.

What was the best bit about the game?

Max: The whole game is good, so far it has all been as good as the rest.

What was the worst bit about the game?

Max: There really isn’t a worst bit, there is nothing bad about the game.

How much fun was this game?

Max: It’s fun times three! I’m really looking forward to playing the Goblet of Fire part.

Parents comments: Lego Harry Potter is a great game and, although Max didn’t comment on it, the graphics are really top notch. The dynamic lighting and funny animated and interactive backgrounds make watching him explore the castle a pleasure. Max got stuck a few times but the solutions were easily found with a little help. The automatic splitscreen during co-op play means the players are not bound to each other, leaving a helpful parent free to solve a puzzle while your child smashes the room up!

Age: 9

What can you tell me about Safar’Wii?

Amber: When it starts off you have to choose whether you want to be a boy or a girl. I chose the girl. You can’t change what she looks like at all. Then you get a part where it shows you travelling in the plane to Animal Island. You have a new job there, you live in a tent on the island. There aren’t any other people there but you have a robot helper. The robot’s name is Robo-maru. He’s like the training guy, who shows you what to do. You have to read all the instructions that he tells you, there were quite a lot of them.

Robo-maru teaches you how to look at your map and check your items, stuff like that, then he drives a jeep out into the jungle and you go to find the animals. You have to take photos of the animals cause that’s what your job is. The robot drives you around and you try to spot where the animals will be. If there’s some dust going up into the air or the bushes are moving you press A and then you can jump out of the car and go and see if anything’s hiding there.

When you find the animals you have to go slowly otherwise they will be scared and they will run away. If they don’t run away you can take a photo of them. If you take photos of them then they start to like you and you see a heart above their heads. You take as many photos as you like but you can only take 20 every day, so not really as many as you like. You don’t need to take loads, though. Sometimes you get special missions from your boss, he tells you in a message what to look for and if you find the thing he wants and send him the picture you get a medal. You can send other ones to your boss and he decides if they are good of bad and if they’re bad he tells you to do better next time.

Did you enjoy playing the game?

Amber: Yes I did. I think I would like to do that job when I’m older. I like the animals and I like taking photos. I didn’t like the boss that you talk to cause he looks a bit freaky. The robot was cute and when he talks there’s a funny beeping sound. He says too many instructions at the start of the game. Sometimes I wish he would talk instead of the words coming up. When my Mam helped me read them it was ok but when I was on my own I skipped them and didn’t know what to do so we had to make a new game. Sometimes it’s tricky to take the photos, like if you get too close and the animals run away you don’t get to do your special missions and sometimes I think I’ve taken the picture properly and it tells me it’s not right. Sometimes you see the movments in the bushes and you go to look and the animals aren’t there so you have to keep looking. I like choosing my best photos to save in my album. Soon I will have to delete some cause there are loads! I want to keep them all!

Parent’s Comment: Safar’Wii is a pretty looking game. There’s no real skill or challenge involved, it’s simple and chilled Amber out so it was great for lazing around, or playing before bedtime.

Age : 9

What did you like about this game?

Amber: It’s like Nintendogs. You have a puppy but you can’t choose a type. It’s ok, though, Dora’s puppy is cute. He’s brown with floppy ears and a smiley sort of face (I know dogs don’t really smile)

First you learn about the map and how to take care of him. Feeding him and giving him a bath is easy, you just use the stylus, like just squiggly lines or circles. After you learn how to do everything you can see when he’s hungry and thirsty in the top screen and he makes a sad face if you don’t feed him. If you click the map you can choose to go outside and play. Dora asks you to choose a coloured ball, red, yellow or purple and you click on it and you make her throw it for the puppy. You can blow bubbles – star shape, triangle or square and the puppy will chase them and pop them. If the puppy needs a bath you tap on the bathroom and then shampoo him and brush him.

You can collect Puppy Tokens by playing the mini games and you go to the Puppy Club store to spend them. The first thing I bought was a red collar with diamonds on. You can buy hats and hoodies for your puppy or games and toys for the backyard. I got a tyre swing, for like 10 tokens. He jumps through it and you have to say ‘Good boy’ into the mic to go on to something else. You have to tell him he’s a good boy a lot in this game. Especially when you teach him tricks like sit and jump. He won’t do anything unless you say it. He just sits there with his tongue out.

Was there anything you didn’t like about the game?

Amber: It was too easy for me, that’s it, really. I loved Dora when I was little, I wish I had this game back then. It’s still fun but I was bored after a while. I didn’t know what some of the items in the store were til I bought them. One was a ticket to a Puppy show, it gives you another mini game to play. I would have just liked to know what it was before I used my tokens.

Parent’s comment: If you don’t like Dora the Explorer, you have no heart. This is an endearing, gentle little game that’s easy to pick up and is sure to put a smile on any fan’s face. Even though Amber claimed it was ‘too babyish’ for her she still got a couple of hours of entertainment out of it. For a younger child, it would be ideal; it could be a great choice for a very first DS game.

It’s a pleasant day on Planet 51 and sensible, young lad, Lem has his antennae focused on two things. His new job and a date with the girl next door, Neera. All does not go to plan and Lem finds his normal life turned upside down when a human space craft lands in his back garden and startled ‘alien’, Captain Charles T. Baker (Chuck) panics and takes off screaming. After finding Chuck hiding out at the museum he works at, Lem tries to help him get back to the human space craft orbiting the planet before the millitary catch up with them and remove Chuck’s brain. The game features over 40 missions and mini games and a new world to explore with Lem and his wacky friends.

Name: Jamie

Age: 10

What did you enjoy about Planet 51?

Jamie: I like the way that you can jump to avoid obstacles when you are driving. You press ‘B’ and you go up in the air and hover for like 2 seconds. You have turbo boost too, when you hold ‘A’. You can be three characters, you can be Lem, Chuck and Rover. The missions are racing and demolition derby and delivering things, like being a paperboy.

Was there anything you didn’t like?

Jamie: Yeah just one bit, the races you have with Voorde. He’s a nasty alien person. He always wins cause he goes really fast and crashes into me.

Did you have a favourite character?

Jamie: Rover, he’s Chuck’s robot. Chuck is the human astronaught. Rover has wheels but he’s like a puppy. You can be him in the game. In the film he loves rocks and in the game he has missions where you have to find special, glowing rocks.

What was your favourite thing about Planet 51?

Jamie: My favourite thing was that you can just go wherever you want on the map, you can explore the planet as much as you like. You can collect comics and stickers on your way. You can read the comic pages in the menus and the stickers go into an album for you to look at.

How much fun was this game?

Jamie: It’s pretty fun, yeah. I play it loads cause I like unlocking the vehicles. It’s a good game for kids who are 10, or 9, or 8, or bigger. I don’t think little kids would like it. I think grown ups would not like it… well maybe a bit.

Parent’s Comment: Jamie really enjoyed playing this one but I couldn’t see anything too special about the missions. He seemed to just be driving around doing nothing for alot of the game. But then he enjoyed the free-roaming most of all, it really did seem to chill him out.

Name: Max

Age: 7

Did you enjoy EyePet?

Max: Sure did!

Did you dislike anything about the game?

Max: Nope

Who is your favourite character?

Max: My EyePet called Sparky, I also liked the Professor that teaches you how to take care of your EyePet.

What was the worst bit about the game?

Max: Some of the challenges were a bit hard but I could do most of them.

What was the best bit about the game?

Max: Dressing up your EyePet, I dressed Sparky as an astronaut. When he copied my drawings that was great.

How much fun was the game?

Max: Really Fun!

Parents Comment: Once we had the lighting setup right and had cleared a space on the floor the game was excellent fun for Max, I had to help him along at the start but after a time he was getting along well on his own. There is tons to do in the game and some of the tricks it has in store are quite excellent.

Name: Shannon

Age: 8

Did you enjoy Ninja Captains?

Shannon: Yes apart from when I karate chopped my finger on the table.

Did you dislike anything about the game?

Shannon: Only some things like the rowing game because I couldn’t get over the finishing line.

Who is your favourite character?

Shannon: I liked the ninja cat that was small and had blue eyes because it was the cutest of them all.

What was the worst bit about the game?

Shannon: Like I said before I hit my finger off the table when I was playing one of the mini games and it really hurt.  I have a bruise on my finger now!

What was the best bit about the game?

Shannon: At the end of the game you go inside a robot mouse and shoot red bulbs then one of the cats notices that the Statue of Liberty had been knocked down.  They make it again with parts of the robot mouse and it looks funny. Tee Hee Hee

How much fun was the game?

Shannon: It was karate choppingly good fun!

Parents Comment: Shannon and I had an enjoyable few hours playing through the game, all of the games can be played through quite quickly.  As with mini games compilations there was some uncertanty at times as to exactly what we were meant to be doing, but we worked it out eventually.  Some of the mini games were really good fun but some were near impossible on the first attempt a good thing then that the game can see if you are struggling and adjust the difficulty to help you progress. I’m sure a group of kids would have great fun playing this.

Name: Max

Age: 7

Did you enjoy playing Buzz! Junior: Monster Rumble?

Max: Yes it was good fun.

Did you dislike anything about this game?

Max: It was very hard to play with the PlayStation controllers, it was better when we got the buzz controllers.

Did you have a favourite character?

Max: Yeah, I liked the green monster best.

What was the best bit about the game?

Max: The game in the graveyard where you have to hit zombies.

What was the worst bit about the game?

Max: Playing with the PlayStation controllers it was really hard to know what button to press.

How much fun was this game?

Max: It was good fun when we all played together.

Parent’s comments: Max and I enjoyed playing this together, in all honesty it’s just a bunch of crazy games but they kept him well entertained.

Meet Darwin, the guinea pig leader of the covert intelligence G-Force squad and his housefly surveillance sidekick, Mooch, as they team up with other G-Force agents to complete a dangerous high-level government mission. Based on Disney’s latest film of the same name about super intelligent government trained Guinea Pigs who find themselves outcast by the F.B.I and battling an evil army of enhanced household appliances.

Name: Jamie

Age: 10

Did you enjoy this game?

Jamie: Yes alot. You can be a fly and a guinea pig, their names are Mooch and Darwin. There’s loads of puzzles, some are hard. There are doors that have spikes on them that open and close and you have to be the fly, Mooch, cause he can slow down time and you can fly through without getting squished. There are 3D glasses which makes the game look really cool, but you don’t have to wear them, you can choose to play it without them in the menu.

Who was your favourite character in the game?

Jamie: Darwin, the guinea pig. You play as Darwin mostly except when you need to go into high vents and places that have fast moving traps, then you have to be Mooch. Darwin is my favourite character because I like guinea pigs and he has awesome weapons like a plasma blaster gun and an electro whip. He looks like a cool agent but he’s a bit cute.

Did you dislike anything about the game?

Jamie: I disliked the parts where you had to fight the big robots, like hoovers and coffee makers. They came to life, they had a special micro chip in them that made them bad and transform. Some were really cool, they all looked cool but some were tricky to beat.

What was the best bit about the game?

Jamie: Darwin has a jetpack, you can hover around, it’s really fun and you can sprint using the jetpack to boost you by holding RB.

How much fun was this game?

Jamie: 100% fun! I would play it without ever stopping if I was allowed!

Parents Comment: I very rarely see Jamie this engrossed in a game, he absolutely loved it, and with good reason. Its graphics are great, the characters loveable and the gameplay is simple, with just the right amount of a challenge for a child of or around Jamie’s age thrown in. The 3D glasses were fun, but the novelty wore off after a few minutes.

Name: Shannon

Age: 8

What did you like about the game?

Shannon: I liked that when you tapped the box all the stuff on the screen would happen when you did it.  I really liked the fireworks and raindrops.

What did you not like about the game?

Shannon: I liked everything about the game there was nothing wrong, everything was great.

Who was your favourite character?

Shannon: I liked the blue and red stick men in the race because they were cool and red always won. They were funny when they fell.

What was the best bit of the game?

Shannon: When I played the silent block moving game with my dad because I won sometimes.

What was the worst bit of the game?

Shannon: There were no bad things.

How much fun was this game?

Shannon: Extraordinarily really, really, really, really, really great fun!!

Parents Comment: This is destined to become a bit of a classic in my view and at a cheap price you should really think about picking this up.

Pax used to be a regular mushroom, all growing in the ground and not sentient at all.  The meteor changed all that, mutating him and others into The Mushroom Men.  3 inch tall warriors that fight and glide their way through the area that has been strangely and powerfully affected by the meteorite’s crash.

Lesha

Age: 10

Did you enjoy playing Mushroom Men?

Lesha: Yeah! It’s really good! On the first level you have to make a special weapon, you gotta collect different bits like rubber band and pins to make gear like swords but then you can make better and better weapons with different parts when you play it more.

You have to kill animals like huge rabbits, but they’re not really huge, they’re normal size, it’s just big cause you are the size of a mushroom. And the game gives you hints on what to do when you go into the menu, you click on “log” and you can read everything so if you skip it  by accident you can read what to do.

Who was your favourite character?

Lesha: The main guy’s name is Pax. He’s a Mushroom Man. He’s got like a mushroom head, it’s a wide head, but a skinny neck and face and stuff, he makes funny noises but you can read what he means on the screen. Every time he gets hurt a part of the mushroom on his head falls off and his brain shows. He’s got powers that he gets from collecting the green rocks and he can move things out of the way with them.

What is the best bit about the game?

Lesha: What I liked is that you could move big huge planks of wood around with it and throw them at your enemies. Some Mushroom Men are bad, they look funny too! Pax can glide too, cause of his mushroom head, that was cool!

What is the worst bit about the game?

Lesha: There is nothing I don’t like so far. It is a pain when you get killed by the big rabbits but the game puts you back in the same place so you don’t get too frustrated with it.

How much fun was this game?

Lesha: It was really really good fun!

Parents comment: It was very well explained, the tutorial was simple and fun, there are so many different types of weapons to create. The graphics are nice and the music is very good. I thought it was perfect for Lesha’s age – it’s challenging but kept her (and me) interested.

Name: Luke

Age: 12

Did you enjoy playing Sonic and the Black Knight?

Luke: It was excellent, really good I totally enjoyed it. You play as Sonic, back in the days of King Arthur. There’s plenty of creatures to fight and lots to do. Easy controls too, easy to get into. Sonic has a sword in this one which is cool!

Who was your favourite character?

Luke: Sonic of course, he’s one of my favourite game characters of all time!

What is the best bit about the game?

Luke: I enjoyed the whole thing, the story was good, the world is dark and evil looking, I liked that.

What is the worst bit about the game?

Luke: I’m not sure there was a worst bit, there’s hardly any reading so that was good, I prefer it when I don’t have to read. The sword talks to you, it’s a bit annoying sometimes I guess, so I’ll say that was the worst bit.

How much fun was this game?

Luke: It was really good fun, my friends enjoyed it too. I’ll probably play it again!

Parents Comment: Luke enjoyed this game, I’ll admit I found it not quite as terrible as Sonic and the Secret Rings but I have been spoiled by the original of course and it’s just not something I would buy for myself.