Welcome to GamerDad: Gaming with Children. My name is Andrew S. Bub - the GamerDad - and I've been writing about videogames, movies, and children for over 15 years now. After working as a magazine journalist, I switched gears to write about how media violence affects children, educating parents about them, and working closely with magazines, newspapers, major retailers and even politicians. GamerDad is an internationally recognized expert in this field. Games, movies and media are fun, kids and families love them, they aren't going away. So join me in cutting through the hype and lets have a real conversation about the things that matter: Video Games, Violent Media, and their supposed effect on children and families.
Welcome to GamerDad: Gaming with Children. My name is Andrew S. Bub - the GamerDad - and I've been writing about videogames, movies, and children for over 15 years now. After working as a magazine journalist, I switched gears to write about how media violence affects children, educating parents about them, and working closely with magazines, newspapers, major retailers and even politicians. GamerDad is an internationally recognized expert in this field. Games, movies and media are fun, kids and families love them, they aren't going away. So join me in cutting through the hype and lets have a real conversation about the things that matter: Video Games, Violent Media, and their supposed effect on children and families.
Rescue: The Beagles (Switch, PS5, Xbox X/S, PC)
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Posted on January 6th, 2025 by
Beagles have escaped from a makeup testing lab and it’s up to two kids to rescue them in the wild. Rescue: The Beagles is a classic arcade-like, continuous runner kind of game where you must avoid enemies, collect power ups, and save the beagles before they go off screen. It’s available for most current consoles and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.
Sonic the Hedgehog at TopGolf
Posted on January 3rd, 2025 by
TopGolf is a chain of high tech golf driving ranges. You reserve a spot and can use these clubs (or bring your own), and you can scan your club to eject golf balls from a machine. Then you swing and hit the ball and try to get it to go into big holes on the playfield for points. I’m not totally sure how it works, but there are trackers in the ball so you can see the ball’s trajectory on a TV screen after you hit it. A dumb way to describe it is that it’s kind of like bowling, but it’s golf. A few years ago, they teamed up with Angry Birds for a special game option you could pick from. I even wrote about it here. And now they’re doing the same thing with another video game franchise, Sonic the Hedgehog. They have a TopGolf in the same city where I live, so I had to try that out, and here’s how it went.
Rage of the Dragons NEO (Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, X/S, PC)
Posted on January 1st, 2025 by
I’ve seen many a NEO GEO arcade cabinet in my time, but I don’t ever remember seeing this game in any one of them. Supposedly, Rage of the Dragons was going to be a sequel to another NEO GEO Double Dragon one-on-one fighter that I reviewed about ten years ago. But they didn’t have the rights to Double Dragon but they made it anyway. I mean, it does have two red and blue characters that look the same named Billy and Jimmy. And another character is a big fat guy who looks similar to Abobo and his name is almost the same too. Not sure how they got away with that, but now you can play this one-on-one fighter on all current consoles and PC (reviewed on Switch here).
Zero to Dance Hero (Switch)
Posted on December 30th, 2024 by
Learn Hip Hop style dance moves step by step in Zero to Dance Hero. It’s a motion controlled dance game on Switch, and you can even pick instructors from the Fitness Boxing games (I think they’re made by the same folks).
Let’s Rate the Mario & Luigi Games!
Posted on December 27th, 2024 by
Mario & Luigi: Brothership was just released, so I thought it would be fun to rate all the Mario & Luigi games that have come out so far. There might be some slight spoiler warnings here and there, but I’ll keep you posted on those. We’ll start from the worst in the series to the best. OK, let’s begin!
Pretty Girls Pop Match (PS4, PS5, Switch, PC)
Posted on December 25th, 2024 by
Play a match three style puzzler with an RPG style party of pretty ladies as you match jewels in Pretty Girls Pop Match. It’s available on PlayStation consoles, Switch, and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.
Minecraft Gingerbread House
Posted on December 24th, 2024 by
When I went to the Five and Below store a while back, I saw a Minecraft Gingerbread House kit for only 4 bucks or so. I picked up a couple of them. One for my nephew and twin nieces to do, since my nephew loves Minecraft (what kid doesn’t?). And I picked up another one to do with my other brother’s stepson when we would do Christmas at my mom’s house. So I thought I’d share that with you and show you what it looked like.
Neko Bento (Switch)
Posted on December 23rd, 2024 by
A Bento Box is a Japanese style lunch box. They’re usually pretty small, so arranging the food in them to fit as much as you can, and make it still look aesthetically pleasing has become somewhat of an art form. And now you can do that with Neko Bento on Nintendo Switch. It’s pretty much exactly like some games I’ve reviewed this past year featuring cats, dogs, and zoo animals. And now it’s with food.
Taito Milestones Volume 3 (Switch)
Posted on December 20th, 2024 by
Taito was a force to be reckoned with in arcades back in their heyday, as they are the ones who created Space Invaders after all. And now here’s another batch of their games that you can play on Nintendo Switch. Rastan fans would be especially interested in this one, as it has pretty much every game in that series on here! So let’s take a look at all the games.
Holiday Heroscape in Action
Posted on December 19th, 2024 by
Our local high school has the occasional evening of open boardgaming in the cafeteria. Students and teachers (and select <ahem> boardgamers, such as myself) are free to drop in and play some games on hand or bring their own. There were two gaming events in November and December. The first was just a night of fun while the second was pitched as a “decompression” time just before finals hit in earnest. Attendance was pretty good on both nights and one of the main attractions was the Heroscape setup I brought along. Heroscape is an excellent miniatures combat game that is great for family play. While the name “miniatures combat game” would normally imply a rules-heavy game of thick rulebooks, slow moving, somewhat tedious combat. (A miniatures wargame player would want to defend the genre by pointing out the huge strategic depth available within a game.) In contrast, Heroscape provides a game where a wide diversity of miniatures clash together across colorful hexagonal landscape. The bad news is that the game has been out of print for years, but the great news is that Renegade Games has just rereleased a whole new line of Heroscape content so it is a great time for new gamers to jump in.
