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.
Pac-Man 99 (Switch)
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Posted on May 21st, 2021 by
Battle Royale games usually pit you against 100 or so other players as you fight to the death with the last one standing the victor. Most of these kinds of games are shooters, and because of that, I never thought I’d play a Battle Royale style game. But a couple of years ago, Nintendo released Tetris 99, which I still play from time to time. Later they released a similar game called Super Mario Bros. 35, which I dabbled in a little bit, but not much (I’m not as big of a fan of the original Super Mario Bros. game as people think I am). But boy they sure got me with their latest ‘99’ Battle Royale style game featuring a classic. This time with Pac-Man 99, where you play the original Pac-Man game against 99 other players! It’s available as a freebie to Nintendo Switch Online users. But how does it work? Well you’ll just have to read on to find out!
Chaser Tracer (Mobile)
Posted on May 19th, 2021 by
Aliens have created an artificial sun to destroy the Earth, and the only way to stop them is to decode their symbols by tracing over them before they do! OK, dopey story out of the way, this is just a game where you quickly trace over different symbols before the computer can. It has a nice 80’s neon theme at least. Chaser Tracer is available on mobile devices, but reviewed on iPad here.
World Splitter (PS4, Switch, Xbox One, PC)
Posted on May 17th, 2021 by
You are an alien-deer-rabbit thing and your spacecraft has crash landed on a planet. All of these little critters in your UFO escape, and one of them is chomping on a device like a dog chew toy. This device splits the world into two dimensions, and now you must solve puzzles while switching between the two worlds as you collect all your little critters. World Splitter is a 2-D action puzzle platformer and it’s available on most current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.
What The Dub?! (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox X, PC)
Posted on May 14th, 2021 by
You wanna know what my all-time favorite TV show in the whole wide world is? It’s Mystery Science Theater 3000. Man I love that show! In it, a guy and two robot puppets are sent out in a space station by two mad scientists, and are forced to watch bad movies and make fun of them. You might’ve seen this show and not even realized it, because most of it is just the old movie with a silhouette of theater seats and the characters at the bottom talking all throughout the movie. It hasn’t been on TV in a long time, but you can still catch it in syndication and on Netflix. Some of the show’s creators and stars have gone on to do similar works, like Rifftrax, which are great, too. But MST3K is still my favorite. Since I like video games a lot, I always thought it would be neat if they made an MST3K video game. But until they do, What the Dub?! may be the closest thing to that. It’s a party game where you watch clips of old movies, type in missing dialogue in your phone, and vote on the funniest submissions. It’s available for nearly all current game consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.
Narita Boy (PS4, Switch, Xbox One, PC)
Posted on May 12th, 2021 by
In the early 1980s, a famous computer programmer gets his memories erased by an evil computer program named HIM, and now that program threatens to take over the digital world. Meanwhile, a gamer who enjoys playing on the computer late at night gets sucked into the PC, and is transformed into the hero Narita Boy. Armed with the Techno-Sword, Narita Boy must defeat HIM and save the programmer’s memories. With the storyline and graphics, this game was clearly inspired by the classic movie TRON. The title screen even looks so much like the TRON movie poster, I’m surprised Disney didn’t sue! Anyway, Narita Boy is a 2-D platformer hack and slash with some Metroid-like exploration elements. It’s available on most current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.
Bite the Bullet (PS4, Switch, Xbox One, PC)
Posted on May 10th, 2021 by
In the far future, most humans have left Earth for other planets as food is scarce. The people who still live on Earth have cybernetic implants installed that allow them to eat anything. And I do mean ANYTHING. Rocks, metal, zombies, you name it, just to survive in this war-torn Earth where food is hard to come by. When trouble erupts, it’s up to Chewie and Chewella to run and gun and eat their way to victory. Bite the Bullet is a 2-D run and gun game where you can eat any enemy to boost your stats. The game has been out for a while, but has new DLC which adds, “new levels, enemies, double the frame rate for animation, and plenty of secrets.” The announcement of this new DLC is why I’m reviewing the game now, but since I didn’t play it before, I haven’t noticed the difference. But anyway, Bite the Bullet is available for nearly all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.
Animal Crossing Sanrio amiibo Cards
Posted on May 7th, 2021 by
And last on ‘amiibo week,’ here are some amiibo cards I recently got of a crossover with Animal Crossing and Sanrio. You know, the folks who make Hello Kitty. Out of all the amiibo things I’ve wrote about this week, these cards were probably the hardest things to get! So let’s take a look at them!
A Terry, A Bear-y, and a Blythe
Posted on May 5th, 2021 by
Next up on ‘amiibo week’ I got the next set of Smash Bros. amiibo. We have SNK’s Terry Bogard, Banjo-Kazooie, and Blythe from Fire Emblem. Let’s take a look at them!
Monster Hunter Rise amiibo
Posted on May 3rd, 2021 by
Recently I got a bunch of new amiibo figures and cards, so I thought I’d spend this first week of the month talking about them. I guess you could call this month “A-MAY-Bo.” Ok sorry, that was bad. Anyway, first up is some amiibo figures based on Monster Hunter Rise, the newest game in the series that was just released recently. I’ve never played a Monster Hunter game before, so this should be quick!
Cary’s Favorite Pokémon Spin-Off Games
Posted on April 30th, 2021 by
I’m really excited about the upcoming release of New Pokémon Snap. The original was a special game to me, and I’ll explain why in this blog. The mainline Pokémon games are great, but I haven’t played any of the more recent ones because I feel they are all pretty much the same game. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Why fix what isn’t broken? And with every new generation of Pokémon game comes a new generation of kids to enjoy them, and while they may be the same game to me, it’s new to them. While I haven’t played a new mainline Pokémon game since Black & White, I still like the Pokémon settings and characters and do enjoy a lot of the spin-off games. So in this blog we’re going to take a look at some of my favorite Pokémon spin-off games in honor of the upcoming release of New Pokémon Snap!
