FireDad and I have been Guitar Hero fans for a long time. (You know, back when Playstation 2 was cool.) When Mom Central asked if we wanted to review the new Guitar Hero On Tour games for Nintendo’s DS platforms, I jumped around before responding that, yes, we were most certainly interested.

We were sent both Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades and Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits. As FireDad has been working a lot lately, however, I took the games over to my friend Mandy’s house so we could give them a go as adults and then let her older daughters also play. (BigBrother and LittleBrother, while intelligent, are not really in the age range of either the DS or the Guitar Hero games. Thus, fun for me!)

Our review started out a little shaky. The directions on how to install the guitar grip, which is included with the games, were a bit confusing. It took us about 15 minutes to figure it out. I pride myself on being technologically up-to-date, even advanced in what I do with computers and video games. But it stumped me for awhile. Once we finally got it figured out, installed and turned on, we got to playing. We quickly learned that you had to press the buttons and strum on the touchpad side at the same time. No, I won’t tell you how long this took us to figure out or that one of the aforementioned daughters pointed it out to us. I swear we’re technologically advanced. I swear!

I played Modern Hits first. While I enjoyed the music myself, I don’t find it appropriate to include songs with blatant cussing even if it is bleeped out. You can argue that all of the Guitar Hero games have done this and I will argue that while I still enjoy the games, I’ll never enjoy cussing, bleeped or otherwise, in games that market to children and teens. It’s just not my style. That aside, I enjoyed trying to play my way through Evanescence’s song, “Sweet Sacrifice” and one by Lenny Kravitz, “Where are we runnin”. I did much better with Lenny than Evanescence though I did much better than Mandy in general. (I’m allowed to brag that, right?) On the Decades game, my favorite song was “Sweet Home Alabama.”

That song was what Mandy and I played together in the multi-player function. We found this, as opposed to our initial issues, to be easy to figure out. We simply went to the multi-player menu, hosted a game and the other joined. There were no connectivity issues at all. Just a few steps and we were ready to play a song together. That said, “Sweet Home Alabama” is a very, very long song. We laughed our way through the end of it. And, yes, we played on Easy. We’re not stupid!

I did find that, at one point, I had the strap from the guitar buttons piece strapped too tightly. As such, when I would get all excited and try to activate my Star Power, it would pull the connector out of the DS and I’d lose my game. As such, when I loosened my strap just a bit, giving my hand a bit more room, it did not come disconnected and I was a happy little guitar player.

In the end, minus the bleeped cussing, I really enjoyed the Guitar Hero On Tour games. I can see how these would be fun for adults or for teens on a long car ride when you can’t plug in a full gaming system and lug around big guitars. I found that the ease in which the two DS’s connected to play the game was really beneficial as it makes so that you only need to buy one of each for double the playing fun. (Anything to save money nowadays, right?) And so, would I suggest these games to people who love Guitar Hero, rock music and Nintendo DS? Yes! Even if it did make me feel like a techno-dumb-head for just a few minutes. Once I got it going, I didn’t want to stop playing!

(By the way, I know that I normally try to include my own pictures in review posts but we had so much fun playing that I forgot to take my camera out of the case. That’s how much fun we had; me, the one with the camera permanently attached to her eyeball. Yes.)

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Thanks to Mom Central for bringing some fun to our home!

If you know us as a family, you likely know that we’re kind of dorky. In many ways, of course. But today I’m talking about video games. We love them. We don’t spend all of our time playing them because there are other things to do like watch the History channel and read 60 books this year. But, all the same, we like video games. In like them, we also like GameStop. We buy most of our games (especially the pre-owned ones!) at the store.

And right now, I’m in love with GameStop. They’re hosting a new program called Sharpen the Mind, Shape the Body. I know, that doesn’t really sound like it fits in with the stereotypical video gaming, now does it? But if you’re familiar with some of the active and/or brain games that have come out in the past year, you likely get the idea.

I can speak personally about the awesomeness of Wii Fit. When we got it last May, I wasn’t sure what it would be like but I have been pleasantly surprised. It is not the only thing that I use in my exercise routine but it is what I do on days that it is impossible to get to the gym. (You know, due to fire scheduling issues or days when the sky opens and pours inches upon inches of snow topped with ice upon us. Yes, like today.) Now? I want My Fitness Coach. And I might get off my duff and go to the store. Why?

The whole Sharpen the Mind, Shape the Body sponsored by GameStop is an in-store promotion. As a special incentive, all shoppers who spend $35 or more on designated products will receive a free 12-month trial subscription to their choice of Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Redbook, Good Housekeeping or Esquire. To hit my $35.00 I might also finally break down and get the silicone sleeve for my Wii Fit board.

If one of your goals this year is to shape up either yoru mind or your body, hit up GameStop’s Sharpen the Mind, Shape the Body promotion and get some good magazines for yourself. (Thanks to Mom Central for the heads up. I love me free magazine subscriptions.)

FireDad and I have been talking about getting a dog. By talking about I mean he’s been jumping around like a kid on Christmas morning and I’ve been listing off all of the reasons that we cannot do it at this point in time. You know, the opposite of how our conversations on big purchases usually go. Good times. So when Parent Bloggers aked if I wanted to review Littlest Pet Shop, I said yes. Because it’s the closest thing we’re getting to a pet this year. I swear.

I gave the game a go by myself first to see if it was easy for adults to understand so they can help their kids. (Which, I know, it’s rare that kids need our help with anything video game but, still, I gave it a go.) I had no problems. It’s a pretty straight forward. Take care of pets. Feed and dress them. I didn’t have problem with menu choices (like the last game I tried). While the game itself was rather girly and I am not really girly, it didn’t annoy me.

Then I brought my three year old out to let him “help” me play. He didn’t press any buttons or do much of anything except talk, point, pretend to be a dog and generally have a blast. I had fun watching him laugh. Then his cousin, a Littlest Pet Shop aficionado, gave it a go. (She’s nine.) I couldn’t get her to leave my house. She was telling me all about the animals as she played the game and basically didn’t stop talking. (She’s a talker!)

When I asked my three year old what he thought of it, he said that it was “funny to watch the puppy.” When I asked my six year old cousin what she thought of the game, she said that it was fun to play with the Littlest Pet Shop animals on a screen and see what they’d do if they were “real.” Obviously, she knew that they weren’t real-real but it meant that it was fun to see them move. For the rest of the evening, my three year old son and six year old cousin played with the animals on the couch, talking up a storm. (He doesn’t stop talking either.)

I found this to be a good, wholesome game with multi-age and gender appeal. It’s one that I’ll be keeping in the house for various visitors. (And I might break it out myself as well!)

Go read more of what they’re saying about Littlest Pet Shop for Wii & DS!

When Parent Blogger Network asked if I wanted to review Boogie Superstar (with Microphone) for Wii, my Husband laughed. “As if you need to ask,” was close to what he said. In my day, I was a karaoke junkie. Then I had kids and didn’t have as much time to devote to bar life. And so karaoke in my home sounded fabulous!

To review this product, I first tried it out myself. Okay, so, maybe FireDad was also in the room being amused. But mostly it was by myself. Some things that I loved:

1. I had a BLAST making my character. I was initially disappointed that some of the clothing choices were “locked” but enjoyed taking the time to unlock them later on. Making my character made me feel young and hip again. Especially considering how I have no fashion sense, especially not a hip, urban and young fashion sense. Win.

2. It was pretty easy to sing along to the songs I knew. However it was also shockingly easy to sing along to the songs I didn’t know. Of course, I’ll be honest, one of my majors in college was vocal performance and I’m in a local chorale now. Sight-reading is kind of my “thing” but even my non-musically-inclined Husband mentioned that being able to see how long the note was supposed to go was pretty darn handy.

3. I had to practice the dance moves a few times and then change the batteries in my Wii-mote in order to get a good hand on them. While this sounds like a bad thing, I’m telling you simply because at first I was upset! I danced for eons growing up and into college! Certainly I could master some simple arm motions! After I changed the battery in my Wii-mote, the sensor bar better picked up what I was doing and the game stopped telling me that I was failing. It also worked best when LittleBrother wasn’t standing directly in front of the sensor. You know, details.

Things I didn’t like? In one song, just as an example right off the top of my head, “Makes Me Wonder” (originally performed by Maroon 5 and, as such, one I knew), has a cuss word. It starts with a d and ends with an amn. When it got to that point, which registered in my brain that it was coming up since I knew the words, it just had a blank spot. My Husband noted that I got it marked wrong for not singing there… twice… so I don’t know what that issue was. Maybe I was just really shocked that they didn’t put in a non-cuss word, even if it didn’t rhyme, into a game that was geared for ten year old children (and above). Who knows. I didn’t choose this song for my 10 year old reviewer to play later.

I also initially had trouble with trying to actually play. On the screen where you select how you’re going to play, I kept hitting wrong buttons and got sent back three times. Of note: my ten year old reviewer did not have this issue. Apparently I fail.

As I said, I brought over, with her mother’s permission, a ten year old girl to try out this game. She loved similar things: clothing changes (especially hair), the singing, the dancing and basically the entire game. She, being young and much more hip than I am, knew a majority of the pre-unlocked songs. I didn’t notice any missing cuss words in those songs but I will also admit to not knowing their lyrics ahead of time to know the difference. Her Mom didn’t like a few of the options because of the content of said lyrics. I will just simply say “Toxic” and Britney Spears and the majority of you will nod your head in agreement. I’m just not sure how that is ever appropriate for anyone under… 35. Including Britney.

All the same, we had a blast playing this game together. And I think that is a great point. While your children (ages ten and up PLEASE) are bound to love this game, my guess is that you could have some really good bonding moments while boogieing around your living room with this game. I know that I had a blast with my friend and her daughter and even with just my Husband while we tested it out first by ourselves. Heck, even LittleBrother had fun dancing to the music while I sang. (BigBrother was at school each time we busted the game out. We’re not stupid. We never would have gotten the microphone back!)

And so, if you’re looking for a Christmas gift for your Wii-loving, karaoke-singing household, this might just be one you should pick up!