{"id":1540,"date":"2010-12-10T08:49:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-10T08:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/79.170.44.80\/livingwithkids.co.uk\/fantastic-games-for-the-whole-family\/"},"modified":"2019-01-04T15:46:40","modified_gmt":"2019-01-04T15:46:40","slug":"fantastic-games-for-the-whole-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/fantastic-games-for-the-whole-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantastic video games for the whole family"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  There&rsquo;s nothing worse than forking out for a video game for Christmas only to find it&rsquo;s all over in a few hours, it has a weak storyline or poor graphics. So No 1 Son, Ben, Harriet and I have been road-testing some of this year&rsquo;s biggest sellers. Here&rsquo;s our top of the pops:   <\/p>\r\n<p>              <strong>Epic Mickey (&pound;29.99, Nintendo Wii, available from <a href =\"http:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/partner\/DisneyStore.aspx?t=lwk\" target=\"_blank\">Disney Store<\/a>):<\/strong> In this fantastic action-adventure game the player becomes Mickey Mouse, using the power of paint and thinner to change the world around them. The game features some of Disney&rsquo;s long forgotten characters, including&nbsp; Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Disney&rsquo;s first cartoon star, and it includes quests and challenges and items to collect. But it&rsquo;s also very creative, because it lets your child make choices &ndash; they can draw, erase, and decide how they want the game to progress. Genius.<br \/> \r\n<td style=\"width: 5%\">     &nbsp;<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"border: 0pt none; margin: 10px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.livingwithkids.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/game1.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>                        <br \/>     <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"border: 0pt none; margin: 10px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.livingwithkids.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/game2.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/> <br \/> \r\n<td style=\"width: 5%\">     <strong>FIFA 11 (&pound;17.99 to &pound;24.99, ava<\/strong><strong>ilable for Nintendo Wii, DS, PS3 and Xbox 360):<\/strong> Now according to No 1 Son this is &lsquo;the best football game ever made&rsquo;. A &lsquo;virtual pro&rsquo; can be created using the player&rsquo;s face from a real life picture, who then grows throughout the game as he plays along from a reserve squad to the captain, and international superstar. Girls might not appreciate there being no women&rsquo;s teams though!<br \/>                            <strong>Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 (&pound;24.99 to &pound;39.99, Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360):<\/strong>&nbsp; Well as you know <a href =\"http:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/livingwithkids\/post\/2010\/11\/20\/Harry-Potter-and-the-Deathly-Hallows-Part-1-what-did-you-think.aspx\">we loved the film <\/a>so we couldn&rsquo;t wait to start playing the game. Games based on movies are often a bit disappointing but this one is pretty good, with excellent graphics. You use your &lsquo;wand&rsquo; to help you fight enemies including the Death Eaters, Snatchers and Dementors, and you can also use the Invisibility Cloak.&nbsp;<br \/>     &nbsp;\r\n<td style=\"width: 5%\">     &nbsp;<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"border: 0pt none; margin: 10px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.livingwithkids.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/game3.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>                       &nbsp;<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"border: 0pt none; margin: 10px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.livingwithkids.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/game4.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\r\n<td style=\"width: 5%\">     <strong>Penguins of Madagascar<\/strong><strong> (&pound;17.99, DS):<\/strong> This is such a cute game &ndash; the penguins have to use all their acrobatic abilities to solve puzzles, build contraptions and avoid super silly obstacles. You can play as part of &lsquo;Team Penguin&rsquo; or use each Penguin one by one. <br \/>                            <strong>Assassin&rsquo;s Creed: Brotherhood (&pound;37.99, Xbox 360 and PS3):<\/strong> Set in Renaissance Italy and including real historical characters such as Leonardo da Vinci, this is a sequel which manages to better the original. Players can climb the Panthenon or the Colloseum, take a jump off St Peter&rsquo;s Basilica, and even micromanage a whole economy.&nbsp; The game also boasts a huge variety of missions, a fantastic plot and entertaining dialogue.<br \/>     &nbsp;&nbsp;\r\n<td style=\"width: 5%\">     &nbsp;<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"border: 0pt none; margin: 10px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.livingwithkids.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/game5.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>                        &nbsp;<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"border: 0pt none; margin: 10px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.livingwithkids.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/game6%5d.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\r\n<td style=\"width: 5%\">     <strong>Doctor Who: Return to Earth (&pound;29.99, Nintendo Wii):<\/strong> We liked this alot &ndash; it&rsquo;s a 3D version of the TV series and gives your kids (*ahem*) the chance to be the Doctor and Amy Pond, unravelling a sinister plot by the Cybermen and preventing the Daleks from retrieving a dangerous time axis. Very cleverly, you use the Wii remote as the Sonic Screwdriver.&nbsp;                        <strong>Pictionary (&pound;12.99, DS):<\/strong>&nbsp; What I love about this is that it&rsquo;s something the whole family can join in with, even Granny&nbsp;&ndash; you just take your turn and pass it on. You can do all the things you would do in the traditional game,&nbsp; but there are a few surprises too. Great fun.<br \/> \r\n<td style=\"width: 5%\">     &nbsp;<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"border: 0pt none; margin: 10px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.livingwithkids.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/game7.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>                        <br \/>     <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"border: 0pt none; margin: 10px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.livingwithkids.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/game8.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/> <br \/> \r\n<td style=\"width: 5%\">     <strong>Wii Fit Plus (&pound;14.99 or &pound;74.99 with Balance Board, Nintendo Wii):<\/strong> If one of your New Year&rsquo;s resolutions is to get fit then this, I promise you, will be your new best friend. You can create your own personal trainer and then let him (or her) take you through various challenges to help you get a better body. It&rsquo;s even better with the Balance Board &ndash; I&nbsp; know a few mums who have toned up using the two. Absolutely brilliant.<br \/>                All games available from <a href =\"http:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/partner\/Play.aspx?t=lwk\" target=\"_blank\">Play.com<\/a>   <\/p>\r\n<p> written by Liz Jarvis<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our pick of the video games available this Christmas &#8211; which ones will you be buying?","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3347,4],"tags":[1856,979,1857,1858,1859,1860,1845,1861,1862,1863,1864,1865,1179],"class_list":["post-1540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-expert-early-learning-advice","category-great-family-life-tips","tag-assassins-creed-brotherhood","tag-disney-store","tag-doctor-who-return-to-earth","tag-ds","tag-epic-mickey","tag-fifa-11","tag-harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-part-1","tag-nintendo-wii","tag-pictionary","tag-ps3","tag-video-games-for-the-whole-family","tag-wii-fit-plus","tag-xbox-360"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - 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