Zinger checks out new games from Disney Interactive

Last year L’il Spo was in town when High Road Communications (now my employer) invited us to the Disney Interactive Studios Family Fun Event. This year, he was at camp so I asked one of my colleagues if he and his son aka “Zinger” would like to go in our place. Of course Zinger accepted the invitation and returned the favour by writing the following guest post.

Recently I got to go to the Royal Ontario Museum to the Disney Interactive Studios event with my mom and dad. We went to a special room on the fourth floor to play video games! The room was filled with TVs, DSs, Xbox 360s and Wiis. It was busy! There were lots of kids playing video games. Here are the games I got to try:

1. Sonny with a Chance (DS)
This game is awesome. I don't know what the goal is of the game but you can do all this fun stuff like get in a mashed potato fight. Mom doesn’t normally let me get in mashed potato fights.

2. Guilty Party (Wii)
I really wanted to buy this game right away because it was my favourite but you couldn’t buy the games at the event. It has a cool mystery, you can play up to four people (I played with my Mom and she liked it a lot too), and you get to interrogate and accuse different characters.

3. Camp Rock (DS)
I liked this game, but it was a bit difficult to play the drums. You can do really cool stuff and talk to other characters. I liked exploring Camp Rock!

4. Disney Party Hits (Wii)
You can sing all these awesome songs, like Owl City’s Fireflies. I really like that song. It’s like you’re the only voice singing it.

5. Disney Sing-it Family Hits (Wii)
This game was like Disney Party Hits but you can sing all the hit Disney songs from the movies. I sang “I Wouldn’t Have Nothing If I Didn't Have You” with my Dad. It’s from Monsters Inc. Mom really wanted to sing a song from The Little Mermaid.

6. Cars Towmater’s Tall Tales (Wii)
This game was really difficult for me, especially driving the cars. If I got more practice I could get better at it.

7. There was also a new Tron game on the Xbox and Wii at the event that looked super cool with glow effects. All the dads were playing it and talking to a guy who helped make the game. I didn’t get a chance to play it but my dad says we’ll have to get it. He’s so old he saw the movie.

That’s what I got to play and it didn’t feel like we were at the museum at all. Really, how often do you get to play video games at the museum?

Full disclosure: Disney Interactive Studios is a High Road Communications client. I don’t work on the account and neither does Zinger’s dad.

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Christmas in August aka Disney Interactive’s Family Fun Event

Most of the time I have to refuse invitations to media events because they take place during the day and like many of you, I work full time. To be honest, I don’t get to too many evening events either.



When Jess Myers from High Road Communications (part of Fleishman-Hillard Canada and a sister company of my employer, iStudio) invited me and my kids to Disney Interactive’s Family Fun event preview of new games for the holiday season, being that it’s summer and all, the event was late in the afternoon and it provided me a chance to do something cool with my 11-year-old, I accepted. (I extended to the invitation to Jenny but she was unavailable.)

We made it to the ROM for 4:40ish and were privately escorted up to the event room. L’il Spo felt like quite the VIP. When we arrived, gamers and families with young kids were moving about the room playing with about 10 different games on a mix of consoles – DS, Wii and Xbox. It was really welcoming and felt like a safe place for kids to explore and engage with the games including:
• Princess and the Frog, and A Christmas Carol as extensions of the upcoming movies
• Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force
• Toy Story Mania
• Sing It: Pop Hits and,
• Split Second

During summertime when kids are used to waiting in long line-ups, it was nice they were able to avoid them here. They had the freedom to mull about and take their time playing and previewing new games without anyone nagging them to get off.

Another really cool part of the event was the opportunity for kids (and their parents) to meet and speak with members of Disney Interactive’s game development team. Alicia Mirelez, an associate producer at Disney Interactive, befriended L’il Spo while he was playing Toy Story Mania – a game she produced – based on the Toy Story Midway Mania ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We also had a great chat with her while we indulged in some yummy, kid-friendly snacks provided by Daniel et Daniel. As a parting gift, the kids were given “extremely generous” loot bags with a variety of Disney non-electronic swag. L’il Spo loved his Club Penguin mascot.

What wasn’t so cool is the fact that he just had to have is own version of Club Penguin for his DS and I got suckered into buying him one on the weekend. ;-)

If you were invited to an event like this with you kids, what would you like to see? What type of information would you like about holiday gifts? (Jeez, I can’t believe it’s only August and we’re talking holidays already.)

Nintendo misses the mark with Super Smash Bros. Brawl

My kids have been waiting for “years” to get their copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl (SSBB). The North American release kept on being delayed.

Caving into the nag factor, especially because the release date was supposed to be on my son’s birthday in mid-February, I placed a deposit on a copy in January. A week or so after I put my money down, I learned SSBB release was delayed again!

EBGames left me a confirmation message on Tuesday. Our copy should be waiting for us in the store this morning.

You may know I’ve been hanging out on twitter lately. So, when I logged on this morning, there was lots of buzz about SSBB.

Jeff Pulver posted a video of the SSBB unveiling at his house. Guess he got some early-bird copies. ;)

Mitch Canter attended the SSBB tournament in Nashville last night and had a great time competing only to go home with his early-bird copy and learn the game didn’t work on his Wii. This morning he posted about it on twitter. So, I took the opportunity to quiz him and read his blog post.

SSBB uses a new technology called double-layer disc because it has more memory. Turns out “launch” versions of the Wii have dirty lenses and don’t play the double-layer discs.

Ninetendo cautions customers not to attempt cleaning the lenses themselves and is offering to repair “launch” Wiis within a one-week turnaround time for free.

Now I don’t know about you or your kids, but when you’re a die-hard Wii owner who has been waiting for months to get your hands on a copy of SSBB, this news is a major disappointment.

It’s March Break and my guys had been looking forward to playing with their new SSBB for ages. I’m keeping my fingers crossed but since we were early Wii owners, my hopes aren’t very high.

Why Ninetendo sat on this information is anyone’s guess. I wonder what the retailers will be doing to inform and appease their customers this morning. I’ll be watching closely.

My kids have been raised on Nintendo products. I’ll be curious to see how this affects their brand loyalty.

Talk about a Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Bummer!