This weekend we celebrated my son’s fifth birthday and he and I spent some father-son bonding time with Mario Kart: Double Dash. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, this is a Gamecube title that has been available for a few years. If you have a Wii and you’ve been having trouble tracking down Mario Kart Wii, this could give you a great option for half the price!

Having said that, it plays beautifully on the Wii as well as the original Gamecube and, like many of the Gamecube games, it is capable of displaying at 480p if you have your console connected to an HD television via component cables. Honestly, it looks beautiful and the control is spot on. Yet, what makes this title a real family winner is the two-player options.

My son’s first exposure to this title was at a kiosk while we were at a local GameStop. As with most Mario games, he was drawn to the colorful graphics and humorous sound effects. However, as much as he seemed to enjoy the visuals, he wasn’t quite understanding the racing mechanic itself and when he finally crossed the finish line in eighth place, he seemed discouraged to see that his characters looked sad.

Rather than race head-to-head with him, I chose the 2-player option that allows him to control the second character on my kart. We were able to race as a team against the other characters and while I controlled the vehicle itself, he was in charge of the power-ups. This meant that when we’d pick up a speed boost, he’d ask me when it would help and then press the button. And when we’d pick up a banana peel or other trap/attack device, we’d coordinate on where to use it.

I found this experience far more enjoyable than playing the game against him and I felt that it instilled a sense of cooperation within him while providing a sense of accomplishment when we won the tournament.

Keep in mind that you can play up to four players with this title (4-player split screen or two 2-player teams) on a single machine and it has support for network play using the broadband adapter on the Gamecube. This has some great potential for a family or a small group of kids playing together. I don’t have a problem with competition, but in this case, we enjoyed cooperation and competition together.

I heartily recommend it and as an adult I can say that it’s as much fun for me as it is for my son!

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The Scooby Game, Part 2:
For those of you who missed Part 1 or would like a refresher, you can find it here.

As noted previously, when a game is rated “E” for Everyone it is referring to the content. Let me qualify this, if I may. Since viewing a film is more passive, the rating is appropriate for all viewers because everyone who sees the film is capable of participating similarly based on their level of interpretation. (This is not to say that everyone walks away with the same experience.) However, with a videogame, you have the player and you have others who may view the game. Now if a game is rated “M” for Mature, I would infer that my four-year-old should neither play the game, nor watch someone else playing the game because of the content. Does that make sense? In contrast, a game that is rated “E” should have no objectionable content for practically anyone in the room to view. But that doesn’t mean that anyone can play the game. (Keep in mind that games rated “E” for Everyone are actually intended for ages 6 and older, not everyone as the rating implies. For more details, check out the ESRB ratings guide here.)

In the case of Scooby Doo! Night of 100 Frights I found nothing that was objectionable for my son to watch. However, playing the game requires a level of hand-eye coordination and patience that was far beyond my (then) three-year-old. In fact, as a seasoned gamer, there were a number of sequences in this game that truly frustrated me and required that I play them over and over until I accomplished the objective (and survived). Many more challenging games have such sequences and provide a sense of accomplishment for a veteran gamer. However, sequences like these can discourage and dishearten a younger and less-experienced player.

There are a few specific sequences in this title that hearken back to old arcade games or early 2D platformers where the only way that you can survive the sequence is through memorizing the patterns. Gamers 20 years ago thought that this was “fun” and it provided an opportunity for bragging rights. However, these days it can be a bit tiresome.

As I mentioned in the first part of this article, Scooby Doo! Night of 100 Frights is a hub-based game. This means that as you accomplish certain tasks and navigate particular areas, you then can return to the starting point. Usually, sucessfully navigating an entire area gives you the opportunity (thankfully) to unlock another linking point. This allows you to jump in at that point instead of having to go through the whole area again. In many cases, this saves time. In certain instances, it truly preserves sanity. I don’t mean to beat a dead horse. As I said before, overall the game is actually pretty good. It’s just those few areas that test whether or not you are committed to finishing the title.

In part one I mentioned the monster tokens. These are for the completist and are simply a novelty within the game. Acquiring them neither pushes the plot further nor helps in any way to finish the game. What they do offer is another opportunity to nurture the desire to collect things. It was this aspect of the game that really captured my son’s attention. He wasn’t as interested in the story or the plot line as much as seeing the different monsters in the areas and collecting the monster tokens. Once a token is acquired, it unlocks that creature in the monster gallery. There were entire 0ne-hour sessions during which all my son wanted to do was look at the statuesque representations of the monsters in this cavern showcase. This macabre trophy room became more important than any other aspect of the game. And it was his interest in this that got me thinking.

Whether it be Pokemon, Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars, or baseball cards, our culture encourages children to collect things. When I was a kid, I collected rocks and coins. As a young adult I began to collect comic books and videogames. The fact is that there is a big difference in collecting rocks as opposed to comics or baseball cards. Though there are rare gems and minerals, there are no lists that say, “only 1,000 gold nuggets were made.” Yet no matter what, when you want to fill a gap in your collection with a rare or limited item, it usually costs more and can become a bit of a thorn in your side until it’s acquired.

This concerns me. I see games that encourage this level of collecting (and we can trace this as far back as the original arcade version of PacMan) and I wonder what we’re “wiring” our kids brains to do. If my son becomes as obsessive about baseball cards as he was about those monster tokens, is he going to justify spending a thousand dollars on some single card one day to complete an historic team from his childhood? Should this be an issue for concern?

I don’t have answers. I have questions and concerns for my family. We all want what’s best for our children. And we want to help our kids navigate the challenges that life offers. Sometimes games (including sports, board games, and videogames) can offer the opportunity to role play and problem solve to enhance a skill-set for life. But they can provide the opportunity to learn other behaviors as well. Some of which may not serve our children’s best interest. All I can say is that as with all things, we parents must try to maintain open communication with our sons and daughters to better understand what they are learning and to help shape those lessons accordingly.

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Let’s hear it for people who are passionate about their beliefs! Adam Sessler shared this soapbox video on G4TV about parents playing games with their kids. He reacted to the same study that we reported here on November 12th. The big issue that he is pushing here is that parents should be involved with their children. I would hope that this concept does not seem foreign to anyone.

He provides a great analogy to his own childhood experience with Star Wars. (Check out the great Darth Vader in the corner of the scree capture!) He never knew that his parents didn’t like it because they watched all the movies with him. They wanted to be involved with their child and understand his interests. This is a crucial point that I know I have been at risk of overlooking - It doesn’t matter whether or not we (the parents) like something. We should take interest in all of the things for which our children care.

My wife has already demonstrated this on a level reserved for martyrs. She hates bugs. Really - Hates - Bugs. (Especially water-bugs and these wicked-fast silverfish things.) If something found its way into our house, she didn’t even want to look at it. Our son is now four years old and he adores bugs. He spends summer days turning over rocks to study them and begs us to go to the insectarium. My wife will go with us and read books that have pictures that show spider fangs blown-up 100x. She hates bugs, but she loves our son. Since he loves bugs, she plays with him and helps him draw pictures. Heck, even last spring she showed great restraint when she helped him hold a giant centipede at a special event at the local butterfly house.

The fact is, whether it be games and television shows or bugs and sports, we need to stay engaged with our kids. Gaming is just one opportunity to bond, but if it’s an important part of your child’s life, you owe it to your kid and yourself to try to get involved. Even if you don’t play the game, ask questions about it and find out what the draw is. You may be surprised at what lessons can be learned and what opportunities can arise.

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The Scooby Game, Part 1:
My son loves Scooby Doo. I can’t blame him. I loved Scooby Doo when I was a kid. And honestly, looking at some of the kids shows these days, it holds up pretty well. The Mystery Gang cares about others and they don’t use weapons. They just use their minds. Granted, each episode usually has at least one plot hole big enough to accommodate a decent sized planet, but I still give ‘em an “A” for effort. With this in mind, last year I decided to introduce him to a fairly current Scooby game. (Keep in mind that I have systems that are 30 years old, so the fact that this title was available for the Xbox, PS2, and GameCube puts it only one generation behind and, therefore, fairly current in this context.)

For those of you who may grow weary of my assorted analogies and meandering prose, I’ll give you the quick up front. It was a BAD idea. My son was just three at the time and he was at too early an age to appropriately relate to a more engaging and immersive title such as this one. I would seriously advise against such exposure at this age based on this experience. Now, for those of you still interested in the details and willing to navigate the twisted thought patterns of my mind, read on…

The game is called Scooby Doo! Night of 100 Frights. It’s actually a pretty good game. I’d rate it a 7.5 out of 10. The ESRB grants it an “E” for everyone with a caveat of “comic mischief.” The game is essentially a 3D platformer in which you have to solve a rather complicated mystery. It appears Professor Alexander Graham has mysteriously disappeared and the gang sets out to find him. However, before they get far, they all get kidnapped and it’s up to Scooby to find everyone and solve the mystery. This title is hub-based and requires multiple re-visits to stages to get all of the “Scooby Snacks” and “monster tokens.” The former are required to open additional areas while the latter are not required to complete the story. However, it was the monster tokens that became my son’s obsession.

Acquiring a monster token unlocked a 3D version of that monster in the monster gallery. In many cases, you’ll see a monster token when you enter an area, but you will have no way to reach it. Most of these require special inventions made by Professor Alexander Graham. And the inventions required to access many of these tokens are not available until the later parts of the game. I can’t tell you how many times we’d spend time in the same room or on a particular section of docks trying to figure out how to get a monster token. And it wouldn’t matter if I told him that we needed to come back later, he wouldn’t hear of it.

That was just one of the issues. Another was the difficulty curve for this title. Even though it’s listed as an “E” title, that’s just content. Nothing offensive in there. However, I cannot imagine anyone under seven or eight years having the patience and the hand-eye coordination to handle many of the tricky maneuvers. Especially one sequence that required the player to jump from ship to ship as they were sinking and if you made one mistake, you had to start all over again. There were a number of these sequences throughout the game and after my son failed repeatedly, he’d hand me the controller dejectedly and say, “I can’t do it Daddy. You do it for me.”

As you may have already guessed, I had enough warning flags to try to stop this, but he was obsessed. I tried to tell him that we could play it when he was a little older. That really depressed him. It was like I had opened Pandora’s box and it was too late for me to ask everything to get back in so I could close it up and pretend that it didn’t happen. Nope. My son begged to play, “The Scooby Game,” as he called it, all day long.

My wife, God bless her, played dumb. She has never been a big fan of videogames anyway so it wasn’t really a lie when she told him that he’d have to wait for Daddy to come home from work because she didn’t know how to work the system. We had him play in the evening after his younger sister had gone to bed. We didn’t want her to want to play the game at this point (and she was only one). But this time of day was a problem too. Be aware that some forms of entertainment can wind us down whereas other can do the opposite. In this case, the attention required for the platforming elements and the puzzle-solving components was enough to have his brain in high gear. Not only did he hate stopping the game at the one-hour limit, but he had a harder time winding down and going to sleep. My wife and I discussed this at length after the first week and we resolved to get through this title, but as soon as it was done, we would not introduce another game to him that would require this level of involvement and attachment. I’ll pick this up next week and give you the details of what transpired over the following month or so that it took us to survive our first immersive title with our son. In the meantime, if you have specific questions, observations, or relevant experiences of your own, I invite you to click the link below and share your comments.

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