These arrived yesterday and will likely consume my weekend. I’ve already played a bit of Kirby’s Epic Yarn and I’m hooked. The others? JSL and NHL are going to fight me for control of the Wii. Meanwhile, B will silently shake her head.
When I reviewed Mater’s Tall Tales for the Wii, I mentioned that an NHL Video Review would be coming soon. Saturday night, I let NHL start playing Mater’s Tall Tales while he reviewed it. And so, without further ado, here is NHL’s video review:
Disclaimer: This review was part of a blog tour campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Disney Interactive Studios. I received the Cars Toon: Mater’s Tall Tales Wii game to facilitate my review.
Last night, I went to check on NHL and JSL. They were sleeping just fine, except for the fact that they seemed to need some remedial lessons on the usage of pillows. NHL had the pillow over his face. JSL was using it for a leg rest, having turned nearly 180 degrees. Naturally, I went to take a photo of them before fixing their sleeping positions.
See JSL in this photo? Neither do I and no, I didn’t leave the lens cap on. The camera was on, lens cap removed and flash all set to go off. But the flash didn’t go off. I was left with an all black photo. I turned the camera off and on but that only seemed to make it work once before dying again. I finally managed to snag these shots.
Thinking that perhaps the battery was low (even though the indicator said it was fully charged), I charged it overnight. Trying it Thursday morning, though, showed that this wasn’t the problem. I spent most of the day thinking that my trusty camera was dying. I’ve been lusting after a DSLR for awhile now, but I never could justify spending the funds.
With my camera dying and B’s camera acting all funky (the battery indicator will say it needs new batteries when she’s just put a fresh set in), I’ve been thinking about camera lifespan.
My Aloha Friday question for today is: How long has your current digital camera lasted you? How long have your previous digital cameras lasted? Did they die on you or were they just replaced with a new model?
Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the McLinky there if you are participating.
Aloha #64
“Did I ever tell you about the time I told Lightning about the time I was a Fire Truck?”
Mater’s Tall Tales was a series of short Disney/Pixar cartoons that showed Mater telling Lightning McQueen a (what else?) tall tale about his past. Mater would be a bull(dozer) fighter or a drift racer in Tokyo or befriend a UFO. Just when Lightning couldn’t believe any more or when Mater was backed into a corner of his own storytelling, Mater would pull Lightning into the story. “Well, shoot. You should know. You was there too!” Usually, this would result in the pressure being shifted to Lightning and Mater emerging victorious. Flash back to Radiator Springs and Lightning would express disbelief with the whole tale. Meanwhile, something would happen that would lead us viewers to wonder just how much of that tale was “tall” and how much was “truth.”
While these Tall Tales are entertaining, can you make a fun Wii game out of them? Dadgum! Of course, you can. Each of Mater’s six tall tales is represented: Rescue Squad Mater, Mater The Greater, El Materdor, Unidentified Flying Mater, Tokyo Mater, and Monster Truck Mater. (NOTE: There are 3 more Tall Tales cartoons, but I believe these were released after the video game work was done. Perhaps room for a Mater’s Tall Tales 2 for the Wii?)
Each tall tale includes 5 mini-games which are integrated into the story. Games range from firing hubcaps at floating tires, to putting out fires, to racing up a tower in Tokyo, to dodging bulldozers. Before each mini-game, a quick tutorial on how to play it appears. The games fit in perfectly with the story and really make you feel like Mater’s included you in his tale.
With just this, Mater’s Tall Tales would be a pretty good game, but they upped the ante. Depending on how well you do, you can earn a bronze, silver or gold trophy. Earning a trophy, unlocks the game in Free Play and Playlist mode. Free Play mode lets you choose a single mini-game to play while Playlist lets you choose a series of games from across all of Mater’s Tall Tales.
In addition, you earn money for completing games. The better you do, the more money you earn. Money can be used in your garage to buy cool add-ons for your car like spinning hubcaps a new paint job or a rear spoiler. There are enough free items that you start with to nicely customize your car avatar, but you’ll quickly find yourself trying to earn a little more to buy that cool accessory or paint job.
Another cool feature are the collectibles. Each game, besides having a goal, has a second goal that adds a collectable to the board in your garage. These vary from doing very poorly (don’t get the flag in a bulldozer fighting game) to doing very well (don’t get hit at all by ninja car throwing stars) to the somewhat odd (knock over 5 cacti while fleeing from government cars after Mator’s UFO friend). By and large, they aren’t hard to get, but they spur you on to play the games more and more.
As you earn more trophies and unlock more items, you can also unlock more cool license plates for your car. While these don’t have any in-game use that I can tell, they are a nice touch.
Finally, there’s the multiplayer aspect. Up to four players can play at once. Players aren’t really ranked from first place to last place, but each player earns money/trophies depending on how they did. Of course, the design of some games means that one player can only do well at the expense of the other players. (The fan spotting game, for example, where the fastest one to spot the fan gets the points.)
NHL and I both loved playing this game. Not a day has passed without at least one request from NHL to play Mater’s Tall Tales. (An NHL video review will be coming soon.) JSL even joined in on the fun. Although he was a bit too young to play it properly (and too independent to allow me to help him), he still had a blast. I would definitely recommend this game for anyone, but especially for anybody who is a fan of the Disney/Pixar movie Cars.
Anything you’d like to add, Mater?
“If I’m lyin’, I’m cryin’.”
Disclaimer: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Disney Interactive Studios and received the Cars Toon: Mater’s Tall Tales Wii game to facilitate my review. All of the opinions expressed above are my own.
This morning was stressful. As in rip your hair out, go running down the street screaming, hide under your desk in the fetal position while sucking your thumb stressful. I wrote out a whole post about one of the major causes of the stress, but then thought better of it. It’s something personal that I’m not quite comfortable sharing completely just yet. Needless to say, I’ve been on edge.
I guess not sleeping hasn’t helped either. The past 3 nights I’ve gone to sleep at midnight or later only to get up at 6:30am the following morning. I’m tired, but I just can’t seem to drag myself into bed earlier. I feel like I need to do just one more thing before hitting the sheets. At the same time, I feel like my To Do list is a giant treadmill. Complete one item and another thing gets tossed on top.
I’ve been stress-eating again, too. Being tired and stressed makes me feel hungry. Feeling hungry makes me eat. And eat. And eat. Then suddenly I feel sick to my stomach. Yet, sitting behind a desk all day leaves me little other stress outlets. Luckily, a few years back, I got a pedal exercise machine that fits under my desk. (I think it’s this one, but that’s unavailable for purchase.) I’ve taken to pedaling my stress away so I guess that’s healthy. Just put all of my stress into my legs and pump those pedals until my muscles ache.
I think tonight I’ll try to get to sleep early (translation: about 10pm) and will try to calm down some more. Stressing out about the situation isn’t making the situation any better. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some pedaling to do.
