Video Game Fun

I know many adults may shun the use of video games as "kid toys". I'll admit that some of them really are made for kids, but I have found that some of them are intriguing to me even as an adult.

One of our family favorite games is the Harvest Moon series. They are educational games for the kids. I enjoy helping them figure out how to run a successful farm. Some of the things in the game are somewhat like a puzzle.

These games center around a "new" farmer running a farm. You can choose to be a hunter/gatherer, raise animals, plant orchards, or plant vegetables (and some versions flowers). There are differnt tools that you can use to acheive different goals in most of the games as well. You can learn to cook too. After cooking for a while, you gain skills and learn new recipes.

I feel that they teach (or at least reinforce) some valuable life lessons. They help my kids figure out the best ways to manage their time and prioritize activities, how to save money to buy equipment that will make life easier and eventually help them to make more money, some plants will only grow in certain seasons, they help to figure out where food and goods we use every day come from, and they teach them that generosity, kindness, and taking the time to talk to others is a good way to make friends.

Each game is a little bit different from the others too. In Magical Melody you can compete with Jamie to see who runs a more successful farm. You can buy fertilizer to grow healthier crops and trees, gather musical notes to help the harvest goddess come back to life (she turned herself to stone because people forgot about kindness and taking time for others), cut down trees in order to have enough wood for building a chicken coop or barn, purchase land can help you to expand your farm, and you are forced to not grow crops in the winter because there's snow on the ground.

A Wonderful Life is the other game we have. You can hybridize plants, automate your cow milking, and sell your wares in town to name a few things. This game allows you to grow winter crops and you start out with a barn, house, and chicken coop and all of the land you can get so you don't have to work and save as much.

Some other games we like to play include the Legend of Zelda games. They provide many opportunities to use our brains and use our problem solving skills. Both of these games also reinforce their reading skills and provide them with opportunities to expand their vocabulary.

We also enjoy playing sports games. Well, mostly the wii sports games but son likes all of them. The wii games promote physical activity. Not all of the games require you to move, but most anything sports related does.

Classic arcade games are the ones that some of us grew up with. Space Invaders, Joust, Gauntlet, Rampage, Paper Boy, Spy Hunter, and games such as these. They are fun because they remind me of the days when I was a kid and spent all of my extra money at the video game arcade.

Do you like to play any games? I think they're a nice diversion occassionally, although I don't play very often. Please take a moment to vote in my new video game poll at the top of my side bar.

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy