Year 5: April Update

Star Wars and LEGO are possibly the two most common topics in these monthly updates and this post is no different. Shortly after I wrote last month's update Warner Bros. announced that the upcoming LEGO Star Wars game has been delayed and currently has no new date. This week LEGO unveiled a 2,314-piece R2-D2 build that will debut on May 1st at a price of $199.99. Of course, it launches just ahead of Star Wars day on May 4th and this year also marks the 50th anniversary of Lucasfilm. I am working on a few things to post that day too. The plan is at least one toy video and one toy photo blog post. In other LEGO and video game news, Nintendo's Luigi is getting his own LEGO starter course on August 1st.

Have you heard of the Evercade? It is a handheld system that released in the U.K. a year ago but it is sold on Amazon.com in the U.S. as well. All the games have PEGI ratings rather than ESRB and most are retro titles packaged on compilation cartridges. Now the manufacturer, Blaze Entertainment, has revealed a console version called Evercade VS that will retail for £89.99 (about $125). If Blaze is willing to try this then either the handheld version is doing well or the company is looking for new ways to succeed.

I don't talk too much about indie games here as I don't play a lot of them. However, I certainly read about them as I plug them into the database I work on during my day job and I do like to promote games for kids so now I will. This past week I came across Little Mouse's Encyclopedia that is available on PC, Mac, Xbox One, Switch, iOS, and Android. This is the second game by Circus Atos, the first was a hidden-object game titled Under Leaves. Both games have strong nature themes and a lovely art style so, although I've not played them, I do find them appealing. 

While I love video games, children really shouldn't play a ton of them like I did when I was young. They can be good tools though to get kids interested in educational subjects and I think nature is a good one. It's something I'd like to get my nephews to see the value of as it took me until my late 20s to start spending a fair amount of time outdoors. Owning a house kind of requires that but I also now enjoy gardening, hiking, and photographing nature. Those are definitely three things that can have a calming, peaceful effect in today's world where we can easily be overwhelmed by negativity and technology.

Thanks for visiting,

Jonathan