A new trend at Toy Fair 2011 & Two Neat Examples.
February 23, 2011 2 Comments Thursday, February 24, 2011, Netcast 1294
One of the new trends is to take world famous electronic games or hugely popular phone apps and turn them into home family games. Tetris has been around for more than 25 years and millions of people have electronically jiggled those dropping multi-shaped colored blocks. So game-maker Techno Source thought it was time there was a living, hands-on version. At Toy Fair they debuted Tetris Link. Instead of being a solo affair, 2 to 4 players can compete. Each player picks a block color. Players then take turns rolling a die that tells you which shape block you must drop down the groove on the plastic game tower. The object is to link your color pieces together while blocking your opponent from doing the same thing. Players track their points in real-time with the built-in scoring markers. When the tower is full, the player with the highest score wins the game! The retail game includes the game tower, 100 Tetrimino playing pieces in four different colors, playing die and instructions. Appropriate for players ages 6 and up. There are no batteries, sound effects or LED’s. That’s why it’s under $20. Tetris Link goes on sale this Spring. Stiff rules won’t let you use a hack saw to trim the plastic pieces, or a mallet to drive them in where they don’t belong!
Angry Birds has gone from America’s #1 app to a real-life version from Mattel called Angry Birds: Knock on
Wood. It should be called Angry Birds: Knock down the plastic because the wood is made of plastic. The object is pretty much the same as the app. Use the spring-loaded catapult to hurl one of the three plastic angry birds into the house the pig’s built. You still win by demolishing their edifice. The kind of structure you have to wreck is decided by selecting a 'mission card' that show different kinds of structures that have to be built. But to stop you from cheating by building a weak easy-to-knock over structure, your opponent builds it. Then you get a chance to built the structure your opponent must knock down. (No, you can’t use crazy glue!) Each card has a point value, and whoever reached 1000 points first wins. The set includes three birds–red, yellow, and black, plus four pigs. You also get molded plastic ‘wooden’ boards for building structures, and of course, a spring powered launcher. It will sell for under $15 and reach toy stores in May, 2011.
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Reader Comments (2)
-online replica Jaeger-Lecoultre Reverso It will sell for under $15 and reach toy stores in May, 2011.
Computer games have changed beyond all recognition since those early days when blocky graphics would judder across a screen and explode with all the sonic impact of an egg box being crushed. A Tetris game can be played on any gadget that supports it such as phones, laptops, desktops etc. The first and foremost advantage therefore of this game is that it is portable and thus people who need to kill time while on the move or otherwise, have a very convenient option.