Win a Monsters vs. Aliens video game!
Mar 23, 2009 Product Giveaway
The new Dreamworks 3D Monsters vs Aliens movie is coming out on March 27th, and this poses a little bit of a dilemma for me, because my son is in the middle of an open-ended no TV/video games/computer punishment. I don’t know where highly-anticipated 3D movies fall in that punishment. We’ve already made one punishment exception, Saturday night. I let my daughter pick something that we could all do together, and she kept insisting on watching a movie, and since my son had been awesome all day I said OK. I’m thinking I’ll let him go see Monsters vs. Aliens too, as long as he continues making an effort to get himself out from under our Draconian thumbs.
But anyway, Activision is giving us a copy of the new Monsters vs Aliens video game that’s debuting tomorrow, and that definitely falls smack dab in the middle of Jake’s punishment. So it’s a big carrot on the end of a stick for him to continue being good. He’s been following this game’s development for a while now and has been waiting for it to come out. He’s gotten to try it out a couple different times during it’s development phase, and he loved it. You can play the game as several different characters from the movie: The Missing Link, B.O.B., or Ginormica. But my favorite feature is the team mode: at any time, another person can join in and assist the main player. God knows I have zero interest in sitting down and playing video games with my kids – when they’re being zombified by something electronic, I go do other things. But if he needs a little help to get past a tough part, another player can join in temporarily as Dr. Cockroach to help out. Brilliant!
Activision is giving me four Monsters vs Aliens games to give away, and you even get to pick which kind of game you want: Xbox 360, Wii, or PS3. To enter to win, please leave a comment telling me which game version you would want if you won.
You can get a second entry by Tweeting, mentioning the contest and Monsters vs. Aliens with a link back here to this post. Make sure to leave a separate comment about that Tweet to get your second entry. That’s two entries per household, please.
Good luck! The contest runs until sometime around noon on Thursday, April 2nd. The winners will be chosen by Random.org. For full giveaway rules, please go here. Prize can be shipped to U.S. addresses only.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom
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Tags: Activision, Dreamworks, Monsters vs. Aliens, video game
Pasta Boy’s Perfect Day
Aug 20, 2008 What's Going On
[OK, I wrote this last Wednesday, and totally forgot to post it. Oops.]
Yesterday just may have been my 7-year-old son’s perfect day. It started out very early – we all had to be out of the house by 7:30 – but was worth it. We went to a sneak preview of two new video games. I’m not sure if I’m even allowed to say what they are yet – I have to check the confidentiality agreement and I don’t have it on me (and I can’t go looking because my house is filled with people shooting a TV show – I just posted about that craziness here and here). So I won’t name them yet – I’ll be talking a lot more about one of them in the near future – but suffice it to say that we had a very cool morning playing some very cool games. In fact, my son was the first kid in the entire country to try out these two games. He was the only kid there playing the games (there was a baby doing baby things, and my daughter, who was very bored until I gave her a TV to watch). Every time I peeked my head into the room where he was (he liked playing one game better, I liked the other), he was trying to talk the video game people into taking him back to California with them to be a video game designer and tester. He was so excited, he’s been starting conversations with strangers about it.
Then, as we were leaving the midtown hotel where the video game preview was, we walked into a crazy scene, with about three dozen emergency vehicles, including a bunch of huge fire trucks. My son was in heaven. Pasta Boy: “OH MY GOD!” Me: “How about ‘Oh My Gosh?’” Pasta Boy: “No, this is too cool for gosh!” (Turned out to be a small subway fire, nothing to get excited about. But the small boys and tourists thought different.)
So we finally got our subway train (they were all running slowly because of the fire) and my son wanted to go in the very front of the front car. He likes to watch out of the front window. And of course this terrifies me, because once, about ten years ago, a kid fell out and got run over. This is a one in a zillion thing, but I still think about it every time I get on the subway with my kids.
So while he was in the front, an MTA guy got on the train to talk to the driver. So as MTA guy was standing in the doorway of the little booth talking, Pasta Boy was trying to sneak under the guy’s arm and look inside! And he was being none too subtle about it. So finally, after a few minutes of this, the MTA guy couldn’t ignore Pasta Boy any longer and opened the door wide. He showed my son what all the different levers did, how they slowed the train down and sped it up, and what the different signals meant. My son was glowing. (My daughter couldn’t have cared less.)
After we got off the subway, we stopped at Subway for lunch (an occurrence that sends Pasta Boy into a laughing fit every time: “We took the subway to Subway! Bwah-hahahahahaha!”) and then went home to meet the sitter. I needed to be somewhere, something that I couldn’t postpone or change, and the sitter didn’t show up! I called my next door neighbor in a panic, and he graciously agreed to take them (I owe him BIG). But he mentioned that he was about to take his kids to McDonald’s for lunch! So off my kids went to McDonald’s, about 90 minutes after Subway.
So, to recap, my son got to play two video games before anybody else, got to see a few dozen fire trucks, ambulances and police cars, got to see inside of the little booth where the subway driver sits and learned how things work, and got to have two fast food lunches. All before 1pm. His perfect day.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom
Tags: fire trucks, MTA, subway, video game
The Marketing Machine Has Possession Of My Son!
Jun 3, 2008 What's Going On
On Sunday I had the opportunity to go to a fabulous event, sponsored by HP, in anticipation of the Kung Fu Panda movie from Dreamworks, which is premiering on June 6th. It was held at KidVille on the UWS of Manhattan. I was as curious about KidVille as I was about the movie. They opened a location a little while back in Park Slope, and they sent me a brochure. Actually, it was more than a brochure: it was a full color, thick paged magazine touting their activities, classes, and birthday parties. If only we lived closer to Park Slope. Oh, and if only we were shitting money.
We were supposed to go to this thing as a family. All four of us going somewhere together is a rare occurrence these days, mostly because without time away from our kids O and I would go insane. So we tag-team them a lot, one of us taking them for a while and then the other one taking them – usually I have them on Saturdays, and O has them on Sundays. I know some of our friends think that this is strange, but they should try it. It simply doesn’t take two adults to take two children to the playground. One of us would rather be off doing our own thing.
But we don’t want to do this all the time, because the kids do enjoy it when we all go out together. So O had agreed – rather enthusiastically, actually – to go with us to the Kung Fu Panda party. We were all excited.
Until Sunday actually came, of course. Then, predictably, O no longer wanted to go. He had already had a long day with the kids, taking them to Prospect Park. When the time rolled around to hop on the subway, he was begging me to let him off the hook. He was offering me anything I wanted: an entire extra day off from the kids, buying things that normally drive him batty, doing “other” things that he normally doesn’t want to do (I’d elaborate, but I still haven’t figured out just what I can talk about online without pissing off my family and friends). In the end, I let him off the hook in exchange for nothing (at least not yet). He just looked too exhausted and pathetic. And I’ve learned that when I try to force these things, they never turn out well.
So, the kids and I got to KidVille, and as soon as we got there and signed in, they were offered their choice of animal mask. Jake immediately started naming all of the characters in the movie. Before it’s out! When I was a kid I usually couldn’t remember as much after seeing a movie as my kids know before they see it.
Anyway, they got their masks and went in, and I don’t think I saw them for more than five minutes each the entire time we were there. Which for me is the perfect event. I got to chat with friends and meet new people while my kids were being entertained by the KidVille staff and the Kung Fu Panda dancers. The HP reps took pictures of my kids, printed them out on HP printers, and gave them to us in cute frames.
The kids got to decorate bags and Chinese take-out containers, and other movie related arts and crafts.
They got to learn the Kung Fu Panda dance.
They even got to eat gummy bears with chopsticks. Of course, my daughter just wanted plate after plate of meat from the carving stations. Seriously, carving stations. If you’ve ever wanted to have carving stations at your toddler’s birthday party, apparently Kidville is the place!
After asking for the last six brownies on the dessert plate, my son ignored the rest of the food and spent most of the time in front of a giant TV, playing the Kung Fu Panda video game.
Again, great marketing. I’m pretty sure he talked about the video game the entire next day in school.
Plus, they got to participate in all of the other non-panda-related KidVille stuff.
On the way out, a kidville staffer let each of my kids have four balloons. Great for them, they love helium balloons. But have you ever tried carrying eight balloons on the subway? I don’t recommend it! I was getting the same looks that I give to parents who bring Bugaboos on the subway.
Do I have a problem being a part of this machine, this viral marketing trend, getting kids excited about movies through Happy Meal toys, video games, and playground word-of-mouth? Not really. Because we got to go to a cool party. Selfishness wins out in the end.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom
Tags: Happy Meal, HP, KidVille, Kung Fu Panda, Party, video game
