With the upcoming movie, Cars 3 there will be a return to a focus on racing and what it means to be a champion. I am looking forward to seeing this on the big screen. I’m also excited about the video game as well. There are going to be a variety of driving styles in the game and a large cast of characters. You can see more in the trailer below. Below that you will find the official Press Release.
Continue reading Video Game Announcement: CARS 3: DRIVEN TO WIN
I’ve been playing a bunch of Skylanders Imaginators on the Nintendo Switch. This morning I loaded a bunch of my Imaginators Senseis, Creation Crystals and Imaginators Villains into the game. I learned that you have to actually load them in twice so that they can be accessed at anytime. I do not know how many I can actually load into the game but eventually I will try and do all 300+ Skylanders to see how many can actually be permanently loaded.
All reports prior to getting Skylanders Imaginators for the Nintendo Switch tell me that you cannot use the Skylanders SuperChargers vehicles. There is no racing in the game, but you can certainly load in the vehicles and what’s more they give you an imaginite chest. This is different than the Wii U version. On the Wii U version I can scan the vehicle and it becomes available to use in the racing portion of the game. No racing portion, no reason to even load them, right? However, I learned that you should load them to get imaginite items. So far I’ve loaded in two of them and they got a couple of imaginite chests. You can see how that works in the video below.
So, I pre-ordered the Nintendo Switch from Target. I secured one but it is not going to arrive until next Tuesday. so, I’m #SwitchLess for the time being. I did, however pick up a couple of Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild amiibo characters as well as the game itself. I’ve always loved The Legend of Zelda and especially the very first game. That was my game. So, when a new Zelda game comes out I am all about trying it out. This one looks incredible.
I also found a few DC themed Hot wheels cars and picked up some of them including Harley Quinn, Superman and two different Katana vehicles.
I also worked with Brian last night on a speed build of a LEGO version of Lola, Agent Couslon’s car from Agent’s of S.H.I.E.L.D. You’ll have to wait for a while to see who won that competition.
The kids and I went to Chuck E. Cheese’s today. We had to get out of the house and the whole cooped up feeling. There are only so many movies and shows we can watch and new Christmas toys that one can play with in one day.
Speaking of the toys the kids wanted to do videos all about their new toys. Eva made a full video about the I Am Elemental Wisdom Warriors Series and Andrew did a video on the Hot Wheels Ultimate Garage. And I got something cool, too. I got the shipment of BRIK pieces that I got through Kickstarter.
As a member of the Netflix #StreamTeam I sometimes get early access to shows and I was super excited to get access to the new Skylanders Academy show that is coming on October 28th. I was able to get a screener of the pilot episode and I really liked it. The show has the humor and fun of the video game and it has been a long time coming to get Skylanders into an animated format. The animation is excellent. You can check out the trailer today and the full season on Friday.
The first episode was really well done. The show centers around three main Skylanders: Stealth Elf, Eruptor and of course Spyro. They are about to graduate from Skylanders Academy. While Stealth Elf and Eruptor are ready to graduate, a cocky Spyro thinks that he is ready but he certainly has a lot to learn about being part of a team.
Spyro is played by Justin Long and not Josh Keaton who has been Spyro in all the Skylanders video games. It is probably my biggest pet peeve of the show even though Justin does a decent job as Spyro. Spyro is really, really cocky and he ends up failing to become a Skylander during the Skylander Games. So, he has to do some deep soul searching and help when the time is needed.
Stealth Elf is played by Ashley Tisdale to great comic effect. She is the voice of reason and sensibility on the team. She motivates Spyro to be the hero that we all know he will become.
Eruptor is played by Jonathan Banks, a character actor and voice actor that you have probably seen or heard many times before. I recall him from Community. Eruptor can be counted on for some comic relief in his somewhat clueless questions.
Kaos is of course voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz because, let’s face it, NO ONE else could ever get that voice right. You cannot replace the voice of Kaos, he’s one of the biggest parts of Skylanders and has been in every iteration of the game. Kaos has all sorts of schemes as, we’d expect and it is up to the Skylanders to stop him. Actually, in the first episode it is up to Spyro himself to stop Kaos.
Rounding out the cast we have Norm MacDonald as Glumshanks and although he isn’t the original Glumshanks voice from the games he does a really great job as the character. He’s funny and glib and basically does his usual Norm MacDonald thing and it works well for Glumshanks.
The show is filled with fun action and lots of jokes. You also see tons of Skylanders around the academy and they may or may not have much to do or say but occasionally they will get a good line or two for comedic effect. I’m definitely excited to see the whole season when it comes to Netflix on Friday. Continue reading Skylanders Academy Season 1 on Netflix Arrives Friday #StreamTeam
Today LEGO Dimensions released a whole bunch of new sets as part of Wave 6. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment sent me a couple of packs for free to review. They are the Ghostbusters Story Pack and the Mission Impossible Level Pack. I also pre-ordered the B.A. Baracus Fun Pack and the Harry Potter Team Pack. I was planning on getting everything up and ready to go today and do some unboxing videos but I forgot that I had to update the software and that takes some time. Once I did that then I had to download the level packs. Because Tuesdays are crazy busy all around I did not end up with videos made.
Once we got home from all the errands I played a little on the Wii U Gamepad while the kids watched TV. I think I have to go and play with the full TV on next time so I can see everything. I seemed to be missing out on some things. So, tomorrow I’ll be making the videos. In the meantime you can see my vlog from today and after the jump you can read about all the new things with LEGO Dimensions Year 2.
A silly Leprechaun came bounding through our house leaving green footprints everywhere and also turning our Milk, Orange Juice and toilets green. The kids enjoy the fun antics of the leprechaun and they also loved getting some tasty Honey Dew Donuts to munch on that morning. Eva was excited to see if her Leprechaun trap at school captured one. Sadly it did not but the kids were excited to see what the leprechaun did to their traps. Eva was not amused that he stepped on her tiny table.
While the kids were enjoying the Leprechaun at school I took Andrew out to run errands and since he was pretty good overall we went for a special trip to Chuck E. Cheese’s For $10 we had about an hours worth of fun and we came home with Andrew winning a couple of small items from all his tickets.
It was a fun time with Andrew. He loved playing with the games.
We did not have our traditional corned beef and cabbage today, we are having friends over on Thursday and then we will enjoy that meal.
Eva is having a hard time with me going on my trip to California tomorrow. She has been very upset especially after not seeing me most of the week and last weekend. Luckily she has Dance Camp to keep her mind off me being gone for most of the week but outside of that she has been very upset. So, Allison suggested that we do something special for her the night before I leave. So, we picked Eva up from Dance camp and went to Chuck E Cheese’s to play a few games and have dinner. We had tokens left from her birthday party this year and we used a special coupon for more so we had plenty of tokens to use to play all the games.
The kids and us parents had a nice time. Eva is so good with Andrew. I certainly hope that they have a loving relationship throughout their lives. It was fun to see them play together at Chuck E. Cheese’s.
Don’t forget to follow my exploits in LA for a ton of great events which include seeing Guardians of the Galaxy and a cooking lesson at Le Cordon Bleu.
Photo-A-Day #3135
Today I took the train down to New York City to attend the Activision Family Game Summit. At last year’s Activision Family Game Summit I came down to NYC with the whole family and we had a fantastic time. The event was also excellent this year for entirely different reasons. I went down on my own this time and got to spend a lot of time with my friends Adam Cohen (DaDaRocks.com) and Jeff (OutWithTheKids.com). I’ve been down to events in New York for the past couple of months and haven’t had much time to really talk with these great guys. My last trip to NYC was a train ride fiasco and I totally missed spending any time with those guys but this trip we got to really hang out for a decent amount of time.
And.. I made sure that this time I got into some photos and we did some of those red carpet type ones.
Today I took the train down to New York City in order to battle with my buddy Adam Cohen from DaDa Rocks. I was invited down by the guys from NYC Dads Group. I was to be a contender in the title card match of a Battroborg battle. Battroborg are new battling robots from Tomy. They are pretty sweet, too. Like Rock-Em Sock-Em Robots for the digital age. Continue reading Battroborg Battle in NYC