App Review: Max's Pirate Planet - A Board Game Adventure

This is our family review of the universal iOS app "Max's Pirate Planet - A Board Game Adventure." Whether playing together as a family of 4 or 1 on 1 or as a single player, this game has been fantastic fun for the whole family!

When we have visitors or play dates, this is the game the kids ask me to set up on the Apple TV to play and share with their friends.

We'd like to thank Slant Six Games for the loot, err, um, for gifting this app for a review!

Click here to get this game for your family, available on multiple platforms:

iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch devices, click here:


Android devices, click here:

Kindle Fire devices, click here:

Here is a home movie (10 minute sample) of one of our first game sessions together. As you can see, there was much delight. Even Keagan, our 3-year-old likes to play with assistance. It's nice to play a multi-player game where he doesn't feel left out for a change.

The graphics are beautifully drawn with careful attentions to detail. I love how the characters sail in their ships when crossing water, but get out and walk on dry land. The voice artists are top-notch. Game play is very smooth and not too predictable.

Form Factors
We have played this game on both an iPhone 4S and a 4th-generation iPad on the local screen as well as streamed to our Apple TV. Both form factors worked great. Playing it on the iPad is nice for when there are 2 players whether it's a parent and child or 2 siblings because of what I like to call the "Hand-Held Device Cuddle Factor." Personally, as much as I love to see my boys play physically with each other like little puppies, I also love to watch them cuddle up on the couch with each other to play a game on our iPad. Max's Pirate Planet encourages taking turns and cheering each other on with a healthy dose of friendly competition. This is something my 6- and 3-year-olds really need right now during these formative years.

Playing this game on the iPhone is more comfortable for 4 players passing the device around while viewing it together on the Apple TV. It's kind of like hot potato. When it came time to do a duel on the iPhone I was initially concerned with two fingers swiping on that smaller scree, but it worked surprisingly well I'm sure it had nothing to do with my ability to kick my husband's butt in the sword fighting challenge

Come On, Girls!
If I had one criticism it would only be to add more girl pirate characters from which to choose. As a mom in a house full of boys, I'm the only girl pirate here, Yarr!

Piratey Pirates
Normally, as a parent, I'm a bit squeamish about the idea of "encouraging" pirate culture, but I have to say, this app has done it tastefully in a fun way that doesn't encourage or promote violence. It allows the player to role play pirate-esque adventures in a creative, challenging and safe way. Even Skully the Skeleton manages to skip creeping me out. He's my oldest son's favorite character and he rushes to choose him each time we play. My younger son is in to all things red, so he loves Rusty the fox.

Go Ahead, Duel Me In.
My favorite part is dueling! I especially like sword fighting. I'd like to see other types of duels beyond just the two currently available: sword fighting and cannons. The family and I discussed what types of duels we'd like to see and we were immediately faced with the challenge of trying to avoid something that might promote violent behavior if not carefully planned out. Lucian, our 6 -year-old, suggested a pistol gun fight duel. We as parents couldn't think of a way game developers could avoid becoming mired in the whole gun violence issue we're currently facing as a nation here in the U.S. so we decided that wasn't something we could get behind suggesting as a feature request.

More Monsters, Please!
We all agreed that we'd like to see new monsters to challenge in future app updates. The current monsters are great — so great that we think the app developers will have fun coming up with more monster characters to eat us — uh — I mean — for us to beat for a chance to win treasure!

I really hope you consider either getting this app for your family or gifting it to a friend. It's a real...treasure!

Check out more from Slant Six Games Inc.

Make A List and Tap It Twice

  ...gonna find out who's naughty or nice...

Need a last minute gift for a friend or relative who is also a parent to small children?

Here's an idea just in time for the holiday to help show children the importance of being good for goodness sake (and also for a cookie or extended game time with their new toys after Christmas Day!)

You can gift an app from the iOS App Store!

(I've been known to 'speak for the treeeees!')

Go to this link in the App Store or type "ireward chart" into the search box.

,

Then, after you've logged some good deeds, you can have your child email their iReportCard to Santa directly from within the Share feature of the app. Even Grandma on Facebook can see when they have earned a reward.

My kids love the sounds the stars make. Keagan calls them "good stars" (since he doesn't yet say 'gold' quite right)

When they hear a "red star" sound, it really gets their attention!

Ah Pavlov would be so proud!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/irewardchart-reward-tracker/id580042542?mt=8

First Tooth

Sent from my iPad

Created using Pic Collage. http://pic-collage.com

Touch

Interpretation

My Turn

Hanging Around & Dropping Down

a.k.a "How To Sprain Your Ankle"
featuring my 2.5 year-old daredevil son, Keagan and his fabulous big brother, Lucian v6.0

(in the background you can hear the hissing noise of our Arizona Apache Cicadas during our Monsoon)

Music credit: The New Mastersounds
http://www.newmastersounds.com
from the album - Keb Darge Presents The New Mastersounds - "Drop It Down"

Recorded from my home office window using my iPhone 4S and the native Camera app. Edited and produced exclusively on my iPhone using the Splice app available from the iTunes App Store.

We'll see what our pediatrician has to say about this fall. My poor little dude :( Hopefully he'll heal soon and get back to his monkey business! (and that my boys won't be too mad at me for making this video!)

Watering Hole

Sparked

I hope your 4th of July was a blast!

5th Annual TUAW Mother's Day Edition

The Unofficial Apple Weblog hosts a TalkCast every Sunday night. For the past five consecutive years, it's been my privilege to be a guest of honor on the Mother's Day Edition of this podcast.


Click this link to listen to the audio in iTunes.
TUAW Talkcast 2012-05-13: Mother's Day Edition

Click this link to listen to the audio in your browser's audio player.

Podcast Description:

Calling all Mac Mommies out there -- it's our annual Mother's Day show, where we celebrate the Mac, Mom and iOS too. Join Kelly and the crew for the fun!

The Bird Is Back

Update!

The Blue Bird has been found. One of his classmates discovered it on the floor in the classroom and it appears to have fallen off of his lunchbag.

Lucian is very happy to have his little birdie back!

My Little Bird Is Angry and Blue

Grammy sent Lucian one of these plush blue Angry Birds backpack clips for Easter. He cherished that little thing! He kept it clipped to his lunch bag and I loved it because it helped him to remember his lunch bag! (In case you don't already know, my little boys are obsessed with Angry Birds and I have no place to complain because it's mostly my own fault!

Well, today something awful happened. His little blue bird has gone missing!! We fear one of the kids in his class may have unclipped it from his bag and taken it. We hope that's not the case! We're hoping it might have fallen off his bag and will end up in the Lost and Found. (I've already checked though.)

I felt so bad for him, his little heart broken and wondering where his bird could be and if someone took it, who could have done such a thing to him since he's such a good friend to everyone. There were tears and he needed a hug, but even that didn't take away the pain. I could see how let down he felt. It's only Kindergarten and already he comes home telling me that certain kids are picking on him at school. I've even witnessed a little bit of it too, but it's so hard to tell with kids this age what they are trying to communicate.

Feeling like I had to provide him with a creative outlet for his frustration, I suggested that perhaps he could create a "Missing" poster like people do when they've lost their dog.

And so I present to you his 2-sided flyer that he designed all himself. Let's see if you can "read" what it says.

I think it says, "Do not get it!" which I think means, "don't take my bird" or "don't hold my bird hostage!" I Think it's interesting that not only did he draw the Do Not circle with a line through it, but also depicts the bird inside of a cage. At 5 years old, I'm not to expect him to write his words in order. Right now he just writes out what he thinks and puts the words wherever they fit.

I think this sign says, "I want my bird and I want it new. You get it?" and then it's either "in 10 minutes or else!" or "It's mine." I think maybe the brown line is a slingshot? He also lists his room number and teacher so you know where to return it. Basically he's trying to say, "I want my bird back unharmed. It's mine and I'm mad it was taken from me. Bring it to Miss Izzo's room 10 or else there will be trouble! That part worries me a little so I'm going to ask his teacher before class what she thinks about it since Lucian's idea was to show it around to his classmates. We'll see what Miss I says about it first.

A few weeks ago, Lucian was carrying around a little trinket. It was a little, plastic, heart-shaped pendant on a string necklace with a picture of Cinderella on it. Lots of times he comes home from school with a new bauble he earned from the "Treasure Chest" for good behavior and he always proudly tells me how he's acquired his new prize. This time he didn't say anything so I asked him how he came to have it and he said he found it on the playground. I explained to him that if he found it then that means that some child has lost it and that he really shouldn't keep it.

This went on for a couple of days as he hemmed and hawed about turning it in. Finally, after using empathy to explain to him how some other child might feel having lost their little prized possession, he agreed to turn it in to the lost and found in the front office and that it was the right thing to do.

Now, it has happened to him except we both believe someone has intentionally unclipped it because it occurred during a class field trip to the zoo today. Angry Birds is a pretty popular item at his school and I've seen children with these little things clipped to their backpacks, sometimes in multiples, so I've no doubt that it's a coveted collectors' item right now. It's hard right now to think it just fell off of his bag, but I really hope that's the case and that good Karma will prevail and someone will turn it in.

Melts My Heart

This past weekend, Lucian said something that just melted my heart and I never want to forget it.

Nate and I were getting ready to go out on a date, thanks to our friends to offered to babysit for us. We have been trying to "date" more regularly now because, well, it's good for us. When you have little kids, it's really hard to find time for yourself let alone with your spouse. It feels good to take time out to shave, dress up and apply makeup or perfume once in a while.

I was sitting on the edge of our bed putting my earrings on. I had just finished most of my hair, makeup and put on some new scented moisturizer. I was feeling pretty decent about the outfit I had picked out.

Lucian was standing in the doorway staring at me. Sometimes he stares off into space like we all do, but this time he was watching me intently.

I looked over at him after a little while and he said to me,

"Mommy, I'm staring at your because you look so beautiful! And you smell so gooooood!"

Doesn't that just make you melt? I told him thank you very much and that his compliment made me feel so good.

He truly is the little boy of my dreams.

Then, Keagan barged into the room and proceeded to claw at my top and demanded to be nursed. That child has not met any cleavage he didn't like! Ah well, he won't always be a boobie boy — someday he'll wean and I'll miss it or he'll chase other girls around! I suppose I'm doing them a favor? ;)

I love to be needed and I love to be loved.

A few other little things of note from Lucian are some words he's made up that I think are just too cute.

(1) He calls hand sanitizer "hanitizer." Makes sense to me!
(2) I asked Lucian to get a pizza out of the upright freezer out back (yes, we keep our freezer, washing machine and dryer outside of the home here in the desert where those things just heat up the house unnecessarily!)

When he came back in, he said,

"Mommy, I brought the pizza in from the freezerator."

Freezerator — get it? Freezer that looks like a refrigerator = Freezerator.

Yep, that's my Lucian!

Nosillacast Tucson Tweetup

Lucian and Keagan with Allison Sheridan. Does she look charmed or what?

On 20101020, a bunch of us gathered together at the Cheesecake Factory in Tucson to hang out with Allison Sheridan of the Nosillacast podcast hosted over on podfeet.com! We all had an EVER so slight Macintosh bias which we blended with cheesecake, beer, burgers, salads, other great food and even better company.

In attendance: Myself, Nate, Lucian, Keagan, Allison, Karell, Wayde and David of the Tucson NosillaCastaways! Pat Mahon was there in spirit but unfortunately the Bandwidth Gods were not smiling on us. I think we forgot to saccrifice some cheesecake brownies or something. Next time we'll choose more wisely when it comes to wifi location. Must have wifi with food when it's a Tweetup!

@Podfeet herself...in the flesh...with cheesecake. It doesn't get much better than this.
(Photo by Lucian. Not bad for a 4 year old!)

Wayde and David enjoying c&c: company & cheesecake!

David took this photo of me, Karell, and Allison with my camera.
All of our forks are in perfect alignment. How did you do that!??

Here is a slideshow of the rest of the photos including some more Lucian took by himself.

View all

Get your own

Facepaint Fun

Yesterday I took the boys to the Tucson Reptile Show where Lucian got his face painted. This time last year I tried to paint his face for a Halloween costume and he wanted no parts of it. My how much changes in a year!!

Funny how life has a way of changing things up on you. I always envisioned playing makeup and dressup with a little girl someday.

Up till now I was kind of struggling with what to do when my sons ask if they can wear makeup. Now that he digs facepainting, I have a new way to repurpose old makeup.

Next, Lucian is going to paint a snake on my leg while Keagan is napping. I'm so glad he's enjoying this craft. It's great for fine motor skills and creativity.

Do you think the moms of Mötley Crüe members thought the same?

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[Editor's Note: Blogger Mobile FAIL - I tried using the mobile email version of Blogger to post this entry a few days ago and it screwed it up and only posted a portion. Posterous seems to hand mobile blogging via email so much better!]

To Imagination and Beyond

Lucian has finally watched Toy Story 1 and 2.
He loves to pretend he's Buzz Lightyear and "gracefully fall" off the couch.

This is Lucian's home-made Buzz Lightyear costume.

Forget the game. The box is always the best part!

Mission Accomplished!

(edit: previous post had omitted photos for some reason. oops!)

Yay! He likes it!

He made me fish (playdoh blue shark cutouts, to be exact) and electric spaghetti. We love to use the playdoh kits he got for Christmas.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

We managed to capture Keagan's 3-month hand and footprints. It was not easy. I'm excited to see how they turn out when dried. If it works well, we may try this Crayola air dry clay again.

Didn't manage to get photos taken yet. I'm hoping to try tomorrow. I have a really cute outfit picked out. Keagan is only 3 months old, but he's wearing 6 month sized clothing! He is such a little stomper!

He is making the cutest noises attempting to talk. He "howls" like a Husky. It's so adorable and I'm hoping to capture a recording sometime. More fun tomorrow, and I hope we're all recuperating some more.

TheMacMommy
Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from TheMacMommy

Silly Things We Do For Our Kids

Turns out I get a bit of cabin fever when I'm sick and forced to stay in, take it easy and rest.

Um. Yeah. about that...

During Keagan's nap I had fun with masking tape, sharpie markers, a box cutter, and some cardboard diaper boxes and made this little stove and microwave for Lucian. He loves to "cook like Daddy."

Lucian is feeling a bit under the weather now and he's taking a nap. I'm hoping this will make him feel better. I can't wait for him to see it!

In the meantime, I've got Daddy doin my dirty work! ;) Next project is to try to make handprints with Keagan. We'll see how that turns out! I can not believe he is three months old today!!

I'm hoping to snap some three-month photos of the Keagster later today so stay tuned :)

I think it's pretty darn cool if I must say so myself!!

What crazy crafts do you do with your kids?

TheMacMommy
Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from TheMacMommy

Brotherly Love

...because brotherly pestering just doesn't have quite the same ring to it

Can You Guess the iPhone App?

As some of you may know, Lucian has his own pages of kiddie apps on our iPhone and iPod Touch so at times we hand one of the devices to him so he can entertain himself for a few minutes while one of us tries to complete (ha, yeah, right — ok, at least start...) a task around the house. (He's mostly supervised while using it, knows to tell us right away if an ad pops up or if it does something he can't read.) Yesterday he sat quietly on a chair and played a game on my iPhone for several minutes. He was so quiet that I wondered what game he was playing that could be so intense!

So I asked him what game he was playing. He said, "I'm playing the golden lemon game, Mommy."

Can you guess which game this really is? I figured it out when I heard the sounds the game makes, but I'm curious to know what you think it might be.

Just for fun :)

Posted via email from TheMacMommy