SPIES IN DISGUISE OFFICAL MOBILE GAME

Arriving today is the new animated adventure SPIES IN DISGUISE at movie theaters as well as a tie-in mobile game called AGENTS ON THE RUN available online to download for Android and Apple mobile devices based upon the film. A Christmas treat from Blue Sky Studios you can enjoy the debut of a new movie and the launch of a video game on the holiday. AGENTS ON THE RUN uses the popular runner platform for mobile games to let players run, jump, slide, and juke the heroes from SPIES IN DISGUISE through missions based upon scenes from the movie.



Super spy Lance Sterling and scientist Walter Beckett are almost exact opposites. Lance is smooth, suave and debonair. Walter is not. But what Walter lacks in social skills he makes up for in smarts and invention, creating the awesome gadgets Lance uses on his epic missions. But when events take an unexpected with Lance being turned into a pigeon by one of Walter's experiments suddenly this duo has to rely on each other in a whole new way. And if this odd couple can't learn to work as a team, the whole world is in peril. This plot plays out in both the movie SPIES IN DISGUISE and the mobile game AGENTS ON THE RUN.



Players in SPIES IN DISGUISE: AGENTS ON THE RUN start off as scientist Walter Beckett. As they run through levels collecting items and dodging obstacles, new characters including Special Agent Marcy Kappel and Super Spy Lance Sterling can be unlocked. Each character also has special abilities that can be earned through completing achievements and missions.

Walter's hand-held Coin Sucker 3000 vacuum can be upgraded to increase the length of time it collects coins or you can earn him a jet pack that lets him soar over bad guys and obstacles. Special Agent Kappel can increase the length of time she can use an umbrella shield which lets her burst through anything that gets in her way. You can also achieve the option to let her drive through portions of a level in a sports car. Super Spy Lance Sterling has a glide suit that can be upgraded and can improve upon the slide kicks used against henchmen as he progresses through the game. Each characters has their own unique strengths and weaknesses that provide their own elements of fun to playing AGENTS ON THE RUN.

SPIES IN DISGUISE: AGENTS ON THE RUN is free to download and play on Android and iOS devices. It does have in-app purchases and advertisements that are really ingrained into the gameplay. While the game is playable without these features in my opinion the games developer Denali Publishing has over-monetized it. The first time you hit an obstacle or get knocked out by a villain the game restarts unless you watch a video advertisement or spend some real life money to continue your progress uninterrupted. This is really annoying! It would have been nice if they had provided maybe like 3 lives before they started hitting you up to watch ads or spend cash.

That being said there is time, talent and resources put into created games like SPIES IN DISGUISE: AGENTS ON THE RUN and obviously developers are looking to get a return on their investment. Before in-app purchases and advertising became the popular business model for the video game industry, a game for mobile devices like this would probably have set you back $10 or more. Now you can play the game for "free" but obviously there is a caveat to that. It is up to individual players to determine their preference for playing these types of games but this is a good reminder for parents to know what their devices settings are for in regards to allowing in-app purchases when their kids are playing on phones and tablets.

SPIES IN DISGUISE: AGENTS ON THE RUN is available on Google Play and The App Store. I played with the game after I wrapped up putting presents under the Christmas Tree when the kids had fallen asleep. Despite my gripe, I did actually enjoy the game play. I'll probably keep it on my phone awhile to play around with. Once I get the zigging and zagging down maybe I'll last a bit longer before getting knocked out and won't find having to watch advertising videos to keep my game alive as annoying. Give this game a try and let me know what you think about it.

SANTA IN YOUR HOUSE

Santa Sighting! Wow! He made it to our house in record time this year! Thanks to the app SANTA IN YOUR HOUSE, I took a picture with my phone of good ole Saint Nick putting presents under the Christmas Tree in our house this evening. Looking forward to showing my kids this picture of Santa Claus visiting our house when they wake up in the morning.

This free app is available for Android and Apple devices on Google Play and The App Store. Snap a picture with your phone or tablet's camera then insert one of the no charge images of Santa Claus and/or his elves into the shot from the app's Christmas gallery. Hit save and a picture of SANTA IN YOUR HOUSE will be stored in your mobile device's picture gallery.

In addition to a variety of free images, there are also in-app purchases available for additional clip art of Santa and other Christmas imagery. This is an easy to use app that can provide nice customized photographs for Christmas memories since you can control the photo backgrounds. Isn't it nice to have a picture of Santa Claus in front of the actual Christmas Tree in your own home?

If you like these Christmas pics, the app also has galleries for St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Valentine's Day and other occasions. How about staging a picture with the tooth fairy visiting your little one? There are a lot of creative pictures you can take with this app. I've been having fun playing around with it on Christmas Eve and have been thinking about using it to have some Leprechauns visit our place in March or the Easter Bunny in April. There are some really neat things you can do with this app not just at Christmastime but throughout the year.

TALKING TOM GOLD RUN

There's been a heist and it is up to you to track down all the stolen gold in the newest addition to the popular Talking Tom and Friends mobile app video game franchise.  Talking Tom Gold Run, from Outfit7, begins with a robbery causing the players to run as fast as possible to retrieve the fallen gold bars, dodge obstacles and collect rewards.  Each component of the game allows players to "Go for the Gold" as they help Talking Tom and Friends utilize the gold they've collected to build their dream homes.  Featuring seven worlds to unlock, as a player progresses in building his or her character's house new building upgrades, characters, and running segments become available within the game.



With Talking Tom and Friends apps reaching more than 4.5 billion downloads worldwide you know Outfit7 is doing something right when it designs these video games for mobile devices.  For example, Talking Tom Gold Run expands beyond the standard mechanics of a runner game by giving players a reason to run in the dream home construction aspect of the game.  Vibrant graphics combined with intricately designed levels don't just provide for fun game play but also allow players to experience an ongoing story through the eyes of Talking Tom and the gang.

"Talking Tom Gold Run draws the player in with an interactive storyline, top-notch graphics and iconic characters that users have come to know and love," founder and CEO of Outfit7 told A Geek Daddy. "We guarantee the gamer will never get bored with so many unique worlds and segments to unlock."

Talking Tom Gold Run is FREE to download on GooglePlay Store, Apple App Store, Windows Store, and Amazon.  It does include in-app purchase options so if your kids are playing make sure to keep your parental control feature activated on the mobile devices just to make sure mom and dad are approving of any purchases.  The game also contains social features which allows players to connect with friends through Facebook and share high scores.

Super Heroes Assemble App Lets You Turn Your Next Visit to Walmart into a MARVEL-ous Adventure

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #AvengersUnite #CollectiveBias

Unleash the power of MARVEL's The Avengers through your smart phone with Walmart's Super Heroes Assemble app available on Google Play and through the App Store.  This augmented reality app lets you engage in photo ops with characters from MARVEL's The Avengers: Age of Ultron movie, explore their world from a 360 degree perspective, and even suit up to transform yourself into one of your favorite heroes like Hulk, Iron Man or Thor.  The powers of the Super Heroes Assemble app are unlocked when you use it to scan special images located on posters and products at your local Walmart store.   After downloading the app for my iPhone, my daughter and I headed to Walmart for a scavenger hunt to test out the augmented reality capabilities of Super Heroes Assemble.

Our first find was a poster in the toy department. Each of the locked powers for the app has an Avengers character associated with it that when you click on their face it shows you an image of the poster or product that needs to be scanned to make the feature accessible.  The app automatically opens your smart phone's camera so all you have to do is point your device so that the virtual image displayed on its screen overlaps with the real world one.  When we scanned this poster a giant Hulk Buster Iron Man appeared to take a photo with my lil Thor.

Searching through the aisles at Walmart we found specially marked Doritos, Dr. Pepper, Kellog's Fruit Snacks, and Cheez-It baked snack crackers products and displays with special images for us to scan.  Scanning these images as we found them around the store unlocked access to 360 degree interactive experiences, for example you can run the Mark 44 Iron Man armor through its paces and see what it is capable of through the Hulk Buster Testing Facility,  opened access to various character abilities that let you suit up as a favorite Avenger in photographs you take, and others created in-store Avengers photo ops like our picture with Hulk Buster Iron Man.

While the Photo Op feature only works specifically when you are scanning the special images, the Suit Up functions will work anytime after you have scanned the images that unlocks one of the eight featured characters which are Black Widow, Hawkeye, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Hulk Buster Iron Man, and Ultron.  We had a lot of fun playing around with the Suit Up features around the house and at the playground after we had unlocked all the characters during our Walmart scavenger hunt.

Here's a HINT, if you can't find all the special images while at Walmart they also have them displayed online and you can scan them off the screen from the store's special MARVEL's The Avengers: Age of Ultron web site section by looking for the "unlock more epic content" banner. 

 The Walmart website also features some coloring pages you can print out for the kids to have some fun with in the MARVEL's The Avengers: Age of Ultron section including the one below.

Make your next visit to Walmart a MARVEL-ous adventure with the Super Heroes Assemble App.  Have some fun with your own scavenger hunt while you pick up all the fan essential toys, clothes and food items to get yourself ready to see MARVEL's The Avengers: Age of Ulton which arrives at movie theaters on May 1, 2015. We had some smashing good daddy-daughter time playing with this app (hey remember Avengers isn't just popular with the guys, girls are big fans too!) and I'd encourage you to check it out to avoid becoming green with envy that you missed out on the chance to suit up as one of your favorite Avengers.

So which member of the Avengers is your favorite?  Black Widow, Bruce Banner, Captain America, Hawkeye, Hulk, Iron Man, Quick Silver, Scarlet Witch, Thor, or Vision?  Iron Man has my vote while my daughter loves to role play as Thor while her twin brother pretends to be Captain America in their adventures at the park and in the backyard.

Picture Yourself as a Disney Character with new Show Your Disney Side App

Transform yourself up as one of your favorite Disney characters through a new free virtual reality app available on iTunes.  Snap a selfie and you'll be pictured as a Star Wars X-Wing pilot, a zombie pirate, villains like Maleficent or Captain Hook, or one of the princesses from Frozen among other Disney characters. The app features four selections of characters you can choose from: Frozen Fun, Star Tours, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Villains of Disney Parks.  Plus you can unlock a fifth option with characters from the Haunted Mansion by visiting either Disneyland Resort or Walt Disney World Resort, or by sharing three of your Show Your Disney Side app creations with friends and family.

My kids and I had some fun playing with this app and were really impressed by the representations on the screen of my iPhone.  The images have a mirroresque appearance to them that make them look like a real time video of yourself versus a static photographic.  There are a number of costumes, background scenes, and special effects you can play with as well.

My daughter showed off her #DisneySide by portraying Anna from the Frozen Fun section, a Pirate Lady from Pirates of the Caribbean, and Maleficent from the Villains of Disney Parks.

 

My son enjoyed seeing himself as Captain Jack Sparrow, Kristoff from Frozen, and  as an X-Wing pilot.

 

So how do you think I look as Darth Maul, Jafar, and a zombie pirate?

 

Here are a few tips on using the app:

• Smile big – but without your teeth showing.
• Make sure your hair isn’t blocking your face.
• Try to take your photo in front of a plain background.

Note that while this is an ios app it doesn't appear to work on iPads just iPhone and iTouch devices.  It also doesn't appear to be available for Android and is exclusive to Apple devices at this time.

This app is completely FREE, no in-app purchases to worry about here, and fun to play with for kids and adults alike.  Have a blast showing your Disney Side and if you tweet your images generated from the app to @Geeky_Dad we'll RT them to share with all our A Geek Daddy followers.

CLICK HERE to download the #FREE Show Your Disney Side App.

New Mobile App from Nickelodeon provides Streaming Media to help Preschoolers develop their Noggin

Starting March 5, 2015 Nickelodeon will begin streaming unique content meant to help preschoolers develop their noggins through a new app called "Noggin." Available through the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, Noggin's content for preschoolers will be available by parents buying a monthly subscription to access the content via the app.  The paid service will be ad free and cost $5.99 per month.

When Noggin launches on March 5th it content will include episodes of Blue's Clues, Allegra's Window, Franklin & Friends, Gullah Gullah Island, Little Bear, Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends, Ni Hao Kai-lan, Oswald, Pocoyo, Robot and Monster, and The Upside Down Show; music videos featuring Nickelodeon characters; and the return of the retired characters Moose and Zee to host educational videos that will help children learn letters, shapes, matching and other important skills to get ready for kindergarten.  Over time new content, games, and activities will be added to the app.  The Noogin library of videos, games, and activities will be separate and distinct from the televised and online preschool content available through Nick Jr. and Nickelodeon's other distribution platforms.

Nickelodeon's Noggin will provide content specifically targeted for preschooler's educational and entertainment needs and appears aimed to appeal to the growing number of households that have cut cable television services and to active on the go parents who would like a mobile option accessible for their children when the family is out and about.  Of course, not wanting to compete with their own successful cable network brands, subscribers won't find Nick's most popular preschool focused characters like Dora, PAW Patrol and Wallykazam! on Noggin.

Do you have preschoolers at home and if so does Noggin peek your interest?  If you decide to subscribe to Noggin send us a message to share your experience with the app.  Share your thoughts with A Geek Daddy Blog via email thegeekdaddy [at] yahoo [dot] com , Facebook, Twitter, or the comment section below.

Make Art with the Pups from PAW Patrol

Coloring and doodling are one of my kids favorite activities so they were thrilled when Nickelodeon rolled out a new creative drawing and artwork app featuring characters from a show they adore called PAW Patrol.  Available for $3.99 on ios devices (iPad, iPhone, iTouch) the PAW Patrol Draw & Play app allows kids to use their imaginations in making some PAWsome creations that can feature their favorite rescue pups - Chase, Marshall, Rocky, Rubble, Zuma, Skye, and the newest pup to join the show Everest, plus the boy who serves as their leader, the tech-savvy Ryder.

PAW Patrol Draw & Play lets children select a background with themes from the show and they can place stickers of the characters and their rescue vehicles on the create their own creative scenes.  What is nice about these stickers is that they are animated and include sound effects to enhance your child's play with the app.  Additional special effects that can be used for creating Paw Patrol themed illustrations or just monkeying around creating your own drawings include magic wands where the lines you create have special properties (green turns into blowing leaves/ black transforms into flying bats / grey has sparkling stars / red has leaping hearts / orange has twirling fruit), bouncing balls that rebound around the frame of your picture and can be controlled by tilting your device in the direction you want the objects to fly, and surprise blocks that if you tap on them they show a special animation of one of the pups in action.

This app expands beyond just the PAW Patrol theme too...if your child wants to be creative and design their own unique master piece it provides plenty of tools for them too.  Chalk, crayon, highlighter, charcoal, pencil, spray paint, and paint brush are all options to allow children to express their imagination.  A nice touch is that you can utilize your device's camera to add your own photos into creations for extra personal touches.  Saving artwork is no problem either with the ability to either save to "My Gallery" section within the app or send the image to your device's Camera Roll where it can than be text, messaged, or e-mailed to where ever or who ever you'd like it to go.

PAW Patrol Draw & Play gets A Geek Daddy nod of approval because it allows children to explore their imagination not just through its connection to these popular rescue pups but also via the creative art tool elements of the app which are good enough that they could be a stand alone product. The list of drawing tools that range from charcoal to magic wand to spray can all work really well and are very impressive.  My kids spent a bunch of time both playing out their own PAW Patrol episode scripts with the show themed backgrounds and stickers as well as making artistic creations that had absolutely no connection to the Nickelodeon series.  What is nice about this app is it really isn't a mindless game where kids are running through a course, shooting at things, or gathering objects but rather an opportunity to stretch an important muscle, their brain, as they think out scenes to display featuring the pups (note scenes they create are two dimensional and while they have animated special effects don't contain video or dialogue story telling sequences) or design drawings, paintings and illustrations for grandma and grandpa to display on their fridge.  PAW Patrol Draw & Play is well-suited for preschool through first graders and can occupy hours of a child's time making it perfect for a rain day or a long road trip in the car.

Some of the key features to be aware of:

• Easy to use interface with 8 different brushes for drawing and painting;

• 22 Animated Stickers;

• Splatter Tops, Magic Wands, and Surprise Blocks to create amazing effects in your pictures;

• eCards to customize and send to friends and family;

• Picture ideas to help jump-start your child's imagination;

• Animated Tutorials;

• Airplay;

• Parental Controls.

PAW Patrol stars a pack of heroic rescue pups.  Together they work hard to show the people of Adventure Bay that "no job is too big, no pup is too small!"  In partnership with Spin Master Entertainment, the series features a curriculum that focuses on citizenship, social skills and problem-solving.  PAW Patrol is the number-one preschool series on Nickelodeon and airs weekdays at 12 p.m. (ET/PT).

DISCLAIMER:  I received this app complimentary from the developer to review but did not receive any financial compensation for this post.  The views and opinions expressed in this post are my own.

LEGO creates a new niche for Kindergarteners

Up until now, my son's all time favorite toy has been his DUPLO BLOCKS.  He'd spend hours having fun with imaginative play building all sorts of things with those building blocks.  Duplo Blocks are made by LEGO for kids aged 18 months to 5 years old.  They are bulkier blocks with large props and no small parts compared to standard LEGO meant for toddlers to safely and easily play with.

My son turned 5 in December and I noticed towards the end of last year, he was losing interest in his Duplo's and even told me that "Duplo's were for babies."  So at Christmas we gave him some "real" Lego building block sets.  Although the age range for the LEGO CITY item from Santa was listed at 5 - 12, we still had some troubles.  My son had a hard time with some of the motor skills necessary to build, and more importantly take apart, the Lego City vehicles and I found myself barraged with requests from a frustrated child to constantly be pulling apart bricks for him.  And than there was, I'm embarrassed to admit this, the visit to the doctor's office.  Our other 5 year old twin thought it would be funny to steal one of her brother's really small lego pieces and stick it up her nose so he couldn't take it back from her while grandma wasn't babysitting.  My daughter couldn't pull it back out herself, Grandma couldn't get it out, my wife came home early from work to help try and get it out, and finally a trip to our pediatrician's office and an extra long pair of tweezers saved the day.  So the Lego's were put away until our kids get a little older and we also stored away a memory that we can use to embarrass our daughter when she has a family of her own.

We must not be the only parents who are finding themselves in a gap when it comes to transitioning from Legos to Duplos because in a few weeks LEGO will introducing a new line of building block sets aimed at children ages 4 to 7, a kindergarten niche so to speak.  The new LEGO JUNIORS sets will be compatible with tradition Lego sets for continued use as children get older but will have easier components to assemble and not include the small parts that could potentially get stuck in a child's nose, ear, or who knows where else they might be stuck.

LEGO JUNIORS will be on store shelves starting March 1 2014, just in time for Easter gifts.  We're planning on the Easter bunny leaving "DEFEND THE BATCAVE" Batman playset and THE PRINCESS PLAY CASTLE playset in our kids' baskets this Spring.  Other interesting playsets include a pony farm, race car rally, spiderman adventure, and a teenage mutant ninja turtles assortment.  Check out all the sets here:  http://www.lego.com/en-us/juniors/products/products

Obviously, I haven't bought these products yet but once we've picked them up and given them to our kids, I'll post A Geek Daddy review.While we're waiting you may want to check out the FREE Lego Juniors Create & Cruise game available on Apple App Store & Google Play.  Kids can create their own minfigures and vehicles to cruise around a 3D world collecting coins.  As they gather coins they will be able to unlock virtual LEGO sets that can be build with a few easy touches.  The game is aimed at the same age group for the Lego Juniors toys 4 - 7, but looks  like an app kids' geek daddies and mommies may enjoy playing along with their little ones as well.