Dear Nintendo,

I am a girl gamer. In the space, I rest somewhere between hardcore gamers and casual gaming. For a long time, this made Nintendo my console of choice. I was ten when I got my first Super Mario title back on the old NES. I had a Gameboy, a Super NES, a Nintendo 64, and now I have a DS and a Wii. I will probably, at some point upgrade to the DSi, as well.

There is no question of my love for the legacy of Nintendo, especially when it comes to Mario, but you and me have some problems and they are bad enough to make me consider breaking up with you. If things continue on the way they are I will have to leave you for Microsoft. Hell, I admit it, I have been spending more time with them anyway.

E3 is your shining moment. So, I fail to understand why you spent all that time patting your own back when you failed to show a major result. Granted, you had a few things that were decent enough. Titles like the multiplayer Mario, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Kingdom Hearts, and Golden Sun are exciting. They make me proud to know you. That’s where my pride ends though.

As a girl gamer, I have lost respect for you. The idea that Style Savvy will appeal to a 20-something (unless she was dropped on her head about 7,000 times in her childhood) is simply ridiculous. At least Microsoft was honest, and labeled their tween drivel as something for tweens.

The only thing that was possibly worse (if that was possible) was the invention of Women’s Murder Club to draw casual gamers and readers into the same space. That would be fine if it looked interesting or innovative, neither of which was accomplished, in my opinion.

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Written by Ashtyn - Visit Website
Ashtyn is definitely the casual gamer in the family. A game fan since she owned an Atari, Ashtyn can remember when her brother rigged the television so he wouldn't lose his Super Mario Bros. game. That is, until the power went out! A fan of all things Mario, Ashtyn is a Nintendo loyalist. She digs playing Mario-style RPG games, watching others play violent shooters (because she sucks at them), and playing casual PC games (like Wedding Dash and Cake Mania). As of now, she is into the Wii and Nintendo DS, though she's certain the games for PS3 and Xbox 360 are more appealing.

Game Rating: T for Teen
Game Publisher: Sony Entertainment
Platform: PS2
Release Date: October 28, 2008
Buy this at: Amazon for $29.99

I am probably the biggest Country Music fan in my house and on most days that isn’t saying a whole lot. Some of my favorite Country artists include Garth Brooks, the Dixie Chicks, Mindy McCreedy, Colin Raye, The Charlie Daniels Band, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Carrie Underwood, and Trisha Yearwood among others. These people all have one thing in common. None of them are present on the SingStar Country game!

The fact that Garth Brooks was not on here just floored me. The fact that the Dixie Chicks made one of the mainstream discs, but not the Country was also quite a surprise. Still, the thing that surprised me the most was not some of the missing artists that have defined Country music. It was the artists that did make the cut. In my opinion there were three categories here.

-Good Artist/Good Song (this one was pretty rare)
-Good Artist/Unknown or Less Important Song (we knew who they were but were surprised by the song choice)
-Why are they on here in the first place?!? (a few of the singers felt kind of unnecessary)

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Written by Ashtyn - Visit Website
Ashtyn is definitely the casual gamer in the family. A game fan since she owned an Atari, Ashtyn can remember when her brother rigged the television so he wouldn't lose his Super Mario Bros. game. That is, until the power went out! A fan of all things Mario, Ashtyn is a Nintendo loyalist. She digs playing Mario-style RPG games, watching others play violent shooters (because she sucks at them), and playing casual PC games (like Wedding Dash and Cake Mania). As of now, she is into the Wii and Nintendo DS, though she's certain the games for PS3 and Xbox 360 are more appealing.

Game Rating: T for Teen
Game Publisher: Sony Entertainment
Platform: PS2
Release Date: September 23, 2008
Buy this at: Amazon for $29.99

Hearing that anything Pop is being offered to us can be a catch 22. Many of the most popular forms of music fall under that genre these days. However, when it comes to music we can be a bit non-conformist. To put it mildly, we aren’t always big fans of pop. So, when we received this SingStar title
the first thing we did was turn the case over to find out who was on it. Many of the names we know and like, but there were a few (Ashlee Simpson) that we didn’t like or (Boys Like Girls) weren’t too familiar with.

We found after playing this that some styles of music are much easier for some of us to sing than for others. For example, I am not bad at pop (I ruled this disc), but Dominick offers more strength when jamming to SingStar ABBA, Legends, and some of our other titles. Of course, we would flip flop in each game based on the song and singer, but for the most part, the fact that I knew a lot of the songs here really helped out a lot.

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Written by Ashtyn - Visit Website
Ashtyn is definitely the casual gamer in the family. A game fan since she owned an Atari, Ashtyn can remember when her brother rigged the television so he wouldn't lose his Super Mario Bros. game. That is, until the power went out! A fan of all things Mario, Ashtyn is a Nintendo loyalist. She digs playing Mario-style RPG games, watching others play violent shooters (because she sucks at them), and playing casual PC games (like Wedding Dash and Cake Mania). As of now, she is into the Wii and Nintendo DS, though she's certain the games for PS3 and Xbox 360 are more appealing.

Game Rating: T for Teen
Game Publisher: Sony Entertainment
Platform: PS3
Release Date: October 28, 2008
Buy this at: Amazon for $59.99

SingStar has been around for quite some time. It’s a popular game on the Sony Platform for the mere fact that it works for nearly everyone in the entire family. It’s a casual game based on singing skill. Of course, even if you cannot sing to save your life you can still have fun playing this. It’s good to just goof around with friends playing SingStar because it’s just one of those games where everyone has a good time.

If you’re one of the lucky people that happens to have a Playstation 3 with backwards capability (not everyone does) then you can enjoy a wealth of different SingStar titles. Everything from 80s and 90s to Country is available with more titles being released all the time. We are lucky enough to have one and since we have received SingStar Vol. 2 we have begun to amass quite a Sing Star collection. In fact, at last count I believe we were up to six titles. In addition to this review, you will soon be able to read reviews on Sing Star titles such as 80s, ABBA, Legends, Country, and Pop Vol. 2.

The goal is simple. You have to sing your heart out. The hard part will be getting those lyrics down in the right beat with the right tone, rhythm, and pitch. Other than that, it’s a piece of cake! The best thing you can do is choose a title with artists and songs that you are familiar with. If you haven’t ever sung the songs or don’t know them very well it’s going to be much harder than if the song is like second nature to you.

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Written by Ashtyn - Visit Website
Ashtyn is definitely the casual gamer in the family. A game fan since she owned an Atari, Ashtyn can remember when her brother rigged the television so he wouldn't lose his Super Mario Bros. game. That is, until the power went out! A fan of all things Mario, Ashtyn is a Nintendo loyalist. She digs playing Mario-style RPG games, watching others play violent shooters (because she sucks at them), and playing casual PC games (like Wedding Dash and Cake Mania). As of now, she is into the Wii and Nintendo DS, though she's certain the games for PS3 and Xbox 360 are more appealing.

AUSTIN, TX – November 24, 2008 – Pangea Software, Inc. is proud to announce that it has reached one million downloads worldwide in game applications for the Apple® iPhone™ and iPod® touch since the App Store launched in July of 2008.

“The App Store is off to a solid start with thousands of successful game apps launched since July,” said Brian Greenstone, President and CEO of Pangea Software. “With so much competition, I’m honored that consumers have chosen to make our titles the top sellers for the iPhone and iPod touch. Our games are well on track to outperform our expectations for the year.”

The unique games offered by Pangea Software have truly captivated audiences across the globe by offering the most diverse game play available for the iPhone and iPod touch. The Pangea library of games now includes a selection of five innovative applications including the extremely addictive Enigmo, a physics based puzzle game named as a “Showcase Winner” at the Austin Independent Games Festival and voted “Best iPhone Game” at Apple’s 2008 World Wide Developer Conference. Other popular games include Cro-Mag Rally, Billy Frontier, Bugdom 2, and Nanosaur 2: Hatchling.

For more information about Pangea Software or its products please visit: www.pangeasoft.net.

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Written by Ashtyn - Visit Website
Ashtyn is definitely the casual gamer in the family. A game fan since she owned an Atari, Ashtyn can remember when her brother rigged the television so he wouldn't lose his Super Mario Bros. game. That is, until the power went out! A fan of all things Mario, Ashtyn is a Nintendo loyalist. She digs playing Mario-style RPG games, watching others play violent shooters (because she sucks at them), and playing casual PC games (like Wedding Dash and Cake Mania). As of now, she is into the Wii and Nintendo DS, though she's certain the games for PS3 and Xbox 360 are more appealing.