Game Like - Wii YourShape

I got a copy of Wii YourShape featuring Jenny McCarthy. Big title. It's a new exercise game. Nifty idea. You get a camera with the game and when you first enter your profile, the game scans your body.

Your image is projected on to the TV next to your trainer, Jenny McCarthy. She says little phrases of encouragement during your workout and lets you know if you aren't doing the exercise properly. I get "Watch your arms!" a lot. The game also scores your performance by how well you do the exercises. It won't let you cheat.

Likes: With over 400 exercises, it isn't like using a DVD with the same routine. You can tailor the workout to your body by choosing targeted areas. It also allows for adding equipment like weights or a balance ball. The workouts are pretty good. You can enter in other activities to get credit for exercising.

Dislikes: The encouragement is a bit perky for my tastes and is very inappropriate during the yoga exercises. I chose 'Burn' for legs and abs and ended up doing the same 5 exercises for 15 minutes. I look very chubby next to trainer Jenny. I can't always figure out what I am doing wrong in an exercise. The only choices for 'other activities' is walking, jogging and other.

Web Fun - Big Fish Games

I like to play computer games. I like the distraction and, sometimes, the challenge. My faves are the resource gathering/building games. Husband has found me some great games like King's Bounty, Heroes of Might and Magic and Dungeon Keeper. These games are kinda big and take many game hours to complete.

Husband game me a new-to-me game, Garden Defense, a time management game. I kinda liked it. I went searching for hints and found Big Fish Games. http://www.bigfishgames.com/ They have all different types of games. Most of the games are small and only take a few hours to complete.

Back in the 80s, I played Lemonade Stand on the dumb-terminal-monochrome-(orange)-screen-text-only Pet Computer. I didn't need no stinkin' graphics! For those who aren't ancient, it was a game where you ran a lemonade stand and tried to make back more than your $10 investment. Your mom gave you the money and you had to buy supplies and price your lemonade depending on a vague weather report. The line "you would have made ___ if you charged ___" is forever burned into my brain. I loved it! I babysat for someone who had the program on their Commodore 64. I got so bored one night, I made a chart for the prices and the weather. Early geekdom.

Back to Big Fish. BF lets me try games for an hour to help me decide if they are worth buying. Great idea! I like the time management games but not all of the time management games so this lets me give them a test run. The games are small so an hour is usually enough to get a good feel for the game.

BF does download their portal program to your computer. This allows you to easily download new games, play games and delete old games. The price per game depends on the number of games purchased. I suggest finding at least 6 games to make it worth your money. We did a 6-pack before going on vacation and still had some game play left over when we returned.

Some of my faves:

Fairy Godmother Tycoon
Farm Frenzy
Farm Mania
Garden Defense