Flynn’s review:

It’s good because there are all types of games you can play on it, like the one where you can wash the car and the one where you can paint things. I liked the painting one because you can choose what colours to paint the car and Peppa’s family. The snowball game is hard though, it’s a bit difficult to keep hold of the snowballs, it’s really tricky. The car wash one is good, I like cleaning all the mud off the car with the hosepipe and it’s funny when you squirt George because he oinks and does a little jump. It makes me laugh.

The pancake game can be a bit hard too, it’s difficult to tip the mixture into the pan and it’s really hard to flip the pancakes, even my Mummy can’t do it very well. I like playing all the normal sports games better than this Peppa Pig game though and Grandpa liked the pancake flipping game more than me.

Flynn’s parent’s review:

Flynn got really frustrated with it and found it hard to control the cursor on a lot of the games which made him lose interest. They didn’t hold his attention for very long and he soon started to play with his Mega Blocks instead. It was really noticable when we put Wii Sports back on how much more those games engaged him in comparison to the Peppa Pigs ones. A voiceover giving you tips might help quite a bit but we really don’t think a 3 year would be able to play many of the games if Flynn, who is nearly 6, was finding them difficult.

Summary:

Don’t buy this game, save your money and visit PeppaPig.com – it’s free and the games are just as good.

Peppa Pig: The Game is out now. Peppa Pig 2: Fun & Games is also available now for the Nintendo Wii.

“We thought it was a phase that you’d grow out of.” Sound familiar? Well, these are the words spoken to me by my parents when discussing the topic of videogames. Grow out of what exactly? What’s wrong with playing videogames for the rest of my life, they aren’t just for kids you know?

When Christmas 1984 came around my parents bought a BBC Model B Microcomputer for my older brother. Didn’t make much difference whose it was as I took to it like a fish to water. Little did they know what they had started. My journey into the world of videogames had begun. Yay for parents.

Now fast forward 23 Christmases (yuk, I feel old now). There I was sitting in my parent’s living room playing Sonic and Mario at the Olympic Games on the Nintendo Wii with my girlfriend. The rest of my family were sitting on the adjacent sofa looking distinctly disinterested in my rabid wiimote flailing and even turned their collective noses up at Wii Sports (but it was made for old people). The overriding feeling was that adults should be playing with children’s toys at their age, unless it’s with another child. Then it’s all ok, as you’re playing WITH the child and not acting AS a child.

Even in 2007, when the games industry officially overtook the music industry in terms of overall revenue, the sight of an adult playing videogames is still viewed as fairly childish behaviour by a large section of society. Sure there are plenty of children playing videogames. You only have to spend some time on-line using Xbox LIVE to witness many, many teenagers communicating via a mixture of swear words and grunting. However, these teenagers only account for 28.2% of gamers. 47.6% of gamers are aged 18-49 with the remaining 24.2% aged 50+ according to a recent report by Entertainment Software Association (ESA).

Now that I’ve been playing videogames for 23 years now, I’m the average gamer (33 years old). From Elite on the BBC Model B to Army of Two on the Xbox 360 (mmm, not a great game but the most recent one I’ve played) I’ve enjoyed every minute. So that makes me a gamer and an adult. I must be very childish then? Err no, in fact for many aspects of my professional life playing videogames has actually helped me in performing medical procedures (e.g. endoscopy or colonoscopy) as they have developed my hand to eye coordination.

We need to get over the fact that videogames aren’t just for children. Now more than ever they are played by adults, like me, who aren’t your stereotypical gamer (long hair, poor social skills and personal hygiene). If only the rest of society, in particular politicians, would start behaving like adults towards the games industry and the gamers themselves, we could start making some progress. Or maybe I should give up on that idea and go binge drinking down the pub and start smoking in order to be treated like a “grown up” adult in today’s screwed up society.

Check out these other Blog Banter articles: The Average Gamer, Silvercublogger, shinybento, Unfettered Blather, Boom Stick Brigade, Gamer Unit, Zath!, Man Bytes Blog, Game Couch, Video Game Sandwich, Delayed Responsibility, thoughts and rants, Hawty McBloggy