Peter Kupfer's Blog

Wii Review: Learning with the Poo-Yoos

While playing Super Mario Galaxy 2 last week, little Isaac wanted to get involved and kept taking my Wiimote to play the “mouse game.” (Somehow he mistook Mario for Mickey Mouse.) While this was cute and all, it made me want to find him a Wii game of his own to play with and learn how to use the Wiimote and possibly let me play my game in peace.

After looking at a few choices I settled on a WiiWare game called Learning with the PooYoos.

Learning with the PooYoos is a game developed in France and available via WiiWare download on the Wii for 500 points ($5.00). The game is designed with two different levels: Little PooYoos (ages 3-4) and Big PooYoos (ages 5-6). Given the age levels, the graphics and catchy theme song are perfect and will capture the young players’ attention. After you pick you level, there are two different games to play. One involves matching the shape of a PooYoo with the shape in a cloud (first picture below) and the second involved popping balloons with the water from the elephant PooYoo’s trunk.

Isaac can not yet handle the shape matching game so I can’t speak as much to that part of the game, but we have played the balloon popping game several times. In the little PooYoo level of this game the player simply shakes the remote and the elephant PooYoo shoots water at balloons until they are all gone. (As shown in the video of Isaac below.) In the Big PooYoo level, the player actually has to point the Wiimote at the screen and aim at the balloons to pop them.

After you pop the balloons the first time, the game has an intermission and asks what shape the balloons were and then goes through a second round of balloon popping followed by a question of what color the balloons were. Then the PooYoos lead you through a nice dance routine. During the dance routine, by pressing different buttons on the Wiimote various effects happen on screen like spot lights, confetti and other fun. After the dance, you take a boat ride where again, pressing buttons on the Wiimote causes different effects on the screen. Isaac especially enjoys pushing the buttons and causing lights and the sun (a fan to him) to go across the screen.

Isaac has not played the big PooYoo level, but he enjoys the little PooYoo level quite a lot. Simply shaking the remote is a nice way for him to learn about the cause and effect relationship of the Wii. As I said, he truly enjoys pushing the buttons on the Wiimote that cause various visual effects to appear on the screen.

My biggest complaint with the game is that the few questions it asks are always the same. At one point the game asks what color the bubbles are or what color an umbrella was but the answer is always the same color. I would like it better if the color would rotate to make Isaac think a little more. There is a version 2 released, but I have not looked at it yet.

Ultimately, this game did exactly what I wanted it to do, especially for only $5.oo. Isaac is able to use the Wiimote and learn how it works. He is learning more about cause and effect relationships and a little about hand-eye coordination. Another learning piece I didn’t think about was that it counts on screen and out load to help re-enforce math skills. I have a feeling I will download the second episode before the end of the summer for Isaac to play. If you have a two – six year old who you want to introduce to the world of Wii, this is the game for you.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Changing the Internet Culture: Maybe We Have a Chance

Yesterday I wrote about how I was sad for man kind if people keep sending & tolerating horrible comments to YouTube videos and other on-line sharing locations veiled by the anonymous nature of the internet. Well, I was pleasantly surprised today to see a comic on the GeekDad blog with the same sentiment.

Maybe we aren’t in as much trouble as I thought. Clearly there is an awareness of the issue out there and through that awareness hopefully the internet culture (of the few bad eggs out there) will change as we realize that we will not tolerate that kind of attitude towards each other.

Popularity: 9% [?]

I Don’t Get People, Why Are we So Hateful?

Follow up post with a humorous comic.

Via ReadWriteWeb I read a list of the Top 10 YouTube Videos of All Time. The #2 video is called Charlie Bit My Finger — Again. In order to save you the trip, here is the video:

The video is very cute, especially when little Charlie starts cracking up at the end. Maybe you have to be a parent who has had your finger bit by a kid to truly appreciate the humor, but that is not really the point. My frustration was not with the video, but rather with the comments below. There are people that are just mean to the family that posted this cute little video.  Here is a brief example:

I think it is fine if Kanzo93 doesn’t find little Charlie funny, but does he really need to post that comment? I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but I guess I hope just hope for the best in people. I know the internet provides a certain level of anonymity, but what does Kanzo93 get out of post that? Now, maybe that was just one out of context comment from him, maybe is a normal happy guy. I tend to think not, but like I to believe the best in people. Let’s check his profile:

Alas, no, this 27 year old man from the UK is just mean. People like this just make the internet less fun. Now, I certainly don’t mean to just pick on this comment, because as you can see above and below, several other people felt the need to make just unnecessary comments. But, this was the one that happened to be there when I logged in tonight. Here are a more comments in the same vain.

I think what it comes to is The Golden Rule, If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. However, we need to start adopting an addition to that: If you wouldn’t say it in person, why say it online?

If these people actually met the dad and watched the video, they would never say those things. I’m not sure exactly how we change this mentality, but maybe it just takes each of us to call out one person when they see this behavior. Perhaps all we can do is be the model of the internet user we would like to see and hope the rest of the world follows. Or, maybe it can’t be changed at all. I hope that isn’t true because that would make me sad for humanity and I know we are moving towards a world where more and more communication is going to be faceless. Hopefully each us go forward and make sure our comments and appropriate and fair and hope that everyone else falls into line.

Popularity: 7% [?]