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.

Now, this is not a horribly dramatic situation, but it was a lot of things happening at once and I handled it all in stride without even really flinching, and I honestly think it was because I have been playing a lot of Mario Kart lately. I am not suggesting that we should learn to drive while playing Mario Kart, or that I would have crashed had I not played Mario Kart. But, right as the slush hit my windshield, I felt like when one of those squids inks my car in the game and you have limited visibility. Further, I find that I am often holding down the right D-Pad arrow to hold a banana behind me and holding down he button so I would be drifting at the same time to the get the mini-turbo while the ink is one the screen.

What may actually be happening is that Mario Kart doe not actually work on the driving skills, but rather it helps train your brain to compartmentalize motions at the same time. Until you have to try and do it, you perhaps don’t realize how difficult it can be at the same time to make a) your right and left hand do different actions at the same time that are actually intricate and b) make two different parts of your hand perform two separate actions while using both hands. I know there are still times when I let go to the D-Pad instead of the B-button while playing the game because the wires in my brain get crossed.

I find this skill is also emphasized in Guitar Hero. It find on the guitar (especially once the orange button is added) making my left hand function usefully while keeping the right hand strumming to be challenging during complicated sections. I find it even more challenging on the drums once you add the foot pedal. I have only played the drums once, but there were many times when I just wanted to hit the foot pedal but I would hit one of the drums also. The whole experience makes me appreciate piano players and drummers quite a bit. Guitar players also, but not quite as much as the drummers.

Some of your will mock me for saying that these games are difficult and that I am comparing them to real life, but until you try these activities, don’t mock. I am good at video games, and I am cooridnated, so that I find these tasks challenging means there is some difficulty to them. I get very excited when I find that video games or television has made my life better because people are always giving those mediums a bad rap. I also plan to make sure Isaac plays some of these games to develop advanced coordination. According to Time Warped, jugglers have 5% more gray matter than the average person, presumably because they have to coordinate both hands together. I wonder if people who play games like Guitar Hero or Dance Dance Revolution have similar results.

This Tweet got a lot of comment on Facebook, so I wanted to clarify why I despise Toad so much. You see, for years Toad has taunted me by placing my princess in another castle. I busted my butt to get through goombas, beatles, and other varieties of baddies all to find out it was a farce. Also, other times he has just been whiny. “Find the princess, she is lost” or “You need more star power to open this door,” give me a break!

So, that is why I despise Toad. The only expception is when Gina plays Mario Kart using Toad. Then I don’t have a strong hated towards him.

http://screwattack.com/node/16868

I have also started trying to go through and get a star rating on each course so that I can get a star next to my name when I play on-line. I am finding this to be very difficult. The game is very stingy in handing out stars. I would like to find more friends to play Mario Kart on-line with, so if you are up, please send over your code.

I love summer vacation.