Baseball Season is Here

Quinn is starting another year of Niles-Centerville Little League. This year he is playing for the Minor-A Athletics. The opening ceremonies for the season were up this morning bright and early. Quinn’s game wasn’t scheduled until 4 pm but started closer to 5 pm and ultimately was called after three innings. Quinn got one and a half at bats, since he had a sacrifice hit in the 2nd inning and then was batting when the 5th run of the inning scored in the 3rd inning on a wild pitch.

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“Suitable for All Ages?”

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Are parents stupid enough to fall for labels such as this one? Especially when they’re on an arcade game where the object is to shoot and kill as if you were a member of the military?

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I have no problem with these sort of game, even for kids such as my son Riley (12, pictured). But all ages? I don’t think so.

Wii Sports Tennis is My New Obsession

Santa was pretty good to the kids this Christmas and got them a Wii (no, it’s technically not called a Nintendo Wii., like the “Nintendo DS” but just Wii. Really!). Actually, I hear Santa was smart and stored one of these away for the kids all the way back in August. And the kids are loving it. They especially like the LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones games.

As for me, I am really enjoying the launch title, Wii Sports. And while the Bowling and Baseball games are fun, and Boxing is a hoot if you have a partner, the game I most enjoy is Tennis (the less said about Golf the better). Having played a little tennis myself as a kid this game is hardly realistic, but at least the old “skills” translate fairly well.

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The graphics on the game are okay. I like that the default surface is grass, like tennis should be played on. There’s an Easter Egg to allow you to play on a hard surface (hit the 2 button after selecting players), which eliminates some funny ball hops. But overall I like the vibe from this game. I’ve been playing the computer and have gotten pretty good at the game. After you play a game you are awarded points based on the number of winners or errors. When you reach the 1000 point level you’re considered a “Pro.”

I’m up to 1684 points now, almost as good as the best Pro in the game (2000 points). Problem now is that if I don’t beat the computer I can actually lose points. The horror!

I also like the Tennis training games where you can try to return the ball into a moving target. Lots of fun and just long enough for a quick game after work or before bed or something.  

I hear there are some “realistic” Tennis games for the Wii. Probably something I should look into, though I suspect they’re not as fun as Wii Sports Tennis.