The new ESRB app allows parents to simply snap a photo of the game box to get the full ratings summary for that title. If you’re not that much of a shutterbug and are more into typing the game title out, that works as well.

Hopefully, this will make some parents’ holiday shopping a little easier – and more age-appropriate.

To get the application, search either the iPhone App Store or the Android Market for “ESRB.” And if you don’t have an Apple or Android phone, you can access the new mobile ESRB site at http://m.esrb.org. You can’t take pictures with that, but it at least makes the research easier.

Watch the app trailer below to get an idea about how it works.

PASS

The game consists of two main types of game play, a singing mode and a dancing mode. The singing mode isn’t terrible, it has just been done before. The words are displayed at the bottom of the screen, and a series of bars on a musical scale show the timing and pitch of the song, which you have to match. It looks exactly the same as singstar, except that instead of watching a music video, you are seeing your character dance instead.

The dancing in the game is where it really starts to fail. In order to dance, you must wave your controller either up, down, left, and right, in time with the ‘beat’, which is defined as the little green light on the side of the screen flashing. This wouldn’t be so bad, if the beat matched the beat of the song, which it does… sometimes. More often then not, the beat is somewhat arbitrary. It can be slightly before, or after, the actual beat of the song, or completely unrelated if the song changes part way through. The game favors those who can ignore their sense of natural rhythm, rather than those who embrace it.

As well as singing in karaoke mode, or dancing in either single or multilayer mode, you can play through story mode with five different characters. This may have added some element of replayablity to the game if story mode wasn’t ridiculously easy. There are five stages for each character, two singing and three dancing, each having a progressively higher point score to beat. However, in the first levels of the game, it is possible to chat casually to your friends during the karaoke levels and still get more then enough points. Whether or not the dancing parts are easy depend on if you have mastered the ‘beat’ system or not.

The characters themselves are either cute, or creepy, depending on your point of view. Personally, although the fact that they all make noises instead of talking weirded me out at first, I kind of liked them. At any point in the game you could change which character you were playing for the mini games, and what clothes they were wearing. Clothes, as well as songs and stages, are unlocked either by playing story mode, or buy winning tokens in the individual song modes.

The selection of songs in the game is quite good. It contains a good mix of older party songs that everyone knows, and more recent songs that if you’ve been exposed to popular radio stations you can’t help but to know. The problem is that they have also chosen the 30 most repetitive songs they can find. Which this may help you learn the words more easily, it also means that you tire of the songs more easily – as in while you are singing them. Three minutes is an eternity when you are singing the same thing over and over again. The other thing worth noting is that the game doesn’t feature original songs, rather it has covers of them, and what’s more, they are PG-fied covers. No more going to the liquor store for the hero of mambo number five. It’s not a big problem, but it does leave some interesting pauses in some of the songs.

Overall, this game really isn’t worth it. EA would have been better off picking either singing or dancing, and making it good, then trying to combine them both, and failing at them both.

The results of a survey from developer/publisher Activision, however, seem to show that parents are more familiar than we might think, and that gamer kids themselves are also familiar with ratings.

As part of their “Ratings Are Not A Game” campaign, Activision and The Harrison Group conducted 1,201 online interviews with gamers and their parents. They found that 82% of parents and 75% of children were familiar with the ESRB’s ratings, and 76% of parents believe that video games were a part of their family life.

Activision’s ratings-awareness campaign is supplemented with videos featuring Grand Theft Childhood co-author Dr. Cheryl Olsen. Olsen is also the co-director for the Center for Mental Health and Media at Massachusetts General Hospital.

A video accompanied these survey results as well, which you can watch below.

How many parents do you think understand and use the ESRB ratings? Do you use them to determine what games are appropriate for your children, or are you more likely to do research about a game’s content before deciding that it is appropriate?

Related: “Ratings Are Not A Game”

ESRB:

RENT

When I first got this game, I was kind of excited. I played a few other Sim games for the PlayStation 2 and the DS before and enjoyed them, including the Vet one. I love animals as well, so I had fairly good expectations with this game. The first time I sat down to play it, though, I was kind of disappointed.

The basis of the game is nice, but nothing really outstanding. You play as yourself, and with the help of a very talkative bird, you try to find and raise all of the various African animals, plants, and other wildlife. As you unlock things, you get more abilities and statues. Your goal is to get your environment as happy as you can. By doing so, you unlock wind then thunderstorms as more weather beyond the basic rain, which is necessary in growing anything. Once you get the happiness level up past unlocking the weather additions, you complete the area and get to move on to the next.

The graphics are pretty nice. It’s not as choppy as some other games, but they aren’t perfectly smooth as they are for other systems. There’s something that’s really cute about watching wild African animals roll over on their backs while you’re petting them. The trees and grass are also well done.

When it comes to controls, though, there are some little problems. You have to hold either the left or right trigger whenever you want to do anything other than grab something. So it gets hard if you’re like me and can’t quite get your hand icon over a bit of grass to shake it while having to hold the trigger and move. When you have to shake grass a lot to make it spread so you can attract animals, it gets really annoying when you keep missing. To make animals more friendly, you have to rub your hand icon all over it.

In each area, you get a list of objectives that automatically update as you complete them. These are key in maxing out the area’s happiness bar, as completion gives a big boost. You can find your current goals by clicking the yellow lion’s paw in the green circle at the top left corner of the screen

Items you find or things you need, like tree seeds and rainclouds, can be put in your backpack for safe storage. The backpack can be opened by tapping the backpack icon in the lower left corner. You can only store so many things, so be sure to only keep what you really need. Out of curiosity, I decided to pick up an animal and put it in the backpack. Yes, it does work. The bottom right will occasionally have icons pop up. These icons tell you when baby animals are either born or grow up, when animals are visiting, and other useful things.

The music is nice and calming. There are also musical cues when you’re actually shaking the grass or trees, and the animals make noise sometimes. The rain falling even makes the sound of rain. It’s really nice and I do recommend playing with the volume up a little so you can hear. It does help a fair bit when you’re trying to spread that pesky grass.

Gameplay is really repetitive. Once you learn how to shake grass and trees and master the art of befriending the various animals, it gets almost boring. It has a strange kind of addiction in that when you have nothing else to do, you might want to grab it and play it a bit. There’s a lot of various animals, plants, fish, and rare items that you can try to find, so there’s a little replay value. If you aren’t a Sims fan, don’t bother. If you are or have a younger child that likes it, then it’s good for a couple hours of playtime. Once it’s beaten, though, all you can do is restart and do the whole thing all over again.

Review product was provided by EA games, and does not affect the outcome of this review.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released a new report praising the Computer and Video Game Industry for empowering parents in purchasing items for their children. The FTC says that the industries “outpaces” other entertainment industries in restricting target-marketing of mature-rated products to children.

The FTC also applauded the efforts of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board who just released an iPhone App where parents can check ratings.

“The Commission commends the ESRB for its new online ratings summaries, which provide a more detailed explanation of the content that factored into a game’s rating. This tool should enhance parental understanding of the ratings and the ratings process.”

“The computer and video game industry leads all others in ensuring its products are marketed appropriately and is the gold standard for others to follow,” said Michael D. Gallagher, president and CEO of the ESA, the U.S. association representing computer and video game software publishers. “Today’s FTC report is a strong acknowledgement and validation that industry-led self-regulation efforts are the best way to provide parents and retailers with the resources and support they need to keep our kids’ entertainment experiences suitable.”

While some groups and Jack Thompson believes that mature-rated games are always sold to minors, the FTC found that 80% of sales to minors have stopped.

“We join the FTC in applauding the industry’s progress,” said David Walsh, PhD, president and founder of the National Institute on Media and the Family. “The advancement in technology including parental controls by console makers, identification checking by retailers, and an ongoing effort to improve ratings illustrates that the members of the video game industry have taken our concerns seriously and continue to make sure that kids enjoy games that are age appropriate.”

Congrats to the video game industry and the ESRB!

PASS

The follow up to My Baby, First Steps has you all settled in at home with your 15 month old youngster. You are now reaching the stages of development where your son or daughter starts learning words, walking unassisted for the first time, building blocks that you will continue to nurture until they reach the 30 month marker.

After you have created your child, you will being with teaching him in the living room of your house. Sitting comfortably on his/her playmat you will teach them to say their first word. You can encourage them by speaking into the DS microphone and double tapping on them with your stylus. They will also learn to walk, which is assisted by selecting the cuddly toy icon in the bottom right of the screen and shaking it to either side to encourage movement. As you progress, you will help them learn to run and climb up the stairs.

Whenever you learn both actions required for the month you are working on, you will be given an update and a photo will be placed in your album. You will also receive a camera so that you can capture the precious moments in your child’s life, and either send them to Grandma for gifts or to the store to earn credit for buying items. There are lots of clothing and toys you can buy to accessorize with.

There are different areas of the house which contain “workshops”. The kitchen, bathroom, changing table, the bedroom, and sandbox are all areas you will unlock as you progress. Your child will begin to show signs of discomfort as he/she have needs to be attended to. Make sure you pay close attention so you can keep them clean and fed. At mealtimes, they might even attempt to feed themselves. Let them. Since its just a game, you don’t have to worry about food being thrown at you and having to clean up the mess. Cranky and not wanting to learn? Odds are they need a nap. Let them read the book and watch for them to motion you to turn the page for them. When they start to nod off, pick the right time and switch off the light.

Right off the bat, I am going to say if you are thinking of purchasing this for anyone with a poor reading level, then don’t. A grade 3-4 reading level is going to be required for a lot of the text you will encounter in the game. I would also say to aim for this age range or possibly higher (ages 11 & up is my honest suggestion) due to the high likelihood they will get a bit frustrated with controls. I had an awful time trying to get my little Bob to run with assistance, as the Hand icon kept disappearing on me, and then more control issues when trying to get him to run on his own by dragging the cuddly toy across the screen.

More problems happened when I went to give him a bath. After countless bath-times with no problem, suddenly I couldn’t get him covered in suds. After 10 minutes of rubbing the touch screen, I left frustrated that I might be ruining my screen from all the rubbing. Its difficult to wash a baby in real life as it is, I didn’t need to get upset with a game not registering my scrubbing.

All in all, I think this could be a good tool to test your child’s patience if they are thinking about babysitting and have no younger siblings to have supervised practice with. Nothing beats hands-on training in that department, but this will give your child a sense of what is entailed should they pursue it.

*Review product was provided by SouthPeak, and does not affect the outcome of this review.*

Buy it from our Amazon store

It seems no matter where you go nowadays there are several different lines of “Girlz” games – titles slapped together for the 10 to 14 year old Tween crowd.

Playing Dress Up

My Dress-Up joins the Fashion Designer games of the growing DS library. In this game, girls create an avatar of themselves, create various outfits which they can save in themed closets and change in and out of when they feel like it. There are over 100 shades you can use to help your friends look superbly fashionable and a wide selection of pieces to mix and match. They can also accept challenges from their friends and put together outfits suitable to the activity they are going on. When you finish a challenge, new clothing styles will be unlocked and added to your selections. Challenges are accessed by selecting “Messages” from the main screen. Not all messages will ask you to create an outfit. As you help your friends out, they will come to you again and again for more wardrobe advice.

Top Designer

Girls are also encouraged to design their own tops with the Top Designer. In this section of the game you can select from one of four simple shirts, colour them in one basic shade, and then lay a two-toned graphic on top. After you create your top, you can add it to a collection and dress your avatar in it.

Finally, if you have friends with the game, you can link up and have some multi-card fun. Host a Dress-Up party, chat wirelessly, and transfer outfits to your friend’s wardrobe. You can also link up with friends that have either My Make Up or My Secret Diary and chat.

Controls are very simplistic and easy to grasp. While there isn’t a lot of substance to the game, it could be enjoyable for younger girls and their friends to play at a birthday or slumber party as a group.

Girl Gamers

Activision is making the move to help parents and teachers learn more about their child’s experience in gaming. They are teaming up with Dr. Cheryl Olson, the co-director for the Center for Mental Health and Media at Massachusetts General Hospital to educate consumers. The “Ratings Are Not A Game” initiative focuses on educating consumers about The Entertainment Software Rating Board’s rating system so that parents can make informed decisions about the games their children play.

“Activision is committed to providing consumers with guidelines and information to help them determine which video games are most appropriate for their families,” said Mike Griffith, president and CEO of Activision Publishing. “We are proud to partner with Dr. Olson and believe that these videos will be informative and useful tools for families.”

Activision is working with Dr. Olson to create seven videos that help give tips. The first two segments are available now at www.activision.com/RatingsAreNotAGame. The first two segments are “Using Video games to teach problem solving and planning”, and “How can I tell if a game is appropriate for my child and how do I set play limits” .

We’re happy to see Activision get involved in educating parents about ratings. We believe that it’s the parents’ responsibility to be educated about selective about the games their children play.

Final Fantasy VII

The ESRB has rated Final Fantasy VII for both the Playstation 3 and PSP. This probably means that there is a good chance we’ll be seeing the game as a download sometime soon. Perhaps we’ll hear the announcement at Sony’s Press Conference Tuesday.

Currently, FFVII is a downloadable title on PSN in Japan.