During the press conference for the Apps for Healthy Kids challenge, I had a chance to see the games being played that won prizes. Here’s a rundown on each winner.
Trainer
This was the grand prize. And really, it definitely deserved it. First things first: There’s nothing like a good banjo rift to really get me in the mood to work out. But I digress ... To play, you create a character. This character is created based on questions you answer, and you will be given an animal to represent you. After you get the animal, you will have to do exercises to earn “experience points.” As you earn more experience points, you will go up in level, gain new stats and be able to kick avatar butt in the Arena. Having crushed your enemies and seen them driven before you, you then are given awards like trophies and coins. The coins let you buy food, which you need to stay active and then continue to exercise and so forth.
The graphics were fairly linier (even in the fight scenes), relying more on education than fluid motion. But considering there was an actual arena in a kids’ game devoted to nutrition in which I could body-slam my enemy, I was impressed. It was like I was in some sort of weird mix between a Japanese animation, a fighting game and an adventure game. But, dammit, it worked!
I should add one could argue that when playing this game, since the goal is to eat right and work out, then EVERYONE can be winners. However, I say, screw that! I intend to destroy all other animals out there with my little guy’s badassness. Then (and only then) will the winner be determined, and that winner is me!
To register for this free game, you’ll need a webcam. The site is www.davidvillatoro.com/games/trainer.
Food Buster
This one won the Popular Choice Award. Food Buster hearkens to the days of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego with a little Jeopardy tossed in for good measure. If you like quiz shows, I can see this one being a hit with you. Each round you are given a food, which is placed on a scale. To win, you have to be careful your food doesn’t break the scale; which is determined by calories and so forth.
Granted, this is fun for a bit, but it functions mainly as an educational tool. I mean, you sit there and answer questions on food trivia. It’s a good learning tool, but I felt it to be a little monotonous. I guess I was a little jaded after Trainer, which gave me a little
“Pow!” to go with that kung pow chicken (pardon me for the worst food joke ever, at least, so far). But if you’re a trivia fan who likes to learn about nutrition, this game’s for you.
Check out www.foodbustergame.com for more.
Food Hero
Winner of the Corporate Recognition award (gotta love corporate), the game reminded me somewhat of Trainer. However, you don’t have the option to interact with the game like you did in Trainer. Instead, your character eats right and then “trains” by competing in events like running and swimming. If you ate right, you win the competition and gain coins to buy upgrades to your gear. If you lose, you see your little dude becoming “too fat” or “too sluggish.”
Whether or not you have any interest in this concept, I demand you go to the site. It is completely worth it to hear the majestic and (dare I say it?) EPIC-like music that accompanies the demo. This is neatly juxtaposed with the fact the characters in the game demo look like they are too cute for Nick Jr. Watching a chubby little cartoon swimmer in a pink bathing suit and scuba gear drowning because she is “not fit enough” while listening to the pounding of kettle drums and the chanting of regal sounding chorus is just awesome.
Anyway, this game is still more fun to me than Food Buster, but if you want to check it out, go to www.healthysocial.org/foodhero/html.
Fitter Critters
OK, this one wins the runner-up. I don’t think that’s fair, because I wanted it to do better than the title “runner-up” because I was so impressed. The short review of this game is that it’s basically a healthy version of Webkinz, only you have less cute creatures to pick from, and it doesn’t cost anything.
I was really floored with the complexity of the game, given what I’m looking at. Sure the graphics are a little cutesy-pooh, but on the other hand, it’s a really cool game. OK, you make your “Critter.” You go out and go to the store and have to buy groceries to fill up your health meters without going too high. Basically it asks you to get a food with enough protein in it. Peanut butter has protein, but it also has sugar, so watch out, ‘cause then you’ll go too high on the sugar meter, and that is bad because you won’t get healthy.
Cool, we get it, you try to stay healthy. But, if you don’t “stay healthy,” you’ll eventually get sick. If you get sick, you can’t go to work; if you can’t go to work, you can’t earn money. If you can’t earn money, you can’t buy cool stuff to improve your house with neat little graphic add-ons. And as Webkinz fans know, this is half the fun of the game.
In addition to going to work, you can earn money by creating healthy recipes and “selling” them for cash to other players online at the restaurant. This earns you more cash and a more pimped-out pad. Also, it has a whole section for teachers. Though this is not as cool as a game dynamic, I was most impressed with the fact that teachers are given lesson plans to help their students work through this stuff. I think that’s a great concept, and totally worth it. Check out more at http://www.fittercritters.com.
Smash Your Food
This one wins Honorable Mention, which is fair. Its real appeal is watching food explode on the screen in HD realism. You get to see it splatter all over the place (Gallagher eat your heart out ... Ha! I implied that there would be more bad food jokes in this thing). It has a really cool high-tech look, but basically you just pick and choose foods, guess their approximate sugar, salt and oil, and then watch the food being squished. It’s a fun game if you want to challenge a friend on who can guess right. Also, it’s cool to watch food being smashed. But I wouldn’t really say it was much of a game. I mean, you guess, you smash and you watch the results.
Cool effects, cool sounds and a great look are good, but in the end, I’d rather toss this in as an add-on instead of an actual game as there really wasn’t much too it. I guess that’s why it only got the honorable mention part, though. Anyway, check it out at http://foodnme.com/smash-your-food/.
Check back soon for more on the other winners of the contest for best apps.
