Many of my readers will know how much my boys love playing games on consoles. Hubby and I are big fans too. I have seen the Wonderbook games and wasn’t sure what they were like. When I was asked if I’d like to try some out for a few weeks I thought it was a great idea. I could see how we got on.
The Wonderbook games is a virtual story book that comes to life using the PlayStation Eye Camera which reads the code on the Wonderbook and works on the Playstation 3. You need the physical book and then this can be used to play all 4 games. In the series there is Book of Spells, Diggs Nightcrawler, Book of Potions and Walking with Dinosaurs. When you turn the pages in the book it changes the pages in the story. Even though you have the book it shows you on the screen, so you have to sit in the position that the Playstation tells you to until it picks you up. The boys loved seeing themselves on the TV screen, they were so excited.
We tried out the Book of Potions which is set in the Harry Potter world. Players play to become the potions champion. You go on a wonderful and magical journey through an enchanted garden to compete for the Golden Cauldron. The Playstation move controller means that you can chop, swipe, move and crush the ingredients for the potions.
The boys had fun going through the garden and creating potions. The graphics were stunning and the Playstation move worked wonderfully. It was easy for both boys to use, simple, yet effective and reactive. Having used some games in the past that were interactive, they didn’t work very well with small children, but because the move is held in your hand I felt it was much better. The boys had great fun creating potions and seeing what happened.
The Walking with Dinosaurs Wonderbook Games allows the player to walk around in prehistoric times and you can dig up 150 million year old fossils. The dinosaurs comes to life. You can also also meet the characters in the Walking with Dinosaurs 3D movie.
Again the graphics are stunning. The dinosaurs really do come to life in front of your eyes. Tyler loved digging for fossils and uncovering the bones. He was in awe at seeing the dinosaurs go from bones to coming to life. The music was atmospheric and really made the game. The are technically impressive and the challenges weren’t difficult, but enough to keep you immersed and wanting to keep going.
I have to say that the boys were a bit young for the Wonderbook games. They are aimed at children aged at 7 years upwards. My boys are just turned 5 and 7. They loved the concept and especially the dinosaurs as my little one is doing that in his project at school so it was very appropriate at the time, but they didn’t use it to it’s full potential. I think these types of games would be excellent for 7+ and adults. The boys aren’t into Harry Potter yet, they will, but they are still quite young when it comes to baddies, etc. I played the Books of Potions games for hours, I loved it. I felt like I was part of the Harry Potter world and loved every minute of it. I think these will be on our Christmas list at the end of the year or next.
Wonderbook series – Walking with Dinosaurs and Book of Potions – available exclusively on the PlayStation®3.
Disclaimer:- I was give the above items as stated in the post to borrow for a few weeks. I’ve not been paid further for mentioning any of these products in this post. All words and opinions are my own and the links have been included out of courtesy.
This post is protected under copyright. SusankMann 2009 – 2014