National Parenting Publications Awards honors Wizard101

The family friendly MMO, Wizard101 was recently named an Honors Award winner in the 2009 National Parenting Publications Awards (NAPPA) Children’s Products competition. Full results were announced November 1, 2009, in more than 40 regional parenting magazines across the country and online at Parenthood.com. This award recognizes video games available for children that are safe and fun.

“This multi-player online adventure game encourages social activity and collaboration among players,” said NAPPA judge Alex Chisholm. “While other online fantasy games may be too mature for some kids, Wizard101 hits a nice balance among fun, adventure and competition as players are summoned to help save Wizard City.”

Congrats to the makers of this game, which is in fact something safe and fun you can play with your children. You can learn more about Wizard101 by visiting www.wizard101.com.

101-in-1 Party Megamix released

Atlus U.S.A. has released 101-in-1 Party Megamix in North America today for the Wii. 101-in-1 Party Megamix sounds like a collection of bad dance songs sold “only on TV.” But in reality it is a collection of one hundred and one family-friendly all set in a variety of themes catering to racing fans, sports nuts, old school arcade gamers, action addicts, casual gamers, and fans of brain-teasing puzzles.

The games are broken down into three different modes TV Guide, Zapping, and Marathon. Featuring eight channels, TV Guide mode challenges players to beat high scores to unlock more games and earn bonus prizes to decorate their player profiles with. Zapping mode provides instant access to any currently unlocked game. Up to four players can join the party in Marathon mode where everyone plays five randomly selected games in a row and competes for the highest score.

The game is also available for the DS. Find out more at www.atlus.com/101party.

Family Party: 30 Great Games Outdoor released

Family Party: 30 Great Games Outdoor Fun from D3Publisher is now available nationwide exclusively on Wii. Outdoor Fun offers a variety of activities including martial arts, team sports, individual athletics, and challenging brain games all for a suggested retail price of $19.95. Building on Family Party: 30 Great Games, Family Party: 30 Great Games Outdoor Fun delivers activities for the entire family offering lots of activities and a dozen cute characters that can participate in up to four player competitive action, as well as unlockable games and challenges.

Developed by Tamsoft, Outdoor Fun is rated “E10+” by the ESRB. For more information on Family Party: 30 Great Games Outdoor Fun, visit www.d3publisher.us.

Wizard101 celebrates one year of service and five millionth player milestones

 Wizard101, the magic-themed Massively Multi-player Online game from KingsIsle Entertainment, celebrates its one-year anniversary this month. KingsIsle Entertainment says that since its launch a year ago the game has garnered five million registered players worldwide. That’s a pretty impressive number for a game and a company that isn’t necessarily considered brand name. It probably didn’t hurt that KingsIsle has been doing targeted marketing for the game on some of the most popular children’s television networks including Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network since its launch. It also doesn’t hurt that the game doesn’t suck and is fun to play for both kids and adults.

As part of its one year celebration, several decorations are being added to the game this month as well as a special surprise for all players to be revealed at a later date. Wizard101 combines collectible trading card game-based combat with the social interaction of an online multiplayer game and a parental control system that allows adults to restrict communications options for younger players, while allowing more freedom to older players.

You can learn more about the game by visiting www.Wizard101.com.

Where’s Waldo? Ask Ubisoft

Ubisoft, Classic Media and Ludia have inked a deal to bring a new Where’s Waldo? game to life. the new game will be called Where’s Waldo? The Fantastic Journey and is being developed by Ludia. In Where’s Waldo? The Fantastic Journey players scour the virtual globe in search of Waldo, his friends and other hidden objects. The game will be available for the Wii, the Nintendo DS, Windows and Mac and sold at North American retailers in September 2009.

The hidden object adventure title will have players looking for Waldo and friends, in addition to hundreds of hidden items in twelve different worlds. The game will offer single player and a competitive multiplayer mode with power-ups to make the game more interesting.

These power-ups allow players to use different special effects to gain an advantage over opponents or enhance their own search capabilities. some examples include a paint power-up you can use to obscure the other player’s screen, a power-up to freeze the screen, a special sparkly power-up that highlights hidden thing on the user’s screen and many other that will be revealed at a later date.Â

AddictingGames Showdown winners announced

Nickelodeon’s ‘AddictingGames Showdown’ has ended and the winners have been selected.  Jerry Trainor, host of Nickelodeon’s “AddictingGames Showdown”  (and one of the stars of the TV show iCarly) revealed the winners in a televised event.

According to Nick.com, over 5 million votes were cast for the winners and other games playable at addictinggames.com. The winners were announced on TV and on the “AddictingGames Showdown” microsite which drew 16 million game plays and 26.5 million page views since its launch on June 3, 2009.

The AddictingGames Showdown winners can be found after the break.

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Free Realms hits 3 millionth user mark

Sony Online Entertainment announced that more than three million unique users have registered for Free Realms,since its launch on April 28, 2009. Recently awarded recognition by Guinness World Records for conducting the first concert to take place simultaneously in the real world and a virtual space during E3 in Los Angeles last week, Free Realms continues to prove that free-to-play games are serious business.

To celebrate the rapidly growing community of players, SOE will grant its first three million Free Realms registrants the “3M Pet Party Pack,” filled with goodies for use with their virtual pets, both cats and dogs. From the in-game Marketplace, players can choose from more than 20 different types of dogs and cats to train, feed, groom and dress up. Players have until Friday June 19, 2009 (11:59 PM PDT) to redeem the “3M Pet Party Pack”.

Free Realms also features 14 other fun jobs to master, as well as the Free Realms Trading Card Game: a full-featured trading card game, playable both digitally within the Free Realms online game and offline via physical card decks sold wherever you buy trading cards.