Orchestral performances of video game music may someday strike kids as the same eye-rolling pander the "Theme from Superman" eventually became for my generation, but I doubt the parents who came of age with that movie would ever fight as fiercely for its merits as we would for the early days of computer gaming. Besides, a lot has happened since then, and the gimmick of playing selections from John Williams was that it attempted to break then-persistent conventions about what orchestras could properly perform - standards that have since been jettisoned entirely as classical music scrambles for a new popular relevance, performing with pop musicians and turning heavy metal ballads into pieces for string quartet. At this point, I think it's safe to say it's really all about the music, and the culture the music brings with it, less than it is a statement about the orchestra.

From Geekdad:

The show began with a ten minute medley of songs set to old game clips on a large video board behind the orchestra and choir. Animations from Ghosts N Goblins, Outrun, Road Rash, Defender, Contra, Joust and many, many more flashed across the screen as the symphony built to a crescendo before abruptly stopping. The crowd erupted with applause and cheers.

Then the voice of Solid Snake, David Hayter, introduced Video Games Live co-creator and longtime game soundtrack composer, Tommy Tallarico, who served as the evening's host. He set the stage for several pieces during the first act, starting with (of course) Pong, before moving on to Metal Gear Solid, God of War, and both the Sonic and Zelda series. Koji Kondo was one of several composers who appeared on video to talk about their work. [Link]

You can catch Video Games Live around the country (and beyond) in the year-plus ahead, including performances in many cities off the beaten track of many major tours. Tickets run a hefty $35-$50 at most locations, but for the right parent-child teams, this may be one of those experiences you just oughtta have. - Jeremiah

It takes young children a bit to get the hang of the Wii controller, but it's more intuitive than a standard one. We have one big reason to work at it: Endless Ocean. Between the ages of three and four, Z's dexterity has improved tremendously.

- Jeremiah

Mia's Reading Adventure: The Bugaboo Bugs is a DVD-ROM for the PC or Mac platform that offers an "adventure" filled with puzzles and small challenges as you work your way towards a resolution of a storyline. You can get the game on Amazon.com for under $25.

As an extended game experience, this title is plagued with the shortcomings so many desktop PC-based kids' games have. The animation is good, but some of the story sequences are very long, and you can't skip or fast-forward them if you've played the game before. The movement tracks pretty poorly (that is to say, non-intuitively) with mouse clicks, which is how you lead Mia around. Sure would have been nice for the movement to support a keyboard equivalent.



On the plus side, the types of challenges the player faces are varied and interesting, the characters have personality, and the entire game can be played at a range of difficulty levels. We really enjoyed the "mini-games" and Z was enjoying the challenge of many of them, and working her way towards mastery of the "easy" level.

Mia's creator, Kutoka Interactive, made a great decision in offering these challenges in a stand-alone format on the same disk and install. This means a kid can jump into any of the individual, small challenges, play it at one of four different difficulty levels, and keep playing it as much as they want. Several of these short games are very good, like the fuse-matching rhyming game from our screenshot above.

Unfortunately, the games often have long, repetitive instructions you can't silence without cutting out all sound, and you can't act anyway when the instructions are being provided. Just as with the overall game, the Kutoka developers were thinking largely in "movie" mode when they designed these smaller experiences. This ignores the fact that a child might wish to play one of these games dozens or even hundreds of times to master a skill and increase the challenge level. Requiring them to go through the same song and dance each time they want to start what may be a pretty brief game is like making you listen to a three-minute presentation every time you want to start your car. The whole premise of games like this is that kids are smarter than that. Why not treat them that way?

Kutoka has also made Mia Adventures math, science, and language (French or Spanish). - Jeremiah