Rich Gallup is Executive Producer at OtherSide Entertainment and knows more Whats than there are Legos in his entire house. Find him working in his makeshift basement office surrounded by wood paneling, or on Twitter.
Hello everybody!
For many this year was stressful, sad, and lonely. I feel incredibly fortunate to have spent 2020 in relative safety and seclusion, waiting, listening, learning, and trying to keep my kids entertained in this Groundhog Day loop of laundry, dishes, and remote schooling. Big thanks to Battlebots, Jelle’s Marble Runs, and Word Girl, among others.
I am hopeful for 2021, with its arrival of vaccines and a new administration. In the meantime, I’ll keep willing the clock forward. I have learned in previous times of stress that video games are excellent at turning today into tomorrow, and hey, here are some now.
My Kids’ Games of the Year Leading up to December 25: Mario Kart 8, Pokémon Go
Last March, when I still wore hard pants and it was clear that we were going into lockdown, I decided to accelerate my plans for introducing my kids to video games. I finally bought a Switch and you were all right! It’s an amazing machine. Animal Crossing was our intro to a weekly family video game ritual. Every Saturday morning after pancakes and waffles (yes, both), we’d settle in for an hour or two of hustling on our island of New New Ham. Eventually that grind wore thin, my kids could only get so excited about collecting yet another type of cicada, and that’s when Mario Kart 8 took over our Saturday mornings. My oldest and I are working towards unlocking that Gold Mario, currently trying to 3-star every cup at 150cc, wish us luck!
Last year on here I wrote about starting Pokémon Go for educational purposes, and that Pandora’s Box has only yawned wider. My kids are obsessed, and it’s adorable! We’re talking Level 40 in Go, full Dex in Let’s Go Pikachu, Pokémon sweatshirts, a Pokémon advent calendar, constant quizzes from the Pokémon almanac, and a seat of honor at the breakfast table for our stuffy Detective Pikachu (dubbed “Pik-Pik”, thank you). They couldn’t care less about the trading cards, funny enough. Niantic has done a great job of adapting Pokémon Go to work better for folks who are playing from home, and I love having my kids crowd around the phone to help with a remote raid or a catch. Some more Froakie spawns would be nice, though.
Honorable mentions: Let’s Go Pikachu, Katamari Damacy, Co-op Untitled Goose Game
What My Kids Now Say is their Game of the Year: Super Mario Party
Santa made a mistake.
Brain Game of the Year: “Do you know what, Daddy?”
I’m trying to stay sharp during quarantine, keep that mental acuity up. For a while I was obsessed with getting on the Good Sudoku daily leaderboards, then I binged Grey Alien Games’ solitaire-ish Ancient Enemy, then I was talked into getting stomped on a weekly basis in the Stormy Division of the Boswords crossword puzzle league. All good mental exercise, yet the longest running brain game I’ve tackled this year is a personal creation--I try to deliver a new response every time one of my kids says “Do you know what, Daddy?” This question can pop up anywhere between 2 and 200 times a day, and while it’s proven impossible to create an original answer each time out, it’s been fun to try. Some of my favorites:
- Yes, I do. (Turn and walk away)
- I know more Whats than there are _____ in the _____. (Gotten a lot of mileage out of that one)
- In fact I just had a Zoom call with What, they say hi.
- Which Pokémon is What? Is that a ghost type?
- I forgot about What! (To wife) Is it too late to send What a holiday card?
Honorable Mentions: Remembering the Cartoons and Toys of My Youth as a “One Last Story before Bed” Substitute; Memorizing the Pokémon effectiveness chart
A Mobile Game I Quite Liked: Retro Bowl
Retro Bowl is a tight homage to Tecmo Bowl with some light general management. It got me through the spring, and for that I am forever grateful. Our kids’ schools had just gone fully remote, my wife and I were working full-time from home, and chaos reigned. I played a couple games of Retro Bowl and had so much nostalgic fun I immediately bought enough optional in-game currency to hire two 5-star (female!) coaches, sign future Hall of Famer Taco Anger, and max out my stadium’s facilities. I never lost again. It was a great, fun distraction when I needed it most.
Honorable Mentions: Dear Reader, Assemble With Care