Games we play

Toy Story 2 Read-Along for iPad

If you’re looking for Famigo on June 18th, we’ll be cold kicking it with Woody and Buzz at the local IMAX. That’s right, we’ll be on opening day of Toy Story 3 in 3-D. We haven’t seen a Pixar movie we don’t love and have high hopes for Toy Story 3. Adding fuel to our growing excitement is the recent release of the Toy Story 2 Read-Along app for iPad.

The Toy Story Read-Along app elevates the e-book to infinity and beyond! The app is part storybook covering the plot of Toy Story 2, but packs in a lot of additional features including a coloring book, clips from the movie, sing-alongs and mini games. One of the coolest features for families is the ability to record your own narration of the book, so even if you’re away from your family, you can still read them a bedtime story.

Check out a video of all of the cool features here.

Buy the app here.

Pixar you’re our hero!

We love playing games, and we play tons of games here at Famigo. If you have any suggestions for some good, clean family fun, please tell us.

Everyone knows this classic game and thinks it is number 1. And they are right! “Uno” does mean “one” en espanol.

This game follows the same rules as the analog card game. There is a deck of cards with four colors (red, blue, green, yellow) and each color card is ranked 1-9. Each player starts off with seven cards and a card is flipped into the discard pile to start the game. At each turn, players get rid of a card by matching the last discarded card’s color or number. If you don’t have one that matches, you have to pull from the “draw” pile. There are cool action cards that let you get around the rules. The game is normally played clockwise, but if you have a reverse card you can change the direction of the game. Everyone’s favorite wild card will let you change the colors of the next cards. Oh yeah, don’t forget to yell “UNO” when you get down to your last card or else you get penalized. You can still yell “UNO” out loud even if you’re playing by yourself. You can even yell “Uno!” if you’re not playing. Actually, now that I think about it “UNO!!!”

You can play against the computer, but we suggest playing against family and friends because it’s always more fun. This game allows you to play with up to three friends in three different multiplayer modes. There’s a pass and play mode, an online mode or via local wifi. We like playing locally because creaming your competition is always better if you can see their faces. Either one you choose, we bet you will have a ton of fun!

This game has a cool feature that lets you customize some of the rules. Sometimes families have their own special rules and this game lets you change the rules to play just like your family does. Another cool feature is that you don’t have to worry about paper cuts because it’s on your iPhone! The uno word that sums up UNO for iPhone: Uno!

We dig seeing 2 of our favorite things produce a rad offspring. Lucky for all of us, it just happened again. No, we’re not expecting, but we do want to welcome a pretty new baby to the world. World, meet Plants vs. Zombies HD.

We’re big fans of the original Plants vs. Zombies for the iPhone, but it didn’t have a multi-player option. The original tower defense game puts you in control of plants which you use to to protect your home from attacking zombies. When you strike down the zombies they become mulch and fertilize your lawn. Yay, Earth Day!

The new version for the iPad is the same great game, but even better because the screen is big enough to HANDle (excuse the pun) a few players at the same time. You can work as a team to fend off the zombies. Mo hands, mo better!

Plants vs. Zombies HD will set you back $9.99, but it is worth it.

Do you remember playing Tron in the arcade? If so, you're rad! Otherwise think of Snake, but with two player versus mode and no snake-growing snacks. If you still have no idea or if you know exactly what we’re talking about, grab an iphone and check out LightBike!

You race around following lines on a grid while you drive on a bike and leave a neon wall instead of tracks. The goal of the game is to avoid running into any light trails or walls. Yea, a wall is a wall, and your own walls will vaporize you as well as your opponents. If you want to win, you can either avoid all the walls or be offensive and make other players run into your trail. LightBike involves some strategy and hand eye coordination, but trust us; it’s a lot of fun.

There are tons of ways to play this LightBike so you will get a lot of game play. You can go on single player mode and play against the computer or two player and go head to head against a friend. If you’re really up for a challenge try the game on wifi-mode and play with up to four people. The grid might get a little crowded, but this will just make your strategies more creative and your winnings more victorious.

This game is an arcade classic so you’re bound to have someone in your family who has fond memories of playing this game. That means this game can bring together family members of all ages. It’s tons of fun, but there's more! With this retro version you get to keep all your quarters!

How do you spell that? W-U-R-D-L-E. And no, you won’t get points for spelling it. Wurdle is another awesome game from Austin. It’s like an old school word search, but totally new school.

You start with a jumble of random letters and have to find words…fast. Just drag your finger across the letters to create words. What makes it cooler than the paper version is that the letters don’t have to be in a straight line. You can make crazy patterns that jump all over the screen as long as the letters touch one another. After you’ve found all the words you can find then you can just randomly drag your finger across letters to see if you accidentally find a word, like “nitons.” Yeah, that is a word?

There is a 2 player pass and play version. You can also see who is the high scorer in your area or anywhere in the world.

We think it would be rad if we could play against our friends and family in live head-to-head competition! This would be a great game to play together in the living room, car, or in different cities. If only...

Famigo is about to make all of that possible for tons of games and hopes to do the same for Wurdle, so stay tuned for updates!

When's the last time you and your family laughed until your bellies ached? If it's been a while, it's time to meet Talking Carl.

Talking Carl looks like the simplest iPhone application ever: it's just a little, cute red monster on the screen. The magic starts when you speak into your phone. You'll soon see that Talking Carl is a talented mimic, repeating everything he hears in his hilarious voice. The sillier you sound, the sillier Carl sounds!

Not only that, but Carl wants to play! Watch his funny reactions as you poke him, pinch him, and tickle him. The next time the kids start to attack each other in the back seat, hand them your iPhone and telling them to team up on Carl. He makes for a great distraction no matter where you are, and his animated responses to your gestures are sure to entertain kids of all ages.

We took a minute out of our busy schedules today to interview Carl.

The great thing about Talking Carl is his simplicity. There are no buttons or settings to figure out, it's just the little Sesame Street-like monster on the screen. In fact, Carl is so simple that my friend's 2 year old has become a devoted Talking Carl fanatic. It's fun for her, and it's even more fun for her parents to watch.

Talking Carl is best used on an iPhone since you need a microphone to best enjoy him; an iPod touch may not work. He's $.99, but he just might be the most fun $.99 purchase you can make this week.

One. Two. Three. Four. We declare Thumb War 2.0!

Tap Tap Revenge is essentially Dance Dance Revolution for your thumbs. Brightly colored circles scroll down your screen and you tap them with your thumbs when they reach the corresponding circle at the bottom of the screen. The taps are synced with the music so once you figure out the beat and if you can hold a rhythm, your points will start to add up.

You can either play on single player mode or challenge a friend on the two-player mode where two people play on opposite sides of a single device. Each mode has different levels of difficulty so once you master one, you can move on to a harder one. We personally think the two-player mode is a lot more fun because playing head to head is much more entertaining than playing to beat your own score. When the game ends, the player with more points has a victorious “YOU WIN!” pop up on their side of the screen, which you should feel free to shout out.

The two-player mode is perfect for traveling families because you can play it in close quarters (like the old family Truckster) and entertain two people with one iPhone.  There is also an option to play online using local wi-fi that you can use to play your friends and family when you're not in the same room. Just like Words With Friends, we don’t recommend playing with strangers. Besides, it’s always more fun and competitive playing against friends and family.

If you get tired of playing the same songs, Tap Tap lets you purchase new songs for endless fun. There are also some free indie tracks you can download and many different versions of the game so it should entertain you for a while.

So flex those thumb muscles and go challenge someone you know to a tap off!

Don't worry, you can play this with your family too! It won't give them cooties. This is a perfect example of a fun way to stay in touch. It's $2.99 on the iTunes App store.

If you aren’t playing Words With Friends yet, then we have two things to share with you. First, stop reading this, go to iTunes and buy the game immediately! (It is worth buying the full version so you don’t have to deal with constant pop-up ads). Second, once you have the game, you should start memorizing words that have Q’s and Z’s in them. (Try QUARTZ, it’s a points explosion!).

WWF is basically Scrabble on your iPhone. There is an option to play with strangers, but it isn’t nearly as fun or safe as challenging your family and friends. Trust me, I’ve received some strange invites! We actually like WWF more than real Scrabble because it won’t penalize you for trying to play phony baloney words like FAMIGO. That’s just phooey! You can just keep trying words until you get that elusive Triple Word Score.

We love Gowalla because it layers a game on top of your life. Collect virtual stuff at your favorite places, and share trips that you’ve created with your family and friends. Free! We are huge fans of Gowalla for lots of reasons.

They’re fellow Austinites. They’re great people. They have a made up jibber jabber name, just like Famigo!

But most of all, they’ve built a super rad app that lets you check in at your favorite spots to let people know where you are and where you’ve been. If you’re the first person to a place you can create your own spot and get mad street cred. You can also pick up collectible items and leave others behind for others to pick up. Gowalla allows you to interact with your favorite places and people in a whole new way.

For example, if you live in Austin, how many times has your family spent the day on the Lady Bird (The Lake Formerly Known as Town)?

Answer: lots!

In order to make this old favorite new again, Famigo has created a Gowalla trip called “Turtles and Ducks and Dogs, Oh My!” It isn’t quite lions and tigers and bears, but its close. So round up the family, get out of the house and spend a little quality time observing Austin’s wildlife in its natural habitat. You’ll see everything from hippies to a huge alligator.