Gamertell

Title: Littlest Pet Shop
Price: $39.99
System(s): Wii (also available on the DS and PC)
Release Date: October 14, 2008
Publisher (Developer): Electronic Arts (Electronic Arts)
ESRB Rating: “Everyone”
Pros: A pretty good variety of pets, very simple controls for kids, kids can dress the characters up with lots of accessories and when you play a game, you actually play it with the selected pet.
Cons: Overly structured in the beginning, you can’t choose which pets you want - you must unlock them in order and some of the animals really aren’t that cute.
Overall Score: One thumb up, one sideways; 80/100; B-; *** out of 5

EA Casual and Hasbro have teamed up to blanket the video game market with a series of Littlest Pet Shop games based on the series of toys which have infatuated young children around the US. The Wii version of Littlest Pet Shop certainly wouldn’t be in my top 10 list of most wanted holiday games, but the target audience will likely express the same love for the game as they do for the toys.

Littlest Pet Shop is clearly geared towards the grade school set. In fact, anyone over the age of 10 may find themselves incredibly frustrated by the title’s simplicity and overprotective tutorials, not to mention the character art. Kids will likely adore it though, as the entire game is almost like the series’ toys brought to life…

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Hasbro has just filed a lawsuit against the makers of the popular Facebook application Scrabulous. Scrabulous was created by Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla under the name RJ Softwares and has 506,580 daily active users according to its Facebook page.

Hasbro is alledging that Scrabulous is ripping off its board game (and now Facebook game) Scrabble. Hasbro is demanding that the application be removed from Facebook in US and Canada, since EA and Hasbro have released a Scrabble Facebook app in those countries.

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The Facebook Scrabble open beta from the EA/Hasbro partnership officially launched yesterday (July 14, 2008). Frustrated by the fan-ripoffs, the official version was created and released, and now more Hasbro games are planned. Scrabble is the first social networking site version of an EA/Hasbro game, but not the last, as the companies have more games planned.

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The creation of games aimed at girls continues - this time the Littlest Pet Shop toys are fodder for a DS, PC and Wii game. EA Games’ casual game department revealed more information on the Littlest Pet Shop game at E3. It will be the first Hasbro/EA console collaboration, and has a tentative release date of Fall 2008.

The Littlest Pet Shop game is basically a pet raising sim. There are 32 different kinds of pets in the PC and Wii versions of the game, 20 in the DS entry and four environments for the pets to play in. Players can play 16 mini-games to earn Kibble Coins, which can be used to purchase pet accessories or playsets. The DS version will have an exclusive feature which will allow players to throw parties for their pets.

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Loyal fans of the ‘80s classic G.I. Joe nearly had a fit when, in 2007, it seemed that the beloved franchise was going to take a disastrous turn for the worse. Paramount Pictures said that the film wouldn’t feature any of the Joes beyond Duke, nor would it focus on any of the themes that made the series so popular in the first place. Worse still, the film’s producers were fearful of offending any potential international viewers by making G.I. Joe too patriotic.

Geeks everywhere voiced their outrage and the now the G.I. Joe movie looks like it will defiantly please those fans who nearly killed the movie before a single shot had been filmed. To help wet the appetite of devoted fans, Paramount Pictures has released the first images of the most beloved Joe, Snake Eyes…

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EA and Hasbro have just created an agreement which will allow EA to make video games based on various Hasbro properties. Some of the first toys and games which will be getting the video game treatment are Littlest Pet Shop, NERF, Monopoly, Scrabble and Yahtzee. The games will be prepared for console, mobile and web releases. Many of the titles, such as Littlest Pet Shop, NERF N-Strike, Scrabble, Monopoly Here and Now and Yahtzee Adventures will be shown at the New York Toy Fair running February 17-19, 2008.

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Ganz just had to go and start something with their Webkinz. First one company starts an online virtual pet/real life toy combo and then everybody else has to do it too. The latest group to jump on the bandwagon is Hasbro with an extension of their Littlest Pet Shop line. On November 14, 2007, Pileated Pictures announced it has teamed with Hasbro to create Littlest Pet Shop VIPs microsite at the Littlest Pet Shop website. The VIPs part stands for Virtual Interactive Pets. Littlest Pet Shop VIPs is a browser-based pet raising game.

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