Not surprisingly, the strongest contingent of children's titles came out of the Nintendo camp. While a majority of the Nintendo DS titles on display were old favourites like Brain Training and Nintendogs, the Nintendo Wii introduced a strong collection of children's titles. The biggest attraction for the Wii was High School Musical 3: Dance, which is no big surprise considering the phenomenal following that the Disney franchise has established over the last few years. Many children scrambled to get a closer look at the title not only for its gameplay, but because it incorporated segments of the film, allowing kids to get a sneak peek of the plot of the upcoming film.
Many children were making beautiful music on the Wii.
Another big winner on the Wii was Hasbro Family Game Night. This game was rarely left untouched for long as young families gathered around to play electronic versions of many of the classic Hasbro boardgames such as Connect Four and Yahtzee.
Skate It was another strong title for the Wii display as many kids (both young and old) took to the Wii balance board to see whether their skating skills were up to snuff.
Sony also had a strong lineup of kid's titles on display, the largest being LittleBigPlanet. This title seems to hold the older children more than the youngsters as it contained many tricky puzzles which turned off the younger audience; who instead found more fun in creating their own Sackboy and adding it to the large globe in the display booth. Sony's other children's games on display fell into two distinct camps - EyeToy and SingStar. While the SingStar display was usually packed with young girls belting out their favourite Disney tunes, the EyeToy booth was a haven for young boys, who were quickly becoming attached to the swashbuckling gameplay within EyeToy: Hero. Though surprisingly, the foam sword held up well to the beating that it copped over the entire weekend.
Not to be used to hit your little brother.
Not to be left out, there was also an EyeToy game for the girls with EyeToy: Pom Pom Party. While many walking past rolled their eyes at the cheerleading title, it proved to be a major hit with those under the age of eight.
Ready? Okay!
Microsoft's Xbox 360 also had a couple of dedicated children's titles on display, not surprisingly these were all of the Disney persuasion with the dance mat of High School Musical 3: Dance being the most popular peripheral on display - as it copped a a hiding from the array of youngsters that were constantly scrambling to have a turn.
Disney Sing It was another karaoke title that was quite popular with the kids as it incorporated the vocal stylings of Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana, Camp Rock, Aly and AJ as well as High School Musical's Corbin Bleu. With songs from many of Disney's popular children's franchises, this title is sure to be a hit this Christmas.
From the games on display at the eGames 2008 Expo, it's plain to see that a large number of the children's titles on the market are music/rhythm based with a great emphasis being placed on singing and dance titles. Which incidentally is probably the reason behind all of the tuckered out children taking a nap on the bean bags. Good thinking eGames!
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