The Game shelf is about to get overcrowded

Just read an article from my current fav magazine site, www.Wired.com that talks about how many Hollywood Studios are heading back into game arena after bailing out a few years ago. What does this mean to the Gaming Mom? It means I'm going to be fending off even more requests for games related to whatever movie and/or TV show my kids are currently excited about, which I already do, only more so.

I've already got proof that the game/movie tie-in works. We saw the Disney movie Wall-E the day it came out, and enjoyed it. Within a week, my kids discovered the Wall-E web site on Disney.com, and downloaded (with my approval) the demo for the game. They worked around the house for two weeks to earn enough "extra credits" for me to buy the game for our Nintendo Wii, and then played every chance they got. My daughter challenged me to some of the small multi-player games, and once I got the hang of it, we had fun.

I've also got proof that it works the other way as well. My son asked for and received the Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy game for PC for his birthday, and played it almost daily until he'd gotten to the end. He'd played the PS2 version at a friends house, which sparked the request, but had never seen any of the Star Wars movies, and was only familiar with the characters in the context of the game. One rainy afternoon I decided to watch Star Wars IV, A New Hope, and he sat with me. He enjoyed it so much, he went straight to the DVD shelf and took out the next installment for us to watch as well. What was exciting for him was seeing scenes that were faithfully reproduced in the Lego game unfold on screen, and to be able to understand everything that was going on. He even used his own money to buy the Wii version of the game, so he could play with his friends when they came over. His interest in the games, and the DVD's of the movies has continued, and he's eagerly counting down the days until the release of Star Wars: The Clone Wars next week. If it weren't for the games, I'd be attending that movie by myself, or calling my other geeky friends and arranging a viewing with them.

Releasing video games to 'match' movies is an increasing trend, designed to get us to spend money not only at the theaters but later at Best Buy or Target when the game is released. And from what I'm getting from that article, soon there will be more TV shows with game tie-ins as well. My daughter already has Hannah Montana everything from the pillowcase, shirt, jewlery, wig and also the Wii game already. If they start releasing games for even more TV shows, I'm going to be in constant "No" mode - "No, stop asking me for the Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends game for the Wii, we've already spent our game budget for the next two months!"

Sigh. I haven't even checked. They probably already have a Fosters game out there. We're just going to have to avoid that section of the store.