Ramble: mobile games of 2018...

There are probably quite a few of you who do the majority of your gaming on a phone or tablet.  Following the rollercoaster ride that Lemmings has recently presented me with, I thought I'd do a quick ramble about some mobile games that we've enjoyed this year.  (And some that we haven't enjoyed so much...)  After all, if you get a new tablet for Christmas you might want a few games to put on it!

Christmas Lemmings - from back when Lemmings was good!

To start with, then, three games that cost money but can go into your Google family account (so you can all play them on all your devices whilst only paying once).  All of these are great fun.

First off, there's Bloons TD 6 (PEGI-3), which is currently on sale on the Play Store (for £1.89).  This is the latest instalment of Bloons Tower Defence and it's just as fun whilst offering a few new things like tech trees.  The basic premise is there's a track along which evil balloons travel, and you have to pop them with various warrior monkeys to prevent them getting to the end of the track.  There are plenty of tower defence games out there, but this is cute, fun and really well made.  It does have in-app purchases, despite being a game you pay for, but you don't need to buy these to play the game.  Unlike free to play games you're not going to hit a wall; it works perfectly well without paying out any more money.  I should probably also mention that a free to play Adventure Time version also came out this year, which is worth a look if you're a massive Adventure Time fan...

Secondly, I'd like to mention something very, very different - Gorogoa (PEGI-3), which is currently £3.79 on the Play Store.  This game is really hard to explain.  I finished it in a couple of hours but I still don't completely understand what happened.  Not that I say this to put you off - it's a strange and beguiling puzzle adventure.  You have to look at different pictures in various ways, zooming into them, moving them around, joining them up, to move the protagonist along in the story.  I really can't think of a good way to explain it.  You ought to just spend £3.79 on it (face it, that's not a lot of money for a proper game) and try it yourself.  It's beautiful, in more ways than one.

Gorogoa: it's beautiful!

Thirdly there's a game I've talked about before (Motorsport Manager Mobile 3 (PEGI-12), so I won't bore you with that again.  But if you like motorsport, you won't regret spending £3.99 on it.  Honest.

Time to move onto the more depressing end of the mobile gaming spectrum, then.  One of the games in this section is, sadly, the surprise new version of Lemmings that came out a few days ago.  Now I will always have a place in my heart for Lemmings, and Lemmings 2: The Tribes.  I had an Amiga and I loved Lemmings.  My PSN avatar is a Lemming.  After playing this game, however, I'm severely tempted to change it...  Lemmings (PEGI-7) asks you to rescue a bunch of lemmings by getting them to an exit portal.  You can order them to do things like build bridges, stop other lemmings, or use an umbrella to land safely.  But the mechanics are simplified from the 'proper' games, and you can do whatever you like as long as you have enough energy.  You can wait to get more energy or spend your real world cash.  Then there's other free-to-play horrors in it, too.  The most expensive in-app purchase is £90.99.  I really am coming to hate free-to-play games.  I just didn't find this game fun, and I really wanted to like it.

The second disappointment of the year for me is Assassin's Creed Rebellion (PEGI-12).  I'm a big Assassin's Creed fan, so I was hoping this would be fun.  And for a few days I did play it fairly obsessively.  But then I hit a wall.  I couldn't progress without my assassins being higher level, and the only way was to grind or pay real world cash.  And I'm never going to pay real world money.  Grr.  You have a base, you discover new assassin DNA and fill the base with assassins, you send them on missions (which are kind of fun), train them, make them gear, etc, etc...  But that wall is the problem.  I don't appreciate being funnelled into a trap that's designed to make me spend my cash.  I'd rather just pay an up-front amount and get a proper game.  And if you were wondering what the most expensive in-app purchase is in the game, it's £99.99.  Imagine what sort of a game you could get for that - WHO ON EARTH IS SPENDING THEIR CASH ON IN-APP PURCHASES AND ENCOURAGING DEVELOPERS TO DO THIS STUFF!?!?

I knew I was a bit cross about these free-to-play games, but writing about them has made me far angrier about it all.  Perhaps I should just think about the good stuff from this year.  Like Gorogoa.

Please, please, spend your money on encouraging the developers of interesting, original games.  People who actually want to make a game that's fun.  Not someone who's just making a 'game' in order to make you give them more and more money.  These things are NOT games.

Drat, went downbeat again.  And this is supposed to be a fun Christmas post!  Ah well.

Hope you have a good Christmas day, and get all the gaming delights you've asked Santa for.

Ho ho ho!

Game Review: Just Dance!!

I haven't been posting much lately, I know.  I've been feeling fairly awful for ages (terrible germs) and I just haven't felt like it.  I haven't been playing games much, either.  But a few weeks ago we bought something that I fully intended to "review", or whatever it is I do on here!  Yes, we bought Just Dance 2018 (PEGI-3) on the Switch.  And let me tell you, if you're looking for the ultimate party game for Christmas, this, my friends, is it...

You may ask why we bought 2018 when 2019's available.  The simple answer is:

(Yes, Beep Beep I'm a Sheep.  We enjoyed watching DanTDM play 2018 - watch at your peril - Beep Beep I'm a Sheep is unbelievably catchy...)

A while back we tried a few different options out for Just Dance.  Seb's school had been showing the kids YouTube videos of Just Dance to get them moving in the mornings, and he seemed keen.  So we bought some old copies for the Wii, but the Wii we had didn't work brilliantly since the controllers weren't charging properly any more.  The PS4 version using the camera sounds like a good idea, but it doesn't work well with kids (they're too short to detect well).  We did try the version with the phone app, and that did work, but I'm nervous about holding a smartphone and prancing around the room.  The Switch version sounded like it might solve all our problems, and indeed it does.  I suspect that the Switch has given us the best way to play this game.

When you buy Just Dance 2018 you also get a 3 month trial subscription to Just Dance Unlimited.  This gives you access to hundreds of additional songs.  This was good since Seb's a massive Sia fan and the service includes The Greatest, Cheap Thrills and Titanium.  Hooray!  They're only adding new content to Just Dance 2019 from now on, but it still gives you a lot of stuff to play with, and if you're having a party you can buy a one day pass for the service to get all your mates jumpin' (or looking stupid).

The game is easy to get into, though admittedly hard to do well.  I'm not the most co-ordinated person in the world, and I don't dance in public, but this is ok.  I can cope with this.  And if I play it by myself I can say it's part of my keep fit regime.  (It even has a 'sweat mode' with more physical moves and a calorie counter!  It certainly got my heart pumping - I'm not convinced about the accuracy of the calorie counting but it must be doing me good.  :-)

The game did make me feel old, since I didn't know most of the songs that came with the game, which means I was hopelessly out of touch with the 2018 'hit parade'.  But hey.  There are some classics too, like Queen and Boney M.  And plenty more 'old songs' on Unlimited.  To be honest, though, it doesn't really matter what the song is if it has a beat that makes you want to dance.

The Switch joycons are brilliant for dancing with, and vibrate with the beat.  They're so small that they're super easy to keep hold of.  They pick up your moves well.  And there's even a dual mode where you can hold joycons in both hands and it will detect what both your arms are doing!  No problems here playing with small people, unlike with the PS4 camera version.

Another plus for small people (or children as they're sometimes called) is 'kids mode'.  This has some special kid friendly songs with kid friendly graphics.  It's a safe space for your super-littlies to play. 

The only thing I don't like is that for something that's called Just Dance it has a lot of ridiculous add-ons that are not just dancing.  When you look at the menus there are loads of things on there.  It's not a clear and simple interface.  It has an odd story mode, and a silly prize machine thing where you win various stickers.  I don't see why all games have to have things like that these days.  Does it add anything to my enjoyment of the game?  No.  If anything it's the reverse.  But maybe that's just me.

I'm a fan of this game, basically, despite never normally dancing in public.  It's a polished game that has survived the ups and downs that have meant the end for music games such as Rock Band.  It might make you feel like you can dance (a belief that will probably be shattered when some annoying person videos you playing!).  But hey.  It's a really, really fun family game.  A big thumbs up from me and Seb!

December 2018 PS Plus Goodies!

The PS Plus games for this month are (drum roll please)...

SOMA (PS4) (PEGI-16)
Onrush (PS4) (PEGI-12)
Steredenn (PS3) (PEGI-7)
SteinsGate (PS3) (PEGI-16)
Iconoclasts (PS4, PSVita) (PEGI-12)
Papers Please (PSVita) (PEGI-16)

We're back to another month of not particularly family friendly stuff, then, though if you have older kids then Onrush (PEGI-12) is a crazy arcade style racer that's worth a look.  It's a fairly recent release (June this year) so is actually a pretty good deal compared to a lot of the things that end up on PS Plus.  There's no local play, but you can play with 2-12 people online.

If you're still using your PS3, then try Steredenn (PEGI-7).  This is a shmup (shoot 'em up)/rogue-like (procedurally generated) pixel art space shooter.  Sadly, this is also only one player.  If I can be bothered to boot up the PS3 (every time I try I discover the controllers have lost charge or something) then I'm definitely going to give this one a try.  It looks great, in an old pixel art kind of way, and lots of crazy space shooting and boss fights sounds like fun.  A different version of this, "Binary Stars", was released in March on the Switch (it's been out since June 2016 on the PS4).  It's sad that we didn't get the "Binary Stars" version as a December download - it's two players so would have been fun to play with other family members.

I should probably also mention Iconoclasts (PEGI-12).  This is a pixel art platformer in a Metroidvania style.  As well as defeating various enemies and bosses, the world is full of brain-teasing puzzles that you have to solve.  Unlike old-style platformers, this game has a proper story, and one well worth experiencing.  The game has also had a recent release on the Switch...

That's it for this month.  I have to admit I haven't been playing anything much lately, and a few of this month's games do intrigue me.  (Including SOMA, though it sounds scary!)  :-o

YouTubers rejoice! Nintendo are changing their rules...

Following on from the little twinkles that suggest Sony might be thinking about crossplay, Nintendo has stepped up and announced it's ending the controversial 'Creators Program'.  An announcement on 29th November stated:

We are ending the Nintendo Creators Program (NCP) to make it easier for content creators to make and monetize videos that contain Nintendo game content. We will no longer ask creators to submit their videos to the NCP, and creators can continue showing their passion for Nintendo by following Nintendo's guidelines, located at https://www.nintendo.co.jp/networkservice_guideline/index.html.

The NCP will come to a close at the end of December 2018. Please note that we are no longer accepting videos and channels, and will not review any that have been submitted, but not yet registered. The NCP website will be taken down on March 20, 2019.

We appreciate and encourage the continued support of content creators, and thank them for their dedication to helping us create smiles.

Nintendo Co., Ltd.

Woo!  It's about time, Nintendo!  So, what does that mean for video creators?  Nintendo's new guidelines are pretty relaxed, considering their previous outrage about copyright violations.  Main points include: videos have to have 'creative input' or commentary, the rules cover uploads and livestreams, and they allow you to monetise your videos using various methods including Facebook, Twitch, Twitter and YouTube.

It always did seem odd that they were basically charging people for the privilege of advertising Nintendo products.  Good news!

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp 1 Year Anniversary!

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (PEGI-3) is 1 today!  Yeah, I'm still playing it...  I don't really know why.  It's just so relaxing!  And to celebrate the 1st Anniversary of this time-consuming, pointless (and yet relaxing, cute and creative) game, I thought long and hard, and then decided to post some fan art...  Happy Birthday Pocket Camp!

by Amelicart

by SweetRoseBriar

by Syn

by Domareen Fox

By BeastyBby

By whispywizbee

By Sakurawings1

By The Pancakey

By Amelicart

I tried to give credit to the artists for these, but with some it was hard to know where they had actually come from...  So apologies!  Great work people.  :-)

November 2018 PS Plus Goodies!

I'm finding it hard to be enthusiastic about the PS Plus lineups lately.  I'm particularly annoyed by the quality of the PS3 and Vita games.  I know they're not going to be doing them for much longer, but while they're part of PS Plus surely they could add some better stuff?!

Anyway...

There is actually a good family friendly game in this month's lineup!  Hooray!  Sadly I know this because I bought the game in question a while back, so I'm not benefiting from my PS Plus subscription, but hey.

This month's games are:
Yakuza Kiwami (PEGI-18) (PS4)
Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition (PEGI-18) (PS4)
Jackbox Party Pack 2 (PEGI-12) (PS3)
Arkedo Series (PEGI-12) (PS3)
Burly Men at Sea (PEGI-3) (PS Vita and PS4)
Roundabout (PEGI-16) (PS Vita and PS4)

So, my family pick of the month is Burly Men at Sea (PEGI-3)!  Now I know that title sounds a bit strange, but trust me, it's a great game.  It's a kind of interactive story about three bearded sailors who have some truly strange adventures.  A playthrough of their adventure might take you about 30 minutes - when I played it with Seb I read all the text and we treated it like a storybook. The thing that makes it interesting, though, is that once you've done it once you can continue to repeat the story but making different choices, thus causing different outcomes.

The art style is clean and simple, the music's folky and matches the gruff bearded sailors perfectly.  And the stories are great fun.  Ever wondered what might happen if your ship sank and you were eaten by a whale?  Or what would happen if you encounter mermaids?  Or the grim reaper?  Or get turned into seals?  Try all the options and there are 12 different endings to discover.  It is very much like a 'choose your own adventure book'.

Rather beautifully they're also producing hardcover illustrated storybooks of the game.  You can enter a code that you get at the end of your favourite playthrough and they'll send you a 50 page book of it.  (The downside is, of course, that you have to pay $30!  It's a cool idea, though...  Also, you can get a digital version for $4, though I'm not sure why you'd want to when you could just play the game again.)

Totally recommended, then!

Lego Overwatch - coming in January!

More details of the Overwatch (PEGI-12) sets were released this week by Lego - there are six sets that will all be released on 1st January...

75970 Tracer vs. Widowmaker - £12.99

75971 Hanzo vs. Genji - £24.99

75972 Dorado Showdown - £29.99

75973 D.Va & Reinhardt - £34.99

75974 Bastion - £54.99

75975 Watchpoint: Gibraltar - £79.99

They're given age recommendations between 8 and 10+, though those ages never seem to mean that  much.  :-)

10 years of LittleBigPlanet!

Wow, I can't believe it has been 10 years - 10 years since LittleBigPlanet (PEGI-7) first came out...!!!  LBP1 holds the incredible accolade of #2 best PS3 game of 2008 on Metacritic, with a score of 95, which is almost unheard of!*  If you've never played it, where have you been?! 

Happy Birthday LBP!!

We're big fans of Media Molecule in this house - the LittleBigPlanet games (of which there are three, though the 3rd is perhaps not so good) and Tearaway are all brilliant.  (Also there's a Karting game, but I've never played that, so I can't talk about it...!)  Since we're such big fans, I thought it was worth mentioning that there's a special 10 year celebration for LittleBigPlanet - a game that still has a massive community following, with lots of player-made levels.  10 million, apparently!  Some of them are completely amazing and unrecognisable as being made in LittleBigPlanet. 

It's perhaps little surprise that Media Molecule's newest game, Dreams, takes this content creation to a whole new level.  As part of their 10 year celebrations, they have re-made LittleBigPlanet's 'The Garden' in Dreams.  As you can see from the video below, it's remarkably true to the original.  It's a hard concept to grasp just because it lets you do so much - it'll be great fun seeing what people make with the new game!

One of our favourite YouTubers, ZebraGamer, started off by playing LittleBigPlanet, so he's doing a special 'happy birthday' series to mark the occasion. He's totally family friendly (maybe a few 'Jeezes' slip in, but that's all) and we've watched many of his videos.  There's a lot of love for LBP and it holds a special place in a lot of people's hearts.  It's a lovely game to play, happy, well-made, fun... and for a lot of kids who've now grown up they remember it fondly.  So, if you want to see what 'The Gardens' looked like in LBP, look no further...

There are plenty of special birthday things going on, so be sure to check out the twitter feed @LittleBigPlanet to see what's happening.  There's also info on some special bits on the PlayStation Blog.

Happy Birthday LBP!  Happy Birthday Sackboy!  :-D

* The game that beat it was Grand Theft Auto IV.  If you were wondering.

PlayStation Classic - what ARE those top 20 PS1 games?

This week the lineup for the PlayStation Classic was announced.  So, what are the 20 games that defined the PS1 era?  Which games did they choose to put on it..?  I'll tell you what: Battle Arena Toshinden, Cool Boarders 2, Destruction Derby, Final Fantasy VII, Grand Theft Auto, Intelligent Qube, Jumping Flash!, Metal Gear Solid, Mr Driller, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Rayman, Resident Evil Director's Cut, Revelations: Persona, Ridge Racer Type 4, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, Syphon Filter, Tekken 3, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Twisted Metal and Wild Arms.  I have to admit there's a sizeable proportion of games there that I've never even heard of!

I'm intrigued by how a list can miss off most of the games that people remember when you ask them what their favourite PS1 games were.  I still remember the winter when my brother and I walked through the snow to buy our first PlayStation from SES Computers in Southend.  Happy days.

As well as questioning friends, as part of my exhaustive research, I looked under our bed...

Spyro the Dragon seems to be a big favourite, remembered fondly by many, and lo and behold I found it under the bed.  Along with Worms Armageddon.  

Spyro and Worms Armageddon

Other classic platformers you may remember are Crash Bandicoot, Oddworld and Rayman (still appearing in great games on modern consoles).  Crash popped up in Uncharted 4 as a playable game in the game, which was pretty cool.

Final Fantasy VII and VIII are mentioned by a few people, and I did find VIII under the bed...

Final Fantasy VIII

There were plenty of great racing games on the PS1, though most have not aged well (some kinds of games get away with it better than others).  Gran Turismo is an obvious PS1 classic, but my brother and I also played a lot of Colin McRae Rally and TOCA, and Destruction Derby and Ridge Racer.  Racing games really do look a bit rubbish with their low polygon count.  Pixel art games can still look like they were made yesterday, but low poly cars, well...

Colin McRae, Demolition Racer, TOCA

Resident Evil!!  Aargh, great times spent eating herbs and what not.  Under the bed I found Resident Evil and also Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, which was the first Resident Evil game I completed.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and Resident Evil

Interestingly, no-one mentioned the iconic PS1 character Lara Croft and her famous series of Tomb Raider games (you may have heard of them).  Oh yes, they're still making them.  I hear the latest one isn't that great...  And under the bed I have Tomb Raiders II and III (oddly not I, which I'm sure we had).  Lara Croft WAS PlayStation, like Sonic was Sega, and yet she's nowhere to be seen on the PSClassic.  Mmm, I still find it confusing that Tomb Raider is no longer a PS exclusive.

Tomb Raider II and III

And finally, who can forget Metal Gear Solid, Parappa the Rapper (recently re-released), criminal classics Grand Theft Auto and Driver, scary Silent Hill, skateboardy Tony Hawk's (still going strong), and if you're into fighting then Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Tekken 3..?

The PlayStation Classic features some of these, then: Destruction Derby, Final Fantasy VII, Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Rayman, Resident Evil Director's Cut, Ridge Racer Type 4 and Tekken 3.  But the lack of some of the others is fairly disappointing.  I can see where the issues might lie (more on that later), but some might say if you can't do something properly then don't do it at all.

Of the ones I didn't know about, and/or no-one mentioned, the PSClassic features: Battle Arena Toshinden, Cool Boarders 2, Intelligent Qube, Jumping Flash!, Mr Driller, Revelations: Persona, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, Syphon Filter, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Twisted Metal and Wild Arms.  Quite a few of these were bigger in Japan than here, which may be why they were included.  But Rainbow Six seems a particularly strange choice.

(I should note here that the Japanese console does have eight different games on it, replacing some of the aforementioned games with Arc the Lad I and II, Armored Core, G-Darius, Gradius Gaiden, Parasite Eve, Devil Dice and SaGa Frontier.)

So why aren't so many of the great games we remember included?  This article has some reasons why the tiny console is missing some obvious classics - music licensing, other licensing problems (cars, or NFL), remakes/re-releases and remasters, some games used the newer controller with sticks (which doesn't come with the PSClassic) and the big one - most of the PlayStation's best games were third party.  Not an issue that Nintendo had to deal with...

Waaaah, a PS1 without Tomb Raider...

All in all I'm not sure it's worth the £89.99 it will cost when it comes out on December 3rd.  It seems a shame that they don't release these things with the intention of making more games available later, whether freely or as purchasable extras.  Ah well.  I guess the PS2's under the bed, and unlike newer consoles that was properly backwards compatible.  Only trouble is, I think the controller cables were degrading.  And we have to find the cables to plug it into the flatscreen telly.  Ack...

Lego Overwatch!

So, Target leaked all the new Lego Overwatch sets!  Overwatch (PEGI-12) (if you didn't know) is a team-based shooter set on Earth in the near future. There are loads of cool classes to choose from.  I haven't played it much (I did give it a go) but "Dad" plays it with his friends when he gets the chance.

There's no release date yet.  Expect them to be slightly more expensive than non-licensed sets, as always. 

The Lego sets, then, are pretty cool!  The tanks are the coolest, I think:


Bastion with his bird pal

D.Va

Reinhardt

I'm looking forward to Wrecking Ball, personally.  No sign of him in the leaked sets.  Hamsters, yay!

Ramble - brain training!

Computer games are often in the news for the wrong reasons, but every so often things pop up that show how games can improve our lives.  In this case, our cognitive functions.

Pretty much everyone has heard of Dr Kawashima's brain training software.  Sitting on the shelf in front of me is an old copy of 'Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?' (PEGI-3).  But does this stuff WORK?  I came to think about this again recently as I heard about a new study to see whether cognitive training can help people with Huntingdon's Disease.  Obviously brain training can't cure Huntingdon's, but it may improve quality of life.  The study, led by Dr Emma Yhnell, is using brain training exercises that specifically train thinking skills of executive function, using number puzzles, word games and tasks that measure attention.  Participants will play the games for 30 minutes, three times a week, for 12 weeks.  I will be interested to see the results!

Brain Training was big in 2005!

All those years ago, when Kawashima's games became so popular, he insisted that brain training could help those with dementia.  But he lamented the fact that few proper clinical trials had been carried out to prove whether cognitive training could be beneficial.  Professor Ryuta Kawashima, of Tohoku University, appears to have shown that brain training could not only slow the onset of dementia, but it might actually improve cognitive function.  You might find it hard to believe him, since he's made so much money from his games and books, but apparently he ploughed much of the money into the research centre at Tohoku University (the Institute of Development, Ageing and Cancer).  More than anywhere else in the world, Japan has a large ageing population - it needs ways to keep people's minds healthy for as long as possible.

Memory problems are one of the first things you notice about Alzheimer's patients - a 2013 study looked at cognitive rehabilitation and training for dementia patients, to see if brain training could improve memory function.  Sadly there was no statistically significant effect, though there were some 'modest, non-significant effects' - the study concluded that more research was needed.

A Parkinson's study in 2014 used a 'cognitive remediation program' to see if it could enhance gait and mobility.  (The motor function problems are associated with cognitive issues such as executive function and attention.)  The games were designed to improve executive function and attention and were played for 30 minutes a day, three times a week, for 12 weeks.  (The same as the new Huntingdon's study.)  The study concluded that the training did improve cognitive function and had a beneficial carryover effect to certain aspects of mobility.  But more research was needed...  (There's a pattern here!)  

A 2016 study, "Brain training: hype or hope?" suggested that if you do brain training exercises you get better at the brain training exercises, but it's hard to say much more than that.  They did seem to suggest that cognitive enhancement was possible, but larger and more thoroughly designed studies were needed.

Finally, an interesting article from 2017 looked at different brain training products to see which ones had evidence to back up their claims.  It looked at 18 brain training programs that were marketed with scientific claims.  Only seven of these had been assessed by peer-reviewed studies.  Only two met their highest standards (they had at least two well-designed randomised controlled trials).  These were BrainHQ and Cognifit.  Both of these websites offer programs that cost money per month, though BrainHQ offers some exercises for free.  The article finishes by saying that it's not clear why brain training works (or even if it really does).  It may be creating new neural pathways.  It may simply increase the blood circulation in the brain, in which case you can also improve by social interaction, exercise, diet, etc.  

BBC Music Memories website

It seems obvious that if you have things to occupy your mind it keeps your mind healthier.  Good dementia care homes have long used different activities to try and stimulate patients, such as music therapy.  I love the new BBC Music Memories website, which gives an easy way to find music from particular eras.  Music plays a big part in our formative teenage years, so choosing songs from those can be really successful.  My nan has Alzheimer's and was born in the 1920's; the website suggests popular tunes from the 30's by Gracie Fields and Fred Astaire.  What a great idea!

So... that's my serious ramble.  It's certainly an area that should be researched more.  It could be a cheap way of helping a lot of people.  Computer games needn't all be brain-melting disasters...