Do you love board games?
Haven’t been able to pass that love on to your grandchildren? Here is something that may be able to change
all that. It the new line of traditional
board games that are “zapped.” That’s
right – they’re zapped. I like to write
about toys that we, grandparents, remember but have been adapted so that they
are still attractive. These “zapped”
games integrate traditional board games with today’s technology.
Hasbro has updated their popular board games by integrating
them with an iPad app which gives them the zing they need to attract a new
generation to board games. I always
loved board games and I played them with my family as a kid and with my
kids. I am introducing my grandson to
several board games including the traditional Candy Land. No iPad versions for the preschool set, but
these classic games for older kids with a “zapped” iPad versioninclude Monopoly,
Life and Battleship. Here’s a picture of
the Life board I took at Toy Fair last year.
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Life Game Board with iPad at the center |
What you do is this:
1. Buy the Zapped version of the
board game. Download the
free app at itunes.com onto your iPad.
Put your iPad in the center of the game board and start to play the
game. Where does the iPad come in? Lots of ways – You customize your game piece,
the “spinner” is a digital spinner – not a cardboard square with a plastic
arrow attached, and rather than a cute card there are America’s funniest home
videos for each of life’s events. And so
grandparents, Life becomes “interactive” in the way that word is used today –
you can interact with your iPad – or your grandchild’s iPad.
If you are ready for the digital age but don’t want to be
embarrassed because you might not “get
it,” this is a good place to start. You don’t have to be a digital whiz to play –
it’s easy and fun. Your grandkids will
think it’s cool that you have a game for their iPad and you can introduce them
to the old fashioned family – intergenerational- fun of a board game. It can be a real win-win.
I’ll be visitng this year’s Toy Fair in just two weeks and I
can’t wait to see what’s new with this line from Hasbro.
Here, they are at Amazon: