A few games you can learn something from

There are sooo many games that can teach us things. Here are just a few:

A great game from one of my favorite companies, Double Fine, comes Stacking. Double Fine is a small company of under 20 people who make amazing games for everyone, like Costume Quest, Brutal Legend and Once Upon A Monster. Stacking is a game about Russian Dolls set in the Grear Depression. You play as Charlie Blackmore, the smallest child in his family. Charlie's father is a chimney sweep and leaves you, your mother and your brothers and sisters to find work, promsing to return. Months pass by and Charlie's father hasn't returned. His mother has already sold most of the family's belongings for food. Now problems are getting worse, the baron has sent his men to collect the Blackmore's debt. Since they have nothing to give the baron's men, they take all of Charlie's siblings to work off the debt. Now it is up to the smallest Blackmore to save the family.

When you play Stacking, you get the feeling that this world you are playing in is created by a child, with a lot of Russian Dolls. The world is made of odds and ends that anyone could find around the house. It seems the child that created the world is living in the depression and is just trying to make sense of what is going on around him... okay enough psychoanalysis. Charlie is not just any Russian Doll, he is the smallest in the world. That gives him the power to jump into any doll in the world. Stacking is a puzzle game; there is no leveling up, but there are tons of things to collect and numerous ways to beat each puzzle.

After the grainy silent movie intro, you will meet a helpful hobo who becomes your friend. The hobo (I forget his name)  will keep all your collections in a secret hideout in the train station. He will also paint pictures of your adventures as you complete them. Its great once you beat the game to see how many special dolls you need to collect to get all the achievements in the game.

Final Word: I love this game, it is fun and cheap and you just may learn something about the great depression or at least get you to find out more about that time in history. Maybe some will realize its not too far from where the economy is now.

Once Upon A Monster is also from Double Fine it is one of the only games I have seen with an Early Childhood rating by the ESRB. It is a Kinect game for preschoolers and their families. Parents can play along with their children and because it is on Kinect you can jump in and out of the game whenever you want. All you have to do is stand in the range of the Kinect to jump in and to jump out, simply walk away or sit down. Preschoolers can do all of the games themselves if they listen to Elmo and Cookie Monster's instructions. Its a great game that teaches listening skills, colors, emotions, literacy, patterns, and generally how things work. Its great.

From Dust.
In the before time, before Minecraft was on Xbox, I thought From Dust was the ultimate game. It teaches all kinds of things. It teaches how the earth  was formed; lava flows turning into rivers, tsunamis, errosion, everything. Sixth and eighth grade would have been soo much easier. Geology was the worst, but now I realize how amazing how the earth grows or  can just be washed away.


The biggest problem with From Dust is how difficult it is to unlock sandbox mode, I couldnt beat it, but I'm no expert, but Itchy Pants is and he is my love. ;)

Tropico.
This series is amazing. I have played every Tropico game in existance now and I love them all. They all have their pros and cons. Tropico 5 is now available on consoles and PC. The 5th installment of the series is by far the best political simulator you can get. Basically you are the Mayflower that never landed in America. Instead you landed on a Caribbean Island. You are owned by the crown and until you get the approval of your people, you will be a govenor under the crown, but you are El Presidente! You alone will decide the fate of your people.

Will you be a democracy? Dictatorship? Communist? Will you have elections? Will you give free housing to everyone or let your people live in shacks? Its all up to you.

Sherlock Holmes.
This detective series was never supposed to be anything but an arcade game, but it was so good, even with its clunky controls, that they HAVE to make new stories. The first game was about uncovering who committed the crimes of Jack the Ripper and is historically accurate.