Nickelodeon: Teen Nick

Everyone who knows me, knows that cartoons are a big part of my life, and Nick Toons are some of the most successful cartoons on the planet. So it should be no surprise to anyone that I watch Nickelodeon, A LOT.

Often while waiting for my daily Spongebob fix, I catch a corner of one of Nickelodeon's preteen/teen targeted live action shows. Usually I change the channel. Let's face it, once you're over a certain age, stories written around high/middle school drama don't really peek your interests. Besides, the good old days of Hey Dude, Salute Your Shorts and The Adventures of Pete and Pete are long gone. Remember SNICK, Alex Mac, All That, and the spin off, Kenan and Kel? They're gone too and FYI - just like the years we spent watching the original Rugrats, Ren & Stimpy and Doug cartoons, they're not coming back. It's hard for us "old timers" to look at today's teen shows with any sense of respect. (These Kids today and their Zoey 101...)

Still, not all of Nickelodeon's teen programming is as annoying. I have to give credit to the creative teams behind Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Drake and Josh, and iCarly. In my opinion, all three shows have featured decent writing, acting and/or interesting new concepts. (It's really saying something when I don't automatically change the channel) Ned's Declassified and Drake and Josh have recently ended. iCarly on the other hand has just started and it's a no brainer that the biggest reason I find this show appealing is their use of the internet (After all, the internet is what I do).

Check out iCarly.com. It's not just a site about the show. It's the site that's talked about on the show. It has blogs and info as if the characters from the show are actually maintaining the site. Now, I'm sure that the actors are not behind the site maintenance, but isn't it a nice concept? What's also interesting is that the site, like the show, asks people to send in videos and photos. So, you (or your kids) could wind up on the site or the show. How interactive! Nickelodeon has always been a champ and getting kids involved. Remember the old Halloween "Nick or Treat" contest or how about "Slime Time"?

Although some of us may feel that the glory days of Nick TV are over, likely because we've outgrown it, I'm happy to see the network is keeping with tradition and evolving with the times. iCarly looks like a winner for the network. Hopefully it's exactly what they need to counter act the Spears effect. I am really surprised that the network is still running Zoey 101, but that's a whole different blog post...

Nintendo's Innovative Game Play Technology: It Isn't a Wii Exclusive

I have a new level of respect for the Nintendo DS and it's abilities now that I've started my adventure in "The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass."

Nintendo's new innovative game play technology has those of us who grew up with the original NES re-thinking the way we play videogames. It's obvious that the successful development and release of the Nintendo Wii has triggered a revolution in video game technology, but the Wii does not stand alone.

From black and white to color and then advanced, the Nintendo Game Boy has dominated the hand held market for what seems like forever. When my finacee bought me a Nintendo DS for my birthday, I was looking forward to titles like "Super Princess Peach," "Guilty Gear Dust Strikers," and "Sonic Rush." I thought that the concept of dual and touch screens was a clever step towards the future of video games. I had no idea that the system had anything else to offer in the way of interactivity.

My DS had not been used in several months when I finally decided that it was time to start playing "The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass." As I expected, it is one of those games that once you start playing it, you don't want to put it down. The game follows the storyline from the best selling Game Cube title "The Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker."

Since I started the game in early December, I have found myself desperatly seeking answers from online walkthroughs more than once. On one such occasion I was stuck at a part in the game where I was told that Link had to blow out two candles in order to trigger the opening of a dungeon door. I spent nearly thirty minutes running Link around the island he was on trying to figure out how to make him blow out these candles. I even had Link leave the island to go back and check the previous islands he visited to see if I missed anything along the way. It never occured to me that I had to actually blow into the DS microphone in order to blow out the candles. Maybe I missed the commercial that highlighted the microphone feature, but I was...blown away...

On another occasion I found myself having to yell at a character in order to buy something from him. Then later on I found out that in order to copy one mark on my top screen map to the map on my bottom screen I actually had to close the DS and open it back up. If these things sound little and unimpressive to you, consider that the last hand held system I owned was a SEGA Game Gear. When you look at in perspective like that you can't help but appriciate how far technology as come and it's exciting to think about where it's going to go.