Hasta La Gadget!

Mattel’s Ucreate Games and Artimation ($59.99 list) promises to “put mash-up creativity and game creation into the hands of kids.” I was intrigued; it sounded like a lot more than a passive game-playing experience. Ucreate Games is geared toward kids ages 7 to 13; I figured my smart 6-year-old son would be into it–and he was for a while. After I installed the software for him and attached the USB camera, I worked with him to figure out how to use the Ucreate software.

In the Ucreate Games and Artimation package, you get a drawing tablet, software, a folding digital camera attached to a stand, markers, and a set of templates. The main activities are building and playing your own pinball games and puzzles; creating animations that Mattel calls “mash-ups”; and playing a game called Ball Drop, where you try to get a ball to move from one area of a room to the exit by placing objects in strategic places.

What’s really cool about all of these activities is that you can create your own artwork to incorporate into the games. For example, you can draw different parts of the pinball table on the included templates, capture the drawing, and then import the pieces to be placed on your playing field.