Disney Releases “Disneyland Explorer App”
Disney have just released a cool interactive app that can be downloaded for the iPad so that people can bring all of the happiness experienced in the parks straight into the living room! Although not as cool as Disneyland Kinect, the Disneyland App is pretty awesome; with some fantastic images, videos and stories to interact with, there are over 100 unique activities to keep you occupied with until you end up walking down Main Street U.S.A again!
The only problem with this App is that it currently is only in existence for the Disneyland Park in California (although I am certain that if enough people purchase the App that Disney will develop something similar for Walt Disney World). If you want to have a look at the App before purchasing why not take a look at the video. Any thoughts on the App would be appreciated in the comments section below.
Disneyland Kinect Review
Okay, so it isn’t Disney World and it has nothing to do with any of the parks in Florida, but if you are a fan of the parks then I can guarantee that you are going to enjoy this game. Not only are general review sites praising the game, calling it the “most intuitive and best game on Kinect” but Disney fans such as myself are genuinely impressed by it. Here are just some of the reasons why you should really go out and purchase Disneyland Kinect.
The Park Is A Complete Replica
Although I have never been to Disneyland in California (the plan is to go next year) I have done my research and have found that the park within the game is a complete replica of the actual park, including shops and even restrooms! You are free to walk around the entire park however you want to, the experience is mind-blowingly awesome!
The Park Experience
When visiting any Disney park you expect to be able to do a certain amount of things. You expect to be able to go on the attractions, take a shopping trip, interact with the various characters and of course take pictures of everything you see. I am pleased to say that developers Frontier managed to pull all of this off perfectly.
The Attractions
Whilst riding all of the attractions would be great, it wouldn’t be that fun just standing there and watching your in-game avatar ride the attraction. Instead Disney has turned each attraction into a range of mini games that include awesome cutscenes that have been designed for each one. Sometimes the cutscenes involve characters that everyone will recognise, other times they feature someone unique to the ride!
You have to move, jump and sway to get past the mini games. Each attraction features a star system and the stars you receive for the overall attraction depends on how you do on each of the min games.
Shopping Experience
My favourite part of the game is the fact that I can have a shopping experience that is one very similar to how I would have it in the parks. I can buy t-shirts, costumes, photo albums, signature books and my personal favourite, pins!
Character Interaction
There are 35 Disney characters to interact with in the game and they range from the original gang like Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto to Disney Villains such as the Queen of Hearts and the modern characters like Stitch (my personal favourite) and the aliens from Toy Story! Not only do you receive quests from each of these Disney characters but you can also hug, high five and dance with them.
On top of all of this, you can collect all of their autographs and have your picture taken with them all, it’s just like being in the parks but with no lines and no restrictions on how long you get to spend with the character!
Hidden Mickey’s & Pins
Not only do you have over 100 quests to complete but there are also many hidden Mickey’s and pins to find across the park. These can be found either in the attractions or around the park and can be gained using a variety of Disney gadgets from a wand given to you by Cinderella to a blaster given to you by Buzz Lightyear himself!
Fireworks & Parades
It wouldn’t be a Disney experience without the parades and fireworks and you can take part in both of these too, this ensures a complete title for any Disney fan.
You may have seen me mention developer Frontier earlier in the post, in case you didn’t realise they are the ones responsible for some of the games in the Rollercoaster Tycoon series, they have plenty of experience in the theme park video game!
All in all Frontier have worked very closely with Disney and all of the voices have been accurately provided (where possible) and the park looks and feels just like it does in reality. I really feel like I am having the full Disney theme park experience when I am playing this game.
All in all this title is worth a buy for any Disney fan, I don’t have kids and the girlfriend and I (both in our early 20s) love this title; don’t be fooled into thinking this is a game just for kids!
Any Hope For Disney World Kinect?
With all of the positive feedback from both Disney fans and gaming review sites, there is hope for a Disney World Kinect, don’t hold your breath though!
Pirates Of The Caribbean Ride In Disney California Is 44 Years Old!
According to the Disney Parks official blog it would seem that as the 18th March 2011 the attraction that is Pirates Of The Caribbean has hit its 44th year! Now I know this is the California park we are talking about here but without this ride it would not have gone into the Florida park, besides, California Disney certainly needs to have some appreciation on here from time to time!
It is hard to believe how long this attraction has been going for but if you look closely you will see that much of it has stayed the same with the only real addition to the ride since the 60s being Captain Jack himself!
The Reason The Ride Still Exists
The movies that are of course based on the ride really did help to improve the popularity of the ride at a time when the only attention this ride got was from the loyal fans. The movies gave a boost to younger fans that perhaps hadn’t heard of the ride before and when Disney added animatronics from the movie it really started to kick off again.
The fact is, this ride is still one of the most popular rides in all of the Disney Parks and as long as this carries on happening then I see no reason why this ride is going to close any time after it hits its 50th, 60th or even 70th birthday!
It’s A Small World Receives “Memories” Show
You may have seen my post earlier in the week talking (and showing) the new memories show at The Magic Kingdom in Florida but Disneyland have also started running a show of their own this week that is to be projected on the front of It’s A Small World!
The show started just yesterday and the California park and will be show on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 8pm and 9.10pm.
For those of you that are dying to see a glimpse of it already here is the video taken from the show yesterday.
