If you’ve seen Wreck-It Ralph, chances are you loved Wreck-It Ralph.  The movie has enough heart, charm, and video game goodness to keep you coming back for more.  Sadly, the Blu-ray won’t be available for a few months, but until then you can revisit the film thanks to Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph Storybook Deluxe and Hero’s Duty Interactive Comic, both available for iOS.

Wreck-It Ralph Storybook Deluxe

As with previous Disney interactive storybooks, the book portion of the Wreck-It Ralph Storybook Deluxe app is essentially a retelling of the movie’s plot.  Aimed at a younger audience, the storybook features narration, animation, and artwork that is top notch.  Whenever a character actually has dialog, the actor that played the part provides the voice, making for an authentic retelling of the story.
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It’s been 10 years since the original Spider-Man hit theaters and helped kick off the superhero movie craze. Many older fans are wondering why we need a reboot of the franchise so soon, but for younger fans, this could very well be the first time they’ve seen the web-slinger on the big screen. And if they love the new take on Peter Parker’s adventures, they might want to check out The Amazing Spider-Man AR (Augmented Reality) Storybook for iOS.

The Story

I haven’t seen the movie yet – I’m more of a second weekend of release type of guy – but I have been reading some of the reviews, so I know the general gist of the plot. From what I’ve gathered, the AR storybook covers about the first half of the movie, ending with Peter saving cars full of people from falling over a bridge. There is a hint that something strange and nefarious has caused the cars to go over the side, but we don’t actually see what that thing is. I can only assume it’s the Lizard, but he doesn’t appear anywhere in the book.

On the one hand, this seems like an odd choice. The story seems to stop just as it’s starting to get good, especially for young, action-hungry fans. But on the other hand, maybe the Lizard would be just a little bit too scary for some really young ebook readers. I know that as the father of a 4-year old with a vivid imagination, seeing photos of the Lizard would probably result in a few late-night visits with stories of the bad green man in her dreams. So while I’d be disappointed if I was a seven-year old reading the book, but it’s probably wise for Marvel to err on the side of caution than face the wrath of sleep-deprived parents complaining that their ebook is too scary.
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I saw the new Spider-Man movie and I liked it quite a bit. When I heard there was an iOS game out that was actually pretty fun and let you free-roam (or free-swing?) around New York City I had to check it out. It’s a bit pricey at $6.99, but after buying it and playing it all week I can say that if your’e a Spider-Man fan, it’s worth it.

I’ve been a fan of Spider-Man video games as long as I’ve played. I remember loving Maximum Carnage on my Genesis and being obsessed with the first Spider-Man game on Playstation. They’ve gotten a bit repetitive over the years, but swinging around town as Spidey is still one of my favorite things to do in video games.

The Amazing Spider-Man by Gameloft is a pretty nice Spider-Man game considering it’s for mobile devices. It sure beats the hell out of the old Game Gear game I use to play. The graphics obviously aren’t as great as you’d find on Xbox or a Playstation 3, but they’re on par with Wii graphics.

You’re given a surprisingly large area of New York to explore (which is probably why the game is almost 700 MB), and various missions and challenges to keep you busy. There’s a level system to upgrade your moves, and some fun mini-games where you can snap photos (like the one above).

The mechanics are simplified for the touch-based game, with one button swinging and a pretty easy combat system. It makes for a really fun game to keep you busy whenever you have a few spare moments to kill. On my old, spazzy iPhone 4 the game is a bit laggy, but I imagine it works just fine on newer or not-so-jacked-up devices.

My four-year old newphew loved it too. He kept yelling “I killed the bad guys!”

You can buy the game for $6.99 on iTunes.

Disney has always been a home for great stories. Every decade since the 1930s, when Disney’s first feature animation, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, debuted, has seen its share of classic films, including 1967’s The Jungle Book and 1970’s Aristocats. Today our kids have grown up on DVD and Blu-ray copies of these films, but now they can also marvel at the same stories told in a new way – interactive e-books on the iPad and iPhone.

Plot

Both books follow the storyline of the movies quite well. They cut the parts that are a bit superfluous, but keep in the important plot points so that the story continues to make sense. If your kids are fans of the movies, they’ll have no problem following along with the e-books.
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I’m jealous of kids today. I mean, I’m a kid at heart and I have no qualms spending my time watching cartoons, buying toys, and blogging about said cartoons and toys, but to be a kid right now in the age of iPads and Angry Birds and actual Avengers movies would be pretty awesome. I got bored with storybooks pretty quickly when I was little, and I’m sure flipping through the app equivalent of a storybook on an iPad would have kept my attention at least a little bit longer.

Like the Spider-man origin story app Rob reviewed a few months ago, Disney and Marvel have released two Avengers storybooks on iOS devices to coincide with the movie, and they were kind enough to send me some download codes so I could take a look. Avengers Origins: Assemble! and Avengers Origins: Hulk are both available for the iPhone and iPad.

Avengers Origins: Assemble

The awkwardly named Avengers Origins: Assemble! gives kids one version of how the Avengers all got together. It focuses on Captain America getting frozen in the ice and the Avengers finding him a few decades later. The line-up used in this story contains Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man, and Wasp, and the threat is non other than Namor himself. I’ve never understood Namor very much (read: casual comics fan), and this app actually taught me something.

Stan Lee narrates both of these stories and it’s great hearing him read. His voice is as iconic as his face, moustache, and sunglasses, and hearing him read about his heroes is a blast. I’m not sure if kids appreciate an old man narrating their stories as much as older geeks, but I’d like to think they don’t mind.

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