Welcome to LearningWorks for Kids Game Spotlights. This series is designed to highlight games both new and old that can help your child practice their executive functioning skills. So grab some controllers and get ready to meet your new favorite game! The transcript of the video is provided below for your convenience.
Hey everyone, welcome to Learningworks for Kids Game Spotlights! This is a series where we walk through your favorite games and talk about how playing them can help you get better at real-world skills! If you want to know more about how to take your gameplay to the next level, visit www.lw4k.com and learn more about how video games can be a part of a balanced play diet.
Today we are going to be talking about the indie game that is all about the power of brotherly love! We are talking about Takeshi and Hiroshi, developed by Oink games. This game blends stop motion puppetry seamlessly with a hand drawn art style to create a game that almost feels like watching your favorite cartoon show. This game is all about two brothers, Takeshi and Hiroshi. Takeshi, a 14 year old high school student, considers himself a game designer. He also takes care of his younger brother, Hiroshi, who is often sick and wants nothing more than to play the games his brother makes. When Takeshi boasts too much about the unfinished game to Hiroshi, he decides to jump into the game and play as the monsters, allowing his brother to play as if the game were completed. During this part of the game, you take over as Takeshi, choosing which monsters your brother will fight for five in-game rounds. You need to choose enemies that are hard enough to provide a challenge but not so hard that they cannot be beaten. At the top of the screen, you see a meter for Hiroshi’s stress and joy levels. The harder the battle, the more joy Hiroshi will get. Each time you play the game with Hiroshi, there is a target amount of joy you need to reach. The game becomes a careful balancing act of helping your brother enjoy his time with the game but not feeling so frustrated because he keeps losing. In-between rounds of the game, you learn more about these two brothers and how important they are to each other. If you like unique games with a fun twist, definitely give Takeshi and Hiroshi a try!
This game is a great way for players to practice their planning skills. In order to progress in the story, the player needs to get Hiroshi through five rounds of combat and hit his target amount of joy. If he is defeated or if he is too bored by the end of the rounds, you will need to start again. This is where planning comes in. The player needs to choose enemies for Hiroshi to face that won’t overwhelm him but will provide enough of a challenge. As the story progresses and Takeshi adds more elements to the game, this can get trickier to balance. But by reading what each enemy is capable of, the player should be able to plan how to space these enemies out so that they finish the fifth round successfully.
This game is also a great way for players to practice their self-awareness. This game is all about the relationship between two siblings and the player needs to put themselves in Takeshi’s place and try to understand how he is feeling in the story. Or the player can put themselves in Hiroshi’s place and try and imagine what it is like to be sick so often. By thinking about how the characters in the game feel, the player is practicing their empathy skills and also thinking deeply about why the characters act the way they do.
What is your favorite monster to battle in Takeshi and Hiroshi? What other games about family do you like to play? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below! And if you enjoyed this video, be sure to hit that Subscribe button to see new reviews and playthroughs every week. Well, that’s all the time we have for today but be sure to join us for the next Game Spotlight at www.lw4k.com!
