by Jeff McKinney (follow me on Twitter)

The Nickelodeon animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, is getting the Hollywood treatment with a big-budget Summer movie from M. Night Shyamalan, due in theaters this July. The film, The Last Airbender, originally included the cartoon’s “Avatar”, in the title but dropped it to avoid any confusion with a little indy flick that you might have heard of from James Cameron.

Below is the first trailer for the movie, which will be shown during Sunday’s Super Bowl.

Every week, Time To Play’s Jeff McKinney, reviews a game that your family, friends and you will love to play.

This week’s game is World Of Zoo from THQ.

Here’s an exert from the review:

“Virtual Pet games have come a long way since the first Tamagotchi pets arrived in our pockets. While Tamagotchis are still around and getting more sophisticated all the time (best feature, the pause button so mom and dad don’t have to babysit), the current trend in virtual pets is bringing the pets out of pockets and onto game systems. Nintendogs revolutionized the category when it launched on the DS and now World of Zoo brings the long-running craze to the living room. Like all virtual pets, World of Zoo requires you to care for and raise an animal. However, this time there is a whole zoo full of animals.”

You can read the full review in our Video Game Review section by clicking here!

by Jeff McKinney (follow me on Twitter)

UPDATE!! The page to vote for the Madden NFL 11 cover-athlete is now officially up at www.snackstrongproductions.com. Once there you have three athletes to choose from: Reggie Wayne (Colts), Drew Brees (Saints) and Jared Allen (Vikings).

Do you like football? What about Doritos? If you enjoy both of these national past-times then why not have your voice heard in selecting the cover-athlete for the next Madden NFL video game? That’s the premise of a new Doritos promotion set to launch tomorrow (February 4, 2010).

Specially marked bags of Doritos are in stores now but it doesn’t look like you need a unique code or even have to buy the Doritos to vote for the cover athlete. All you need is this web address – www.snackstrongproductions.com.

The contest officially gets under way tomorrow so huddle up with your family and decide who you want to be on the next Madden NFL cover then check out that website. In addition to selecting the athlete, you’ll also be entered for a chance to win some cool sounding prizes like a trip to the NFL Draft!

by Jeff McKinney (follow me on Twitter)

Here’s the drill, you are stuck in a long checkout line with a bored child who is way past his or her tolerance for adult to-do list errands. What do you do? What do you do?

Answer, grab your iPhone or iPod Touch and play a video game! No, I’m not suggesting you tune the child out and escape into a game on your own. But find a game that you can both play together like Issac Newton’s Gravity from Namco.

Issac Newton’s Gravity is a new game in which you arrange objects like ramps, gears, bumpers and blocks in order to guide a falling object to hit a switch. This is a great game to play with kids because you can handle the iPod but rely on your child’s input and creative ideas for where to place the objects in the game.

The game costs $3.99 and can be purchased through the iTunes App Store. While there, take a look at some of the other hundreds of games available and see if you can find the perfect game to play with your kids.

by Jeff McKinney (follow me on Twitter)

Remember a couple of weeks ago (January 6 to be exact) I posted about Nintendo’s record number of Wii consoles sold in December? At the time of the post, we didn’t have the exact figures but Nintendo was estimating that they would be over 3 million. Well, those final official figures were released by the NPD Group, which tracks U.S. video game sales, and the total number of Wii consoles sold in December amounted to 3.8 million units. Wow!

Click here to read the original post from January 6.

by Jeff McKinney (follow me on Twitter)

The latest Super Monkey Ball game, Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll for the Wii, lands in stores next month and to celebrate, Sega (the game’s publisher) has partnered with Chiquita Brands (the banana company) for a promotion that is, um, bananas!

Starting next month, Chiquita bananas in supermarkets will feature special Super Monkey Ball stickers and the bananas themselves will appear in the video game. The two companies will also sponsor a “Super Bananza Sweepstakes” to win prizes, including one grand prize of a family gaming-room makeover. This grand prize will include a 50” HDTV, a couch and four gaming chairs, a copy of Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll, a Wii, Wii Balance Board (with Wii Fit Plus) and “other great prizes from Chiquita”, which I’m guessing will include plenty of bananas. It’s not clear at the moment whether you will need a sticker from the banana to enter the sweepstakes or not but, once open, sweepstakes entries will be accepted at www.chiquitabananas.com.

Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll will be the first Super Monkey Ball game to support the Wii Balance board, which will allow players to move through the game’s popular floating maze levels using their whole body. Look for the game in stores on February 9, 2010 and keep an eye out on the bananas in your supermarket around the same time.

by Jeff McKinney (follow me on Twitter)

Whether its a TV, computer, cell phone or game console, one of the most frustrating aspects of buying a media device is how quickly it is replaced by a new and improved version. Nobody wants to plunk down a couple hundred dollars on something that will be obsolete in a few months and it sounds like game console makers finally agree.

Microsoft, the maker of the Xbox 360, has consistently stated that they have no plans of introducing a new Xbox within the next few years. The most recent announcement was at least week’s CES in Vegas, where the company stated that the 360 is just halfway through it’s intended life span. Nintendo and Sony have also made similar statements about the Wii and PlayStation 3.

This is great news for anyone who has been thinking of purchasing a new game system as prices are at an all time low and the companies are assuring us that these consoles are here to stay.

by Jeff McKinney (follow me on Twitter)

It was starting to look as if everyone had a Wii and sales of Nintendo’s popular game console would continue to see it’s sales figures decline each month (as was the case for most of 2009). But then the holiday shopping season kicked in and Nintendo sold a record number of Wiis in December alone. What’s a record number you might ask? How about just over 3 million!

According to Nintendo, more than 3 million Wii game consoles were sold in December of 2009, which is almost 1 million more than were sold in December of 2008. The previous record for game console sales was held by Sony’s PlayStation 2, when it sold 2.7 million units during December of 2002.

I’ll be keeping a sharp eye out for the final official sales figures when they are released later this month and you can rest assured, I’ll pass that info on to you. In the meantime, did you or someone you know buy a Wii last month?

UPDATE January 20, 2010: Those final official figures were released by the NPD Group, which tracks U.S. video game sales. The total number of Wii consoles sold in December amounted to 3.8 million units.

by Jeff McKinney (follow me on Twitter)

We just published a new review in the Video Game section on TimetoPlayMag.com. Following is the first paragraph, you can read the full review by clicking here.

“Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky is the current series of Pokémon games, introduced in 2005, in which players play the game as a Pokémon creature rather then a human trainer. The latest installment in the series, Explorers of Sky, is a continuation of the previous games-Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness-and features a similar dungeon-exploring gameplay experience with an expanded story line. In Sky, we learn what happened to Grovyle the Thief and find out how the Wigglytuff Guild comes together. These names might not mean much to you but fans of the series, of which there are many, will want to know all about them.”

Continue reading.