I wish to provide some insight into the following products...
Lay It & Play It from Control Zone
A Parent’s Guide to Nintendo Games from Mars Publishing
MAXI SOUND MUSE from Guillemot

How grand it is to report that each of these varied offerings rate highly, in my humble opinion.

A Parent’s Guide to Nintendo Games
Published by Mars Publishing
Authored by Craig Wessel

This examination should help parents in understanding what titles for specific console systems could be of use to them in making such purchases. Mars Publishing offers parents a way to evaluate the games their children beg them to purchase by incorporating a number of contemporary titles within the pages of this book, explaining exactly what the new Parent’s Guide Series offers readers and how the Nintendo book will help make these decisions. What I specifically appreciated, as I am a thinking adult, is that this book does not make judgmental decisions that presume you have no clue as to what you are doing when buying games. What the book does offer is information upon which you can then make your own, informed decision! Nice change from some of the muck offered by other strategy guide game publishers wherein all readers are considered moronic.

A full three chapters at the start of the book are assigned to revealing exactly what the various game systems are (video and computer) and what game types and genres exist. Good info. Many parents may not realize that there are so many game genres, ranging from action games to card and board games and everything in between. The tome does define single– and multi–player environments and then gets directly into the various systems and the game genres found within such environments. For example, if their child owns a Nintendo 64, author Wessel offers them a real–life description of a first person game — 007: GoldenEye so that readers can understand exactly what this genre type offers on that game system. This then carries on to third–person games, platforms, fighters and so on.

Then also offered is insight into the Entertainment Software Rating Board, known as the ESRB. A backgrounder on the rating system is offered as well as HOW games are rated — the procedure that must be undertaken by a game publisher in order to obtain an ESRB rating. A full description of each rating is presented and how parents should check game packaging to ensure a title is appropriate for their youngsters.

The meat of the book starts in Chapter 5, where actual game reviews are presented. As this is a Nintendo specific book, you’ll find Nintendo 64 and Game Boy titles. Each review’s header includes a description of the game title, genre, ESRB rating and descriptor (i.e., mild, animated violence). As is the case with all reviews, they are subjective to the likes and dislikes of the author. Reviews contain such ending comments as "The game’s focus is heavily upon the fighting action and offers very little background story to explain the nature of the fights." I did receive the impression that some of the reviews were "rushed", while others required more time to complete, and that the ESRB rating is what most parents should follow as far as guidance for their own children’s use. Therefore, the ESRB section, including the rating definitions, is of particular note to ensure product suitability.

I did find the title glossary for many Nintendo games at the back of the book, complete with ESRB rating, to be of interest, but not all titles for the N64 or Game Boy are listed. Such is the problem with printed matter — by the time the book’s copy has been edited, re–edited, formatted for the presses in a layout program, printed, bound, and then distributed, timeliness becomes a real issue as far as the most recent information is concerned. However, generally speaking, the glossary does provide solid info for many games that might be considered for purchase during the upcoming holiday season. There’s a also a glossary of terms that many parents will find interesting, as well.

Graphics in the books are sparse, to say the least. However, Mars Publishing is very entrepreneurial in their attempt to make certain such a book was delivered to retail in time for the holiday season. I, personally, would much rather pay $9.99 for this informative book rather than the suggested $14.95 SRP. However, please realize I am a gamer and already possess much of the knowledge presented in the book and, therefore, might not place as a high a value on the data as a non–gaming parent.

Overall, A Parent’s Guide to Nintendo Games is certainly worth an examination at your local bookseller. As I was unable to have a look at the other titles in the series (A Parent’s Guide to PlayStation and PlayStation 2, A Parent’s Guide to Computer Games, A Parent’s Guide to The Internet), I have no idea as to how much of the front–of–book–matter is redundant to all titles. I would hope such would not be the case, as the first several chapters of the book could certainly forward all titles, making the value of the books far less so for parents who buy more than one of the titles. Who wants to read identical material in each book! The best action for parents is to pick up any of the titles at their retailer and check out a few of the entries to see if this material meets their needs and answers their questions. My humble opinion is that Mars Publishing has attempted to provide parents with a guideline to digital entertainment in an entertaining and informative manner — I believe they have succeeded.

Lay It & Play It Keyboard Control Cover — Cockpit Collection
Designed and manufactured by Control Zone Interactive, Inc.

If you are a PC gamer and your system possesses a STANDARD — I repeat, STANDARD — keyboard, here’s a highly useful product to help you control your games. Most impressive, really, are these keyboard covers that align specific keys to game actions. Ah, yes, others have tried previously to design game control keyboard covers, but they usually slipped off or moved when being used and became unusable.

Not so with Lay It & Play It Keyboard Control Cover (LIPI). I managed to acquire two skins in the Cockpit Control collection. The cover itself is a flexible "skin" with indentations for the keys. You can lay the skin directly on the keyboard and expect the skin to settle over the keys with a good fit — not tight, but with perfect alignment. Only the most rugged users will cause the skin to slip during games.

I was able to examine the LIPI’s for Diablo II and Fly! and found them to be of tremendous help when playing the game. All of the commands are illustrated in full color and text on the skin. No wondering about which page to turn to in the game manual to find out how to accomplish exactly what needs to be done — there can be no doubts with these keyboard coverings.

However, I must reiterate — you MUST have a standard keyboard in order for these puppies to work as advertised. One of our systems is a Sony Vaio desktop, and the keyboard is somewhat shorter than a standard, and the skins were totally useless. If you aligned the numeric keypad keys into the covering, approximately 10 percent of the left side of the skin flopped off the left side of the keyboard, making all of the keys listed on the left side of the skin non–connective with their needed keys.

To double–ensure your skins stay attached to your keyboard, a wee bit o’ transparent tape attached to the bottom of the skin and adhering to the keyboard lip certainly cannot hurt. The price seems reasonable for these skins at $14.95 (SRP) and there are a number of titles for which these covers have already been manufactured, numbering approximately 30.

See if your retailer has a display established for these skins — I would certainly recommend you ensure your keyboard is of the right size for use of these covers — if so, they are a grand addition to your system.