We have discovered a NEW Mom and Daughter activity that has quickly turned into our favorite pastime and that's playing our Nintendo DS together. My daughter isn't your "typical" gamer, however, she DOES love playing video games that fit her personality.

What exactly is that? Well she loves to go shopping, play with Mom's make-up, use her imagination, draw, design, and the list goes on and on. Well, there is one line of games, developed by Ubisoft, that embraces young girls JUST like my Abby girl.


IMAGINE games feature easy-to-follow story lines, fun mini-games, and the ability to share rewards and items with friends. Plus, Imagine video games encourage creativity through character customization and player-created designs!

One of the first games we discovered for the Nintendo DS is IMAGINE Zookeeper:



About the game:

With Imagine Zookeeper, young girls can take care of animal inhabitants in their very own wildlife preserve! Explore the grounds and take inventory of the different species, care for injured animals, and protect the preserve from poachers and pollution!

Features:

Run a Wildlife Reserve- Players can build their own animal preserve while caring for its inhabitants and lead visitors on a fun tour of the park.

Exploration and Knowledge- Explore the preserve and inventory the different species as their individual needs. Girls can even take photographs to document the growth of baby animals!

Rescue- Rescue injured animals and nurse them back to health at the preserve headquarters.

Preserve the Territory- Prevent poachers from entering the preserve and learn to fight pollution to keep the park safe for all animals in Imagine Zookeeper.

What we liked:

• Storyline: My daughter isn't a strong reader, being in Kindergarten, so I sat with her and we read and experienced the storyline of Emily who goes to work on an Wildlife reservation. It's awesome to put a fictional character into the game bringing it to real life with my daughter.

• Mini-Games: I stand by the popularity of mini-games. Children are constantly "on-the-go" and easily distracted. It's awesome that my daughter can play a mini-game, advance further, then put it away to play outside or finish her homework. It keeps them from spending ridiculous amounts of time "gaming".

• Personalization: With each animal your discover and care for, you are able to bring them back to safety, feed them, build a pen for them, AND name them. It's been fun coming up with the perfect name for each of our animal pets. We now have Stripes the Zebra, Sky the Giraffe, and Leon the Lion. You can also personalize your own buildings by choosing the design and color, perfect for those budding architects!

• Skill Level: There is so many missions to accomplish and with each one they get get a little harder. We love this, because our skills are being developed constantly preventing boredom with the game.

• Pet-Ownership: This one is hard to explain, however, we aren't able to have pets in our home, so my daughter has actually developed an affection as owner of each one. I mean, you've taken care of them, fed them, named them so it's only reasonable that they would be yours. It's a great relationship she can enjoy without doing the hard stuff like... *cough cough* cleaning poop with a real pet.

• Excitement: My daughter's excitement increased as she "approached" different wild animals such as the lion or the giraffe in this mini-game:



Using your stylus you can't go too fast or too slow or you'll scare them away. Approach an animal perfectly and you WIN. Not only that, but you're able to pet them! That's the fun part of it all. You have to figure out how and where they like to be pet and you'll earn their acceptance (with hearts of course).

• Automatic Game Save: During different points throughout, your game is automatically saved, which is an awesome feature for us since little brother is constantly interrupting!

Momma Improvements:

• Reading: IMAGINE Zookeeper has an AWESOME storyline, however, there is a LOT of reading involved. It's a perfect option to play with your daughter if her reading level isn't advanced enough. My daughter just turned six in Kindergarten so it's hard to play the game without me to help her read through the captions. A perfect option would be voices that help each character to speak, as opposed or in addition to the captions.

Buy It

IMAGINE Zookeeper can be purchased at the suggested retail prices of $29.99 at Amazon.com or stores such as Target, Toys R Us, and Wal-mart. For more information about the game visit Ubisoft's Parents Corner.

Extend your gaming experience by visiting the all NEW Ubiworld, created just for your IMAGINE, PETZ, and STYLE LAB games.

Thanks to Ubisoft, my daughter and I have thoroughly enjoyed a gaming experience like no other just in time for her birthday last month. Check it out:

Abby opening her IMAGINE Zookeeper DS game!

Momma Findings is working closely with the Ubisoft brand to bring you the LATEST in games both online and off (Ubiworld) through reviews, announcements, giveaways, and MORE! You don't want to miss the events unfolding here for the upcoming Holiday Season!

Mommas....

What are your favorite Mom and Daughter activities?
Do you guys play video games?
If so, which ones do you like?

This post made possible by Ubisoft, who sent us IMAGINE Zookeeper and a Nintendo DSI. Opinions here are solely my own and have not been wavered by the products I received or compensated in any other way.