ThinkGeek Mega Stomp Panic

I'm going to throw a new word at you. It's a bit of a portmanteau, but I think it stands on its own: Awesomenoying. Something that is simultaneously awesome and annoying. To understand what this word means, you have to look at the ThinkGeek Mega Stomp Panic, a $39.99 (direct) audio costume toy that forced me to create this new word. It's something you wear to make sound effects while you walk, and it's equally brilliant and irritating.

Belt Clip Sound Effects
The Mega Stomp Panic is a device that clips to your belt that generates different sound effects when you walk and stop, providing ambient noise to reflect your costume. It comes with nine different sound effect tracks, and the included motion sensor adjusts the track based on your movement. The main box is a little larger than a pack of cigarettes, with two control knobs and a one-digit LED readout on the top. The top knob controls which sound effect track plays, and the bottom knob controls power and volume. Each sound effect track corresponds to a number, and the active number is displayed on the readout. On the other side of the device, a screw-in door holds four AA batteries.

A small wire comes out of the left, clip side of the box, and holds a 3.5mm port. It connects to the included motion sensor through a two-foot cable. The sensor is a small plastic rectangle with another belt clip that's designed to be worn near your belt buckle to best track your motion, and four blue lights light up when it's plugged in and turned on. The two-part design is slightly inconvenient for personal soundtrack use, because you need to clip at least one item to your belt and have a cable running over your person, but it's meant for use in a costume and it gives you flexibility that the single large box wouldn't allow. It lets you position the speaker, located in the large box, anywhere you want on your person to make the appropriate sounds come while the motion sensor on your belt tracks your steps.

Choose Your Soundtrack
Each effect track has an ambient background or music track, a sound effect or two that plays when you walk normally, and a sound effect or two that plays when you stomp your feet. The effect tracks include hydraulic giant robot, rainstorm, zombie attack, giant monster, gunslinger, medieval knight, pirate, 8-bit gaming hero, and steampunk giant robot, and they vary from the vaguely amusing to the infectious. The 8-bit gaming hero soundtrack stands out, with a chiptunes music track and Mario-like jumping and coin collecting sounds when you walk and stomp. The giant monster track is also a lot of fun, with Godzilla-like roars and stomping sound effects. The tracks can sound equally amusing or cheesy based on your tastes; I loved the 8-bit hero and giant monster tracks, but the gunslinger track and medieval knight track sounded a bit grating to me, with stereotypical whistling high noon and jousting horn music tracks. Of course, if you prefer wearing a cowboy hat to wearing a large red "M" cap, you might love the gunslinger track and hate the 8-bit hero track.

The motion sensor tracks your steps easily, but it's a bit flakey on tracking stomping motions. It picks up some stomps, picks up some steps as stomps, and ignores some stomps. Fortunately, the step and stomp sound effects are similar enough and contribute to the effect of the tracks well enough to make it a minor issue.

If you want something to put an extra bit of ambiance into your Halloween costume, or just want to annoy people with sound effects, the ThinkGeek Mega Stomp Panic is a fun toy. At $40, though, it's a bit of a pricey novelty for what it is: Awesomenoying.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/hwkbeu7G810/0,2817,2410800,00.asp

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