You would be hard pressed to find gamers who admit they did not at least crack a smile when they saw the Katamari Damacy games. You roll a katamari (ball) around and collect stuff to make it larger; it was simple, quirky, and weird, but most importantly, a load of fun. So when I heard the creator of Katamari Damacy was making a brand new original game, I, along with plenty of others, planned to buy it regardless of how ridiculous the concept may have seemed or look.

So the famed creator of Katamari Damacy along with Namco Bandai, released his latest creation for the Playstation Network, known as Noby Noby Boy. Not to be confused with actually being a game, Noby Noby Boy is best described as an original interactive experience, which may be why it holds that $4.99 price tag; it’s low enough to take a risk on, which should be good enough for many intrigued PS3 owners.

So what is Noby Noby Boy exactly? To put it simply, you play a four-legged creature, Boy, that will stretch, eat things and, well, poop them back out in the same manner they were originally consumed. You can combine different objects together as well, like eating a fruit and a creature and eventually ejecting a creature with a fruit head; this experimentation is meant to give you something to do as you attempt to build up your growth. As simple as the premise may be, there is more to Noby Noby Boy from my hours of meddling around the past few days with this “interactive experience.”

You control Boy who eats and will comically poop out what he eats. Control of Boy takes place through a randomly generated flat environment where people, creatures and objects exist solely to interact with. Boy’s house is placed somewhere in the environment and will be the only consistent thing you will ever see throughout the game. Boy’s house allows you to change to a new map giving you a new random assortment of people, creatures and objects to interact with.

You control the front two legs with the left analog stick and the hind two legs with the right analog stick. Jumping and flying are both controlled by L2 and R2, while shrinking is controlled with L3 and R3.You can move both parts in opposite directions with the analog sticks to cause Boy to stretch. The longer Boy is means more space in his worm-like body for consumed objects to stay. Otherwise, if no space is available, Boy will automatically (insert favorite euphemism for bodily functions here) out the objects.

Boy will stretch and report his lengths to Girl, who is like Boy but on a much larger scale. Girl will consume your length data and grow longer. As she grows she is actually moving away from the planet Earth to reach other heavenly bodies. In the days since Noby Noby Boy’s release, the combined length of all the PS3 players in our real world was able to help Girl reach the moon! This opened up, literally, a whole new world to play around in. This brought about exciting times for all who have been delving into the Noby Noby Boy experience, as they now had new environments and objects to interact with and experiment upon.

We, meaning the Noby Noby Boy community, now had a brand new set of people, creatures and objects at our disposal. This time all the humans and dogs were now in space suits. You would see people driving around in satellites. There were yellow moon crescents with legs walking about–I assume this was a bad joke showing what moon people would look like. Flying fish would now be floating about, and mushroom tops floating around like flying saucers.

This was whole lot of weird but also a whole lot of new. The physics on the moon appeared to have less gravity but with more experimentation I was able to create some awkward situations for Boy.

The level of Noby Noby Boy’s fun will be determined by the player. You will find endless supply of creatures like dogs, cats, camels, flying fish and even people ranging from all kinds of professions. You can choose to eat them, or at times they will jump on Boy’s body for a free ride throughout the town, and as mentioned you can also experiment to create new objects through digesting multiple objects.

From my experimentation, I was able to make Boy stretch so far that his body snapped into two. This created two separate bodies no longer restricted by Boy’s elasticity. I enjoyed eating animals and sadistically hearing the animal’s last echoing cry as entering Boy’s body. Also there were the numerous failed attempts to tie Boy in a knot or entangling him in a cloud, but it’s certainly possible to get tangled up, as you are harder to control the larger you get.

As expected by the type of gameplay, the overall music is very soothing and calming. It has yet to get irritating as more time was invested.

The most important question: Is Noby Noby Boy worth your time and money? For $4.99, you bet it is! This is one of those casual time waster games, similar to that of Wii Sports or Nintendogs. You would end up jumping back into it every time and again to see if there is anything new, and with the community pushing Girl ever forward, chances are good that there will be. Noby Noby Boy is charming, silly and will give you a smile, and for $4.99 that’s all you can ask for.

The Onechanbara series finally makes it debut on the Wii with its new entry Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers. Although this new entry from publisher D3 was released in conjunction with Bikini Samurai Squad for the Xbox 360, this Wii entry attempts to set it apart form all its other console entries by being built up and designed for the Wii’s unique controls. There will not be many button presses here to slice up your zombie woes; just hand swipes and thrusts to keep these zombie hordes at bay.

The game premise is straightforward. There are scantily clad women with swords who must slice up zombies in Tokyo while their bodies slowly become drenched in zombie blood. If you are attempting to look for any deeper meaning, don’t bother. This series’ origins began as budget titles in Japan; through the years, it has continued to grow adding a slew of new features along the way as the games became more popular.

At first glance this game may seem openly sexist with a simple concept of using the Wii remote as a sword. However with the Wii gaming library severely lacking in the action games department, Bikini Squad Slayers may be just a taste of what Wii owners have been looking for; especially when Bikini Zombie Slayers is priced for $29.99. A little over half the price of a full game sounds a lot more tempting than paying up to $49.99 for the latest mini-game collection. But let us venture forth and see how much game you can get out of $29.99 that involves slaying zombies.

A lot of time, effort and Wii processing power were placed in the character models. The environments may be bland and linear but the main characters, zombies not included, look smooth and detailed. From the tribal tattoo on Aya’s lower back, to the noticeable constant breast jiggle physics placed upon all the females and to the alternate outfits you can have them all wear, you notice where the staff was more focused while creating this game.

The game features four separate story lines to play through each with its one main heroine and several more outfits to unlock and dress your character in. Completing both main character’s storylines will unlock two other character story lines to play. The outfits do nothing to change gameplay, but do satisfy your desire to alter how much (or how little) clothing you want your character to be wearing as you play.

The first two main stories involve the main female protagonist Aya, and her little sister, Saki either trying to protect the other, or protect themselves from those after Saki. All character stories are told through voice narration accompanied with slow scrolling text, or very sparsely used short in game cutscenes. It is important to note that there are no English spoken words though out the whole game with the exception of the intro song. The dialogue is all in its native Japanese. This game has only been given the bare bones translation from its original release in Japan as well.

Regardless of all its simplicity, the main attraction of Bikini Squad Slayers is when you combine swordplay and the Wii remote and nunchuck. This is where all the fun goes to and will leave you giddy for more zombie massacres.‚  There are four characters you can play each with there own unique fighting styles and weapons. Each character actually has two different fighting stances that add variety to you moves.

The main protagonist Aya, the one with the cowboy hat, by default has one sword out and one sword sheathed. The Wii Remote is swung to slice with her sword and the Nunchuck can be shaken to send out a swift kick. Accurate swings produce combos that slice up all the zombies in your way, and you can even finish up your combos with a fun sword lunge straight through the zombie.

After nine years of waiting, Isopod Labs and Activision have come to bring us a fully-loaded remake of the original “Vigilante 8″ with online functions.

For those new to the series: an important note to mention is that Vigilante 8: Arcade is not the‚  eighth incarnation of the series. The number “8″ in the title refers to the number of drivers in the game. There four good guys called “Vigilantes” and four bad guys called “Coyotes,” with one addition character to add to the mix. The numbers do not add up, but this game is about vehicle carnage, not math, so I think we will be alright.

As the name suggests, Vigilante 8: Arcade is exclusively for Xbox LIVE Arcade.

There is a story somewhere in this game but it is of little importance since your primary objective is to destroy any vehicle that is not you, unless you are playing co-op. The game is influenced heavily on “That 70s Show” motif, so expect modified vehicles with heavy weaponry from that era and the occasional thick mustache.

Vigilante 8: Arcade is not going to be pushing your Xbox 360 graphics to its limits. Everything does look clean but you can clearly tell apart every object in the scene like props in elementary school play. There are five newly designed environments, each with a lot of open plain areas to drive about in and there is plenty to destroy in these arenas but most of your time will spent driving around restocking your weapon inventory and finding your foes.

There are assortments of weapons to pick up for your vehicle turning it from useless peashooter to death incarnate on wheels. The game will automatically aim any forward weapons for you as long as your target is in front of you, back weapons will be dropped and mortars will attack the nearest enemy. You will be constantly acquiring and shifting between three additional weapons such as cannons, missiles and rockets to blow away your enemies. Your generic machine gun is mapped to the “A” button with the remaining three buttons activating whichever three weapons you pick up.

A great weapon feature that is new to me is that you can hold down any of the additional weapon buttons to charge it to three levels changing it feature to a more devastating blow. A great example is the cannon. With one quick button press, one single cannon shot will fire but if you charge it to level three, it becomes a buckshot causing serious damage to anyone in immediate range of you. You just have to be careful not to overcharge the shot otherwise it will not work as planned. This additional weapon use adds more strategy to combat by making you choose whether you want to go gun crazy or hoard your weapons so you can charge for a more powerful strike.

This is one game made for the Ferrari enthusiasts out there. Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli is an in depth racing simulation game that you can experience in the comfort of your own living room.

Based heavily upon the real world Ferrari Challenge single-marque motor sport championship, this Ferrari simulation attempts to give you all the experiences of actually driving a Ferrari on these famous world tracks without having to go through the effort of actually acquiring a Ferrari.

All of the 3D car modeling has been overseen and approved by Ferrari, and they look gorgeous.

To place emphasis and prove the amount of detail placed in these cars, the entire menu system within the game is a full 360 dramatic viewing of a select Ferrari’s surface from all angles. All this is while navigating a small horizontal bar 1/8 the size of the screen for play options. This menu truly is designed for the Ferrari fans that can not go a second without being in the presence of these famous cars.

With so much effort placed on the cars, it makes sense that there was slight design problem that was a bothersome confusion when using the Wii remote to navigate. The onscreen button layout differs from the actual remote. The 1 button is to the right of the 2 button on screen, when on the remote it is opposite. I found myself canceling actions when trying to select. This is not a big of a problem, but just a slight annoyance.

You can find Ferrari Challenge for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Wii home consoles. This version developed for the Nintendo Wii has the benefit of the Wii remote’s motion sensing for simulation steering instead of online racing offering in the PS3 version. There is no option to drive with a friend in the same room either. Driving your Ferrari here will be a solo affair, and that hurts the game.

Moreover, after the initial wow factor wears off, you will encounter the first major problems with this game. The loading times are horrendous. Having so much work placed in these cars has become a double edged sword to this game. The long loading times between just selecting which Ferrari to drive, I found myself giving up and using which ever default Ferrari was given when starting a race.

There is a lot of decent content, however, and unlike other simulation games like Gran Turismo, you have the ability to jump straight into races and tournaments. There is no requirement to have to get a license forcing you through many tutorial levels. You get to start driving your Ferrari right away.

There is the option of using the Wii remote and nunchuck control scheme or just the remote’s motion sensing steering. Either control scheme works very well. With the real world tracks to race on, the majority of this game is spent on understanding your car — learning how your Ferrari handles, how long it takes for brakes, understanding the ins and outs is what it is all about. Remember, this is a simulation, not an arcade game.

Any mistakes you make driving can be unforgiving. On the easy difficulty tracks, if I got off road once I found it very difficult to make it to the front of the race. That is why there is so much emphasis on all the practice races. The game gives you a visible recommended racing line indicating points of accelerations and braking which are very helpful on your road to Ferrari driving perfection. After a while of driving you start getting an understanding for each Ferrari and can feel the improvement on your driving thanks to the racing line itself.

The game does give you accomplishments to help move you forward on objectives that can be achieved to further your game play. You can buy cars and customize your Ferrari with decals but without online racing to show off your car, it seems like a left over feature from the PS3 version.

There is another side mode called Challenge Cards. It involves a deck of cards with images of a type of Ferrari with info of year model, top speed, weight, engine size and value. You basically pick a statistic on the card about the Ferrari that you think is better than the unknown Ferrari card the computer has. When you win, you get the opponents card. The game continues until one has collected all the cards. It makes a nice distraction from the racing but only just serves as perfecting your knowledge of Ferrari cars.

If you own a PS3, I would recommend the PS3 version because of the benefit of being able to race other people. Otherwise, if you are heavy into racing simulations would I recommend this game for Wii

Nyko’s Media Hub+ adds three additional USB ports and a media card reader slot that supports SD cards and Memory Sticks to the PlayStation 3. Basically this item speaks for itself.

There are two questions you may ask yourself. First, does the product and all of its ports work? The answer is yes. Second, do you actually need this?

If you are a 20 GB or 40 GB PS3 owner, your console doesn’t have a media card reader or the additional USB ports that the 60GB and 80GB models have. At first this does not seem too important, but with the increasing trend of devices wanting to connect to your console through USB, this becomes a problem fairly quickly. This beautiful little Media Hub+ comes to the rescue with style!

The Media Hub+ is designed to go in first USB port of your console, snapping in easily. It is black and shaped so it fits flush with your PS3 in vertical or horizontal position. This is a nice design choice unlike any other media hub you may purchase, which would give your console odd looking extremities.

Nyko also did their homework, because the package comes with a small adapter that fits snug within the Media Hub+ to ensure it fits with all the different models of PS3s available to date.

Most importantly, the Media Hub+ is powered by the console so you do not have to look for an empty power socket just to make it work.

It does exactly what it is meant to do at and extremely reasonable price, $19.99.

What many present and future PS3 owners do not realize is how much use those USB ports on their console are going to get. The two USB ports on just the 40GB model are just not enough. The PlayStation Eye and charging one controller will fill up those two ports alone. Then there is the PSP connectivity taking a port. Not including if you wanted to add a full keyboard or mouse to make surfing the web and chatting easier. Let’s also not forget games like Rock Band that have multiple connecting instruments. And if you are trying to use a flash memory stick, it is a constant hassle to repeatedly unplug all the other devices just to have an open port to plug in your USB stick.

Sony has constantly mentioned its 10-year life cycle plan for the PS3. Who knows what other devices Sony will unveil that will connect to the PlayStation 3?

On the negative side, it is only possible to connect one Media Hub+ to your console. It is impossible to connect two on a 20 GB or 40 GB, and if you tried using two on the 60 GB or 80 GB model you would be covering over other USB ports rendering them useless in your attempts to get more. So do not get greedy and buy two.

Being the owner of a 40 GB model, my final verdict was that additional USB ports and a media card reader for $19.99 was a good deal. I make this a necessity to own even if you already have model with more USB ports. It never hurts to have more ports.

There are few games out there that you will enjoy so much that you will despise having to stop playing to take care of other responsibilities; like food, sleep, feeding your dog.

But even rarer then that, are games that you have so much fun with, you spend every second that you are not playing it, thinking about when you will be able to play it again. God of War was one of those games and God of War II is just as guilty.

God of War II’s story continues right where the original left off.

If you have not played the original, go get both games, because here is a sequel that avoids the "trying so hard to be better than the original but fails in everything" that plagues so many sequels to great games, ruing their franchises.

Mere words cannot express fully how much enjoying this game is. The first GoW proved Sony had mastered the Play Station 2 to its full potential with visuals, controls, movies, music, story and scarce load times.

GoW II does not try to change the formula that made the first game great in any way.

In a word, God of War II is nonstop. The moment you start a new game, from the title menu, the game throws you into the action. Enemies are plentiful and coming for you. And in right there in the background is another enemy 20 times your size looking at you, waiting for its chance. Impending climatic battle already awaits you within the first minute of the game.

The battles only get better and more demanding. When popping in the game for the first time, I kept telling myself, "let’s just keep playing until the next save point. I just want to see where this game goes next."

Seven hours later…

Nonstop action that flows seamlessly back and forth with movie cut scenes equals full immersion.

The controls are solid and expanded from the original. There are plenty of options to choose from when pummeling your enemies.

I found myself killing every enemy I could possibly find because it was so much fun.

Each enemy type has a set of unique death visuals, so the game never gets repetitive.

There are only two real characters in this game, Kratos (the main character) and anyone not Kratos (enemies), giving lots of endless fun for all.

The only downside is that the game is shorter than the original. However, there’s tons of unlockable content that gives the game a high replay value. Plus with the announcement of God of War III, blood thirst is rising.

God of War II is an amazing addition to the still viable Playstation 2 platform.