Some games just have a deeper feeling to them. They penetrate the mind and dig deep, stimulating thoughts of curiosity, awe and wonder. Team Ico is one of the few that can pull off such feats in the creation of their games. They seem to know what they’re doing, even if it’s just re-releasing old titles in high definition. With the Ico/Shadow of the Colossus Collection re-release, the company has successfully inspired and re-inspired an old adventure that’s worth re-visiting.

Considering there are two games bundled into one, it’s only fair to give two separate mini reviews with an overall judgment at the end. First up to bat is Team Ico’s first release, conveniently titled Ico.

ICO – Ico is a double edged sword for me. It’s a moving and revolutionary game that has definitely altered how people will look at puzzle/adventure games. On the other hand, it’s frustrating and border line obnoxious at times. The story begins with soldiers taking a boy with horns to a large prison fortress. Apparently deemed “a bad omen” because of the horns protruding from his skull, the boy is locked away and sealed into the fortress by magic.  The soldiers leave, thinking the boy is sealed away for good, and his prison pod comes crashing to the ground after a tremor shakes the castle, releasing him.

The boy, named Ico, wanders the castle and eventually stumbles upon a caged girl named Yorda. After some navigation and platforming, you free Yorda from her prison and together you search for an escape.

After freeing Yorda, shadowy figures come from the floor and attempt to kidnap Yorda from you. Your task is to keep her safe from the creatures and lead her through the puzzles and rooms of the fortress.

The game has a healthy mix of puzzles and combat, although the combat is incredibly simple. As Ico, you’ll continually beat down the shadow creatures as they attempt to grab Yorda and pull her into the black abyss.

A lot of love is sent Ico’s way due to the pure simplicity of it all. It’s straight forward and lacks a lot of explanation, but that’s absolutely okay. It’s minimalistic on purpose, and it hits home. It’s a boy-and-a-girl story through the perils of a seemingly abandoned castle. And that’s all you need to know.

The game is designed beautifully, and with the HD makeover, it’s even more so. The textures of the tiles and bricks, the smudgy look of the shadow creatures, the light vs. dark complexion, it’s all stunning. The design, despite the emptiness of it all, is full of beauty and things to simply admire while navigating bridges and passageways.

It’s a unique game which Team Ico set the bar with for adventure games. Yes, it’s an escort mission through and through, but between its minimalistic approach and gorgeous layout, Ico has truly put a new spin on adventure games.

On the other hand, Team Ico could not have made Yorda more annoying. At times, she’ll follow you at a normal pace, but at other times, she’ll stop dead in her tracks. Yorda needs to be tugged around on occasion by grabbing her hand, she can’t climb things, and seems pretty inept in the ways of basic survival. It gets to a breaking point when all you want her to do is just stay away from the hordes of shadow creatures. But no, she’ll just stand there. Sometimes she’ll move around a bit, but she doesn’t put up a fight.

It’s hard to move past Yorda’s obvious lack of survival television shows in her life, but if you can, the game is fantastic. It’s beautiful and open, a type of game I had never played before.

But moving onto Ico’s sibling title…

SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS – I’ll be completely honest with you right now, and let you know from the get-go that this has been and continues to be in my Top 3 favorite games of all time. The re-release just continues to inspire all my love for it.

Shadow of the Colossus (or SOTC for short) holds true to be the epitome of adventure. It’s a game that demands bravery and intelligence, and defines ambition and imagination.

The game begins with the protagonist, Wander, riding his horse, Agro, with a seemingly lifeless girl riding on the back. He travels to a forbidden land with a stolen enchanted sword, hoping a higher power will breathe life back into his loved one. The story is sparse, but moving, told mostly through visuals and the straight forward quest handed down to you by the deity Dormin. You are told to defeat the 16 colossi roaming the forbidden land, and then the girl, Mono, will be resurrected.

Equipped with only your sword and a bow with arrows, you travel with Agro, your only companion throughout the game.

Like its predecessor Ico, SOTC centers itself with a minimalistic concept. Defeat the 16 colossi. The world you travel in is vast, visually stunning, and for the most part vacant. Occasionally, there is a hawk in the sky or a lizard scurrying on the ground, but, in the end, it’s just you, Agro and the colossi.

Although empty, the game’s setting has truly been mastered by Team Ico. The designers take into consideration the importance of light. In the sunlight, Wander has the ability to raise his sword to create a compass in order to locate each colossus. In the shadows, however, the sword struggles to gleam and will fail, leaving players to use their own intuition to find their way. When fighting colossi, players can also use the light to locate the “sweet” spots on each boss. Some are much harder to locate than others. But in the sunlight, a ray of light can uncover a symbol where Wander should plunge his sword into on each colossus.

Beyond the light, the sounds are extremely immersive. When galloping through the sand, crunches will be heard, the wind can be heard howling over thing bridges and rocks can be heard crumbling under Agro’s hooves.

And the soundtrack deserves its own paragraph. An orchestral soundtrack further promotes the intensity and epic feeling of each boss battle. Sprinkled throughout gameplay, each movement of the orchestra is just as beautiful as the visuals. Shadow can absolutely claim to be fully immersive to the senses (when it comes to gaming, so obviously disregard taste and smell), which only adds to its already high regards.

But the best part of SOTC would be the most obvious: The battles with each colossus.

The first time I happened upon a colossus, I was left staring at the television screen with a stupid look of amazement on my face. All I could do was gaze upon the marvel of the massive being in front of me and ask myself, “How the hell am I supposed to beat that?”

After 10 play-throughs of SOTC, gamers will still look forward to the challenge.

But nothing amounts to the first play through. Fighting each colossus for the first time is an incredible journey that forces a player to drastic measures requiring brave moves and out-of-the-box thinking.

Approaching each colossus triggers a cut scene, where Team Ico proudly boasts their earth and rock creations as they slowly begin to move and approach Wander. Hulking in size, the colossi are mostly unique from one another (I saw mostly because two are strikingly similar to each other, the environment is just different), each built differently with different weak spots. The task will seem impossible at first as the massive beings attempt to crush you with their feet, clubs, wings, etc.

The battles are beyond exhilarating and require a puzzle-like way of thinking to come out victorious. Each colossus will have their own environment, their own build and their own attacks The ground shakes as you approach, dirt is kicked up and the screen blurs as players move the camera quickly. In the bottom right hand corner, a pink circle represents Wander’s grip gauge. This gauge is dire to the game and notifies players how long they have before Wander will completely lose his strength and let go of the colossus he is trying to scale (or hold onto for dear life).

You’ll struggle and explore the environment you’re in to find the best route of attack against your goliath of an opponent. Sometimes you’ll have to scale walls, jump from bridges, swim through lakes, all in efforts to just reach the colossi. Each setting usually adds to the experience, whether it’s a sand worm jumping at you from the ground, or a lizard-like colossi scaling the walls and spitting lightning breath.

The trait of bravery is needed to succeed in these battles. You’ll be standing underneath a downward moving hoof four times your size, aiming at a glowing weak spot with your tiny bow. Completing such feats gives players a rush that is experienced over and over again. It’s absolutely invigorating.

Upon defeat of a colossus, however, there is a twinge of sadness and regret. Since there is a lack of explanation, I ended up wondering why I was killing these creatures. They made no moves to hurt me. The story itself is an emotional ride that definitely forces a player to look at the acts they are committing.

No game is perfect, however, and SOTC is no exception. Getting lost on the large map is annoying if it happens, and considering there’s nothing except colossi, a journey can quickly turn from gorgeous to miserable.

In the end, when it comes to SOTC, the combination of story, visuals, soundtrack and colossus battles make the game one of the best I’ve played ever. SOTC is another unique game that the videogame world has yet to see again. Such a game stands alone, unchallenged and has stood the test of time. The re-release is an even better excuse to live or re-live the journey. The magnificence and awe are almost impossible to do justice to in a review and I strongly encourage you to experience it for yourself.

The Collection disk also offers a few things that the original PS2 games did not that deserve recognition. Obviously there were no trophies on the PS2 versions, but they are added and a nice touch to the PS3 collection. Extra features are also included on the disk which allows players to take a closer look at the development of both Ico and SOTC. There is even a concept video they had for SOTC before it existed that involved online cooperative play to take down a colossus. To be honest, Team Ico should continue to pursue such a project, it would probably do well considering how much thought and time goes into the creation of these games (aka I’m still waiting on The Last Guardian…). There is a small fault with the disk, being you cannot change games after picking a title to play. You’ll have to restart your PS3 to switch between games.

BLAST FACTOR: In the first season of Mad Men, Don Draper pitches a product called The Carousel. He said, “…in Greek, nostalgia literally means ‘the pain from an old wound.’ It’s a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone.” It’s safe to say that the Ico/SOTC Collection is a powerful blast of nostalgia. I smile at the travels of Wander and Agro, although with a small sense of sadness as I cut down each majestic colossi all in the name of love. I fondly remember the massive spiraling staircases and the brief interactions of Ico and Yorda. These are definitely games of the past, but they’ve been etched into gaming history. I used to keep my PS2 plugged in, so when I felt the yearning for Team Ico’s masterpieces, I could pop them in whenever. The re-release of both titles was beautifully amped with high definition graphics, making already visually stunning games look even better. Although Ico can be a bit much at times with Yorda’s constant lack of commitment to survival, SOTC reigns tall as the perfect re-release. It’s a great excuse to replay these games (not that you really need that), and a huge reason for Team Ico newbies to dive in. Buy this collection. It’s worth every second. And on top of that? Three words: The Last Guardian.

Final Grade:

This review originally appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 2002.

For us, it all started with The 7th Guest for the PC. We were indescribably intrigued by this game at the time.‚ The ability to journey through a beautifully rendered haunted mansion (as good as you could pre-render n 1993) via a first person perspective was something that, at the time, was unprecedented.‚ Bill Gates himself commented on the game saying something to the effect that it was “the future of multimedia.”

After 7th Guest, it was Mansion of Hidden Souls for the Sega CD.‚ It also featured an explorable mansion, and to our recollection, it too was haunted — with souls trapped in butterflies. What a concept.

When I heard that a sequel was in the works for the Sega Saturn I was giddy with glee, unfortunately the game never saw the light of day in America.‚ Then came Trilobyte’s 11th Hour, the sequel to 7th Guest.‚ While 11th Hour was technically superior to its predecessor in terms of a technological standpoint, it just did not hold the same sense of wonder and awe that the original game did.

Enter Fatal Frame, the most impressive 3D haunted-mansion explorer simulator known to man.‚ Tecmo has taken all of my favorite aspects from the past super naturally charged Mansion haunts and combined them with technology that would put the 33mhz SX computer I originally played 7th Guest on to shame.

Fatal Frame puts you in the role of Miku, a teenage girl who is in search of Mafuya, her brother.‚ Mafuya went to the mansion in search of Takamine, a famous novelist who ended up missing after doing some research for his book at the Himuro mansion.‚  Both Miku and Mafuya are cursed with the sixth sense; they can see ghosts, scarrrry.‚ Takamine helped Mafuya to cope with his ghoulish affliction through various books that he wrote on the subject.‚  Mafuya too ends up missing after searching for Takamine at the mansion.‚  Two weeks pass and Miku resolves to go searching for her missing brother, this is where you will come in.‚  As Miku you will uncover the secret, disturbing past of the mansion through clues you will uncover over a 4-night one-person manhunt for your brother.

The graphics in Fatal Frame are just short of astounding, for a system that can only render 1-pass bump mapping the visuals are surprisingly rich and detailed.‚ Interactive backgrounds, freaky grain-film filters, impressive Luigi’s Mansion-quality dynamic lighting effects.‚  Every object casts a realistic shadow on the background resulting in an almost frightening level of immersion.

Pre-rendered cut scenes are done up in a black and white, tattered film-like package that allows for both a realistic depiction of past events and an underlying documentary-ish feel.‚ The lighting in the game allows for a believable atmosphere that gives you the sense that anything could happen at any time.‚ The various apparitions that you will meet will be depicted in a terrifying flickering presence, usually contorted in positions that are painful just to look at.‚ Perspective is primarily represented via a third-person view, the multitude of camera positions adequately follow you around to the point where POV is rarely an issue.‚ The non-ghoulish characters in the game are rendered very well, with detailed, diverse clothing and realistically animated facial gestures that serve their purpose flawlessly.

The sound in Fatal Frame is composed mainly of an organic-ambiance and strange ritualistic chanting music that would scare your little brother to death if you were to record the samples onto a mini-recorder and put the device under his bed and hit play at full volume while he is sleeping.‚ Ghosts will scream in agony as you film them and taunt you in the instances when they have the upper hand.‚ Super-natural objects will resonate with a spooky hum as you close in on them, faint voices can be heard through long corridors, footsteps sound suitably different depending on the composition of what your walking on. All this equates to an audibly impressive, realistic experience that reverberates with resounding effect.

In recent years, the‚ Need For Speed series has been going through what you could call an identity crisis. The last few titles have been a mix of track style and open world gameplay, incredibly cheesy cut scenes and action sequences that would even make the‚ Die Hard movies blush.‚ Need for Speed Undercover plays as if someone took all of these ingredients and smashed them together into one game. What results is a fun and entertaining title that get’s it fair share right, but strangely manages to fail–miserably even– at the fundamentals.

Undercover offers players the freedom to cruise around the game’s world–the fictional city of Palm Harbor freely. In theory, the sandbox style gameplay should be a welcome change from the tried and true, point A to point B track race formula, but the developers seem to have missed the point entirely.

Other than driving from mission to mission, there doesn’t seem to be much of incentive to explore the city. There are no hidden missions, no way to hunt down opponents–everything happens in a linear fashion in‚ Undercover. A number of the missions almost scrap the open gameplay by sectioning off an area of the map you’re allowed to go. The true allure of these open world games is to explore, and it seems like‚ Undercover is more interested in a leisurely drive. Palm harbor is an immersive setting, it’s just a shame that the developers at Blackbox didn’t go the extra mile and take advantage of the setting — especially when Burnout Paradise did just that in amazing fashion earlier this year.

That’s not to say that Palm Harbor is void of all life. Yes, the cops are back in‚ Undercover — and yes they’re pissed. While the AI starts off easy going and fun, that quickly changes, and it becomes aggressive and frustrating. In fact, about halfway through, the AI becomes so obnoxiously aggressive that players, especially those new to the series may be tempted to put down the controller.

It’s not like the game is hard either. Apart from the enemy AI, it’s a safe bet to assume that this‚ Need For Speedtitle was aimed at the casual market. It’s not unusual to beat a slew of high performance cars, with a much lower rated car. It’s understandable that with the success of movies like the‚ Fast and The Furious and the incredibly hot street racing scene, the developers would want to open their game up to a wider audience, but the uneven difficulty levels distract from the overall experience.

It would be nice to say that using the game’s new RPG like leveling system helps deal with the horrid AI and uneven gameplay, but in reality, it manages to do the exact opposite.‚  This new system, which borrows heavily from games like‚ World of Warcraft, rewards players for completing missions and races with stat points which can in turn be used to better your driving skills. These stats are also used almost as a rep system; the higher your stats, the more cars and missions are available to you.

While upgrading your “driver level” seems like a logical way to get on an even field with your opponents, the game’s AI seems to ramp as your stats do the same. This tactic of games adapting to the level of players has been done successfully in games like‚ Zelda: The WindWaker,‚ Resident Evil 4 and even this year’s Madden;‚ Undercover’s system comes off as unfair and frustrating.

There are a lot of bad kid’s games on the Wii, with even more to come during this holiday season, so we here at Blast are going to tell you about one of the better, younger skewing titles to invest your money into this winter. Backbone Entertainment’s “Monster Lab” is a game that will surely fly under the radar, but it’s worthy of more than that sad fate.

You play as a mad scientist in training who plans to join the Mad Science Alliance. Your initial contact to that organization is Dr. Fuseless, as the others have scattered due to poor leadership in the group. You will create, customize and fight in order to save the Uncanny Valley and restore the Mad Science Alliance. Yes, the plot is somewhat flimsy and disposable, but this is not a game you play because you are looking for story.

Creation is where it is at in “Monster Lab,” and you will have plenty of options to keep you busy. You find ingredients lying around, or have them given to you, or earn them by completing various mini-games and puzzles. You then use those to make parts, which you can then fuse together in order to build monsters from scratch or improve upon existing models, of which you can hold up to ten at a time.

While customization and creation are slow at first, you eventually unlock more and more items to create new parts that will keep all of your monsters from being the same. You will need different kinds of monsters too, as the game has a rock-paper-scissors quality to it, with mechanical parts doing more damage to biological parts, biological doing more damage to alchemical, and alchemical harming mechanical the most.

One thing that may irk some, though, is the fact that experimentation is forced upon you. You never know what you are making unless you have made it previously, and the values for the item-such as hit points, attack power, etc.-are not shown until after you have already completed building the part. While I understand wanting to make people experiment in a game based around building monsters in a laboratory, it adversely affects the rock-paper-scissors battle strategy, since it makes building specific parts for specific tasks more difficult.

Building parts can be fun though, as the mini-games that go along with this are entertaining, and the kind that you can improve upon in order to build even better parts. You do a lot of welding early on, which is essentially playing “trace the line” but it moves at odd angles and directions while giving you random spots to fill in along the way, meaning you will need to do well at this and pay attention in order to build powerful parts.

The turn-based battles are also fun, as there is a lot of strategy involved in them. You pick an attack, which uses a set amount of power, and you target a specific area, such as heads, arms, legs, or torso. You then carry out the attack in the hopes of knocking off a part that your opponent will no longer be able to use. You also need to recharge your battery though, which is done in two ways: you can recharge fully and leave yourself open to enemy attacks, or you can recharge one-third of your battery life and dodge your opponent’s advances.

Battles like this show you why it’s important to have a solid array of monsters from all three classes available to you, and to keep them up to speed with the most advanced parts you can make. You can heal in between battles on the world map, and you will need to, but this is gimmicky and gets annoying after a few times, as it is a tacked on waggle mechanic for the Wii version, and brings up a loading screen as well.

“Monster Lab” for Wii also boasts an online mode, but you cannot play against strangers, so unless a friend of yours (or your children’s friends) also own a copy, battling online is going to be disappointing. That is a letdown, as battling monsters against someone more intelligent than the AI is promising and adds greatly to the experience.

The presentation for the game is above-average, and light years ahead of what you expect from most titles that shoot for a younger audience. There is voice acting for many of the lines-though it’s occasionally so campy and over-the-top it is painful-and there are short, animated cutscenes that convey important moments of the story. The graphics themselves are quality, and if you dig the Tim Burton style of art, they are appealing as well, especially in the lab, which is designed for easy navigation as a hub world.

There are two areas where the presentation fall short though, and that is in the individual locations you travel to and in the way you see the game itself. The areas you travel to look somewhat like a game board, and not like the locations they are supposed to be at all, which is an aesthetic turn off, and looks out of place given the quality of the presentation elsewhere in “Monster Lab.”

As for the latter issue, you “view” the monster’s activity through a series of cameras, which means that battles and the aforementioned locations have a somewhat grainy and dingy look to them, compared to the colorful and bright cartoony world the game actually takes place in. This may not be a problem for all, but it is somewhat disappointing, given the look of the game elsewhere.

Not all of the mini-games you play are fun either, though you could do worse for a kid’s game on the Wii. Some of them are a bit repetitive, or a bit too long-or the opposite problem, where you have a fun one that is short-and others rely a little too much on waggling as fast or often as you can in order to advance. They do control well though, and there are plenty of them, which is more than you can say for a lot of less polished titles.

“Monster Lab” is surprisingly well put-together and polished, and it has plenty to offer as a title with replay value, due to the sheer number of different parts and monsters you can create. If the game sells better than expected, the online mode should also improve upon the experience. If you are looking for one game that skews younger this holiday season for your younger Wii-owning relatives or children, “Monster Lab” is a worthy entry into that discussion.

December 2008. Sony PlayStation 2 has been a viable product for eight years, selling about 140 million units wordwide, more than any other video game console in history.

The fact that we’re still talking about PlayStation 2 and still talking about new games being made only for the PlayStation 2 in the 2008 holiday season speaks volumes about what this console did for our industry. Today nearly 100 percent of children and teens play video games on some level.

Here at Blast, we’re big into nostalgia, but we don’t necessarily look to Pac Man and Space Invaders for our retro fix. PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Nintendo 64 and PC games from the 90s have given us a litany of content to draw from, especially with the entire reviews and news database from ReviewCenter.com.

Here is The Review Center’s PlayStation 2 Launch Guide from February 2000
By Tom Carroll, Review Center Staff

If you haven’t had the chance to play all 28 PlayStation 2 launch titles, now you don’t have to. Nobody has the disposable income to invest in crud, so we’ve taken the liberty of snagging a bit of the cream from the skim. We’ve got the skinny on which titles are phat and which fall flat.

Refreshingly (and unlike the Dreamcast’s launch, which was mostly made up of driving games of dubious distinction) the PS2 launch has a few candidates from each of most popular genres: action, sports, racing, and, surprisingly, RPG.

We also realize that no one wants to read too much at launch. Full reviews of each launch title will follow in short order. For now, strap on your helmet, grab the ol’ dual shock controller, and get ready to have your horizons expanded:

Armored Core 2
Agetec
From Software
Action
1-2 Players

The PlayStation’s main mech, or AC, is back in action with the best-looking ACs ever in a game of this sort. Armored Core 2 is the fourth in the series, but the true sequel to the first game, and the first of the series on PS2. With literally hundreds of parts to improve and alter your mech, and dozens of single player levels to battle in, players can enjoy lone play time, or they can venture into two-player split-screen action. While it plays much like previous games in the series, Armored Core 2 looks fabulous.

DOA2: Hardcore
Tecmo
Fighting
1-4 Players

If you’re only going to buy one fighter for your PS2, this is the one. It has more of everything than anything else out there. You want characters? It’s got ‘em. You want costumes? Ditto. You want arenas, breakaway walls, dramatic falls, slaps, punches, kicks, combos, tag elements (that leave you breathless), well, DOA2: Hardcore lives up the hype and continues shoveling it on long after the others have quit. This game is the sine qua non (for those of you classically challenged, that means, “the bomb”) and it easily tops Namco’s best efforts to date.

Dynasty Warriors 2
Koei
Action
1 Player

If you like your action fast and furious, DW2 may just be the game for you. You take on the persona of one of eight ancient Chinese heroes, each with different skills. Navigating via a huge map, you get to ride a stallion, battle bad boss guys, and formulate a strategy that leads to success. No other game will have as many characters simultaneously on screen, which may be frightening at first. This explains the furious part; the game is also a tad short in terms of gameplay — which explains the fast.

FantaVision
Sony Computer Entertainment America
Puzzle
1 Player

When Konami wanted to have one of its teams learn the PS2 development environment, it said, “Make an update of Gradius III and IV,” which is what happened (the game will be released within the month). When Sony Computer Entertainment International (SCEI) wanted the same thing for one of its teams, it said, “Make me a colorful puzzle game that involves fireworks.” Fanta Vision is the result. You link together same-colored fireworks as they fall from the sky to achieve various point totals. It is a beautiful game and one that will keep adult gamers interested for roughly the same time as a first-run movie. You do the math — movie = $8.50; Fanta Vision = $53.00 (tax included). See you at the movies.

Eternal Ring
Agetec
From Software
RPG
1 Player

Eternal Ring is a Japanese game in search of a US following. Its story involves science and magic, but the uninspired story makes it difficult to imagine that anyone will stay engaged long enough to plumb the more than 100 spells that are available. Less than inspired visuals and localized voiceovers drop this title to the bottom third of the bunch.

ESPN Winter X Games Snowboarding
Konami
KCE Osaka
Sports
1-2 Players

While SSX is the snowboarding king, it is a fanciful look at the sport. For the serious snowboarder who wants more realism in his/her gaming, there is ESPN WXGS (that’s Winter X Games Snowboarding, but we’re tired and we’re not typing that out any more). This game has the real deal: trademarked boards; signature riders; courses modeled after real terra firma. While the controls for this game don’t disappoint and the tricks are the bomb, there are times when you wish this game would just bust a bit more loose. Kudo to the Create-A-Boarder feature; it’s a winner.

Evergrace
Agetec
From Software
1 Player

Now that RPGs are back in vogue for console systems, isn’t it nice that the PS2 gets a capable one at launch. Darius and Sharline are the two main characters in Evergrace. They get involved in some pretty dark deeds, but it’s the game’s unique “Free Growth System” that stands center stage. Using the FGS, you can allocate experience points to any of a number of abilities. Not to be outdone, the game’s “Full Dress System” allows the player to dress his/her character from head to toe prior to battle, all of which affects the way the character fights. While Evergrace is the only true RPG in the launch bunch, you wouldn’t be disappointed if you gave it a try.

Gun Griffon Blaze
Working Designs
Game Arts
Action
1 Player

This should actually be called Fun ‘n Gun Griffon Blaze, becaue it’s a fast start boullion of battles and blasting. The worlds aren’t going to set your hair on fire (because the geometry and textures are somewhat simple, but what a rush it is to fly at one opponent, blast it into smithereens, then jet over to another hotspot and start blasting. You’ve also got a cool zoom feature for targeting that involves speed blur and such. Hot action; cool tech.

Kessen
Electronic Arts
KOEI
Adventure
1 Player

PS2′s launch lineup has room for everyone and everything, it seems. Even Kessen. One of the few original launch titles in Japan, the powers that be must have gone through some real gyrations before deciding to localize it for Western tastes. The results are generally good: the graphics and cinemas are first-rate; the strategy portions, while competent, are a bit tedious. If you measure your gaming pleasure in hours instead of emotions, Kessen may just pass muster.

Madden NFL 2001
Electronic Arts
EA Sports
Sports
1-8 Players

Electronic Arts’ Madden 2K1 is one of the most sophisticated games to launch with the PS2. It has to be. It’s football, for cryin’ out loud. But this is one console that goes much deeper than a new coat of paint and some new spark plugs in the engine. The amount of precision that you have to have to compete has been increased (now you have to not only hit the open man, you have to hit him when his head is turned back toward the passer when the ball is in the air). Skill, fatigue and injury are more of a part of this game than any before because the engine and graphics renderer have the ability to actually turn concepts and theories into gameplay actions. By making launch with more than just a collection of pretty helmets, EA has served notice to Sony’s own that an ordinary GameDay 2K1 will just not do.

Midnight Club: Street Racing
Rockstar Games
Angel Studios
Racing
1-2 Players

Somebody once said, “I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would have me as a member.” Perhaps this is true of Midnight Club. At first the visuals and audios impress one as less rather than more. The opening movie is a shambles; the vehicles shine as though they were carved from blocks of plastic. Play the game for a while, however, and the personality of the thing starts to show through. The taunts really do get under your skin; the challenges are easy enough to catch your attention but become tough quickly so as to hold it. If Midnight Club succeeds at all, it will be because substance triumphed over style.

Moto GP
Namco
Racing
1-2 Players

It’s a shame that some games have to betray their roots as quickly as they do. Moto GP is a game that can be mastered in no time, which makes it a disaster for the home market. Such a shame, too, because you’ll never see a prettier game on any platform. The bikes are sweet; nearly every surface is awash in somebody’s logo; tracks are totally trick. If Moto GP succeeds (and racing games are often more popular than they deserve to be) it will be because style triumphed over substance.

NHL 2001
Electronic Arts
EA Sports
Sports
1-8 Players

Both Madden and NHL 2K1 show EA’s desire to deliver more of the “good stuff” right out of the gate. The problem is that sometimes higher polygon counts and richer textures mean a gummed up renderer unable to cope. Such is the case, especially with NHL 2K1. It’s a pretty title, to be sure, but the lack of snappy moves and an AI that’s too cagey with the difficulty setting ramped up will surely doom this game — fast in the past — to a slow start out of the PS2 gate.

Orphen
Activision
Kadokawa Shoten
RPG
1 Player

Orphen tries to be a hybrid of RPG and fighting game. Taken singly or as a whole, it is a failure. Orphen is an unappreciated and underrated sorcerer trying to make his way in the world. He joins up with various folks for various reasons, ultimately taking him (and them) to Chaos Island for some showdowns with various bad guys. The game looks nice, but the battling system is repetitive and boring, making an otherwise engaging story not worth the bother. Save your yen for a better game about some other lost cause.

Q-Ball Billiards Master
Take 2
ASK
Sports
1-2 Players

This game is pool as it’s often played: by the book and with little panache. The physics are steady and the player is given more than enough control to attempt any shot, even if they aren’t all accomplished. If you’re looking to play a bit more fast and loose with the “sport,” try Konami’s Real Pool.

Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2
Midway
Sports
1-2 Players

If you liked the first game in series (on whichever platform you played it on — wasn’t it ported to play on cell phones?) you’ll love the PS2 sequel. All the previou modes are retained; added are a tournament mode and career mode. You can also fight against a teeny slate of celebs — which was better for pre-launch marketing teasers than it actually is in the game. While R2R Boxing: Round 2 won’t be the only boxing game on PS2 forever, it will always be tops in kooky fun.

Ridge Racer V
Namco
Racing
1-2 Players

Namco is guilty, guilty, guilty — of a little bad judgement. The company decided to take a luke warm PS2 J-launch title and seve it up even colder to US audiences. The game lacked antialiasing and had problems with framerate flickering when it was being played in and around Tokyo (and in our office, too, of course). Such techno bugaboos could have been eradicated for the US launch, but Namco decided to put its efforts elsewhere. RRV is a good racing game, especially for those who’ve fallen for past incarnations of the game. However, front end be damned (and the game’s start, selection, and option screens are drop-dead gorgeous) can’t cover over this game’s warts.

Silent Scope
Konami
Shooter
1 Player

A gun! A gun! My kingdom for a gun! This stiff, ultra-formal remake of the arcade hit is just that . a remake of an arcade hit. It suffers mightily from control, as the sniper rifle that made the arcade version so infectiously fun isn’t anywhere to be found (and don’t look for some desperate hardware manufacturer to make one on a whim, either). If you enjoyed the arcade title so much that you want to burn up $53 to have it at home, you won’t be disappointed. If you played all the way through the arcade shooter, you probably don’t have $53 to your name any more . but you really won’t need to bother with it either.

Smuggler’s Run
Rockstar Games
Angel Studios
Racing
1-2 Players

This game is getting good word or mouth because you get to be a smuggler and haul illicit cargoes around various (somewhat) scenic locales. It’s getting good media attention because the environments are humongous and the game’s draw in distance (the farthest point you can see without needing fogging, etc.) is so far. Smuggler’s Run seems to be selling because of both of these reasons, as well as because it’s well crafted and addictively fun. Smuggle one home yourself — if you can find a copy…

SSX
Electronic Arts
EA Canada
Sports
1-2 Players

SSX (we assume that stands for Super Snowboarding Extreme) is the hottest of the 28 launch titles. It’s highly original and addictive. The character and track designs completely blow away everyone else in the pack. The boys (and girls) at EA Canada are to be congratulated on creating a game that will play just as fresh in Boulder, Colorado, Heidelberg, Germany, or Yokahama, Japan. You take you place at the starting line as one of six contestants from far-flung corners of the world. You have to master each course’s layout, flesh out your own skills as ‘boarding and trickstyling, while finishing in the money at the end of each race. Along the way you’ll unlock other characters, new courses, and better equipment. There isn’t a game around (since MTV Snowboarding of a few years back) that allowed you to catch such air and flip out over the tricks like SSX. The game should become one of (if not the) top seller for EA Sports because it has equal appeal for women as for men. Watch out Madden, this one’s gonna leave you stuck in the powder.

Street Fighter EX3
Capcom
Fighting
1-4 Players

If you read any of the reviews of the uninspired PS2 J-launch title, this game ain’t changed much in the interim. Fans of the title’s other better efforts will no doubt pick it up so they can have them all on the shelf, but don’t look for this fighter to set anyone’s knickers on fire.

Summoner
THQ
Volition
1 Player

Summoner is a sprawling mass of RPG gaming. It may have a good story line, but it shows its feet of clay by not being able to render large terrain objects that are really amazingly close to your action. Because of the nasty draw in distances and insane fogging, the summoning part of this game should have been your character summoning huge masses of hillside to appear and dissapear merely by walking toward and away from them. Interesting game design … bad implementation.

Swing Away Golf
Electronic Arts
Sports
1-4 Players

Swing Away Golf is to the game of golf what cotton candy is to a filet minion steak. To say it’s golf lite is to demean the word “lite..” All this having been said, it is a fun little romp with anime characters and a mean little physics engine that really does the job. Other than the game taking a nasty little hop when going from when you use the swing game to the time your character actually swings, it’s all pretty sweet. One word of advice, choose the knowledgeable and sympathetic caddy characters; the others are grist in te wheels of life — at least as far as Swing Away Golf is concerned.

Tekken Tag Tournament
Namco
Fighting
1-2 Players

While this game ain’t no DOA2: Hardcore (see above), it is the best Tekken game ever made. It’s doubtful that Namco set out to set the gaming industry’s collective hair on fire with this one . they just had to give the gamer all the Tekken they wanted without messing up the look, the controls, or the framerate. In this, they have succeeded and this title will sell well because of it. The US version of the game is essentially the same as the Japanese title, allowing Namco to devote its resources to other titles that will appear at or near launch. Caution: If you’re looking for something more out of this game than “Just Plain Tekken” you may be disappointed. If you just want an update and a new coat of paint, it’s the game for you.

TimeSplitters
Free Radical Design, Ltd.
Eidos Interactive
First-Person Shooter
1-4 Players

In the wake of the PS2 launch, TimeSplitters is one game that’s getting noticed. Speed kills and TimeSplitters delivers it at Mach 10. Modelled a bit after GoldenEye and Perfect Dark (no surprise since most of the developers are ex of Rare), this game allows you to be a free radical (pun intended) running and gunning around throughout the halls of history. Split time, not hairs — this is a fun game to play, with or without your friends.

Unreal Tournament
Infogrames
Epic Games
Action
1-4 Players

You want it, you got it, Sony. A launch with a bunch of no-name titles isn’t as much fun as inviting a few of the big boyz to join in. Unreal Tournament (along with Madden 2K1, Tekken Tag, and Ridge Racer V) fills the bill nicely. It’s a lush implementation of the original PC game with bows made to console controls. Various configurations are available, including keyboard and mouse set-ups. Have a lot of spare TVs around, hook up four units, four games, four TVs via I-like and you’ve got a UT party. You don’t even need the Planter’s Peanuts.

Wild Wild Racing
Interplay
Rage Software
1-2 Players

Tired of the same old modified ovals? Ready for a game that has some real off road teeth? Wild Wild Racing is the anti-Ridge Racer … it’s so good at times that it’ll shake you. Interplay’s staff modified the game’s Japanese control setup to emphasize power sliding. The result? You can fly around these off road race courses and hit the turns without

X-Squad
Electronic Arts
Action
1 Player

Inevitably, for every SSX there is an X-Squad. This game really needed a little more time in the bullpen to make it a more complete player. The game has some flashes of competence, but a monster contingent of weapons plus a minimum amount of fun inter- and intra-squad play doesn’t make for a complete game. Visual style aside, the art also needed to be much better to compete with other games (including EA’s own) in the ultra slick PS2 launch lineup. More later on this one . but you really get the picture in a paragraph.

Tom Carroll was one of the top gaming writers for ReviewCenter.com. If you’re still out there, Tom, Blast needs you!

cause Im baaaaaaaaaack
Yes, Im baaaaaaaaaaack
Well, Im back
Yes, Im back
Well, Im back, back
(well) Im back in black
Yes, Im back in black

Hell yes. Even though it’s been relegated to Walmart and online retailers, the AC/DC Live Track Pack for Rock Band is just awesome.

You don’t need the original Rock Band disc for any of the PlayStation 2/3 or Xbox 360 versions of this standalone title, which lets you relive the 1991 live performance at Donington with Brian Johnson, Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams, and Chris Slade.

The pack includes 99 minutes of music and 18 songs including “Thunderstruck,” “Jailbreak,” “Dirty Deeds,” “Hells Bells,” “You Shook Me All Night Long,” “Highway to Hell,” “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)” and, of course, “Back in Black.”

We like that this is a standalone game that you can jump into right away.

Not much else to say. You have Rock Band. You need this.

It’s no real secret as to why the Lego games appeal to a wide generation of gamers. While the younger set enjoys the run and jump style platforming and easy accessible gameplay, the shall we say, more seasoned of us will appreciate the nostalgic heart, and subtle nods to some of the most famous movies of all time. While, Lego Batman, the newest title to be released in the Lego series does retain the familiarity of the the Star Wars and Indiana Jones titles, it’s fails to deliver much more.‚ 

The heart of the previous Lego games comes from the fact that the story-lines are ripped directly from the films. Half the fun comes from watching developer Traveller’s Tales comically recreate some of the most memorable scenes from movie history in block form. Though the cut-scenes are completely void of any sort of dailauge or captions, they’re done so creatively that the emotions portrayed by the Lego characters are enough. Rather than base the story of Lego Batman on the films, the title features an all new story based more on comics. Though it’s a novel idea, it does cause the game to lose some of it’s heart, becoming just another run of the mill platformer. Sure, you’ll crack a smile at some of the antics, but that charm that made the earlier games great is notably gone.

There have always been two sides to the Batman mythos. Theres’ the family friendly, Saturday morning cartoon like Caped Crusader that kids love, and then there’s the dark, vengeful Batman as seen in this Summer’s blockbuster; The Dark Knight. Though technically the same character, the two worlds couldn’t be more different. Unfortunately, Lego Batman suffers from a bit of an identity crisis as it attempts to create a Batman world with influences from both ends of the spectrum. While the villains, supporting cast (especially Robin — who’s role is nothing more than blundering comic foil) and story feel like they could be from a lost episode of the campy Adam West television show, the protagonist is a complete contrast. Lego Batman’s main character is a stone faced, brooding hero — who is a complete and utter bore to play. While Batman’s rouges gallery has always featured some of the most interesting characters to ever grace the funny books, it’s a problem when it feels like a chore to play as a game’s title character. Though, it is a nice touch that the developers didn’t take the easy way out bu only including the well-known Bat-villains; as names like Hush and The Mad Hatter are not only represented, they’re playable.

Gameplay wise, Lego Batman is solid — ‚ even if it’s all been done before. Though the game follows the same run, jump and collect formula as those before it; it’s still quite fun — especially for the younger crowd. For those new to the series, you control two characters from the Bat-world, as they traverse a Lego themed Gotham city. Some of the levels are incredibly puzzle heavy, which can be good, but also can be downright annoying as some of the puzzles border on annoyingly frustrating. Often times you’ll spend hours trying to solve one, and end up banging your head on the wall once you find out how easy the solution was.‚ 

There’s no doubt that Lego Batman will sell like crazy, it’s the kind of game that kids will flock to and those in the market for a quick, light-weight platformer will find much to like about Lego Batman, but anyone looking for something more will want to stick with previous installments.

Warning: Oh Crave Entertainment … I’m so sorry. This a complete rant. I’m glad you put Pinochle into your game, but you failed to account for house rules. And Pinochle players take their game very seriously.

Normally, the chance to play Pinochle on my PlayStation would make me jump up and down and recommend the game no matter what the shortcomings.

But no. They messed up the rules.

Well clearly the integration with the PlayStation 2 Eye Toy and challenging others over broadband would just be awesome.

But no. I don’t think anyone actually owns the game.

Then, surely a challenging computer opponent and feisty computer teammate would result in hours of addictive entertainment in your game package, which includes Spades, Hearts, Rummy, bridge, Crazy 8′s and 10 kinds of Solitaire, right? No, no, NO, god dammit, NO.

How on Earth do you muck up CARDS? CARDS? It’s one of the most basic principles of video games. People have been doing it in computer games forever, and I have been reviewing card games since I was 13 years old. (The awful, awful writing is evident.)

Pinochle. It is my family game. I’ve been playing it since I was 4 years old, and I’m escatic to see it in a PlayStation 2 video game, but there are just two problems. The first problem is that the artificial intelligence is not intelligent, usually just throwing out cards without much strategy. And forget about online play.

Second of all, the rules are different and can’t be changed. Yes, I know there are more house rules and family rules in Pinochle than Monopoly, but I play a pretty standard (I think) game. Min. bid is 150, single deck, no passing cards, no auction bidding. In some games, I’ve seen players use two decks and teams pass cards around, but I’ve only seen card passing with double deck.

In World Championship Cards, bidding starts at 15 instead of 150, (manageable) and four cards get passed between the teammates who take the bid (stupid). Still, it’s Pinochle getting some sort of commercial recognition. I think it should be an Olympic sport, personally, or at least on ESPN with million-dollar tournaments.

Here’s the bottom line before I shut myself up finally. The AI isn’t smart, some of the rules are different, like no jokers in the game spades, but there’s enough of a variety to potentially justify spending the $7 that Amazon’s sellers are asking for the game. That is, of course, if you need another video card game product. Of course you do.

First time, long time.

For years, wrestling video games had done the way of the NFL: exclusive. With all due love and respect to them, THQ has had the WWE license forever, and before that they had the WCW license. They’ve been it for video game wrestling.

Enter Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, a scrappy little league featuring Kurt Angle, Sting, Booker T and a bunch of other guys who are fun to watch but just didn’t see themselves fitting Vince McMahon’s mold.

Now we have Midway’s TNA Impact!, giving Total Nonstop Action its own home entertainment franchise. And it’s a very decent first attempt.

While the storyline and character portrayals don’t go nearly far enough in capturing the essence and attitudes of the veteran wrestling names and personalities, the actual arcade-style gameplay is easy to pick up and offers plenty of thrills, suplexes, bodyslams and high-flying maneuvers.

The game features 25 TNA fighters and several of the specificities that make TNA an interesting wrestling enterprise like the six-sized ring and the Ultimate X match, where wrestlers have to climb ropes to a goal at the top — much like a ladder match.

The graphics and character models are excellent. Even in-game animations and moves look fluid and well-detailed. Attacks land with lots of force and really sell themselves.

In a way, “Impact!” feels a lot like some of the older wrestling games like the old LJN console hits like WrestleMania Challenge and WWF Royal Rumble. Obviously it looks and sounds great, even by today’s standards, but the persona of the game is very much based in the fighting and the moves, combos and animations surrounding the actual fighting. This isn’t surprising to me, because Midway is the company of Mortal Kombat. Even their previous WWF title, WrestleMania: The Arcade Game was regarded as an almost pure fighting game.

That said, the game could use more drama and story injected into its core, but if you’re looking for simple, pick-up-and-go action, TNA Impact! is a good way to go.

Sony put out a pretty good product in MLB 08 The Show, but that’s the problem.

Great visuals, good player models and “little thing” movements like head nods and celebrations. Pitching is superb, with the catcher calling out which pitch he wants and where he wants it. Fielding feels natural. There’s a deep career mode that goes form spring training, to the minors, to hopefully a big career in the pros.

But every video game baseball title has built on that since the 90s. They’ve all captured faces, swings, and pitch styles. They’ve all done pitching well (though The Show does stick out in this realm).

I want more than this.

MLB 08 The Show is really enjoyable, addictive, realistic and detailed, but I’ll sum up my complaints like this:

There’s a deep minor league system, where your player starts out at the bottom of the barrel and has to work his way up by training in drills and performing well in games. But the game doesn’t include any actual minor league stadiums, just generics. You also can’t “do” anything to make your player better. The “drills” and “practice sessions” are really just big point screens where you spend reward points that you earn based on game performance. There’s no skill. Play a game, spend points. Play a game, spend points.

I want to start out as a young draft pick, maybe go through the Cape Cod league, throw some bullpen sessions with a veteran coach in Rookie League. Warm up in the bullpen during a Single-A game. Throw warm-up pitches at the start of the inning and perform better or worse based on my warm-ups. You can’t do any of that in this game.

There’s also no coaching in the game. Your only interactions with the unseen team manager come from emails he sends you or virtual conversations you have where you can complain about playing time or ask to be traded – but you never actually “do” any of this. It’s all simulated and displayed as text.

I know what it means to be asking for so much more – but at least the AAA stadiums would be a nice touch. And put the coaches in the game for Christ’s sake. Playing the career mode is amazingly repetitive as it stands. I don’t feel like I’m really part of the experience, just along for the ride.

Exhibition mode is a good bet – there’s a great arcade feel to the gameplay. Batting can be a bitch though. Just learn how to time it correctly.

Overall, MLB 08 is a visually appealing high-def title with just enough holes to keep consumers buying it year after year. 

At worst, NCAA March Madness 2008 is a pretty solid game.

At best, NCAA March Madness 2008 is a pretty solid game. 

EA’s competitor with 2K’s College Hoops had high expectations. Fans of the relatively new series were disappointed in its predecessor, but anxious to see where EA would go with it this year. It’s an improvement, but they just didn’t go far enough.

The graphics are quite good. The atmosphere of a college basketball game could not have been captured any better. The fans constantly cheering and jeering, psyching out opposing teams while they are at the foul line, and the players actually look real. In this game; they actually have facial expressions depending on what they’re doing. It’s about as good as it’s gotten in a basketball video game.

The sound is another strong point. Voice-overs from Dick Vitale are good. He doesn’t just shot off a bunch of one-liners like in most sports simulation games. He has different ways of saying different things, and it doesn’t get too stale.

The gameplay has been revamped with more moves, especially in the post where players will find themselves able to move around freely. This is an improvement over what we saw in March Madness 07, which the game pretty much crumbled around.

The shooting system is also great — finally; a basketball simulation where luck doesn’t play the major role. Shots are hard to master, but when you get the system down, it becomes much easier.

You can also curve game physics around with sliders in the options menu, but physics is the biggest problem with this game.

The.

Game.

Is.

Slow.

It’s a ridiculously slow-moving game. The player movements are pretty choppy, and there is no turbo. Also, shot blocking is a near impossibility.

The online is good. It’s a mirror image of playing the game with a friend right next to you. As long as your friend is running broadband, lag isn’t an issue.

A huge array of playable teams, the best graphics to date on a basketball simulator game, and some great replay value are all huge pluses for this game, but March Madness 2008 suffers from poor gameplay that is just too slow. In the end, that’s going to be enough to sink this game from greatness.

Quick hits:

Publisher: EA Sports
Developer: EA Sports
Platform:Xbox 360 (reviewed), PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3
Genre: Sports
Players: 1-2
Launch Date: December 11, 2007

Playability: 3 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 3.5 out of 5 stars

This largely linear fantasy adventure, based on the book series of the same name, follows the adventures of the Grace family as they stumble into a unique situation when they move into a new house. Freddie Highmore does great double duty as twin brothers Jared and Simon while sister Mallory is voiced by Sarah Bolger. All three children do a fantastic job with their American accents and believable performances.

Jared seems detached while Simon avoids conflict at all costs. Sarah’s fencing skills are predictably handy when mysterious events begins happening around the house. The adventure begins as one of the siblings uncovers some amazing history about their great, great uncle Arthur Spiderwick, voiced by David Strathairn.

You can play as Jared, Simon, Mallory Grace and even small Thimbletack the Brownie throughout the chapter quests. Optional side quests are also available. As with other fantasy games like Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, etc. etc., you must use certain characters to complete certain level areas. Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You offers available help at any time (+ button) and background into finding hidden creatures like faeries and goblins. The guide also gives hints for your next task while providing background, interesting trivia and options/abilities.

The game has a good mix of puzzles and collection activities as well. Collect from ten types of faeries/sprites then keep up to three at a time. Get your creative juices flowing a bit by painting each sprite when you nab each one to record them in the guide. You can go back to capture free sprites, found in the same spot. Catching several of the same kind boosts their power. Observant players (plus players who have read the book) can take quicker advantage of the items while keeping others in mind for future use, though you can get stuck at times (e.g. finding the broomstick in the beginning turned into a bit of a chore for this reviewer).

Enemies include goblins (collect their teeth for bonuses), changelings, trolls and ogres. Attack movements and range weapons (e.g. tomato sauce gun) help you dispatch them fairly quickly, though the sprite power come in very handy for key battles, even the puzzles. The attack movements, which make good use of the Wii remote, include charge attacks (holding A then releasing) and regular charge by pointing the remote up.

Flipping the Nunchuk up to enact a sliding jump move, which has advantages in battle, but be sure to plan your direction on the Nunchuk before you do it. Options and button combinations allow you to set the camera to your liking, otherwise the way you move is pretty basic. Players can get to a center point in the environment then pan around or just run through every nook and cranny waiting for the interaction icons to appear.

The plotline (closely follows the film) predictably has a linear base, so you can’t always use exits when you want to. Moving through the dark environments (you can adjust the lighting) can be challenging as well. Most dead ends have a large solid black background.
The colorful icons help show the exits and key interaction points. Four save points help manage the progress/checkpoints, especially for younger players.

This game provides a nice bonus by allowing unlimited character switching once you complete the game. Other bonuses, including a competitive multiplayer mode, and unlockables reward you along the way too. Well schooled players can conquer the game quickly, but even without extensive knowledge (though cut scenes, with film’s stars, provide some background), most players can finish the game without hitting double digit hours, so the unlockables and multiplayer mode helps boost the replay value. Options for possible future installments could include designing your own sprite then sharing online plus participating in International Sprite League tournaments.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Sierra
Developer: Sierra
Platform: Wii (reviewed), Playstation 2, Xbox 360, DS, PC
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1

Playability: 3 out of 5 stars

So after months of camping out in front of stores in the freezing cold, you finally got your Wii. Like an eager child, you quickly opened the box and played through the little quirky system’s top titles. You’ve developed tennis elbow from your marathon Wii Sports sessions; you’ve battled from one end of Hyrule to the other in Twilight Princess — hell, you’ve even collected all the stars the cosmos could offer in Super Mario Galaxy. Now you’re looking for that next title to warrant your $250 white box.

Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure is not that title.

In fact, it’s not close. Sea Monsters has almost no redeeming qualities and puts up a good fight for worst game on the system — and that’s saying something.

Sea Monsters is based on an ambitious and interesting CGI documentary produced last year by National Geographic, which showed what many believe the lives of these giant sea creatures were like. DSI games has chosen to forgo all of this and make a game with little to no direction which consists merely of eating, breathing and awkward swimming.

Yeah, that’s the whole game.

The game revolves around guiding your sea monster through the murky depths of the ocean, competing in challenges and collecting fossils. Why prehistoric beasts are collecting fossils is beyond me, but most of the action — and the game’s, uh, progression — revolves around your obtaining them.

It’s through these fossils that new creatures (each with it’s own unique abilities) and challenges are unlocked, but you’ll be hard pressed to make it through the challenges through the force of sheer boredom alone.

Most of the challenges revolve around eating creatures smaller than yours against no time limit or oppressing factor. While this may sound easy, the game’s utterly horrible control system makes even the smallest tasks incredibly difficult and frustrating. Pressing A causes your creature to swim, while the combination of the nunchuck and moving the Wiimote navigates.

Let’s do a simple math equation shall we? Slow moving, lethargic sea monsters plus overly sensitive Wiimote controls equals what? If your answer included anything about frustration or annoyance, you’d be correct. The camera moves too quickly for any of the monsters to keep up, causing you to get turned around and lost in an already confusing map. What’s worse is the fact that when your monsters hits the ocean walls or floor, creatures have a tendency to merge with the walls and get stuck. When this happens there seems to be no other option than to move the Wiimote around like crazy, hoping that some sudden movement will free the creature.

You know a game looks bad when the best compliment you can give is “Well, the load screens don’t look half bad.” While the load screens (merely a picture of a Sea Monster) aren’t that bad, Sea Monsters looks like a first generation N64 game. It’s blocky, pixilated and bland. More often than not, you’ll have trouble distinguishing your character from the others on screen. Yeah, it’s that bad.

Perhaps my biggest pet peeve with Sea Monsters is that it could be so much more. Sure, it was never destined to be a AAA title, but with the inspired source material it could have at least been a decent and game that actually served to educate kids at the same time. Instead, we get a game that no one, should ever play. Ever.

Quick hits:

Publisher: DSI Games
Developer: DSI Games
Platform: Wii (reviewed), PS2, DS
Genre: Is crap a genre? Uh, Adventure?
Players: 1-2
Launch Date: December 27, 2007

Playability: 1 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 1 out of 5 stars
Sound: 0 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 1 out of 5 stars
Overall: 1 out of 5 stars

SNK Playmore’s King of Fighters XI is very similar in all respects to their recent NeoGeo Battle Coliseum in that it is a purely two dimensional fighting game that appeals almost exclusively to hardcore two dimensional fighting game fans.

It’s a one trick pony.

King of Fighters XI revolves around a new tournament that has been announced. You have to fight through the toughest fighters int he land to unlock the mystery behind a stolen “Orochi Seal” and “Yata Mirror.”

But you’ll have to take my word for it. There is no true “story mode” to the game, and there is no cinematic intro to set the stage for the tournament. Most players are just pretty much going to jump in — and depending on how good the player is, you’ll see a ton of button mashing. Plus the single-player boss is really overwhelming.

The game is better in a two-player environment. It’s always fun to beat the bejesus out of your friends.

XI features a three-character team play mode and 47 characters to choose from, with three new ones added. Also look for new abilities like quick shift, saving shift and dream cancel.

It’s one of the better pure 2D fighting games out there right now, but there also aren’t a ton of them in development right now. King of Fighters XI is one of the best in a long-standing series, and the sheer number of players and different moves will keep you entertained for hours trying to figure it all out.

I mean, what can I really say? The graphics suck, like like Battle Coliseum (16-bit anyone?) and the game gets really boring if you don’t get good quick and you’re not a traditional fighting game player. But you probably wouldn’t look for this game unless you were into the genre.

My favorite part was playing as Ramon — who is Mexican, looks pasty white on character select screens, is black in the game, and speaks Japanese while fighting.

The game quickly gets hard, and despite the 14 endings, don’t expect to beat it anytime soon.

Quick hits:

Publisher: SNK Playmore
Developer: SNK Playmore
Platform: PlayStation 2
Genre: Fighting
Players: 1-2
Launch Date: November 13, 2007

Playability: 3 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 3 out of 5 stars
Sound: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 2 out of 5 stars
Overall: 3 out of 5 stars

Proving Ground is the deepest “X-sport” video game ever developed, and that means something considering the Tony Hawk franchise singularly created the alternative sport video game genre.

That said, Neversoft should have done a hell of a lot more testing.

Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground brings new features like “nail the grab” and the speedy aggro kick to the table, but two main negatives prevent the game from being truly great.

First of all, there are several graphical glitches like getting stuck behind objects that slow things down. This leads to the second problem — not made any better by the graphical glitches. The goals are often ridiculously hard to get passed on the lowest, “amateur” mode. The other two levels of difficulty are “pro” and “sick.” Indeed it would be absolutely sick to accomplish some of the goals on “sick” mode.

Proving Ground breaks the game up into three distinct player paths, which involve career aspirations, rigging and tough street skating. You’ll find yourself going after all three to keep things interesting and to learn new skills.

The “separate but equal” game mode model is a sidestep from previous Hawk games that usually bind random skate life aspects into a linear game. Now you have the freedom to focus on what interests you. I liked going after the career mode, making videos and competing against other skaters, and then I would fall back on my “roots” and do some street goals like taking back the local skate park from hoodlums and skate checking people across the road.

The story is fun, and like I said it’s really deep involving a ton of professional skaters like Jeff King, Mike Vallely and Dustin Dollin. The game just doesn’t go far enough. You’ll spend several hours battling a whiny little runt with a tricked out car who’s supposed to be a great skater. You complete against him in two big competitions, but the game doesn’t cut away — you never see him compete or land and big tricks. It’s just assumed. The game has a million videos showcasing every goal and pro you’ll encounter, but the videos are just highlights that don’t have any bearing on the game. There aren’t any real epic story cutaways.

The competitions are a joke. They’re like every other goal — you get timed and have to rack up points, or you fail. I wanted to see some X-Games, live on ESPN style scenes. Tons of pros lend their voices, so have some of them do commentary … just make the scenes more interesting.

Still, rigging is the weakest point and makes everything else look gold. The editing mode is really buggy, and the things you build never work quite as intended. This made the “Jeff’s Demo” goal really hard to get past.

Throughout the game, you’ll find yourself trying to time tricks just right for magazine photo shoots and videos. This is a fun element that adds a lot to the standard gameplay. The standard gameplay is fun in and of itself. Proving Ground recreates an interesting map of Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington D.C. As expected, every jersey barrier, curb, fountain, electrical wire, train track and federal government monument is usable for air, grinding and all kinds of tricks.

Once I created my character and put him in Globe gear, I had plenty of fun trying to master a backside indy 720, but in the end, this became a game that I picked up to let of 10 minutes of steam, get really frustrated, throw the Sixaxis and try again and again until I barely scrape by the slash grinding the pool or rigging some god-awful contraption.

Proving Ground is fun, and most of the graphics look beautiful. But you’re gonna throw the Sixaxis. Poor bastard of a controller never gets a break.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Activision
Developer: Neversoft Entertainment
Platform: PlayStation 3 (reviewed), Xbox 360, Wii, Playstation 2, Nintendo DS,
Genre: Sports
Players: 1-2 (Online 2-8)
Launch Date: September 12, 2007

Playability: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 2 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 3 out of 5 stars

The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night, starts the game off with a recap from the last game, where Spyro defeated the evil dragon Cynder. After Spyro defeated Cynder, she turned into a little dragon, just like Spyro. When Spyro saw that she was like him, he had to save her from the dark power. He escapes with her and brings her back to his castle.

The first level of this game is his escape with Cynder. It’s supposed to be escaping a nightmare — they made the level so dark though, it’s nearly impossible to see in most lighting on the original DS. I found this very annoying.

The game played similar to other Spyro games though. It is a 3D world that Spryo jumps, flies and moves around in. Spyro is a good game for younger gamers. The fighting style isn’t well put together — it tries to use the pen/touch features, but you end up slamming buttons all around.

The puzzles are done well though. They use the pen and are long enough. They also use it better, moving pieces of the puzzle around on a grid to solve it. They are fairly easy puzzles, but again the game is aiming itself for a younger generation.

Overall, the pen fighting is a pain, but the rest of the game was fairly solid platformer. It’s still pretty generic, and the lighting early on is awful.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Sierra
Developer: Amaze Entertainment
Platform: Nintendo DS (reviewed), GBA, Wii, PS2
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1
Launch Date: October 2, 2007

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 3 out of 5 stars
Overall: 3 out of 5 stars

This review originally appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 2002.

An evil force by the name of “Spooky” has been unleashed by those dastardly ghosts and it’s up to everyone’s favorite pepperoni-slice shaped yellow hero to make sure Pac-World is rid of this ancient evil.

The objective of the game is to collect various “Gold Fruits” Once you collect them all you will be able to do away with Spooky by ways of sealing him in a…er…tree. Ok, so the storyline isn’t that great, but c’mon, this is PacMan we’re talking about here; PacMan don’t need no stinking storyline.

Munching power-pellets and chomping ghosts is what PacMan is all about. How, you ask, was this simple concept used to create a wildly entertaining 3D platform game? With a little help from our good friend innovation. This arcade-turned-platform game borrows from a few different game designs and successfully integrates them all into one solid, respectable title.

PacMan World 2 feels like it was influenced from games like Crash Bandicoot, Super Mario World, Sonic Adventure, Klonoa and even Super Monkey Ball. What is surprising is that Namco was able to extract all the fundamentally entertaining aspects of these games without botching the project along the way. Not to say that Namco has a tendency to churn out poorly executed titles, but even the most respected companies sometimes set they’re sights a little too high — State of Emergency and Ehrgeiz for example. The only detrimental thing that this game has inherited from its predecessors is the sometimes in-the-way camera issues.

Every stage comes complete with a uniquely animated and entertaining loading screen, although it hardly seems necessary since the loading times are practically non-existent. But it does go to show that Namco’s development team did not at any time rest on their laurels, so to speak, during the creation of this game. While the visuals are fundamentally simple, the series basic design looks appropriately evolved on the current hardware that it runs on. Which is to say that PacMan is incredibly cool looking.

Real-time rendering is colorful, well animated, and boasts some impressive visual techniques on top of its already sweet looking cartoon graphics. Every atmospheric element that the game offers is equally good looking, the visual quality is consistent all the way through. There is not much in the way of cut-scenes, outside of the cool looking opening cinema there are only a few instances where dialog transpires.

In some respects the game’s sound is blissfully retro, at times using the same exact sound effects found in the arcade original. Music consists of around 20 original musical scores, which effectively give an added sense of immersion into the game’s beautifully rendered universe. Each track was specifically composed to compliment the stage that they appear in. The Haunted Boardwalk level sports spooky Halloween-like music while the stage “Volcanic Panic” includes tribal-influenced tunes. Namco did a great job in the sound department.

PacMan World 2 is an adventure game complete with a Super Mario Bros 3 type world map. The in-game play control style is fully 3D but is also similar to SMB3 in the sense that it offers top-notch, well thought out, running-and-jumping dynamics. What keeps this game from being in the same league as the classics however is its unbalanced difficulty and short life span. For how well the game looks, it is pleasantly surprising to find gameplay that is equally appealing. PW2′s nagging camera issues are somewhat diminished by the fact that the game actually lets you know when the camera is only partly functional or completely inoperable, by means of an on-screen notification.

PacMan is equipped with a few cool maneuvers to assist him on the journey, like the ‘Butt Bounce’ which launches Pac into the air like a super-ball, and the ‘Rev Roll’ that propels him forward — not unlike Sonic’s dash ability. He also has a flip kick that you can perform by pressing the B button while you are in the air, although this particular move is rarely required and seems like it was thrown in as an afterthought. PacMan will run, jump, scale ledges, and tiptoe across rope-thin bridges Monkey Ball-style. PacMan World 2 is about far more then just running around and jumping, you’ll don a pair of ice-skates and be set loose down a steep, winding mountain of ice while avoiding hazards and collecting items, equip a pair of flippers and get down with some aquatic action, and even pilot a PacMan shaped submarine. Namco has really put PacMan through his paces in this title, pitting the little yellow sphere in situations that Lara Croft would think twice about.

There is an arcade on the first stage that you can go back to at any time. In the arcade you will find a slew of emulated PacMan iterations of the past. The roster reads like this; PacMan, Ms. PacMan, PacMania, PacAttack, and a custom PacMan World 2 Maze game. An entire collection of fun games is at your disposal, assuming you have collected enough ‘Tokens’. Tokens are strewn throughout each stage, and as you collect them more Pac-Man games will be unlocked. This adds considerably to the replayability of Pa-Man World 2, as you will inevitably go back to previous levels to collect more tokens.

It’s quite apparent at first glance that this game is wicked enjoyable. PacMan World: 20th Anniversary was a great platforming game for the PSX and was somewhat overlooked in its time, hopefully this game will not suffer from the same fate. Assuming your down with platformers, you’ll be thoroughly entertained from beginning to end.

This brings me to my next point; the time it actually takes to get to the end is far too short. Expect to complete the game in around six hours. But I am not one to look a gift-horse in the mouth, what is there is fun — and fun is fun. The included arcade mini-games just sweeten the deal. PacMan World 2 exonerates PacMan from the horribly disappointing PacLand games and the freakishly wrong cartoon on which the game was loosely based. If solid, entertaining, platforming action floats your boat, you would be well advised to pick this title up.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Namco
Developer: Namco
Platform: PS2, Gamecube
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1
Launch Date: March 13, 2002

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 5 out of 5 stars
Support: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 2002

Though you may never hear it in the game, NeGeo Battle Coliseum is set in February 2017 by new Japanese calendar. A man is trying to take over the NeoGeo world by defeating the strongest warriors and claiming the title. If that power were to fall into his hands, contol of the enter world would only be a step away.

Mortal Combat 2 for Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo had better graphics than NeoGeo Battle Coliseum. Sound too.

To that effect, if this game came out in the early 90s, it would have been a miserable failure going up against Street Fighter and Mortal Combat.

But that just sort of makes sense, because the game is a collection of all the characters from the classic NeoGeo fighting games, which sorta did get their asses kicked by Capcom and Midway.

The NeoGeo fighters have always been looked on by the gaming world with a certain nostalgic level of respect. The games weren’t as good as their competitors. The graphics were excellent on the NeoGeo, but that was years ago, and not much has changed in the games.

What you get with Battle Coliseum is some serious hardcore fighting game value. This is a game that literally just came out a few weeks ago, brand new, and it’s $14.95. This is astonishing considering one of the games represented, World Heroes, went for $200 in 1993.

You get to play as characters from World Heroes, Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, Samurai Showdown, Last Blade, Metal Slug and Kizuna Encounter — over 40 total characters.

Battle Coliseum is a great pick-up-and-go multiplayer game. There are tons of special moves, and the fights are based on tag-team action where you pick two fighters and swap back and forth.

In the end, however, NeoGeo Battle Coliseum is fun for about an hour unless you consistently have someone to fight against. The story elements just aren’t there to keep you company for a long solo journey. Most of all, this D-pad-using game turns into a button masher for most.

This is a classic late release for a previous generation platform.

If you’re a veteran fighting gamer, this is technically a must have if even for its historical significance — plus it’s like 15 bucks, so you really won’t have any regrets either way.

Quick hits:

Publisher: SNK Playmore
Developer: SNK Playmore
Platform: PS2
Genre: 2D Fighter
Players: 1-2
Launch Date: December 17, 2007

Playability: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 2 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 3 out of 5 stars

In a way, Crash of the Titans represents everything about Playstation 2 in 2008 — still bloody good, but there’s not a whole lot more to expect out of it.

Even without its original creator, Crash Bandicoot is still a strong video game franchise, and it’s the best thing Sierra has going for it right now.

“The evil Neo Cortex has turned the creatures of Crash’s island into horrific mutations! But by using a whole arsenal of new combat moves, Crash can hijack the monsters and gain control of their awesome powers.”

Radical Entertainment has come in to develop Crash games, and “Titans” is a hearty effort, though fairly predictable. Crash and Neo Cortex crossed paths in 2004′s Crash Twinsanity and are back to do battle once again.

The best part of this game is that you build up your power by attacking Cortex’s monsters. Once you build up enough star power, you can hop on the monster and use it as a makeshift mount, employing its attacks on other enemies. It’s a pretty original tactic, and there are plenty of these monsters to dive up on.

While you don’t get the same experience as the original PSX classics, Radical does show that they have the potential to bring Crash Bandicoot back to glory, and it will be interesting to see how they handle the Playstation 3 this year.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Sierra
Developer: Radical Entertainment
Platform: Playstation 2, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance
Genre: Action
Players: 1-2
Launch Date: October 4, 2007

Playability: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 3.5 out of 5 stars

This review appeared on Reviewcenter.com in 2002 as Playstation 2 began to emerge as the dominant sixth generation video game console.

By Carlos McElfish

I was not expecting much when I brought Agent Under Fire home and lazily plopped it in my PS2. I did not expect to recapture the Bond-magic that GoldenEye so gracefully purported, nor did I assume the storyline would be at all good. But I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Agent Under Fire is actually an entertaining, albeit short, video game.The graphics are nothing to go screaming buck-naked in the streets about. There are some nice reflection algorithms but thats about it. What this game does offer however is a solid, entertaining experience. A game can have all the bells and whistles in the world but if its not fun to play then it might as well be good for nothing. This is basically a good game, composed completely with power cords. So while the visuals in Agent Under Fire could for all intents and purposes have been carbon-copy-ported straight to the Dreamcast, the “fun-ness” it offers more then makes up for its lack of stunning visuals.

The soundtrack for this game is worth mentioning, due mainly to the fact that (aside from the obligatory Bond Theme) there are original tunes and innovative implementation. The music gets more intense as the on-screen action heats up and slows down to a more surreal and calming tone accordingly. It’s nothing new and has been used in high quality games in the past, but it’s a nice touch nonetheless.

Electronic Arts is doing the honors this time around and have, for the most part, given the series fans little to complain about. You guide James Bond through a myriad of different tasks and man the turrets of a tank, chase down objectives in tricked out automobiles and plow down baddies with a multitude of weaponry.

In “Agent,” James Bond looks like a mix between Pierce Bronson and Jet Li. The game is not based on any Bond movies so don’t expect to recreate your favorite theatrical moments.

Agent Under Fire is about two parts FPS, one part Silent Shooter and one part Spy Hunter. Each mode is well executed and mostly enjoyable. You can pretty much plow through the whole game in right around 5 hours, so you might want to think twice about laying down a 50 spot for it (although the multiplayer mode does vastly extend the life of it’s usefulness). The only time you will have any trouble with the difficulty of the game is the notable, but rare, times where it is uncertain how you are supposed to proceed.

When all is said and done Agent Under Fire does come through on many levels. Gameplay is smooth, and transitions between game type are surprisingly good. The Spy Hunter/GTA3-wannabe sequences (complete with bystanders and high-speed matrixed out stunts) offer up the most adrenaline rushes.

The control in FPS mode is nice and tight (with config mode 3) and delivers the most fluid and precise action this side of Halo. Short of a mouse and keyboard your not going to find play control as silky smooth as this in a home console FPS. But again, as is the Tao of Ying and Yang, you will find that the freedom of movement and range of motion is very linear.

At the end of every mission you are scored on severeal criteria including “Bond Moves.” You will have different opportunities in each mission to pull off maneuvers that somehow conform to the stereotypical Bond-stunt. Your overall score will determine what medal you receive: gold, silver or bronze. You are able to unlock different weapons and features with gold medals.

Sadly , the game suffers from uninspired artificial intelligence and yawn inducing gadgetry. Most of Bond’s “stealth” maneuvers are limited to using the “Q-Laser” to open a lock or the “Q-Claw” to grapple yourself from point A to point B — not exactly Bond’s most shining moments. All the stereotypical Bond clich©’s are duly covered, and all the cheesy PG rated female encounters are lubricated with a nice slick trademark Bond retort. “Oh Bond, I don’t know how to repay you” — “I’m sure we can figure something out” — queue instinctive eye rolling. And the development team attempted to integrate (key word: attempted) some sort of “jiggly” sub-routine for the uniformly well-endowed female characters of the game.

On one hand, I really like this game: good solid shooting entertainment, nitro injected driving sequences, head-to-head and cooperative multiplayer modes. On the other hand, the gaggle of faults in the game makes this one a tough sell. The most compelling reason to play it after you have beaten it is the multiplayer mode (which requires the PS2 Multi-Tap to get the most use out of). Overall, I would say this game will be worth every cent you pay for it, for an overnight rental of course.

Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Electronic Arts
Platform: Playstation 2
Genre: Action/Adventure
Rating: T -Teen
Players: 1-4
Launch Date: 2001

Technical Requirements:
Playstation 2 with Multi-Tap for 3-4 player modes

Playability: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 3 out of 5 stars
Overall: 3.5 out of 5 stars

By Mel Odom

Electronic Arts is the powerhouse of sports video games, and they continue that trend with their release of Rugby 08. Even though rugby may never be as popular here in the US as it is in other countries of the world, EA has definitely built a game that captures the excitement of the game for the seasoned pro and made the interface easy enough for newbies.

I have to admit that I didn’t know much about the sport at the time I picked the game up. Since my teen and pre-teen beat me regularly at baseball, football, and basketball — and don’t even get me started about the Tony Hawk games — I figured if we played a game that all of us were unfamiliar with, it might level the playing field, so to speak.

I had limited success. My teen and I started out pretty even, but his natural ability with the gaming interfaces knocked me out of the running within a few hours. I could win one every now and again, but the percentages were against me. I can still play at a pretty competent level against my ten-year-old.

In addition to the two-player mode, players choose to sharpen their game with the single-player versus the computer in single games, or venture to season-level play. This seems to help a bit, but the heckling of my teen has limited my gameplay time to whenever he’s not around. I’ve decided you have to have a certain amount of dedication to this game to get a return on your investment.

Rugby 08 features opportunities to play as one of the international teams. You can play a six-week campaign in the World Cup that is complete with player rotation and injury management, which is really overkill for me or anyone with a passing interest in a pick-up game to play against the kids or with a buddy. Some people really get off on managing all those aspects, but I just want to play ball and heckle whoever I’m playing.

A challenge mode allows a player to pick through several different scenarios and play them. In addition to short bouts of fun, a player can pick up necessary skills and tactics to further understand the game.

One of the best aspects of the game is the ability to control the camera, slow the action, and replay game action. My teen took great delight in this, showing me again and again how he blew the socks off my guys. Embarrassingly, it took me a little while to figure out how to do the same to him, and by that time, my great plays came few and far between.

I was really let down to see that there was no online capability. That’s where fathers get their true revenge: watching junior go head-to-head with other online players that can kick his butt. I live for that in Counterstrike and the Halo games because I hardly have time to draw a breath in those before he kills me. After getting seriously trashed again and again, I would have loved to heckle from the sidelines while someone else handed him the comeuppance he so richly deserved after all the flack I’d taken.

Although the game comes with a soundtrack and commentary, I got tired of both in short order. The music was good and the commentary was fun at the beginning, but after playing it for awhile, we both got sick of it, turned the sound off, and cranked up the MP3 player in the game room to provide our own soundtrack. And my son continued to deliver the cutting commentary as I went down in flames again and again.

All in all, Rugby 08 is a game that can be enjoyed by the whole family. I’ve even seen my wife eyeing the game. However, she’s a serious football fan — NFL and AFL as well as video games — and I’m really never going to be in the mood for that kind of pain.

Rugby 08 is rated E (Everyone) by the ESRB. This game can also be found on: PC, PS2, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Written by Matt Paprocki

While it lacks a singular game with recognizable name value, Taito Legends 2 is a massive compilation of 39 games, ranging from a wide array of eras and styles. As usual, not every game is worthy of revisiting (or playing for the first time), but the true classics are worth the price of admission. Everything else is an extra. Included on the disc are the arcade versions of the following:

Alpine Ski
Arabian Magic
Balloon Bomber
Bonze Adventure
Cameltry
Chack ‘n Pop
Cleopatra’s Fortune
Crazy Balloon
Darius Gaiden
Don Doko Don
Dungeon Magic
Elevator Action Returns
Football Champ
Front Line
G Darius
Gekirndan
Grid Seeker
Growl
Gun & Frontier
Insector X
Kiki KaiKai
Kuri Hinton
Liquid Kids
Lunar Rescue
Metal Black
Nastar
Puchi Carat
Puzzle Bobble 2
Qix
Raimais
Ray Storm
Space Invaders ’95
Space Invaders DX
Super Space Invaders ’91
Syvalion
The Fairyland Story
The Legend of Kage
Violence Fight
Wild Western

While not the largest collection ever released, Taito Legends 2 contains more big budget, higher end arcade games than typical re-releases such as the Activision Party Pack. G Darius and Ray Storm were full priced shooters on the PlayStation, and are simply outstanding shooters. For SHMUP fans, these are worth the meager $15 asking price by themselves.

That’s not taking into account other great blasters like Darius Gaiden, wildly updated Space Invaders ’95, the punishing Metal Black, and lost classic Gekirindan. Other shooters like Insector X (radically different from the Genesis game of the same name) and Syvalion don’t fare as well.

For the non-shooter fanatic, they can take part in a few great beat-em-ups. Growl is absurdly violent with it’s anti-animal poachers hook. Dungeon Magic is the Diablo of its day, and fares nicely even with the constrained arcade time frame and simplicity. Violence Fight on the other hand should forever be forgotten to time.

If these still don’t do enough to lure you in, the seminal 1979 release Lunar Lander is a difficult yet enjoyable piece of true retro gaming. Puzzle fans will have their hands full with Cleopatra’s Fortune and Puzzle Bobble 2, though the latter is missing some music. Oddball entries such as Raimais were outdated even for their time, and are more filler than anything else. The same goes for the massively disappointing Rastan sequel, Nastar.

The only thing missing from this must have compilation is some extra content. There are no pictures, interviews, or text fact sheets to accompany the games. Options also feel limited before and after jumping into a chosen title. For instance, the screen aspect ratio is stuck to what the game selection menu says, and cannot be changed after loading. You need to back out of the title to make a switch.

The selection of classic and even a few somewhat modern arcade games is still enough to overcome some front-end issues. Even with only half of the best entries on the disc, this would still be held high amongst the retro community. Be prepared for and extended stay with this collection.

This article appeared online in Blogcritics magazine August 9, 2007

When someone talks about guitar heroes, certain names often come to mind. They talk about Jimmy Page or Carlos Santana’s soulful style. They talk about Kenny Wayne Shepard’s bluesy-rock and Paul Reynold’s catchy riffs. Wait — what?

If you were able to recognize Paul Reynold’s as the original guitarist from 80′s phenomena and hairstyling rebels Flock of Seagulls do I have a game for you. Get ready to rock the synthesizer and feather your hair; Red Octane and Harmonix are bringing you back in time with Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s.

Anyone who has ever played any of the previous Guitar Hero games will feel right at home with Encore, but for continuity’s sake, and for those who have found a permanent residence under a rock, let’s rundown the basics. Using the game’s guitar controller, you time your presses of colored fret buttons and a strum bar along with the actual notes of the song. Think of it as a digital version of air guitar. The games have become cult phenomena and have grown to be not only the biggest music franchise of all time, but one of the fastest growing gaming franchises in general.

Encore acts more as an expansion pack than a new installment and while it is fun, it does thin out long before the previous games. Any music game, and Guitar Hero especially is only as good as its track list and while there are plenty of big hits in Encore that are incredibly addicting and fun to play (Turning Japanese and the aforementioned Flock of Seagulls hit come to mind) the list seems to be bogged down by slower and lesser known songs. I mean did anyone get excited when they announced songs like “Balls to the Wall” by Accept or “Los Angeles” by X?

It would be easy for any reviewer to sit here and fault Red Octane for choosing a synthesizer driven decade like the 80s, but they made a smart choice from a financial aspect. Retro and especially the 80s are in right now. The track list just seems so light because the previous games weren’t limited to a single decade — there was something from practically every offshoot genre of rock, while we are incredibly limited in Encore to metal, hair metal and pop.

Encore features practically no new content besides a new 80s aesthetic and of course the new songs. There are no new characters, guitars or stages, merely retro versions of what we saw in Guitar Hero 2 (for instance, since there was no Warped Tour in the 80s, a new festival has taken its place). While this is disappointing, not many people are looking to the series for its unlockables, content or story. They play the series for the fun and addicting music gameplay, which is definitely present here in Encore.

Encore is not a bad game by any means; it just does not measure up to the original two in most categories. Those who can’t get enough Guitar Hero, and don’t mind a few boring and no name tracks will feel right at home, but anyone looking to get started in the franchise may want to pick up some of the older installments or wait until this fall when Guitar Hero 3 hits shelves.

Tomb Raider is one of those titles that spawned its own universe in the gaming world over the past decade. It’s sold over 28 million games, two feature films, merchandise and over $1.5 billion in gross revenue from all that.

It has a legacy up there with Doom and Warcraft, and it’s where Duke Nukem could have been if its corporate developers had any brains. Tomb Raider has also come to epitomize Playstation games–Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider.

This summer, we have a new game in the series, Tomb Raider Anniversary, and we’re finally seeing a popular gaming franchise stick to its roots. “Anniversary” is an epic adventure game that’s engaging and fun to play.

The game retraces Lara Croft’s original steps from the original 1996 release as she searches for the Scion of Atlantis and battles Jacqueline Natlas and company. You’ll traverse tombs from Egypt to Greece battling your way through supernatural creatures. The double pistol action is back as Lara leaps around enemies and pumps lead into them in a classic hail of never ending bullets.

The game works off an improved version of the Tomb Raider Legend engine and is out there now for PS2, PSP and PC-DVD. It feels like the original, and that’s important.

I’m stuck in a depressing gaming mood lately, playing game after game and coming up disappointed more often that I’d like. Game makers have forgotten their roots and tried to do too much with visuals and pointless “do it because we can” technologies. Tomb Raider Anniversary impresses me where other games fail. See something, shoot something, jump around and solve a puzzle or two. Make it two guns instead of one; make it just a little scary; make it with tits and ass that they had to get Angelina Jolie to portray. God damn that’s a game.

Written by Mel Odom

The Adventures of Darwin operates on a simple concept: evolve or die. Unfortunately, even with a cute title and a very easy interface that allows the player to get into the game, it hasn’t followed its own rule.

Ten years ago, this would have been a great game to have. The video gaming industry was still relatively in its infancy (early evolution, so to speak). The idea of going out to collect things to get points was the way to go then. In The Adventures of Darwin the player has to go gather food and building materials to enhance his village and to evolve.

Quite frankly, evolution in the game just takes too long. Another drawback is that it is only a one-player game. My nine year old and I both played the game, and it might have been more interesting if we have been able to team play in some fashion. As it was, we both spent inordinate amounts of time trying to find everything we needed.

Even the new areas that open up in the game after you progress aren’t as interesting or interactive as they should be to be successful at this stage in video gaming. You can go in and talk to people, but you don’t find out anything that you wouldn’t have already figured out on your own. Then you go once more at into the field to collect raw materials and food. As you evolve, your onscreen image changes, growing steadily more and more human in appearance. You also find and learn to use tools that allow you to do more.

The video graphics are really weak. When it’s nighttime in the game, I couldn’t see well enough to get around. So I simply sat and waited. I discovered there was no penalty for waiting till it was light enough to see. However, the drawback was that I had a lot of dead time in the game while I was waiting for the sun to rise again.

Thankfully, the soundtrack wasn’t as nerve-wracking as the one for Mario Brothers, but that was only because it didn’t really stand out. Like much of the game, it wasn’t really memorable.

Patient players who are goal-oriented and love to take days to finish a game would probably like this one. However, I suspect most game players these days are more driven for the quick rewards and action of shooters and fast-paced RPGs.

My wife — who loves Pikman, its sequel, and the fact that it takes a long time to finish the game while doing repetitive play — couldn’t really get interested in this one either. The idea is sound, the game playing and structure are sound, but the rewards don’t come quick enough. A patient player who’s determined to see the game through to the end might enjoy this one.

Mel Odom is the author of over 100 novels. Winner of the American Library Association’s Alex Award for 2002 and runner-up for the Christy in 2005, he’s written in several genres, including tie-in novels for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Without A Trace, and novelizations of Blade, XXX, and Tomb Raider. Thankfully, he’s learned to use his ADHD for good instead of evil.

This article appeared online in Blogcritics Magazine, July 4, 2007

Eragon for the Playstation 2 is based on the movie and book of the same name.

Unfortunately, like many games that are based on movies, it suffers from all too familiar problems.

Generally movie games seem rushed out of production to make it to market in time for the Hollywood launch. This gives developers less time to design the game, and then–more importantly–test it out for bugs and problems.

Eragon the Game started with an interesting premise; there is a dragon you can ride on, and you can fight and use magic. This gave the developers a lot of freedom. This amount of room also gives them freedom to hang themselves.

The fighting in the game seems to take center stage, and as such is the best laid out and designed. You can do a bunch different moves and combo’s in the game.

The fighting is in a closed-open world. It’s three-dimensional, but it is played more as a 2D game. You can move around, but it is always move from one room to the next. There aren’t many nooks and cranny’s or side paths that you can go through. The way to go forward often isn’t obvious either. Sometimes it will look like you can just jump over a little stream but the game won’t let you get off the edge of the path. You actually have to jump and crawl across a log, or beam that you may not have noticed at first. Other places you have to break the wall at just the right place.

The fighting includes using a bow and arrow. This part really doesn’t work well in a 3^rd person game–especially if you’ve played the Wii recently. The arrows shoot towards a target you select by tabbing through the enemies. They get more accurate the longer you hold the button before releasing, but the player has little control over where they are shot. The game gives you unlimited arrows, which can be nice since you may waste a bunch to missing targets. The bow is very useful though to pick off targets before they get close, but can be a pain to hit things sometimes that the game thinks you can’t even if the player thinks they can.

The game also has a fixed camera. It’s shot in 3^rd person, but the camera can not be controlled by the player. The game mostly keeps the camera in locations that work, but occasionally it’s annoying not being able to see something that you want to. Also, Eragon could be fighting an enemy in the corner, and it would be hard to see him.

The Magic isn’t too intuitive either. You can perform different spells by different sets of buttons, which can be a pain to remember sometimes.

Was it push for triangle, or pull?

The “special” spells require certain objects to be in your area. Sometimes, you’ll be told to push over some logs or pull up broken pieces to form a bridge. This is requires charging up your spell by standing still, and trying to cast it for a while. This can be aggravating, because there is a charge for casting a generic spell, and then on top of that some spell require more time. These special spells can also be annoying that they aren’t obviously there, unless you constantly try to cast a spell to look for the icons. Though they are neat when they happen, because bridges are made or fall, Your dragon will come to rescue you hitting certain enemies, or Eragon will use spears to throw at the enemies doing great damage.

The Spells can be very handy sometimes though. You’ll cast a quick push or pull and the enemy falls to it’s death without hurting you at all.

The flying missions are interesting on their own. From the back of the dragon, the player can control flight, shoot arrows, swing the dragons tail or perform quick bursts of energy. Doves flying through the air will restore your health.

The controls on the flying levels aren’t quite as responsive as I would like sometimes. Unlike flight simulators, there seems to be no way to invert the controller. Pressing up/forward makes the dragon go up, pressing down/back makes the dragon go down.

The game was fun to play though even with these problems. People that enjoyed the movie or book will likely enjoy playing as Eragon, and actually flying on their own dragon.

Overall, it is decent for a game based on a movie, but it would have benefited from more time to figure out how to work in all the options it gave and polish the camera and controls a little more.

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.

WWE Raw vs. Smackdown 2007 is the best wrestling video game to come out in the past year.

It is also one of the only wrestling titles to come out this past year.

This isn’t bad for wrestling fans, but it’s not that great either. While Raw vs Smackdown 2007 is an excellent game, it’s very similar to last year’s version, and indeed, the whole "Smackdown" series itself.

Since THQ has the licensing for WWE games, and WWE is by far the most watched wrestling organization, there is little reason to change what has been working because there is not really any competition in wrestling games. Hence, the world has Madden NFL games,

The game does have some upgrades compared to last years version of Raw vs Smackdown. The General Manager mode puts players in charge of the show. Players can now send their wrestlers to Heat and Velocity to work on their techniques and gain popularity (much like sending a player to the minors in baseball) There is also the ability to hire writers for better storylines.

Other improvements to the game include:

• More than 40 original storylines for the season mode, where users pick a wrestler and try to bring him to the top, facing a number of obstacles on the way.
• “Money in the Bank" Match
• Some new wrestlers (and more that can be unlocked)

One thing that Raw vs Smackdown didn’t do very well was the roster accuracy in the game. Some of the gimmics are not up-to-date, like Booker T not being King Booker, which he has been for quite a bit of time now. The whole ECW brand that is on WWE programming now, isn’t in the game and many of the game’s superstars are branded on the wrong show. The game also includes a number of wrestlers like Mark Henry, Joey Mercury, Kid Kash and the game’s most dominant wrestler, Kurt Angle, who are no longer with the company, while it omits Jeff Hardy, Spirit Squad, Charlie Haas, among others who are prominently on WWE television. This may seem like a minor thing but wrestling fanatics love to choose from a large selection of wrestlers and in Raw vs Smackdown 2007 there really isn’t one.

The negatives and the feeling of a being a little bit outdated aside, WWE Raw vs Smackdown 2007 is still a fun game that players will enjoy. The season mode is very addicting and with all the new storylines it will keep the players entertained for awhile. I’ll be anxious to see what THQ does with Raw vs Smackdown 2008, however, as I feel wrestling fans may start to get sick of the same game with a new year.

The newest Japanese style role playing game, Rogue Galaxy is sitting on the backs of the great RPG companies. They took the best idea’s of other games and incorporated them here. The fighting style resembles Dot Hack, with the isolated fighting in bubbles. When wondering around you just wonder into a group of enemy’s and fight. When you beat them all it tells you what you have gained, but you never leave the playing field.

The skills upgrade system is like that of Final Fantasy X. You find special objects that you put together to learn the skills. To learn a skill you have to be able to move around the grid to it, having learned the skills before it. This makes for a nice way to format that a skill requires another while giving options on directions to travel in. You can still choose which skills you want to pursue.

The game starts out with lots of pop up messages telling you how to play. The character will have to complete an action and the game will pop up with how to do it, pressing the start button to clear.

The story starts, you’re a bounty hunter on a desert planet. The planet, unfortunately for the character, is being quarantined from the rest of the universe, and none of the citizens are allowed to leave. When a monster attacks the town, the main character gets mistaken for a famous bounty hunter. The “hero” goes along so that he can get off the planet.

The cinema sequences are well placed in the game to show off the landscape and give a good view of the different areas. Cut scenes are mostly used to show detailed views of the area or of new characters when they enter, otherwise the game uses the characters, taking control of them while a scene is playing out.

You can directly control any of the characters that are in your party. They still show up when you’re walking around, unlike some games that hide the whole party into one character. The other characters that you’re not controlling will follow you around and generally act according to general guidelines you can set about whether they should focus on attacking, use all available special items or conserve them.

The different characters each have unique abilities that will affect what can be done as the character.

Characters grow by levels. This can make the game interesting, having to play each of the characters so that they don’t get behind, and sometimes a different character’s skills may be needed to get past a certain point in the game.

Another unique thing about the game is the battle recorder. You record all your battles so that you can be paid. This gives the game a realistic touch, as in real life you don’t get paid for a bounty unless you can prove your work. The characters in the game are just as skeptical, claiming that it is as good as not doing the job if it’s not recoded.

I give the game a eight out of ten. Rogue Galaxy can be very clich© sometimes, and the game play has elements that look like they are mimicking other games, but the story is well thought out and the game play flows nicely, which is rare in games today.

The game seems like it was actually thought out and not thrown together, like most of the others on the market. The story has some real depth to it with many characters that each have their own quirky personalities. Again gameplay will seem familiar, but it’s well done, giving the user lots of options to play as they see fit.

Destroy All Humans! 2 is an action/adventure game continuing the story of Crypto, an alien badass sent to Earth to harvest human DNA. After having conquered America in the 1950s, Crypto is once again thrust back into the action. This time around, it’s the 60s and Crypto faces a new rival, the USSR. While the story is clearly not the game’s strong point, it sets up the era which is what this game is all about. Lacking in all other categories, Destroy All Humans! 2 tries to continue its signature humor by poking fun at everything from hippies to ninjas. However, the success of the first game does not continue as the jokes fall flat and the atmosphere never lives up to its predecessor.

The gameplay is nothing new to those who played the original. Crypto is outfitted with an arsenal of alien weaponry that includes blasters, lasers, and a flying saucer for certain missions. Psychic powers are also at your disposal, allowing Crypto to control minds and lift large objects with telekinesis. Over the course of the single player campaign these items can be upgraded allowing you to destroy even more humans. However, none of these aspects take away from the fact that this game is just very bland. You choose missions from an open area similar to Grand Theft Auto, but none of these missions are particularly interesting and the ease of difficulty does not help the repetitive objectives.

Technically speaking, Destroy All Humans! 2 is no large improvement from the first game. Weapon effects and explosions are nice but the textures of the environment and pedestrian character models can really disappoint. Although, on a positive note, the level design really emphasizes the particular spoof of each zone. The sound is a bigger star than the graphics as the game’s voice acting is probably the best reason to play it all the way through. Crypto, sounding like a moody Jack Nicholson, is constantly spewing cynical cracks about his victims. This is topped by the insubordinate banter between Crypto and his holographic commanding officer. All of the conversations with smaller side characters are far less enjoyable and can really get tedious when the game tries to force bad jokes.

The real reason why this game falls so short is its inability to deliver the kind of humor and charm that its predecessor used to overshadow shallow gameplay. Destroy All Humans! 2 is just the same lame action as the original without the humorous crutch. The 60s are simply not as funny as this game tries to portray them. Crypto is the only charming part of the whole experience because he is an outsider to the over the top caricature 60s theme. This game is not worth sticker price but maybe a rental if you hold nostalgia for the original. With childishly easy action and just lame taste, this game won’t amuse you unless you’re still repeating lines from Austin Powers.

Incorporations of well-known television programs into the video game world are held to a different standard than the more usual video game fair. The expectation is that you’ll have less of a game and more of a novelty for fans. Some call this a bad reputation, but is it? Perhaps for a hardcore gamer it is, though those aren’t the only folks who own Playstation 2′s in this day and age. In the case of Family Guy, if you are a fan of the show looking for a fix, rather than a hardcore gamer seeking something to mix up your night between rounds of Halo, you will find some of what you’re looking for here.

Best news first: the cast is here for the voice-acting and there is original content. That alone might be worth the roughly $20 you’d pay for this title at the time of writing. Early on the player is introduced to their favorite characters and their respective catchphrases. Sadly, much of this is not based on interaction with those characters; a good deal of it simply happens as you cruise by fulfilling your tasks. Sometimes you feel a little like you’re on the rails of a Disney ride. Perhaps this ignores the power of an interactive medium, but granted this is an action and platform title, not a role-playing game.

Ignoring the moments the long-dead jokes reintroduced for novelty’s sake, some of the new situations and humor are quite funny. The voice-acting and gags are on par with any episode of the show. Even mixed in with old material, it isn’t so sparse that you’re left alone with the game waiting for the next nugget of non-sequitur hilarity for too long.

The game beneath all this needs discussing of course, even if it is seen as little more as your means of exploring the comic material. The game is made up of a series of segments based on different styles of play, each with its own character. It ranges from Peter’s arcade-style fisticuffs (in much the style of his lengthy yet legendary combat with a man in a chicken suit) to Brian’s sneaking about a police station, striving to keep from the officers’ limited lines of sight. The difficulty level isn’t as toned down as much as you’d expect in a game aimed at more casual players and even a more experienced gamer might find themselves attempting even earlier scenarios several times. The mechanics are fairly simple, yet in the tradition of platform games good eye-hand coordination and timing are needed. Simple as they are, mastery of a few advanced techniques are needed to play. In Stewie’s shooter levels, a button can be held to alternate between moving and aiming mode. While this technique is effective, it might be a foreign concept to non-gamers, and playing the game without it will cause some heartbreak.

Sadly, difficulty doesn’t imply depth, and much of the challenge is frustrating rather than stimulating. Defeating innumerable foes of the same sort in the same situation, only to fail due to a slip up and restart the process, will become a familiar pattern. Most boggling are Brian’s stages in which the notion of the puzzle is reduced to a mindless trial-and-error process. Here is where the dialog, as sharp and well-executed as it is, will lose its strength as you hear the same wisecracks on your tenth attempt.

The strengths and weakness of the game are fairly pronounced. Is it worth a purchase? An educated decision from a buyer who knows what they want might be “yes” and that person might be happy to spend a rainy day with the Family Guy cast. The lower-than-average price tag will of course weigh into such a decision. However, is this the case for most people? Probably not. The frustration of the game play itself is likely to drive off players too early to consider the game a good value.

The Sopranos license seems to be a sinking ship lately. The show has gone very much downhill the past few seasons. And then this game is produced, hoping to appeal and make a little bit more money of of the following still left, before the final episodes of the series air later this year.

In the Sopranos: Road to Respect, you are Joey LaRocca, the son of the late Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero. The opening cut-scene shows you breaking into a car and stealing a purse. You run down the street looking like you are home free when Tony Soprano trips you and brings you in to talk. After yelling at you for your actions, he says that he will help you out and put you to work and have a chance to work your way up. This is where the game begins.

Your first mission, like most of the missions in the game, is to beat someone up. In this case, the unlucky man is a patron of Tony’s strip club, the Bada Bing. He apparently wasn’t treating one of the dancers properly and needed to be taken care of. While walking around beating people up seems like it would be fun, in Road to Respect, it is basically all you do, which quickly becomes repetitive and dull. Even the controls to fight aren’t very well done. There is a button for “quick attack,” which is the button that you will find yourself using the most when in combat. When you aren’t fighting you can steal things like drugs, wallets, cell phones and money, but even that is pointless because you can’t really do anything with the money in the game other than buy a lap dance.

It was great to see the actors from the show, providing the voices for their respective characters. The cut scenes are also pretty well done and include a number of funny one-liners. However, that’s about it for positives in the game. Overall, the game isn’t very well made. The graphics aren’t that great and have a number of glitches in them, (in one instance I was able to completely walk right through a table) and as mentioned before the game gets old very quickly. This game is really only worth trying if you are a die-hard Sopranos fan, and even after that one go-around should fade you away from it pretty quickly. Mafia games seem to be a current trend lately, with The Godfather and Scarface also recently being released. You might be better off trying out one of those titles if you want to break into this genre.

Cue the video game. Arthur and The Invisibles, based on the self-proclaimed theatrical opus of Luc Besson, has come to the console.

The story is based on 10-year-old Arthur, who is trying to save his grandmother’s house from the bulldozer. You control the young Brit and his gang of siblings, Selenia and Betameche.

Think troll dolls meets Harry Potter meets Atari.

Each character brings something to then table to guide you through the game and battle sequences. Selenia will prove useful swinging a blade and getting the team through obstacles. Betamecha (troll doll) uses his low profile to his advantage. The game will follow movie plot and keep you on an adventurous course for most of it, but the action is steady enough to keep your trigger finger amused.

Don’t expect a whole lot of innovation or breakthrough gameplay here. This is a movie game, and it does its job quite well with excellent graphics and sound and a story that’s good enough to pay homage to fans of the European movie.The game is not overly difficult, but still hard enough to keep you interested. It’s also long enough to satisfy, but that’s not really a factor because you can skip through parts of the game if you want, a feature the designers must have figured played to the attention spans of young gamers.

Overall, I’m satisfied with Arthur and the Invisibles. It doesn’t try to go beyond the scope of its intentions and plays true to its roots.