This week’s new video games are a good mix of the old and new. Oh, wait, no they’re not. It’s another round of sequels and licensed games. Not that game sequels are inherently problematic (technology tends to keep getting better, y’see), but it’s hard to get excited over the sixth Tekken if you’re not a huge fan of fighting games. Even if you like racing games, Forza Motorsports 3 will only be interesting if you really liked the first two.
There is one new and original title launching this week, and that’s DJ Hero. Activision might deck it out in Guitar Hero dress, but DJ Hero’s gameplay bears little resemblance to its big cousin or Rock Band. Sure, you still hit colored buttons at the right time, but scratching, crossfading, and rewinding have no analogue in either of the two big music games. DJ Hero isn’t just fresh and exciting, though; it’s also shockingly fun.
Find the full list of new releases after the jump.
Remakes, ports and sequels abound this week. I keep that sentence on my computer’s clipboard, ready to be pasted in every single week. It’s more notable with this week’s lineup of new games, though. The most intriguing titles here — Dead Space Extraction, MySims Agents, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, Motorstorm: Arctic Edge, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days — are extensions or new installments of established franchises. These aren’t Halo-sized blockbuster properties, but never underestimate the value of familiarity and name recognition. We’re living in a world with a Land Before Time XIII, after all. My crippling Turbo-Grafx 16 nostalgia impels me to highlight the new Military Madness: Nectaris remake arriving this week on Xbox Live. It’s been far too long since I last waged war on the surface of the Moon.
NINTENDO WII
September 28 Arkanoid Plus! (WiiWare)
September 28 Drift Mania (WiiWare
September 29 Baseball Blast!
September 29 Bass Pro Shops: The Strike
September 29 Crazy Chicken Tales
September 29 Dead Space Extraction
September 29 Deca Sports 2
September 29 Doctor Fizzwhizzle’s Animal Rescue
September 29 Family Feud: 2010 Edition Continue reading “Player’s Club: Video game releases for the week of Sept. 28″ »
The annual summer gaming drought is over and the fall’s weekly flood of new video games has begun again. It’s dangerous to stroll through the video game aisle or (shudder) any of your 50 local neighborhood GameStops without knowledge and a plan. So please, let us educate you.
Mountain Dew sales will skyrocket with the release of Halo 3: ODST, this week’s most anticipated new game. Despite the name, the first-person shooter is less an expansion pack than a brand new game set alongside the events of 2007’s Halo 3. The inscrutable Katamari Damacy franchise debuts on the PlayStation 3 with Katamari Forever. The Wii gets two new youth-skewing co-op beat ‘em-ups. The first, Spyborgs, is a side-scrolling action game for two. The other, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up, is basically Super Smash Brothers with the Turtles replacing Nintendo characters. PSP players can waste the next 100 hours or so with Shin Megami Tensei: Persona, a remake of the first installment of the infamously lengthy role-playing series. Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection finally comes to the 360 and PS3, with three more classic pinball tables than last year’s Wii and PS2 release. Maybe I’m crippled with nostalgia, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be spending more time battling that asshole demon Gorgar with pinballs than I will rolling stuff up in Katamari or yahdoodin’ it up with ODST.
Follow the link for the full list of this week’s new releases.
Things are settling down after last week’s brief Wolverine infestation. It’s a good time to be living in the past, then, as this week sees a bevy of sequels and remakes. The most promising new release is Patapon 2 for the PSP, the follow-up to Sony’s excellent handheld rhythm game. Also worth noting is a number of reissues and remakes. If you haven’t already bought into the zombie apocalypse, Left 4 Dead: Game of the Year Edition, featuring the original game plus the recent Survival Mode DLC, is a must-buy this week. 1997’s cult classic platformer Klonoa gets all prettied up in a new Wii edition, and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is the third GameCube title to get the Wii’s New Play Control treatment.
Meanwhile Arkanoid Live and Space Invaders Extreme bring the thrills of a 1980s arcade into your own home. Let’s hope they don’t also come with their own in-house drug dealer, like every Mardi Gras and Aladdin’s Castle I ever knew did.
Wolverine’s the best at what he does, and I guess that means starring in games for every system ever made. Marvel’s furry little killing machine is everywhere this week, as versions of X-Men Origins: Wolverine will come out for every single active system. Most games based on either comics or movies are awful; is this game doubly cursed? Find out on Friday. Also of note this week: the WW2-set stealth action title Velvet Assassin finally comes out for the Xbox 360. The demo of Assassin at the New York Comic Con back in February wasn’t spectacular, but perhaps the developers have spiffed things up a bit. There’s a full list of new releases after the jump. Continue reading “Player’s Club: New releases for week of 4/27″ »
I didn’t do one of these last week. Sorry about that. But man, we are smack dab in the most listless of doldrums. April’s a dead zone for video game releases, or at least this particular April is. There’s not a single boxed retail release for the PS3 or 360, and absolutely nothing for the PSP. There are a couple of intriguing Atlus RPGs for the DS (Dark Spire and Dokapon Journey), and Samurai Shodown was always my favorite SNK fighter, but otherwise not much of note this week.
DS
April 13 Mixed Messages (DSiWare)
April 13 Master of Illusion Express: Shuffle Games (DSiWare)
April 14 Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled
April 14 C.O.R.E.
April 14 The Dark Spire
April 14 Dokapon Journey
PlayStation 3
April 16 Puzzle Quest Galactrix (PlayStation Network)
PlayStation 2
April 13 Guitar Hero: Metallica
Wii
April 13 Party Fun Pirate (WiiWare)
April 13 Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (Virtual Console)
April 14 Escape the Museum
April 14 Samurai Shodown Anthology
April 14 Tournament Pool
Xbox 360
April 15 OutRun Online Arcade (Xbox Live Arcade)
It’s a slow week for new releases. Between the Xbox 360 and the three PlayStation systems, there are only two new boxed retail games this week, Air Conflicts: Aces of World War II for the PSP and the critically lambasted Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust for the 360. So the pick of the week is clearly Majesco’s Wii-exclusive Major Minor’s Majestic March, from the Parappa the Rapper team of Masaya Matsuura and Rodney Alan Greenblat. If Major Minor is even half as clever or inscrutable as Parappa or follow-up Um Jammer Lammy, it’ll still be something to remember.
DS
3/31 Backyard Baseball 2010
3/31 Don King Boxing
3/31 Fashion Studio: Paris Collection
3/31 Gardening Mama
3/31 Imagine: Family Doctor
3/31 Tokyo Beat Down
Maybe you’re excited for the new Fallout 3 expansion DLC on the 360, or the long-awaited release of Guitar Hero: Metallica on pretty much every console that’s ever existed. Maybe you’re a big fan of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, the goofy kid brother to Square Enix’s long-running RPG series. Maybe you just came out of a seven-year coma, still love Vin Diesel, and can’t wait to control a digital facsimile of him in Wheelman.
Maybe you’re a wrestling fan since knucklehead days and can’t wait to play WWE Legends of WrestleMania, but are afraid of how depressing it’ll be with a roster full of dead-too-soon ’80s grapplers. Maybe you’re just crazily obsessed with mediocre games built around DreamWorks animation licenses, like Monsters vs. Aliens. Or maybe you’re just entranced by whatever the hell Totally Spies! Totally Party could possibly be. Whoever you are, there’s a game for you this week, assuming that you’re a person who does enjoy the occasional video game or two.
Remakes, ports and sequels abound this week. I keep that sentence on my computer’s clipboard, ready to be pasted in every single week. It’s more notable with this week’s lineup of new games, though. The most intriguing titles here — Dead Space Extraction, MySims Agents, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, Motorstorm: Arctic Edge, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days — are extensions or new installments of established franchises. These aren’t Halo-sized blockbuster properties, but never underestimate the value of familiarity and name recognition. We’re living in a world with a Land Before Time XIII, after all. My crippling Turbo-Grafx 16 nostalgia impels me to highlight the new Military Madness: Nectaris remake arriving this week on Xbox Live. It’s been far too long since I last waged war on the surface of the Moon.
The annual summer gaming drought is over and the fall’s weekly flood of new video games has begun again. It’s dangerous to stroll through the video game aisle or (shudder) any of your 50 local neighborhood GameStops without knowledge and a plan. So please, let us educate you.
It’s a slow week for new releases. Between the Xbox 360 and the three PlayStation systems, there are only two new boxed retail games this week, Air Conflicts: Aces of World War II for the PSP and the critically lambasted Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust for the 360. So the pick of the week is clearly Majesco’s Wii-exclusive Major Minor’s Majestic March, from the Parappa the Rapper team of Masaya Matsuura and Rodney Alan Greenblat. If Major Minor is even half as clever or inscrutable as Parappa or follow-up Um Jammer Lammy, it’ll still be something to remember.
Maybe you’re excited for the new Fallout 3 expansion DLC on the 360, or the long-awaited release of Guitar Hero: Metallica on pretty much every console that’s ever existed. Maybe you’re a big fan of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, the goofy kid brother to Square Enix’s long-running RPG series. Maybe you just came out of a seven-year coma, still love Vin Diesel, and can’t wait to control a digital facsimile of him in Wheelman.