Aramation Games

Ninja Gaiden II (X360)
Ryu Hayabusa returns to Microsoft’s console in its exclusive sequel to 2004’s critically and commercially well-received title. Expect plenty of blood, gore and dismemberments in an ultra-hard game.

GRID (PC, X360, PS3)
Race Driver series is rebranded as GRID (because single-name racing games are all the rage nowadays) featuring plenty of street-races across the world.

Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Conspiracy (X360, PS3)
Robert Ludlum’s first Bourne book comes alive many years after the movie has showcased some of the best action sequences on the big screen.

Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (PSP, X360, Wii, PC, PS3, DS)
After the success of Lego Star Wars, Indiana Jones universe is next. Featuring events from first three movies, expect to battle through your favorite moments while controlling the mini-figs.

Other releases:

• Dracula: Origin (PC)
• Fatal Inertia EX (PS3)
• Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 (PSP)
• The Incredible Hulk (X360, PS3, Wii, DS)
• Kung Fu Panda (X360, PC, PS3, Wii, DS)
• Roogoo (X360)
• Summon Night: Twin Age (DS)

Nintendo’s DS Lite already has a few colors, and they are set to add at least 3 more according to the latest leaked pictures. What seem to be red, cyan and lime will join Coral Pink, Cobalt/Black, Crimson/Black, Onyx and White.

[See more pictures at Jeuxvideo.org]

Creators of the popular webcomic Penny-Arcade brings their first effort into game-making with Penny Arcade Adventures Episode One: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. Apart from the long title, the game offers an unique blend of RPG elements with role playing. You can customize your character, and you fight alongside Gabe and Tycho. You explore the game’s 4 world and fight enemies in a turn-based fashion mixed with real-time components. There is an active timer that control what actions you can take: using items is the fastest, then regular attack and finally specialty attack takes longest to recharge. To use specialty attacks, you are presented with a minigame, such as pressing spacebar at the right time, or pressing buttons as they appear (a la DDR). With each successful battle, your characters will become stronger and gain new and powerful attacks.

The best thing about PAAEO:ORSPD is the visuals as they are faithfully accurate to the comic strips. You’ll encounter everything from fruit fuckers to hobos, and be treated to the universe of New Arcadia. They wisely avoided using voice actors to portray the main characters since, the original inspiration being a comic strip, everybody is free to interpret the voices of the characters.

In the end, the game is strongly recommended for Penny-Arcade lovers, and adventure game fans. Others may be turned off by the universe of New Arcadia, or unwilling to go through with the gameplay mechanics that can be sometimes frustrating. Especially the ability to block and counterattack by pressing the spacebar in the split second that the enemy’s health bar flashes, it can lead to unjustified defeat just because there were too many enemies on screen. At $20, it isn’t a bargain, but this is the most authentic Penny-Arcade experience you’ll receive outside of the comic strips.

Rating: 65%

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (X360, PS3)
Quake universe expands with Enemy Territory, an online tactical shooter pitting the forces of Earth against the Strogg.

Other releases:

• A Vampyre Story (PC)
• Death Jr.: Root of Evil (Wii)
• Dr. Mario Online RX (Wii)
• Dracula: Origin (PC)
• Emergency Heroes (Wii)
• Everyone’s Pokemon Ranch (Wii)
• LOL (DS)
• Mass Effect (PC)
• Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate (PC)
• The Monkey King (Wii)
• Protothea (Wii)
• Stronghold Crusader Extreme (PC)
• Super Dodgeball Brawlers (DS)

It is a risky gamble to place a well-established franchise in a different setting with new gameplay mechanics. R-Type Command tries to infuse tactical turn-based battles into the fast-paced 2D side scrolling shooter franchise, and the result is pathetic. In this tactical game, you are in charge of a fleet instead of just one ship. There are your regular attack crafts, bombers, supply ships, transports and other miscellaneous space vehicles. After you place them on the grid, you advance them through the hexagonal field with each turn, inching closer to the enemy that starts on the other side of the stage. This is an incredibly slow game, made even slower since you spend a lot of time navigating through menus, research dialogs and severe loading (especially during cut-scenes).

The goal is to take out the enemy flagship, or the entire fleet on the stage. Strategic nature of the game means you need to see a lot of the battlefield, which makes your ships pretty tiny and hard to distinguish. When you attack another ship (after tediously getting in range for a few turns), it will generate a 3D cutscene which looks pretty good, but gets tiring after awhile especially since it grinds down the whatever amount of tiny action there is with loading.

Another blow against the game is the boring levels. There are different looks, but it all feels the same when your goal is to go from left to right in search of the enemy armada, that you can see from the beginning anyway.

In the end, the game isn’t recommendable in its current state: turn-based strategy fans will be disappointed with shallow depths, and R-Type fans will be disappointed as it strays too far from the formula that made the series long-lasting. Better to avoid this one, and pretend it never happened.

Rating: 10%

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (PC)
In order to compete in the MMORPG, you need to take into account the incredible success of World of Warcraft. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures will utilize its license to challenge WoW’s dominance on the market. [ageofconan.com]

Haze (PS3)
Ubisoft’s PS3 exclusive (for now) first-person shooter will let you play as both sides: soldier working for a super-powerful corporation with high-tech armament, and the opposing resistance relying more on guerilla tactics. [hazegame.com]

Wii Fit (Wii)
Wii Fit will mark the debut of another accessory: the Wii Balance Board. Your goal is to stand on it and use your entire body for various exercises and games. [nintendo.com/wiifit/en]

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness (PC)
Makers of the Penny Arcade comic present an episodic videogame based on the comic strip characters. Expect to see plenty of humor, and fruit-loving robots, structured around a turn-based combat game. [rainslick.com]

SingStar (PS3)
Sony’s karaoke machine finally arrives on PS3 in North America with promises of downloadable licensed songs, and a community where you can upload your performance for others to make fun of. [singstargame.com]

Other releases:

• Dracula: Origin (PC)
• Stronghold Crusader Extreme (PC)
• Theatre of War (PC)
• UEFA EURO 2008 (PSP, X360, PS3)

TrackMania Nations Forever (quite a mouthful) is a completely free racing game featuring gravity and physics defying tracks and completely unrealistic vehicle handling. If you’re looking for the next racing simulation, or urban racing like Need for Speed, this is not. TrackMania Nations Forever completely eschews storyline and plunks you directly onto a list of tracks. There is no vehicle performance tweaking and no vehicle class to worry about.

What you need to worry about is getting the best time possible as you’re constantly ranked in your geographical region (such as Ontario) and country (Canada). When you see your score, and believe me it will be pretty bad, you’ll want to keep playing the same track over and over to increase your rating and be better than these anonymous fellow citizens.

The game features 65 tracks for both single player and multi player. Multi player is a bit of a misnomer as all it does is racing on the same track at the same time and try to get the best run time possible. There is no collision between the players, and first time you play multi player, it is a bit jarring since it is unlike any other racing game you’ve played. Once you get bored of the included tracks, you can create your own virtually ensuring longetivity.

So why is this game available for free? Nadeo, the creators of TrackMania series, would like you to upgrade to TrackMania United Forever which has updated graphics, new assets for track editor and more levels such as desert, snow and rally. At $40 USD, it isn’t a bad upgrade (as it also comes with a gimmicky 3D glasses for the 3D mode) but I recommend you give a go at TrackMania Nations Forever and find out if this different style of racing is your cup of tea. After all, it doesn’t cost anything to you…

Rating: 80%

[Download TrackMania Nations Forever for free from Nadeo]

Microsoft has finally unveiled Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, their sequel to Viva Pinata. The sequel aims to improve the pinata-raising experience with co-op mode, 32 new animals to collect, and the ability to scan cards with the vision camera to add them directly to your garden.

Another week without a AAA title… I recommend you keep plugging away at Grand Theft Auto IV, and join the 100% completion club. If you own a Wii, this week marks the launch of WiiWare games. Finally Nintendo can try to compete against Xbox Live Arcade and PSN…

Releases:

• Assault Heroes 2 (X360)
• Baseball Mogul 2009 (PC)
• Castle of Shikigami III (Wii)
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (X360, PS3, Wii, DS)
• Deca Sports (Wii)
• Drone Tactics (DS)
• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (Wii)
• Ford Racing: Off Road (PC)
• Major League Eating: The Game (Wii)
• Myst (DS)
• Rocketmen: It Came from Uranus (X360, PS3)
• Tori Tori (Wii)
• We Ski (Wii)

Very similar to Beats, Audiosurf is a downloadable game that turns your music collection into a rhythm game. Audiosurf behaves very much like Frequency and its sequel Amplitude: you pilot a craft riding on a path and your goal is to create clusters out of different colored blocks by collecting them in a zone in front of your craft. What’s unique is that each track will be automatically generated by analyzing the song. Faster songs will lead to more downhill areas, and more blocks on the track whereas slower songs with fewer beats will be a gentler ride.

In theory this is a perfect combination of listening to your favorite music while engaging in a stimulating gameplay, but the automatic beat detection engine sometimes fails and the blocks don’t perfectly align to the beats (just like in the PSP game Beats). The game does give you a fair amount of replay value as there are 21 characters for you to choose from, each having a specific effect. Some can help you by moving the blocks to a different lane, while others are tougher yet reward you with more points in the end.

At just $10 on Steam service, the game is a great purchase, perhaps even better than Beats. As long as you don’t mind a few inconsistent beats here and there, you’ll enjoy this trippy ride.

Rating: 70%