This Week’s Games

After a chaotic few weeks, the new releases are starting to slow down a tad. Sonic Unleashed is the most high profile, the PlayStation 2 version of which is a stupidly cheap £12.89 at sendit.com, but Lord knows if it’s any good. Sega said that it isn’t being released in Japan, which is worrying.

Sam & Max on Wii is well worth a look if you enjoyed the Strong Bad games and point and click adventures in general, while I’m guessing that Resistance 2 is a lot like the original only better. There’s also You’re in the Movies (with Live Vision Camera) for Xbox 360 and the hilariously titled* Jeep Thrills for PlayStation 2. And look – there’s a new Hello Kitty game!

Next week: We’re all going to be Tom Nook’s bitch. Again.

* Not really

If I were to tell you that there’s a new console on the horizon with games from Sega, Namco, Capcom and EA confirmed, you’d be pretty excited, right? Now what if I told you that they were games initially designed to be played on a mobile phone? Less excited? I thought as much.

Zeebo will be the first fully-fledged console from the infamous Brazilian company TecToy, and is due out in Brazil in April 2009 and then worldwide in June 2009. The games themselves all appear to be conversions of recent mobile phone games, and are stored on the 1GB of internal memory. Six come pre-installed – including Quake and Prey: Evil – and another ten have been announced, such as Ridge Racer, Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, Resident Evil 4 and Crash Nitro Kart, while downloadable Mega Drive games have also been mooted. You can see the full catalogue on the Zeebo website, and there are also a few videos on YouTube like this one and this one.

The console itself resembles a shinier PlayStation 3 with a glowing blue logo, while the controller appears identical to the Wii Classic Controller. No internet connection is required – the games are downloaded straight out of the air and can be purchased using Z-Credits, a bit like Nintendo Wii Points.

The screen resolution is set to 640×480, which could possibly be a good thing – these games were designed to be played on a screen not much bigger than a postage stamp. You also have to wonder how the previous digital controls will be mapped out onto the analogue sticks. Shoddily, no doubt. This video of Crash Nitro Kart in motion should give you an idea of the 3D capabilities.

Did somebody say N-Gage?

UK Chart

It’s not uncommon for a game to drop ten or so places in a week, but World of Warcraft: Wrath of Lich King has gone all the way from #2 to #34. Gears of War 2 has fallen from #4 to #14 too, while Professor Layton goes from #7 to #18.

Call of Duty: World at War stays on top for the second week running. There are a few new entries as well: Need for Speed Undercover at #4, Tomb Raider: Underworld at #9 and Left 4 Dead at #15. 51 percent of sales of Tomb Raider: Underworld were on PS3, 34 percent on Xbox 360 and the remainder on Wii, PC and DS. It looks like the PlayStation 2 version was canned at the last moment.

Shaun White Snowboarding and ABBA Singstar both enter on their second week of release at #27 and #39 respectively, but we say goodbye to Tom Clancy’s EndWar which has now left the top 40 all together.

The Wii chart has become as painful to look at as the DS chart. What on earth is All Star Cheerleader doing at #10? And Guinness World Records: The Videogame at #11? I blame stupid little girls and idiot parents.

When approaching any wrestling video game, my biggest fear is always the typically unresponsive controls. This wasn’t always the way though – I had a WWF game for the original Game Boy that played perfectly well using just two buttons. And it had The Mountie in it. With the Wii’s occasionally flimsy waggle controls in mind, I was expecting myself to be literally wrestling the controller, rather than the virtual buffed up wrestlers themselves.

This Week’s Games

Another week, another slew of big releases. Get ready to open your wallets for Shrek’s Carnival Craze (Need for Speed Undercover), Funfair Party (Tomb Raider Underworld), Imagine Gymnast (Left 4 Dead) and Barbie Horse Adventures: Summer Camp (Skate It).

Lara’s latest hasn’t been getting glowing reviews (it’s currently on 75% on Gamerankings) while Need for Speed Undercover is also getting a bit of a mauling at currently at 66%. Fortunately Left 4 Dead is going great guns, which isn’t surprising seeing as the almighty Valve are behind it. There’s no PlayStation 3 version though.

Naruto: The Broken Bond on 360 and Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon are also out this week too. The last Naruto on 360 was something of a hidden gem so it might be worth a look.

If you’re a DS owner and still think skateboarding is cool then you’ll probably be torn between Tony Hawk’s Motion (which also includes Hue Pixel Painter, oddly) or EA’s Skate It. They’re both £24.99 at Game, although Tony Hawk’s Motion comes with a motion adapter.

Next week: Resistance 2, Sam & Max, Sonic Unleashed, You’re in the Movies, Blastworks, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and Ninjatown on DS.

UK Chart

PC gaming is dead? Not so – two PC games have entered in the top ten this week. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King at #2 and Sega’s Football Manager 2009 at #3. Of course Call of Duty: World at War takes the top spot, and has become the third fastest selling game in the UK, behind GTA IV and GTA: San Andreas. Wii Music fails to make the top ten, having to make to do with trumpeting in at #16.

Gears of War 2 – last week’s #1 – drops to #4 while Guitar Hero: On Tour has risen from #17 to #6. Sony’s big hope LittleBigPlanet has had a bad second week going from #4 to #19, while Quantum of Solace has also fallen, from #8 to #18. Tom Clancy’s EndWar is making an usually sharp exit from the chart, currently at #39.

Kung Fu Panda and Lego Indiana Jones are both back in the chart, at #24 and #21 respectively. I’m not sure if this is on the back of the DVD releases or because they’re being bundled with Xbox 360 consoles. There’s a double pack doing the rounds, see, a bit like last year’s Forza 2 and Viva Pinata bundle.

The Most Memorable New Product Launch Survey is definitely as interesting as it sounds. It tells us today that Americans can remember fewer new things this year because of the economic shit storm and the presidential election.

Moreover, it tells us that Wii Fit is the most memorable new product launch of 2008. It beat the iPod Touch into second place, but it’s the other top products that I’m interested in, providing as they do a fascinating insight into the American market.

Third is fruity low calorie Bud Light Lime, which sums up the very alien to me North American attitude to beer.

At four: McDonald’s Southern Style Chicken Biscuit & Sandwich, which I just don’t understand. Other threatening foodstuffs among the top rankers were Kraft Mac & Cheese Crackers, Burger King Apple Fries and Kraft Bagel-fuls.

Sixth on the list was KY Yours + Mine Couples Lubricant – not something I would have expected to see. It’s encouraging, at least, that Wii Fit was more memorable. Rock Band, however, was joint eighth, and thus less memorable than the new lubricant.

UK Chart

There are four new entries in the top ten this week: Gears of War 2 is top of the lot and has become the third best selling Xbox 360 title, LittleBigPlanet goes in at #4, WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 at #5, and the lovely Professor Layton and the Curious Village at #6. Did I mention it’s lovely? It’s lovely.

Moving down at bit, there’s Guitar Hero: World Tour at #17, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift and Tom Clancy’s EndWar at #29 and #30 respectively. Maybe Motorstorm would have done a bit better if Sony hadn’t released it on the same day as LittleBigPlanet.

To make way for all these new releases a lot of titles have dropped like a pair of cheap trousers – Fable II, Far Cry 2 and Lego Batman have all left the top ten, while Dead Space has gone from #12 to #32.

In the DS chart the absurdly titled Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs enters at #23, while in the Wii chart More Game Party has risen all the way from #41 to #9.

When Donkey Kong Country was first revealed many thought it was for the then upcoming Ultra 64 console. The twist was that it was actually for the SNES. But what if it was made for the NES instead, complete with rendered visuals? Impossible, right?

Well, talented Chinese pirates ‘Hummer Team’ have had a go and managed to get the 8-bit system doing stuff it really shouldn’t be doing. Of course, it’s an illegal bootleg that has nothing to do with Nintendo, but it’s impressive stuff. They’ve had to leave out the animal helpers and bonus rounds, but the level design is intact and the visual style has been retained. There’s a video and more screenshots over on TechEBlog.

Pirated NES (or Famicom) games are still common in the Far East – recently a Harry Potter has been doing the rounds, as well as a 2D version of Final Fantasy VII.

This Week’s Games

This week could possibly be a record breaker for new game releases, with just over 50 (yes, 50) making an appearance – 24 on DS, 6 on PlayStation 2, 5 on Xbox 360, 8 on Wii, 2 on PSP and another 8 on PlayStation 3.

There are some big releases in there too: Gears of War 2, Tom Clancy’s End War, Guitar Hero: On Tour, WWE SmackDown vs Raw 2009, LittleBigPlanet and Motorstorm: Pacific Rift.

Retailers are having another price war on Gears of War 2, with Sainsburys and Morrisons ‘doing it’ for £29 and Asda for £32. The game itself? Very good, with the new weapons requiring thought to use and a wealth of new online modes. I’m going to give Professor Layton and the Curious Village on the DS a shout out too – the US version kept me glued for ages, with its intelligent puzzles and whimsical storyline. I can’t think of a better DS game to buy this winter.

Next week: Call of Duty: World at War, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and Alone in The Dark: Inferno on PlayStation 3.

Globe recently revealed some Gears of War branded skate shoes, but they weren’t anything fancy – just a plain black shoe with the iconic red skull logo on the side. These Nike Air Classic NES trainers, on the other hand, are obscenely desirable.

Rather than covered in predicable NES-era pixel art, Nike have been cleverly subtle – the colours match the NES controller while the bottom part of the shoe features the D-pad emblem.

Don’t expect to walk into JD Sports and buy a pair though – they’ll only be available at certain US stores.

Remember R-Type Final? Well, it turns out that it wasn’t really the final attempt by the Bydo Empire to wipe out mankind, as the existence of this PSP-exclusive proves. Rather than being a 2D shooter though – which would suit the PSP’s elongated screen rather nicely – it’s a hex and turn-based affair, a bit like Advance Wars. If Advance Wars was hex based. Which it isn’t.

First impressions are that this isn’t exactly a big budget affair, with dull menus and a lack of visual polish – for most of the game you’re forced to squint at tiny 2D sprites. The loading times are pretty annoying too, appearing every time one of the non-interactive 3D battle animations pop up. It’s pretty involving though – not only do you control the movement of each craft in your fleet, which includes a carrier where ships can refuel, but also what attacks they use when up-close to enemy craft. New ships can be researched while surviving pilots increase in skill. The force power-up also makes an appearance and can be attached to ships to improve their stats.

It’s a radical departure for the series, certainly, but it fits in with the R-Type universe quite nicely and proves to be quite time consuming, requiring both patience and planning.