How Shiny have fallen – from Earthworm Jim and MDK, over to a tedious looking kid’s licensed game. Sega said they’d be disappointed if The Golden Compass – based on this winter’s big movie – didn’t at least take the top spot of the PlayStation 2 chart. But with no review copies sent to the press, and recent previews being less than positive it’s a game that’s going to sell on name alone.
Another game out this week that’ll no doubt do well over Christmas but doesn’t deserve to do so is Looney Tunes: ACME Arsenal. The demo on Xbox Live seemed to be nothing but a collection of all the platformimg clichés we’ve seen a million times before. And the characters don’t look quite right. On the other hand, Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck on DS is allegedly great fun, with the idea being to piss Daffy off as much as you can.
But enough of the dross – Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles is out a full week before the Wii Zapper… not that it actually requires it. Best zombie light gun game since House of the Dead II seems to be the general opinion. Then on PlayStation 3 there’s John Woo Presents Stranglehold while Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow and Medal of Honor Heroes 2 are both out on PSP.
In2Games’ new RealPlay range is also available on PlayStation 2 from today – there are four standalone games in total (Realplay Golf, Pool, Racing and Puzzlesphere) and each comes with a unique wireless controller. If you bought all four though then you’d be well on your way to having enough money to buy a second hand Wii. Then again maybe not – they’ve been exchanging hands for silly money recently.
Back to the dross: Midway’s Blacksite: Area 51 which initially looked promising has turned out to be something of a catastrophe, with their ex-creative director claiming that the low review scores are “no surprise”. It went from Alpha to Final with barely any playtesting, so we wouldn’t be shocked to learn that it’s a bug ridden mess. Can’t be much worse than Midway’s own Hour of Victory though…
Next week: Uncharted, Link’s Crossbow Training, Pokemon Battle Revolution and Alvin and the Chipmunks!