With the financial year drawing to a close, most local distributors are pushing out a bunch of games in the hopes of improving their financial results. It’s a pretty packed week with something for everyone. New releases this week include the final Fatal Fury game Garou: Mark of the Wolves, the long awaited Ghostbusters: The Video Game (but only for the PS3), a compilation of old tracks with band support in Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits and the cooperative giant slaying fun of Monster Hunter Freedom UNITE for the PSP.

Don’t forget to check out the full release schedule for the latest changes and information on upcoming games.

24/05/2009

Droplitz Platform: Xbox Live Arcade (Coming soon to PlayStation Network) Developer: Blitz Games Publisher: Atlus RRP: 800 Microsoft Points ($AU13.20) Another week, another puzzle game for Xbox Live Arcade. Fortunately, this one isn’t yet another match x game, rather, players need to arrange the pieces to create pipes for liquid to flow from the top of the field to the bottom. Could be fun, but I’d recommend grabbing the trial before committing your spacebucks.
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs Platform: Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 Developer: Eurocom Publisher: Activision RRP: $AU29.95 (PC), $AU49.95 (DS), $AU59.95 (PS2), $AU69.95 (Wii), $AU79.95 (PS3, Xbox 360) Oh look, another video game based on a kid-oriented CG talking animal movie. You should know exactly what to expect here – a straightforward platformer with little to no redeeming attributes. So unless you’re a child with no sense of what makes a decent game, you should skip it.
Garou: Mark of the Wolves Platform: Xbox Live Arcade Developer: SNK Publisher: SNK RRP: 800 Microsoft Points ($AU13.20) Remember Fatal Fury? Garou: Mark of the Wolves is the last game in the series, set 10 years after the death of Geese Howard in Real Bout: Fatal Fury. The futuristic settings gives SNK an excuse to introduce a new cast of character, along with new designs for existing favourites like Terry Bogard. It has some of the most amazing 2D art and animation you’ll ever see, and the fighting action is among the best SNK ever produced. A must for fighting game fans.
Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits Platform: PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 Developer: Beenox Publisher: Activision RRP: $AU69.95 (PS2), $AU89.95 (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360) For gamers that missed the original three Guitar Hero titles, Activision has decided to tempt you into buying a greatest hits compilation of select tracks from those three games with added band instrument support. It’s good if there were tracks you wanted to play with four friends on that aren’t in the new games, but the asking price might be a bit high if you spent a lot of time with the earlier games.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Platform: Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 Developer: Beenox (PC)/Krome Studios (Wii)/Luxoflux (PS3, Xbox 360)/Vicarious Visions (DS) Publisher: Activision RRP: $AU59.95 (Nintendo DS, PC), $AU89.95 (Wii), $AU99.95 (PS3, Xbox 360) Another big summer action movie tie-in that’s likely to disappoint. I couldn’t stand the last Transformers tie in, and I can’t see any of the three different versions here being any good. Hopefully the action is a little more easily discernable in the game than it is in the movie.

25/06/2005

Anno 1404 Platform: PC Developer: Related Designs Publisher: Ubisoft RRP: $AU89.95 Anno 1404 is the latest in the long running series of city-building/real time strategy games. This one is set earlier in history, but promises a new interface, bigger worlds and a modifiable sandbox play mode. I’m not too familiar with the series, but it has a pretty solid fan following, so if you’re looking for something a little different in the sim-sphere, give it a look.
Anno: Create a New World Platform: Nintendo DS, Wii Developer: Keen Games Publisher: Ubisoft RRP: $AU59.95 (DS), $AU69.95 (Wii) The Wii and DS version of Anno is based on the above game, but features a much more casual-friendly interface and graphical style. There’s not really much like it on the Wii, so it could be an interesting experience.
Bob the Builder: Festival of Fun Platform: Nintendo DS Developer: Blast Entertainment Publisher: Blast Entertainment RRP: $AU39.95 Cue music. Bob the Builder! Should we play it? Bob the Builder! No we shan't!
Cricket Captain 2009: Ashes Platform: PC Developer: Empire Publisher: Empire RRP: $AU49.95 The Cricket Captain series is designed for people who want to control every aspect of their squad in the long form of the game. The 2009 release is coming just in time for the Ashes, and features the endorsement of talented Australian batsmen Phil Hughes for the local version. I personally prefer Super International Cricket, but if you’re big into test cricket, it’d be easy to get drawn into this.
Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Developer: Omega Force Publisher: Koei RRP: $AU69.95 A lot of people love to crap on the Dynasty Warriors series for its high levels of repetition, but the series has a pretty dedicated fan base. The Empires release of each version is easily the best, challenging players to a more strategic form of the game which mixes classic Dynasty Warriors gameplay with a strategy game not unlike the classic board game Risk. If you’re going to try any game in the series, this is the one.
Ghostbusters: The Video Game Platform: PlayStation 3 Developer: Terminal Reality Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment RRP: $AU109.95 At long last, Ghostbusters is about to hit shelves...but only on the PlayStation 3. Well, unless you feel like ordering the US Xbox 360 version, which will run on your PAL Xbox 360. The game seems to be pretty divisive, some think that the game is great, while others think it relies too highly on nostalgia to cover up for its highly linear design.
Imagine My Boutique Platform: Nintendo DS Developer: Ubisoft Publisher: Ubisoft RRP: $AU59.95 Oh look, another Imagine game. Did anyone get a kick out of the E3 presentation where Ubisoft was beating its chest about selling 3 million imagine titles, making it the second best performing IP on the DS, but neglecting to mention that they’ve released 31 of the damn things in the last 12 months. This one lets you run a florist. I wonder if you get to gouge prices on Valentine’s Day.
Monster Hunter Freedom UNITE Platform: PSP Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom RRP: $AU69.95 Monster Hunter is the one of the biggest franchises in Japan, the sole reason for many people buying PSPs in the country. Now it's time for Monster Hunter to hit the big time outside of Japan, with Capcom hoping that Western gamers get drawn in. The game is all about getting together with friends and hunting gigantic beasts using massive swords and such. This version supports the ad-hoc party feature on the PS3, so you can even play online without having to worry about Capcom shutting the servers down prematurely.
Mr Bean’s Wacky World of Wii Platform: Wii Developer: Blast Entertainment Publisher: Ubisoft RRP: $AU49.95 Remember when Mr. Bean was relevant and funny? Yeah, that was 20 years ago, which is when this game should have come out. This looks to be based on the awful animated version, so avoid at all costs.
My Cooking Coach: Prepare Healthy Meals Platform: Nintendo DS Developer: Ubisoft Publisher: Ubisoft RRP: $AU49.95 Whatever Nintendo does, Ubisoft tries to do a year later with half the effort and no budget. Get Cooking Guide if you need a DS based cook book.
Pain Platform: PlayStation 3 Developer: Idol Minds Digital Entertainment Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment RRP: $AU49.95 It’s a disc based release of Pain and a bunch of its add-on packs. If that means you get to play as David Hasselhoff from the get-go, it might actually be worth a rental.
Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil Platform: Wii Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom RRP: $AU59.95 Capcom milks the Resident Evil cash cow a little more this week with a direct port of the GameCube remake of the original game. Since so few Australians actually owned GameCubes and this game, it should seem like a whole new experience. It’s a re-telling of the original story with about 70% new content, and a few new gameplay variations (like having to torch zombie courses). It’s 7 years old, but it still looks amazing – it’s a shame they didn’t remake the second game in the same style.
SBK: Superbike World Championship 09 Platform: PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox 360 Developer: Milestone Publisher: Black Bean Games RRP: $AU49.95 (PS2, PSP), $AU99.95 (PS3, Xbox 360) I’m not even going to pretend that I know anything about Superbikes or the associated championship series, but I’ll assume that if you know anything about bike racing, you’ll probably want to take a quick look at this.
Spore Galactic Adventures Platform: PC Developer: Maxis Publisher: Electronic Arts RRP: $AU49.95 Electronic Arts releases the first major expansion to Spore, which adds a whole bunch of content to the Space stage of the game, including proper mission objectives. Honestly, this is the type of stuff that should have been in the release version of the game – fifty bucks for that is a little bit too much to ask.
Superstars V8 Racing Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Developer: Black Bean Games Publisher: Black Bean Games RRP: $AU99.95 Again, I’m not going to pretend that I know anything about auto-racing, but the V8s are still pretty damn popular around where I live, and a lot of fans of the sport are looking for their gaming fix, especially since Codemasters seems to be dragging their feet about producing new versions of their TOCA/V8 Supercards series.

26/06/2006

It’s My Birthday Platform: Wii Developer: 2K Games Publisher: 2K Games RRP: $AU49.95 I could mock 2K Games about making a mini-game collection based on games you’d play at a birthday party, but I thought I’d link to this similarly titled Perry Bible Fellowship comic, which expresses my feelings about birthdays.

The flow of new releases remains steady for another week with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and Fight Night Round 4 starting up the EA Sports line up for the year, Street Fighter IV finally hitting the PC with some super fancy new graphical features and the magical Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on every format known to man. We’re supposed to also see Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, but the alleged date of Monday the 29th doesn’t seem to gel with the typical Wednesday/Thursday release schedule of each service, so you’ll have to wait and see.