This week’s new releases! June 13th-19th

Looking back on last week now that the dust around E3 has finally settled, I was surprised to discover the release schedule during my Electronic Expo related absence was unexpectedly eventful thanks to several big name titles such as inFamous 2, White Knight Chronicles 2/Origins and Duke Nukem: Forever! Wait, did that last one actually come out? It wasn’t just another jet-leg fueled fever dream right? RIGHT?

While this week (and the weeks following) are a far cry from those heights, it still looks to be a fairly busy time with 20 new titles hitting the store shelves over the next few days. Admittedly most of them are just casual titles of dubious quality aimed at the Nintendo/PC crowd, but when ain’t that the truth ya know?

Highlights

 

The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time 3D (3DS)

Undoubtedly this week’s big hitter by a long shot, not that that’s too hard mind you. More importantly though, it finally gives the 3DS that “must have” title that its been so sorely crying out for since release. And while It’s a bit of a bummer that the console’s first killer app is essentially something many of us played well over a decade ago, I really don’t have the heart to snub a new generation of gamers being introduced to one of the most highly acclaimed and influential games of all time!

Don’t get me wrong though, there’s plenty here for longtime fans to enjoy too. As well as a massive graphical overhaul the game will also feature a return of the rearranged Master Quest dungeons from the GameCube re-release, a boss rush challenge mode and a new touchscreen based equipment system which the developers have promised will help create the least painful iteration of the infamous water temple that there’s ever been!

 

Alice: Madness Returns (PS3/Xbox360)

It still hasn’t really sunk in to me yet that someone decided to make a sequel to America McGee’s Alice, a relatively obscure PC game that came out almost 11 years ago. Don’t feel too ashamed if you have absolutely no idea who America McGee is, or as to why he was considered important enough to have his name plastered across several projects he worked on. His anonymity these days is hardly surprising considering the general reception to his works since the original Alice varied between “it’s kinda ok I guess” to “LET US NEVER TALK ABOUT THIS EVER AGAIN” the latter likely being the reason Madness Returns will thankfully not be bearing his weighty title.

As you can probably tell from that boxart this game is a dark version of Alice in Wonderland, but if your mind is now veering towards the weird and twisted Tim Burton interpretation seen in the 2010 movie, then forget it. I’m talking DARK here bro. As in, Alice is now a mentally unstable near homicidal knife wielding maniac DARK. Gameplay wise it’s looking decidedly retro so far; lots of fiddly platforming and coin like MacGuffin collecting, basically the sort of stuff that hasn’t really been in many games aimed at adults since the era of… well… America McGee’s Alice.  Whether modern sensibilities are compatible with old style game design is anyone’s guess, but the current critical reception to Duke Nukem: Forever is pointing towards “no”.

Oh, and if you’re  one of those people who, no matter how flimsy or unimportant the narrative, just can’t bring themselves to play a sequel without playing the original, then fear not! Every copy of Madness Returns will be bundled with a one-use-only code that awards you a newly ported version of America McGee’s Alice on the relevant console, so now you too can experience how awesome PC gaming was back in the early 2000s instead of just hearing about it from cynical bastards like me.

 

Child Of Eden (PS3/Xbox360)

I’m not really sure this one’s fully sunk in yet either; a follow up to the decade old Dreamcast cult classic Rez. Although the developers have been keen to insist that Eden is more of a “Spiritual” sequel than anything else, the core gameplay is more or less the same as Rez‘s: on-the-rails shooting with a dynamic techno soundtrack set in an exceptionally trippy virtual world. While the fact this game even exists is kinda weird, weirder still is that it’s being heavily marketed as a Kinect title despite being playable with both traditional controllers and the PlayStation Move. But judging by the quality of the average Kinect game, I can’t really blame them for trying to hype up one of the few compatible titles that actually appears to have production values of some kind.

Anyway, while I’m totally stoked about what is essentially Rez 2, I’m worried that it too might run afoul of the current generation gaming expectations. The original Rez didn’t exactly fly off the shelves, and this was back when releasing a very simplistic on-the-rails shooter as fully priced retail game was still generally acceptable . I have a feeling that Q Entertainment are going to severely regret not making Child of Eden a DLC title like the well received Rez HD, but I guess only time will tell on that one.

Full Schedule

Multiplatform
Child Of Eden (X360/PS3)
Challenge Me: Brain Puzzles 2 (PC/Wii/DS)
National Geographic: Challenge! (PC/PS3/Wii)
Max And The Magic Marker (WII/DS)
Alice: Madness Returns (PS3/Xbox360)
Dungeon Siege III (PC/PS3/Xbox360)

3DS
The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time 3D
Naruto Shippuden 3D: The New Era

DS
Jewel Legends: Tree Of Life
Jewel Time Deluxe
Hello Kitty: Loving Life
Noddy In Toyland
Youda Safari

PC
Hidden Mysteries: Notre Dame – Secrets In Paris
Trucks And Trailers
Haunted Legends: The Queen Of Spades – Collector’s Edition
Victorian Mysteries: Woman In White
Jewel Time Deluxe
Mystery Masterpiece: The Moonstone
Voodoo Whisperer: Curse Of A Legend