This week’s new releases! January 10th – 16th
Well this is certainly an improvement. I mean wow, six whole new games! Six!! Well ok, two of them are just ports and another is just a disk release of something that came out as DLC last year…….. So I guess in reality it’s more like 3, but hey that’s three more than last week right? Oh, and that Kingdom Hearts thing is just an upgraded version of a cell phone game so… Ok whatever, this is what’s coming out in the next 7 days:
Multi-platform
DC Universe Online (PS3/PC)
DS
Kingdom Hearts Re:coded (seriously guys, enough with the silly names)
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
PSP
Buzz! Ultimate Music Quiz
PC
Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (+Mac)
Wallace & Gromit: Grand Adventures – Episodes 3 & 4
DC Universe is the only big stand out title there, a very risky MMO by Sony Online Entertainment. Why risky? Oh god, too many reasons: MMOs have never really worked out on consoles, most MMOs flop, almost every SOE product in the last few years (with one big exception) has flopped, there’s already 3 very popular super hero based MMOs etc. It looks like their almost entirely relying on a popular IP to help ride out the inherent problems with producing such a game, SOE really should know better.
Ghost Trick’s probably worth a mention too, a new title by Shu Takumi of Ace Attorney fame. Playing as a ghost instead of a lawyer, your mission is to prevent deaths by using your ability travel 4 minuets into the past and possess inanimate objects. While it’s certainly a unique title, the harsh reality is that it’s more or less doomed to flounder in the crowded DS market without any first party support or big name IPs to back it up.
And then there’s Kingdom Hearts. While the franchise is still a fairly big deal and still has one of the most………uh…..”enthusiastic” fan-bases out there, I can’t help but feel yet another handheld spin off might be a bit overkill, especially with a 3DS instalment on the way. Mind you, it’s been a rough time for poor old Square-Enix this past year, most of their foreign investments crashed ‘n’ burned and the last two numbered Final Fantasy games were met with a distinctive “meh”. Guess they can always rely on KH fans for some easy money to help them bounce back.