This week’s new releases! April 25th – May 1st
Once again there’s not a huge number of new titles coming out this week, but to compensate we have a much more desirable ratio of crap to quality than usual. Much like last week this is likely due to a significantly lower than normal output of shovelware from the Wii and DS markets which is always welcome, and for my sanity’s sake is a trend I really hope is here to stay.
Highlights
Darkspore (PC)
This one is a bit of an oddity. Remember Spore? Will Wright’s incredibly ambitions God sim from 2008 that was meant to revolutionise gaming but got more or less forgotten once the initial hype died down? Well this is that, but DARK. Instead of creating cute Pixar-ish creatures you’re working on bladed terrors of unrelenting carnage, and rather then helping them cultivate a civilized high tech society in via a quasi RTS interface, you’re instead going on a Diablo style action RPG rampage where you carve up anything that moves until it drops shiny things that make you carve things up better than you did before.
While the original Spore was indeed multimillion seller, it proved to have very little staying power within the hearts and minds of gamers as a whole. So given that decent Diablo style games usually have the opposite kind of reception, it should paint a very interesting comparison when it hits the market this week. If it is actually decent that is, the jury is still out on that one.
Thor: God of Thunder (PS3/3DS/Xbox360/Wii/DS)
Normally I wouldn’t bother wasting more than a handful of words on a game like this. We all know the score: movie tie-in games are released on just about every available platform every other week, and they’re all nearly guaranteed to totally suck even if the film they’re based on doesn’t. But what I though was interesting about Thor: God of Thunder wasn’t the game as such, but more what it was being released on: PS3, 3DS, Xbox360, Wii and DS. Notice anything missing? No PSP version! It seems to have been replaced by Nintendo’s impressive but content starved 3DS.
This could perhaps be a sign that 3DS will be the new dumping ground for the “better than DS but not console standard” movie tie-in games, which would in turn cut off one of the few lifelines the PSP has left outside of Japan. However, given that the NGP is on the horizon and the 3DS has only a handful of games (quality or otherwise), it’s easy to see which camp is more in need of this sort of crap.
Shutter Island (DS) & Beastly (Wii)
Again, normally I wouldn’t give this stuff the time of day, but I was just so struck back by how weird a choice these two films are for video game adaptations. For one thing Shutter Island came out well over a year ago now, and even then it was hardly video game material. But at least on some crazy level I can see how you could somehow turn it into point and click puzzle game or something, although the twist ending is going to be rather predictable if you’ve seen the movie.
Beastly on the other hand? Seriously WTF. Do you know what happens in Beastly? It’s a Twilight-ified remake of Beauty and the Beast where a generically handsome douchebag is turned into a tattooed goth by a witch and is then given one year to make Vanessa Hudgens fall in love with him if he ever wants to be turned back. That’s it. That is the entirety of the material that the developers had to work with in order to make this video game. So what the hell is this thing then? A dating sim? Puzzler? First Person Shooter? A tycoon sim where you make millions just by endless manufacturing Twilight style movies? The mind boggles.
Full schedule
Multiplatfrom
Virtua Tennis 4* (PS3/Xbox360/Wii)
Thor: God of Thunder (PS3/3DS/Xbox360/Wii/DS)
DS
Natalie Brooks: The Treasures Of The Lost Kingdom
Jewel Master: Double Pack – Cradle Of Rome & Cradle Of Egypt
Shutter Island
PC
Darkspore
Stray Souls: Dollhouse Story – Collector’s Edition
King’s Bounty: Platinum Edition (Includes Armored Princess, The Legend & Crossworlds)
Mythos
Wings Of Prey: Collector’s Edition
Wii
Beastly
Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party 4
Musiic Party: Rock The House (No that’s not a typo, they really did spell it with two “i”s. Rad.)
PS3
Zumba Fitness*
*PlayStation Move/Kinect Compatible