Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers
For: Wii
From: Square Enix
ESRB Rating: Teen (alcohol reference, crude humor, fantasy violence, mild language, suggestive themes)

For better or worse — and a trip through this game provides ample evidence of both — “Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers” is trying to do exactly what Wii games should be doing in the system’s fourth year of existence. Whether the result is good or not — and again, the pendulum swings both ways — “Bearers” does things that are unique, weird and physically impossible on other hardware.

“Bearers” certainly gets off to a fun start — first, by tossing players into a free-falling shootout in the sky, and then by putting them at the literal wheel of a humungous airship for a chase sequence through tight canyon corridors. The convoluted storytelling aside — and per “Crystal Chronicles” tradition, the tale of good, evil and crystals is a potpourri of incomprehensible mythology and bad dialogue — it’s clear almost immediately that “Bearers” is going for a much more action-oriented bent than its series predecessors.

The game’s primary means of action also steps far outside traditional “Final Fantasy” bounds: Using a cursor-centric aiming system, players point the Wii remote at people and objects on the screen and then lift them into the air, Darth Vader-style, to move or toss them around. Anyone who played “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” can grasp the combat and level-manipulation possibilities here, and while “Bearers’” control scheme and camerawork leave plenty to be desired, it nonetheless fulfills that promise.

The combination of this core mechanic, a sloppily passable story, “Final Fantasy” iconography and a consistent barrage of experimental diversions — from Chocobo races to a flawed but fun stealth challenge to a completely bizarre game involving girls, a beach and good balance — is enough to make “Bearers” fun when it works.

But “Bearers” often falls short, and when it does, it falls hard. Worse, the most offensive problems stem from lousy design decisions that would seem almost mandatorily avoidable in 2010.

Far and away the game’s biggest issue is the onscreen prompts it uses to instruct players on what to do during these one-off diversions. Too many of them are confusingly vague, while a few are cryptic to the point of misleading, throwing up meters without explanation and displaying controller animations that only barely resemble what a player is supposed to actually do. “Bearers” is generous with save checkpoints and many of these diversions are impossible to completely fail outright, but stumbling your way through a badly-designed challenge isn’t fun simply because it doesn’t halt your progress.

The problems are less acute during the main adventure, but they’re no aggravating. The opaque map and navigation system feel strikingly unfinished given Square-Enix’s experience with interface design in traditional “Final Fantasy” games, and getting lost or slogging from point to point is entirely too easy. That isn’t helped by the fact that during these slogs, there simply isn’t much to do. For every example of blinding ingenuity “Bearers” displays, there are two or three that feel perplexingly amateurish, and the ratio may prove too much for all but the most ardent and adventurous “Final Fantasy” fans to handle for very long.

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Borderlands: Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot
For: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC
Requires: Borderlands
From: Gearbox Software/2K Games
ESRB Rating: Mature (blood and gore, intense violence, mature humor, strong language)
Price: $10

Though entirely enjoyable as a solo first-person shooter experience, “Borderlands” relies on a story, quest and inventory structure that’s best enjoyed with teammates (four players online, two locally) via cooperative play. Happily, players who want it both ways have the flexibility to play parts of the game alone and bring in friends on the fly without starting over as a new character.

Good thing, too, because whether you’ve played “Borderlands” alone, with friends or both up to this point, there’s pretty much no point in playing the “Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot” downloadable expansion without help.

As its name somewhat implies, “Riot” ditches the typical exploratory nature of “Borderlands’” quests in favor of post-apocalyptic arena combat: Moxxi is the host, and her “sport” consists of a survivor or four shooting their way out of a labyrinth that’s parts shanty town, stadium and game show studio. Moxxi emcees the action, and between her amusing taunts and the general gaudy design of the three arenas, “Riot” is a fantastic demonstration of the audiovisual spectacle that makes “Borderlands” so unique in spite of its bleak setting and genre.

Just don’t bask in the spectacle alone unless you really enjoy punishment.

“Riot” divides each match into five rounds, and those rounds split into five themed waves. Completing each wave consists of mowing down every enemy in the arena, and the reward for doing so is a brief supply drop of ammo and health. When all five waves of a round are wiped out, Moxxi drops a few items of actual value beneath the stage. Complete all 25 waves, and the match ends. Easy, right?

Not so much — and definitely not if you’re playing alone. Players who succumb to the enemy can continue to assist in the fight, but are confined to a penalty box until the next wave. If all players get sent to the box, gameplay halts and the round starts over from the first wave.

The task of conquering the harder waves and rounds is daunting enough, particularly when Moxxi alters the rules to remove gravity, nullify certain weapons useless or even strip away players’ shields. The challenge amplifies when fighting alone, and it’s made arguably unfair by the fact that if you get banished to the penalty box, the round automatically starts over by virtue of your having no teammates on the ground. Because “Riot” puzzlingly awards no experience points for killing enemies in the arena, it amounts to a lot of effort for no reward.

Though the continued emphasis on teamwork in “Borderlands” is admirable, it would’ve been nice, just this one time and only because the pool of “Borderlands” players has understandably shrunk since October, if Gearbox backed down a little and allowed solo players to enlist an A.I.-controlled teammate or two. “Riot” offers players a mountain of content and perhaps the stiffest challenge so far, but unless you make a pact with friends to take it on together, proceed with caution.

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Piyo Blocks
For: iPhone/iPod Touch
From: Big Pixel Studios
iTunes Store Rating: 4+
Price: $2

Turnabout appears to be fair play to “Piyo Blocks,” which borrows some unmistakable design points from a game, “Zoo Keeper,” that itself was a pretty transparent knock-off of “Bejeweled.” If you’ve played “Bejeweled” — and pretty much everyone in the world has at this point — the core gameplay in “Blocks” offers little surprise: A grid of colored blocks fills the screen, and players switch two blocks to create as many rows of three or more as possible before time runs out. Creating rows clears the blocks and adds some time to the clock, and meeting certain quotas (as defined by “Blocks’” three separate modes) advances the action to new levels with trickier (albeit randomly-generated) starting patterns. Though it doesn’t have “Keeper’s” charming animal characters, “Blocks” still pretty faithfully mimics that game’s cheerful, intentionally blocky good looks. More importantly, it gets the basic mechanics of “Keeper’s” controls — including the ability to string combos together while the game clears other blocks away — down perfectly. For a game that costs less than a bag of chips, the level of polish, if not the originality of the concept, is most impressive. For good measure, Big Pixel includes support for the OpenFeint network, which provides online leaderboards, friends support, chat functionality and achievements.

Posted in Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3 Downloadable Content, Xbox 360 Downloadable Content, iPhone/iPod Touch

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
For: Nintendo DS
From: Nintendo
ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+ (mild fantasy violence)

Twenty years on, “Zelda” games are creatures of habit to their own detriment. Link never speaks, Zelda’s always in trouble, and the road to fixing that trouble typically runs through approximately eight dungeons, which each contain a special item that numerous times thereafter will come serendipitously in handy.

Superficially, it all holds true yet again in “The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks,” which brings back the cartoony art style and stylus-based control scheme that worked pretty well two years ago in “The Phantom Hourglass.” “Tracks” even recycles a few ideas “Hourglass” introduced — most prominently, setting half of its dungeon-related content inside a single building Link will have to revisit multiple times before the credits roll.

But “Tracks” also gets right what “Hourglass” got wrong. Players don’t, for instance, have to start the dungeon from scratch each time they reenter: This time, whenever the story dictates a return to the tower, a new door takes Link straight to the next portion. More importantly, there’s no time limit hanging over Link’s head, which means the challenges are free to be a little more intellectually interesting than they were in “Hourglass.”

These portions also benefit from Zelda joining Link in (literal) spirit as a playable character. Players can chart a path for Zelda to take, and she can distract and even possess enemies while Link works elsewhere. Stealth levels are nothing new to “Zelda” games, and “Tracks” doesn’t go overboard with them, but the dual character control makes them one of “Tracks’” better assets.

The smarter central dungeon design trickles down to the rest of “Tracks’” labyrinths, which appear to have benefitted greatly from Nintendo’s further refinement of the control techniques it introduced in “Hourglass.” The brainteasers in “Tracks” are among the most satisfyingly intricate to appear in a “Zelda” game this decade, and the dual-screen boss fights, while easy, are nonetheless clever.

As always, a new “Zelda” game introduces some new items to complement the usual bombs, sword and boomerang. Revealing them here would spoil the surprise of finding them, and opinions will diverge on how ingenious or annoying Nintendo’s application of the DS’ special abilities are with regard to using them. If you plan to play “Tracks” in a public space, just know a few items — including the musical instrument that once again provides mock spell-casting capabilities — require you to blow into the DS’ microphone and potentially look a little strange doing so.

No mention of “Tracks” would be complete without discussing the train. The wildly convoluted (but, to Nintendo’s credit, satisfactorily explained) storyline explains the train’s importance, but its utility — like the horse and boat before it — is to get Link and Zelda around the world map.

This, likely, will amount to most players’ least favorite portion of “Tracks.” Controlling the train’s path, though a mix of route planning and speed/track switch toggles, is actually pretty fun, and the experience improves once you outfit it with some necessary weaponry. But after a few instances of backtracking across the map to a village before trucking back to the next dungeon, the experience loses its luster.

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James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game
Reviewed for: Playstation 3 and Xbox 360
Also available for: Wii, PSP, Windows PC and Nintendo DS
From: Lightstorm Entertainment/Ubisoft
ESRB Rating: Teen (animated blood, mild language, mild suggestive themes, violence)

If “Avatar” movie experience is as extraordinary as early critical returns seem to imply it is, then, “James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game” doesn’t do it a great deal of justice. Rather, it’s one of those highly imperfect games that, if engaged with dampened expectations and viewed presentationally as nothing beyond a respectable companion to the film, still can amount to a good time.

Problems and deficiencies are never game-breaking, but they are numerous and creep into most facets of the experience on some level — and regardless of whether, as an early storyline twist explains, you play primarily as the invading human military or the indigenous Na’vi tribe.

Most visibly flawed is the combat, which feels dated and awkward by the standards of modern third-person games. There’s no cover mechanic when shooting, nor is there a way, with most weapons, to stare down the sights for a more precise shot — a surprising omission given the slight behind-the-shoulder perspective the game adopts. Some weapons have a semi-automatic aim, but the vast majority feel unwieldy and underpowered.

Melee combat, which plays a major role on the Na’vi side of things, feels similarly unchained thanks to some loose character movement that also makes traversing narrow, elevated terrain dicier than it should be.

And so on. The game’s A.I. occasionally loses its mind on both sides of the battle. The mission structure is primarily some variation of kill x enemies or fetch x items, and the occasional offshoot mission feels predictably half-baked for one reason or another. All of it ties together around a storyline that takes place two years before the events of the film but struggles mightily to wrap an engrossing scenario around several hours’ time.

But with all that air cleared — and if you can believe it or not — “Avatar” still emerges as a pretty fun (and pretty lengthy, especially if you replay it from the other side) single-player game. The action mechanics are dated, but the game sends lots of targets at you and moves at a high enough speed to engender some old-fashioned, arcade-style fun. For good measure, there’s a nice upgrading mechanic that affords you unique weaponry and some very handy special abilities unique to both sides.

Lastly, while the game’s storytelling is spotty, it nonetheless adequately educates players about the world in which “Avatar” exists. Between story content and an encyclopedia of people, places and things, the game hands off a ton of mythology that can only help players’ appreciation for the more narratively capable film.

For good measure, if not much else, “Avatar” includes a multiplayer component and fills it out with the usual batch of modes found in a game of this ilk. It’s hard to argue with more content for the buck, but given the rash of amazing multiplayer games that have released in the past couple of months, it likely will be equally difficult to see a lively community develop around this portion of the game.

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Crazy Snowboard
For: iPhone/iPod Touch
From: Ezone
iTunes Store Rating: 9+ (infrequent/mild cartoon or fantasy violence, infrequent/mild horror/fear themes)
Price: $3 (free demo available)

With all due respect to Ezone’s naming conventions, “Crazy Snowboarding” isn’t terribly crazy at all. To the contrary, it rather conventionally acts just as one might hope a pick-up-and play iPhone snowboarding game would. Tilting the device controls the onscreen snowboarder’s steering, and a tap or hold on the screen preloads a jump when a rail, ramp or mound of snow is near. Once in the air, touching each of the four corners of the screen activates whatever trick players have assigned to that corner. The dead simple control scheme makes “Snowboard”  a no-brainer to play, but achieving gold medal scores requires some skillful trick stringing and sharp risk/reward management while in the air. “Snowboard” currently offers 30 missions, and the Halloween- and holiday-themed levels suggest Ezone will occasionally add more as more special occasions pass by. A modest rewards system allows players to use their points scored as currency toward unlocking new boards, outfits and tricks. And while the current online leaderboard system is pretty bare-bones, Ezone says the next update will incorporate support for the Plus+ social network.

Posted in Nintendo DS, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, iPhone/iPod Touch

LittleBigPlanet
For: Playstation Portable
From: Studio Cambridge/Media Molecule/Sony
ESRB Rating: Everyone (comic mischief)

Despite what the name implies, “LittleBigPlanet” isn’t a straight port of the 2008 Playstation 3 game of the same name, but a legitimate followup with an entirely new suite of single-player levels.

Better still, despite what common sense and a knowledge of that PS3 game’s sky-is-limit scope might imply, the PSP incarnation of “LBP” also isn’t a watered-down tribute to its predecessor, but a full-featured game that matches it in terms of ambition and possibility.

The overriding style, of course, remains the same. For those unfamiliar, “LBP” is a 2D platformer that incorporates real-world physics to an exponentially deeper degree than, for instance, “Super Mario Bros.” Objects slide, swing and topple according to their real-world properties, and even your playable character — the obnoxiously adorable, highly customizable Sackboy — runs and jumps according to the rules of inertia and gravity.

These physics, combined with the use of multiple planes on a 2D playing field and a reward system built around discovery more than mere survival, allows “LBP” to present levels that simply aren’t possible in other games. The generous checkpoint system and modest penalty for failure also frees the game to challenge players far more than its charming exterior would imply. Mining each level for its every last secret is a dicey endeavor, and Studio Cambridge really lets its cruel flag fly during some brutally tough side levels that, fortunately, are there for fun and don’t prohibit player advancement.

All of this extends to the game’s level creation engine, which sacrificed almost nothing during its migration from the PS3. Some additional controller gymnastics are necessary to overcome the PSP’s button and joystick deficiencies, and the graphics and physics calculations obviously aren’t as refined. Two-player level creation isn’t possible — there’s no wireless multiplayer of any kind in the PSP version — and levels designed in one game aren’t playable in the other, which is to be expected but nonetheless is worth noting for those who might hope for the impossible.

Elsewhere, though, “LBP” has everything it needs to develop a community on the level of its PS3 counterpart. Learning to harness the level creator’s insane power isn’t a blink-and-you’ll-get-it affair, but the game’s exceptional presentation coaxes newbies in and makes it fun to learn and make mistakes. The toolbox responsible for the single-player levels lies completely at players’ disposal, and sharing levels online and downloading others players’ creations is as simple here as it is on the big screen. As always, “LBP” has an online leaderboard for every created level, so there’s always a record waiting to be broken.

“LBP’s” true value will become apparent in the coming weeks, but some inspired levels have already appeared online, and things look promising. The PS3 game continues to pay dividends a year later even for those who ignore the creation tool altogether and simply download other players’ designs, and having a similarly bottomless well of gameplay on the go is just about the best thing this series could have done for a second act.

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Tony Hawk Ride
For: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
From: Robomodo/Activision
ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+ (Lyrics, mild suggestive themes, animated blood)

Without being behind the scenes, it’s impossible to discern whether “Tony Hawk Ride” is a case of hardware failing software or software not properly utilizing hardware.

At least on appearance, it isn’t due to shoddy hardware workmanship. To the contrary, the board controller that ships with “Ride”  — picture a wireless skateboard deck sans wheels — feels durable enough to easily outlast the mountain of iffy plastic musical instruments that paved its way. It looks good, too — like a sophisticated piece of electronics instead of just another one-trick toy.

Most importantly, in fleeting bits and pieces, it also works. The board rocks from side to side and nose to tail without demanding too much effort, yet it isn’t so malleable as to make it easy to spill out of control. Performing basic flip tricks is simple enough, and it’s fun to let loose, take one foot off the board, place the other on the far nose or tail, and perform a 360 spin while your onscreen skater does some facsimile of the same. Small sensors located on all sides allow for grab tricks, and between the lower body acrobatics and the fight to maintain optimum balance, “Ride” sneakily provides a good workout for muscles you may not otherwise work.

It’s unfortunate, then, that the game designed around the board fails to cater to what makes the board fun to use.

In stark contrast to the string of recent open-ended “Tony Hawk” games that let players ride freely and take on objectives at will, “Ride” is stiflingly straightforward: Each city breaks into a few small levels, and each level offers a handful of objectives — typically a time trial, trick session, collection of five mini-challenges and half-pipe trick session — that require a few minutes each to experience. “Ride” offers a free skate option, but the levels aren’t built with that in mind and there’s nothing to do during these sessions. A multiplayer component (eight players locally sharing one board, four online on the 360 and PS3) consists of the same events recycled under party play rules.

The abrupt, linear nature of “Ride’s” trick and race sessions makes it hard for players to just let loose and have a creative good time on the board, and the precise demands in the challenges create needless aggravation because the board simply isn’t smart or precise enough to consistently discern different flip tricks from one another. Instances of nailing a trick, only for the game to claim you didn’t, are aggravatingly common here, and there’s little reward for getting it right thanks to a bare-bones presentation that just trots out more of the same.

Ultimately, “Ride” feels like a half-finished game hastily designed to complement a board that maybe took longer than planned to complete. Maybe the board’s true calling will be as a snowboarding game controller or something else entirely. The potential is there. Right now, though, “Ride” adds up to an experience that, in its current state and at its current $120 price, just isn’t worth the investment.

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Backbreaker Football
For: iPhone/iPod Touch
From: NaturalMotion Games
iTunes Store Rating: 4+
Price: $1 (free demo available)

NaturalMotion’s Backbreaker football physics engine has sparked lingering curiosity since its 2007 unveiling, and if its first playable appearance in the wild is any indication, it’s no mystery why. “Backbreaker Football” isn’t a complete football game by any stretch, but a low-concept arcade game in which you, as the ballcarrier, must evade oncoming would-be tacklers and reach the end zone. Tilting the iPhone controls your directional movement, and some onscreen buttons allow you to juke, spin, sprint and, if the end zone is in sight, showboat. Evading defenders in style nets you points, stringing moves together results in bountiful combos, and the more times you can reach the end zone without being tackled and losing all your turns, the better your placement on the game’s leaderboards. “Backbreaker” backs the simple concept with a series of challenge levels, an endurance mode and multiple difficulty settings, but it’s the technological underpinnings that elevate it from a decent time-waster to bona fide addiction. Even on the underpowered iPhone, the tackle and running animations look fantastically authentic, and reading a would-be tackler’s body momentum — and countering it with perfectly-timed, perfectly-placed evasion — is a skillful undertaking rather than a matter of guesswork. Seeing this tech in motion on more powerful hardware can’t happen soon enough.

Posted in Nintendo Wii, PSP, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, iPhone/iPod Touch

Brütal Legend
For: Playstation 3 and Xbox 360
From: Double Fine Productions/EA
ESRB Rating: Mature (blood and gore, intense violence, partial nudity, strong language, suggestive themes)

Everything Tim Schafer fans expect from a Tim Schafer-produced project is all over the entirety of his latest offering, which almost certainly will emerge as the consensus choice for 2009’s best-written video game. “Brütal Legend” is a both a send-up of and a heart-on-sleeve tribute to the world from which heavy metal videos and fantasies are made, and every piece of its presentational puzzle — from casting to voice acting to character animation to the sharply funny script that ties it all together — could scarcely wish for a better treatment than this.

As a nice bonus, the actual game portion of “Legend,” while not quite as spotless, is pretty excellent as well.

“Legend’s” gameplay begins in earnest as a fairly simple third-person action game from the “Ninja Gaiden” school of combat. You have a few basic attacks, and your task is to mash away while enemies rush you and the game’s script explains exactly why you, a simple roadie only moments earlier, are suddenly fighting a demonic horde.

Gradually, though, “Legend” layers up. The straightforward action game quickly gives way to an open-world adventure, complete with side missions and miles of discoverable landscape. Completing optional missions and unearthing discoveries awards you currency, which you can use to expand your abilities and tinker your hot rod. You can summon your car from anywhere at any time via the game’s brilliant spell-casting mechanic, which doubles as a miniature rhythm game.

“Legend” appears to peak once it gives you some minions and a small handful of basic squad management commands with which to maneuver them, but it ups the ante even further when it tacks on a real-time strategy component that has you managing an army of different units while also protecting your base, cultivating supplies and fighting on the ground. (“Legend” repackages this component as a terrifically frantic four-on-four online multiplayer component as well.)

That “Legend” manages to map all of these things to a control pad is remarkable, but especially so when it becomes apparent how easy it is to fight, lead a squad, cast a spell and manage troops almost simultaneously and without any need to pause the game.

The same can’t always be said for the game’s difficulty balancing, which occasionally falls completely out of whack during the most intense of these strategy missions. Enemies spawn at an alarming rate, and a failure to take a commanding advantage early on either devolves into an endlessly long battle of attraction in which defeat seems inevitable. It isn’t fun when this happens once, and having to repeat a fight only amplifies the frustration.

But those moments are rare, and they provide the only real blight on what otherwise is an exceptional example of how to take on multiple genres, do them proud, and tell a terrific story in the process. Schafer fans have every reason to be delighted yet again, but you need not know word one about the man to savor what he’s done here.

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Tornado Outbreak
For: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii
From: Loose Cannon Studios/Konami
ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+ (cartoon violence)

The technology is there, and the desire has been there since “SimCity” let armchair mayors destroy their own cities with natural disasters. So it’s a bit surprising that we had to wait this long for a game that lets us be a tornado and tear all that lay before us to smithereens.

At its core, and during its most satisfying moments, that’s precisely what “Tornado Outbreak” does. Each level starts you out as a tiny twister that’s no larger than a traffic cone. As you pick up smaller items, your funnel cloud grows, and the bigger you get, the larger the objects (or, in some cases, people) you can swoop up. Before long, you’re free to carve through entire buildings like they’re made of cotton.

“Outbreak’s” gameplay sensibilities borrow heavily from those of “Katamari Damacy,” and the satisfaction of engulfing a world that dwarfed you only moments earlier is similarly pronounced. The cartoony graphical style would seem to hamper the game’s ability to satisfactorily illustrate the full destructive might of a tornado, but it does so only slightly.

“Outbreak” justifies the act of wrecking cities, parks and carnivals with a storyline that attempts to spin the exercise off as beneficial to the planet. It’s absurd, but the game actually makes it work by designing some likable characters and supplying them with a startlingly good voice cast. That, in turn, allows it to rationalize boss fights and other challenges that add variety to the general wreckage levels.

“Outbreak” takes another page from “Damacy” by implementing conditions and time limits in those wreckage levels. Though it’d be fun if the game occasionally removed the clock and let you ravage a level at your leisure, the time limit does add the kind of challenge needed to keep the experience interesting past the novelty stage. “Outbreak” doesn’t employ constrictive conditions, so the freedom to run wild doesn’t go away.

Perhaps predictably, “Outbreak’s” chief hang-ups also come straight out of “Damacy’s” complaint box.

The camera is better here than in “Damacy,” but it still struggles to accommodate a gameplay scale that changes quickly and dramatically. It’s easy for your own tornadic magnificence to block your sightlines, which can create problems when precise movements are needed. It also makes it harder than necessary to spot each level’s goal marker, which you need to reach before time runs out. “Outbreak” wants you to find the goal yourself while traversing the level, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating when you complete the mission but still fail a level because you spent a minute searching fruitlessly for the exit.

Like “Damacy,” though, “Outbreak” is strangely enjoyable in spite of its aggravations, and it satisfies that destructive yearning in a family-friendly way. (That’s doubly true if you bring along a friend for some two-player splitscreen co-op.) The price is right, too: “Outbreak” lacks the pizzazz of your typical $60 game, but there’s more than enough content here to justify the $40 tag.

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iBlast Moki
For: iPhone/iPod Touch
From: Godzilab
iTunes Store Rating: 9+ (infrequent/mild cartoon or fantasy violence)
Price: $1

Some games are a better fit than others for the iPhone’s particular capabilities and shortcomings, but few feel quite as tailor-made as “iBlast Moki.” The goal in “Moki” is to help a group of cute, gumdrop-like characters (the Mokis) reach the goal circle in each level. To do that, you need to place bombs around the level, time their charges, and ignite a chain reaction that propels the Mokis past whatever obstacles stand in their way. The degree of problem solving needed to finish each level (and, if you’re ambitious, nab a gold-medal time) makes “Moki” a great little puzzle game in its own right. But the method by which the game measures your score — the clock doesn’t start ticking until after you’ve set everything up and started the chain reaction — means you don’t have to frantically fight with the iPhone’s imperfect touch controls. Everything about “Moki” is pleasant, in fact: It’s easy on the eyes and ears, and if you’re not happy with your score on a level, you can tweak your arrangement instantly and repeatedly until you are. “Moki” arrives with more than 70 levels inside, features a shockingly robust level editor, and supports the Plus+ social network system. For a single dollar, it’s a ludicrous value.

Posted in Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, iPhone/iPod Touch

Dead Space Extraction
For: Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC
From: Visceral Games/EA
ESRB Rating: Mature (blood and gore, intense violence, strong language)

For the second time in as many years, developer Visceral Games has attempted to conform a genre to the needs of its fictional vision rather than the other way around. And for the second time in two years, it pretty well knocks it out of the park.

Part of that has to do with what “Dead Space Extraction” is in relation to “Dead Space,” the thoroughly polished third-person horror shooter that was among the class of the Xbox 360 and PS3 last year. “Extraction” isn’t a port of that game, but instead a brand-new chapter in the fiction that details the run-up to the devastation that sets the stage of the first game.

The change in storytelling methodology is significant: The original “Space” had you traversing mostly alone through mostly quiet corridors, but “Extraction” regularly surrounds you with a crew and even has you playing as more than one character when the story necessitates a change of perspective. That amounts to a significant increase in character dialogue, and “Extraction” takes full advantage by developing several intriguing characters (yours included) and funneling the entire production through a spectacularly energetic first-person presentation.

That first-person viewpoint is a byproduct of “Extraction’s” understanding of the limitations and possibilities brought forth by the Wii platform. But despite the fact that “Extraction” plays like an on-rails light gun game instead of the free-roaming third-person game that preceded it, the new perspective and approach ceases to feel like a concession once it becomes clear how little has been lost.

The deadly Necromorphs from “Space” return, and nothing about the encounters — from their attack intelligence to the spot-damage approach needed to put them down — feels dumbed down or scripted. The inventive weaponry also returns, alternate fire modes and all, and some of the guns (the disc ripper in particular) are more fun to use because of the immersive nature of the controls. Kinetic and stasis powers lay freely at your disposal, and opportunities to use them are no more contrived here than they ever were in “Space.” The only real puzzle contrivance is an occasional hacking mini-game, but even that manages to be exciting once it ramps up the challenge and consequence.

About the only place “Extraction” feels compromised is in the upgrades department. Instead of leveling up your character and weaponry to best serve your attack style, the game assigns upgrades automatically based on your between-mission grades and the items you pick up (if you’re quick enough) with your kinetic beam while the action rages on. The reflex test is great fun in its own right, but the lost flexibility merits mentioning all the same.

“Extraction’s” main campaign is exciting enough in its own right to merit multiple playthroughs, but Visceral incentivizes things with four difficulty settings and a challenge mode that turns the missions into points-based high score pursuits. “Extraction” also supports two-player co-op, which is always a treat, but there’s something to be said for going it alone — and maximizing the story’s creep factor — the first time through.

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Spyborgs
For: Nintendo Wii
From: Bionic Games/Capcom
ESRB Rating: Teen (crude humor, fantasy violence, mild language)

It’s the little things — some of them arguably beyond control — that undermine “Spyborgs,” a likably odd little Capcom venture that, for reasons good and bad, recalls the company’s earlier days as a feisty publisher of niche games in which inventive concepts and unpredictable execution mingled freely.

The oddity of the concept starts at the name, which makes the game sound like either a licensed Saturday Morning Cartoon product or yet another “Pokémon” knockoff hoping to strike gold on a Nintendo system. In fact, “Spyborgs” is neither, but rather a wholly original property that plays like a hybrid between “Devil May Cry”-style games and a 3D interpretation of Capcom’s terrific sidescrolling brawler games (“Final Fight,” “Captain Commando”) from the 1990s.

The general gist — choose from three playable characters and, using a combination of melee and shooting attacks, take out every enemy robot you see before advancing to the next area and repeating — is exactly what a marriage of those two games would lead you to believe it is. “Spyborgs” very quickly demonstrates a thorough understanding of the kind of action it wants to present, and surprisingly little time passes before it drops you into a rather frantic area in which robots descend from all sides.

At the very same time, though, “Spyborgs” quickly bares its biggest weakness: a dependency on a controller configuration — the Wii remote and nunchuck attachment — that proves surprisingly ill-fit for a genre that doesn’t really ask for much in that department. All three playable characters’ default attacks are mapped to the B button, which is a trigger and hardly ideal for rapid button presses. Secondary attacks are mapped to the nunchuck’s clumsy C and Z buttons, while the only ideal button — that big A button on the remote — goes to waste on a jump maneuver that only sparingly comes in handy.

Those awkward button placements obviously aren’t developer Bionic Games’ fault, and a pretty fun ability to uncover invisible objects using the remote’s pointer while the action rages on means “Spyborgs” can’t just allow the Classic or Wavebird controllers as alternate input methods. There’s no way to remap buttons to at least mitigate the issues, so it’s just something with which players have to deal.

For those willing to do so, the good news is that the game’s necessary evils don’t completely overshadow its upside. As stated earlier, “Spyborgs” has its act together in terms of speed and challenge, and while there’s nothing extraordinarily original about the overall design, the semi-cartoony style is pleasantly easy on the eyes.

Like its 1990s forefathers, “Spyborgs” also is most fun — and, in terms of its shortcomings, easier to forgive — when two players take it on together. It’s only a shame the game didn’t go one better and make it a three-player game. There are three selectable characters, the game has enough enemy robots to go around, and the Wii supports it, so why not?

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Skee-Ball
For: iPhone/iPod Touch
From: Freeverse
iTunes Store Rating: 4+

Freeverse has been a master of making pristine little apps since the days before the iMac, to say nothing of the iPhone, even existed. “Skee-Ball” rather aptly demonstrates that mastery by skillfully being all the things it should be while also going above and beyond the concept without going overboard. The skee-ball portion of “Skee-Ball” works explicitly well, with realistic ball physics, responsive touch (and flick) controls, and a presentation that looks good and sounds perfect. But “Skee-Ball’s” equally dead-on emulation of the game’s true purpose — accumulating reels of tickets and cashing them in for stupidly prizes — is equally pristine. The prizes aren’t real, of course, but collecting them and stocking your virtual trophy case is a legitimately fun endeavor that gives the game real legs. Freeverse squeezes additional mileage out of the feature by making certain prizes expensive and rare and by shuffling in different prizes at random each time you launch the game. The only thing missing is Bluetooth multiplayer, though the game’s support for the Plus+ network — which allows players to interact and compare achievements and scores across a growing multitude of iPhone games — is a pretty nice consolation prize.

Posted in Nintendo Wii, iPhone/iPod Touch

The Beatles: Rock Band
For: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
From: Harmonix/MTV/EA
ESRB Rating: Teen (mild lyrics, tobacco reference)

Guitar Hero 5
For: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and Playstation 2
From: Neversoft/Activision
ESRB Rating: Teen (mild lyrics, mild suggestive themes)

On paper, “The Beatles: Rock Band’s” mission could scarcely be simpler.

Fortunately, as it did with the original “Rock Band” — and, once upon a time, the original “Guitar Hero” — Harmonix makes it look every bit as simple in practice.

The upshot is that “Beatles” is explicitly what Beatles fans would wish it to be — the original master recordings of 45 songs, neatly organized over important periods in the band’s lifespan and stuffed out the gills with the imagery that similarly defined each era’s importance and influence. Beyond the new support for three simultaneous singers (which in turn allows for the formation of six-player bands), the game leaves the “Rock Band” formula alone.

Where “Beatles” goes for broke, and scores, is in its inspired dedication to fan service first and everything else second.

Unlike recent “Guitar Hero” games dedicated to one band, the playlist isn’t half Beatles and half other stuff, nor is it presented out of order. The career mode rides the same chronological track as the band’s journey, kicking off in The Cavern Club and culminating with the 1969 Apple Corp rooftops show. The Fab Four makes an inspired transformation into 3D videogame characters, the venues are exquisitely recreated, and the animated imagery that pops up between venues and particularly during the Abbey Road Studios sessions makes the game as sublime to watch as it is to play, particularly since so much of that imagery is out of view when your focus is on actually playing the game and hitting the notes. In terms of presentation and devotion to the subject matter, “Beatles” puts Neversoft’s single-band tributes to shame.

For those who don’t care for the Beatles any more than they do the Monkees, though, Neversoft’s latest may actually be the better of the two games.

For starters, “Guitar Hero 5″ isn’t hobbled by its subject matter. Stuff that has no place in a dedicated Beatles tribute — custom character/band creation, support for any combination of four instruments, eight-player online competitive multiplayer, the ability to play as your avatars in the Xbox and Wii versions — fits in just fine here.

Similarly, while the quality of the game’s 85 out-of-box tracks will vary from ear to ear, it’s hard to argue against the value of 40 additional songs for the same price (and less if you’re buying the instruments bundle). The GHStudio mode from last year’s “World Tour” also returns with a significant user-friendliness boost, making it easier for players to record their own instrumentals, download other players’ creations, or just jam for the fun of it in a makeshift recording studio.

In terms of gameplay, “GH5″ plays by the same rules as “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” games gone by (“Beatles” included), with the capacity for drop-in/drop-out co-op and the aforementioned support for multiple instrument configurations being the only real noteworthy changes. But “GH5″ gets a slight nod over “Beatles” in the note chart department, if only because it supports more difficulty levels and presents a friendlier graduation between each.

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Batman: Arkham Asylum
For: Xbox 360 and Playstation 3
From: Rocksteady Studios/Eidos
ESRB Rating: Teen (alcohol and tobacco reference, blood, mild language, suggestive themes, violence)

Good licensed videogames find a way to mold their subject matter so it conforms to whatever established gameplay genre it’s trying to imitate. The bold ones, meanwhile, do the opposite, bending and melting popular gameplay conventions until they do justice to the license rather than the other way around.

“Batman: Arkham Asylum,” to both its benefit and detriment, is one of the boldest licensed games around.

Presentationally speaking, it’s the best game of the year thus far. “Asylum” toes a line between the animated series and the recent, darker films, but it never displays anything less than a spotless understanding of the Batman universe. A good storyline works in tandem with some incredible voice acting (much of it employing the same actors from the animated series), and the game is stuffed with audio and visual storytelling nuggets that overlay the action (a la “Bioshock”) rather than interfere with it. Everything from the character designs to the speedy and stylish map/inventory/menu interface benefits from a superlative level of care.

The rush is similarly pronounced during “Asylum’s” more exciting gameplay moments. The game pulls triple duty as a hand-to-hand brawler (Batman versus unarmed thugs), a stealth game (armed thugs), and a platformer that emphasizes exploration and incorporates some of Batman’s better toys (Grapnel gun, Batarang, explosive foam). In each case, developer Rocksteady has tweaked with well-worn formulas to best accommodate Batman’s particular methods and means.

When these bets pay off, they do so magnificently. The brawling segments, which punish mindless button mashing in favor of nuanced, rhythmic attacks, absolutely sing under the right conditions. And when the game gives players room to freely employ both Batman’s toys and his Detective Vision — a breakthrough on-the-fly interface shift that overlays the screen with a wealth of information but never feels excessively gamey in doing so — the exploration and stealth missions are a treat. Without spoiling anything, “Asylum” also cleverly incorporates some of Batman’s familiar arch nemeses in a handful of one-of-a-kind encounters that further diversify its gameplay offerings.

But between these moments, “Asylum” has a tendency to lose its way. Fights turn into logjams when the screen fills with too many thugs and contrived fight conditions get in the way. Stealth missions fall prey to contrivances of their own, with inconsistent enemy intelligence and the occasional forced story mechanic changing established rules of engagement from one encounter to the next. And while it makes sense within the context of that awesome storyline, all the backtracking through old environments can be a considerable drag late in the game.

“Asylum’s” good moments nonetheless outnumber its bad ones, and with the exception of a few truly aggravating fights and backtracking expeditions, the weak stuff gets a lift from all that other stuff the game continually does right from start to finish. Totaled up, “Asylum” easily stands alone as the best Batman video game ever made, and its best ideas should influence numerous games that appear in the years ahead.

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Must. Eat. Birds.
For: iPhone and iPod Touch
From: Mediatonic
iTunes Music Store Rating: 9+ (infrequent/mild cartoon or fantasy violence)
Price: $1

In the mercilessly crowded field of iPhone games, costing a dollar no longer is enough to capture the public’s attention. But a bizarre visual presentation never goes out of style, and “Must. Eat. Birds.” is as gifted in that respect as they come. “M.E.B.’s” basic concept is pretty simple: You’re a monster with cake, and an army of parachuting birds wants your cake, so you must launch yourself into the air with a slingshot (pull back with your finger, pick an angle and fire) and eat the birds before they eat your cake. The actual gameplay — bits of which will remind players of everything from “Bust-a-Move” to “Missile Command” to a mini-game on the Nintendo DS version of “Super Mario 64″ — is neither intricate nor revolutionary. But it’s functional and fun, and it works in tandem with a thoroughly enjoyable flat-shaded visual style that’s soaked with bright colors and terrifically funny character designs for protector and invaders alike. The cheerful look and sound make “M.E.B.” a great game to fire up and play when an instant good mood is in order, and Mediatonic only helps the experience by padding it with a challenge mode, a mission mode, unlockable achievements and online leaderboard support.

Posted in Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, iPhone/iPod Touch

Klonoa
For: Nintendo Wii
From: Namco Bandai
ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+ (mild cartoon violence)

It’s hard not to admire Namco’s resilient love for “Klonoa,” which soldiers on despite more than a decade without ever setting foot in mainstream popularity’s ballpark.

“Klonoa” takes it back to the beginning on the Wii with a philosophically verbatim remake of the 1997 original that debuted on the original Playstation.

The predictable changes are here on schedule. The blocky 3D graphics are completely redone and look thoroughly modern (by Wii standards) thanks to better animation and a much smoother framerate. Gibberish gives way to a full complement of voice actors, who class up what remains a pretty goofy storyline.

Beyond that and a few new bonus stages, though, it’s the same game “Klonoa” fans adore and everyone else may or may not understand — even more so in 2009 than in 1997.

That’s because “Klonoa” is, despite its graphics and its ability to utilize the third dimension, a 2D platformer in the classic “Super Mario Bros.” vein. Levels change orientation as you twist around corners, and you can interact with certain objects that lie in front of or behind you, but you mostly are moving left and right rather than in all 360 degrees. The levels generally operate in linear fashion despite a few discoverable secrets off the beaten path.

Perhaps more distressing is “Klonoa’s” length (roughly five hours your first time through) and difficulty (pretty easy). Platforming aficionados hungry for a nail-biting challenge will not find it here.

Then again, there’s a reason a devoted swath of that very audience is what has kept this series afloat. “Klonoa’s” levels rarely leave you in great peril, but they’re imaginatively designed and a whole lot of fun to traverse anyway. The game doesn’t demand reflex perfection, but it fully understands what a good obstacle course should look like. This attention to design, combined with a control scheme that finds the happy medium between looseness and responsiveness, make those levels a whole lot of fun to run, jump and climb through.

The same philosophy holds true for the game’s enemy and boss quotient. They won’t fray your nerves like “Mega Man’s” enemies can, but taking them down is strangely, enjoyably satisfying anyway.

Hitting that seemingly unhittable sweet spot between mindlessly easy gameplay and something hardened platforming veterans can enjoy allows “Klonoa” to be one of those rare Wii games that speaks equally to everyone without leaning on gimmickry. Kids and novice players can wet their feet here, while others can have a completely different kind of fun blowing through the game every now and then. “Klonoa” remains a cult classic 12 years on because it’s as fun to replay as it is short and easy to beat, and the Wii makeover (to say nothing of the $30 price tag) does nothing to change that.

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Fallout 3: Broken Steel
For: Xbox 360 and PC
Requires: Fallout 3
From: Bethesda Softworks
ESRB Rating: Mature (blood and gore, intense violence, sexual themes, strong language, use of drugs)

Your successful ability to download “Fallout 3: Broken Steel” will be acknowledged in “Fallout 3″ via a dialogue box stating as much, but beyond that — and unlike “Fallout 3’s” previous content packs, which jetted you off to faux-Anchorage and Pittsburgh — “Steel” leaves it up to you to find it.

That, mostly, is due to the fact that “Steel” not only takes place after the events of “Fallout 3,” but possibly alters some of those events as well. If you’ve witnessed the game’s final scene, you likely know what, precisely, needs altering.

Awkward though it is for Bethesda to basically change the storyline seven months after “Fallout 3″ first appeared, the new narrative developments should please players soured by the original, abrupt finish. In addition to telling a better story, “Steel” makes it possible to continue playing at your leisure once the main storyline wraps — a huge boon given that the vast majority of “Fallout 3’s” content is optional and waiting to be discovered far outside the bounds of the main storyline. (As if to motivate you further, “Steel” raises your character’s level cap from 20 to 30 and throws in a few new perks that appear designed to reward players who wish to step off the main road.)

First, though, the story continues. Without spoiling anything for those who are no where near the game’s conclusion, here’s the basic rundown: The enemy you may or may not have taken down at the game’s conclusion has hit back, and your job is to find out how that’s even possible, to say nothing of how to stop it.

The six new missions — three mandatory, three optional — keep you inside the Wasteland, but they take you to some new areas of D.C. that did not exist previously. “Steel” also introduces you to some brutally tough new strains of familiar enemies and, per usual, counters that with some new gear — including some new weaponry that makes some of your existing arsenal look peashooter-esque by comparison.

One could credibly argue that the level cap and ending adjustments feel like a digital mea culpa that Bethesda would simply have given away as a patch in the days before paid downloadable content became the norm. “Steel” is as attractive for those tweaks as it is for the new missions and content, and any frustrations stemming from having to pay extra for (or, in the case of spurned Playstation 3 owners, never experiencing) something that should have been there all along are completely reasonable.

But those frustrations won’t change anything at this stage, so the point is moot. “Steel’s” primary objective is to live up to its $10 price tag, and it easily succeeds when all is tallied and considered. If you only indulge in one of “Fallout 3’s” downloadable episodes, this is the one to get.

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Top Gun
For: iPhone/iPod Touch
From: Freeverse/Paramount
iTunes Store Rating: 9+ (infrequent/mild cartoon or fantasy violence)
Price: $2, though Paramount has indicated this is subject to change shortly

For all the talk about the wretched history of movie-based video games, the 1986 rendition of “Top Gun” remains an arguable Nintendo Entertainment System classic. How nice, then, to see the spirit of that game so overtly entrenched in this one. The new “Top Gun” features the kind of modern frills one expects, including a softer learning curve, achievements and a sufficient (though very visually strange) storyline to glue its 10 missions together. At its core, though, the objectives — dodge enemy fire, take down enemy planes — remain as pleasantly straightforward as ever. Freeverse’s most clever gameplay addition is a cheekily-named “Danger Zone” mechanic: The longer you stay in a danger zone — and thus, completely vulnerable to enemy fire — the more points you rack up. (As if to beat the point home, the Kenny Loggins song of the same name provides a portion of the game’s soundtrack, which, fortunately, can be muted.) “Gun’s” tilt-based flying controls work as they should, and taking down enemy aircraft is as easy on the touch screen as it is on the NES pad. Sadly, and in stark contrast to the famously difficult NES game, you can’t attempt to land the plane yourself once the battle ends.

Posted in Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 Downloadable Content, iPhone/iPod Touch

Baseball Superstars 2009
For: iPhone/iPod Touch
From: Gamevil
iTunes Store rating: 4+
Price: $3

9 Innings: Pro Baseball 2009
For: iPhone/iPod Touch
From: Com2uS
iTunes Store rating: 4+
Price: $5

Let us make no mistake: The best modern, fully-licensed Major League Baseball game of 2009 is and likely will remain on the Playstation 3.

But if the license doesn’t matter or if you simply prefer the gameplay stylings that made virtual baseball so beloved in the 1980s and early 1990s, the iPhone and iPod Touch are suddenly awash in possibilities.

Gamevil’s “Baseball Superstars 2009″ isn’t a complete surprise: The franchise already existed on various mobile devices, and any baseball game that can work on a dial pad should do just fine on the iPhone’s roomier touch screen.

“Superstars” makes good on that hope, using the bottom left and right corners of the screen to replicate an eight-button controller that functions like a virtual Super Nintendo pad. Smartly, the button that gets the most use in the game also receives additional prominence on the screen.

The all-new “9 Innings: Pro Baseball 2009″ uses a similar control scheme, albeit with a more dynamic look: The buttons are illustrated with their functions instead of symbols, which certainly eases the learning curve.

Both schemes work as hoped, and if you played any 2D baseball during its glory days, the separate approaches feel awfully familiar once you learn a few intricacies and understand each game’s respective metrics with regard to fielder and runner speed. Both approaches have separate upsides: “Innings” offers more complexity in terms of run manufacturing and pitch effectiveness, while “Superstars” surrenders just enough control to feel arcade-like as well as intuitive.

Graphically, the games are straight out of the 2D era, with “Superstars” paying wonderful tribute to “RBI Baseball’s” cartoonish beginnings while “Innings” does similar justice to the “Baseball Stars” look. “Superstars” handily wins in the sound department, but both games are respectable in this regard.

Where things really surprise — particularly given that it costs $8 to purchase both — is in the features department. Both games feature exhibition, season, managerial and home run derby modes. “Innings” has nice stat-tracking capabilities, while “Superstars” lets you trade players in its season mode. “Innings” also includes a slick missions mode, which unlocks various rewards whenever you complete any of 50 different baseball-related objectives during any of the game’s modes.

The best feature, however, is “Superstars’” My League mode, which lets you create a pitcher or hitter and play only as him across multiple seasons. You can improve your stats through training, purchase better equipment with your salary, and reap the rewards of becoming your team’s star player. “Superstars’” mission mode is more self-contained than “Innings’” system, but success in that mode (or in the home run derby) nets you rewards in the My League mode, so it’s certainly worth checking out.

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Ninja Blade
For: Xbox 360
From: From Software/Microsoft
ESRB: Mature (blood, violence)

“Ninja Blade” has garnered an unsavory reputation for its dependency on quick-time events — those instances in which a game has you complete some amazing stunt by following a series of onscreen button prompts that bear no resemblance whatsoever.

The rap checks out, because “Blade” indeed employs the technique like perhaps no game ever has. Rarely do five minutes pass where you aren’t interrupted by some bland recitation of prompts that allow your onscreen likeness to do something significantly more exciting than what you’re doing.

To a point, it’s understandable: “Blade’s” cut-scenes are nonsensically, hilariously over the top, and replicating these excessively choreographed maneuvers is more than today’s controllers can handle without cheating.

It would have been nice, though, if these instances carried any consequence at all. There’s no discernable penalty for following prompts sloppily instead of perfectly, and if you miss one entirely, the game simply asks you to do it again until the scene plays out. Before long, you’ll feel more like a tool of “Blade’s” entertainment than the beneficiary — as if the developers designed the game to be enjoyed by non-playing bystanders while you do the work.

Distressingly, the rest of the game — which alternates between “God of War”-like third-person swordplay and a surprisingly high number of on-rails shooting segments — does little to alleviate the oppressive linearity. “Blade’s” increasingly incoherent storyline impatiently whisks you from scene to scene, and the vast majority of the action feels like a slog from A to B. As long as you hold down, mash or press buttons like the game asks, you’ll inevitably power your way to the end of the level, your brainpower no more taxed by the end than it was when you began.

Almost as if to compensate, “Blade” postpones these inevitabilities though a slew of irritating tactics, including overlong boss fights and cheap attacks that don’t challenge or imperil you so much as slow things down for no discernable reason. The tedium ramps up as the story falls apart, and an inability to save your game at mid-mission checkpoints makes for some play sessions that drag on well past their freshness date. If you plan on giving “Blade” a shot, be sure to clear your immediate schedule.

Additionally, make sure you rent rather than buy. In addition to overstaying its welcome the first time though, “Blade” offers no worthwhile reason to reason for seconds, nor does it feature any multiplayer content beyond leaderboard support.

—–

Downloadable Game

Doodle Jump
For: iPhone/iPod Touch
From: Lima Sky
iTunes Rating: 4+
Price: $1

Lots of games try to do too much with the iPhone’s tilt sensitivity, but “Doodle Jump” proves, on multiple levels, why laying off the gas a little doesn’t hurt. Your one and only goal is to help your alien friend jump from platform to ascending platform without missing and taking a long fall down. The alien remains in a perpetual state of bounce, so you must tilt the device accordingly to aim his jumps. The higher he goes, the higher your score and the more perilous the difficulty. The dead simple concept — combined with the presence of online leaderboards and the short play times brought on by having only one life to lose per game — give “Jump” that “easy to pick up, hard to put down” quality mobile games strive to achieve, and the game’s look and sound only compound its charm. “Jump” indeed resembles an animated doodle: The graphics look like little color pencil scribbles, and as you pass other players’ scores on the online leaderboard, your character jumps past a measuring stick representation of their name on the virtual page. Leave it to a game that costs a buck to illustrate the pursuit of high scores better than perhaps any video game ever has.

Posted in Xbox 360, iPhone/iPod Touch

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure
For: Nintendo DS
From: EA
ESRB Rating: Everyone (cartoon violence)

At first sight and first play, “Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure” is a game that dares you not to love it. It’s immensely pleasing on the eyes, and the storyline — fronted by the charming, monocle-clad title character whose life is in your hands — is adorably but sharply amusing.

Also, the game’s premise — a “Mega Man”-style sidescroller on the top screen working in tandem with a “Tetris Attack” clone on the bottom — is uniquely, expertly executed. Enemies you topple and power-ups you find as Henry become blocks on the puzzle game below, and clearing those blocks away both prevents those enemies from returning and activates those power-ups. The two games influence each other in other clever ways, and you can switch between them at will with one button press.

If it sounds rather unwieldy, a little acclimation proves otherwise. Henry’s adventures use the DS’ buttons, while the puzzle portion works multiple ways but plays best with the stylus. Once you develop a system for keeping the stylus handy while focusing on the top screen, switching becomes second nature.

Most importantly, “Adventure” doesn’t drop the ball in either area. Had the top game released on its own as a Super Nintendo or Game Boy Advance game, it would be one of the more accomplished sidescrollers on either system. And while the “Tetris Attack” clone pretty much is exactly that, it’s a fast, fun homage that puts many dedicated DS puzzle games to shame in the responsiveness department.

All of this holds true throughout the entirety of “Adventure,” but unless you’re a sidescrolling virtuoso who enjoys an absurd challenge, it grows increasingly difficult to admire once the game unleashes a serious spike in difficultly, which happens around the midpoint of the third world.

At no point is “Adventure” hopelessly unreasonable. But there exist multiple points going forward where you’ll find yourself under attack from all angles with nowhere to escape. Once Henry loses a certain portion of his health, it’s practically a death sentence: He gets knocked into other enemies, who can pile on attacks, and your ability to rebuild his health through the puzzle portion takes a crippling hit. Throw in some sparse checkpoints and the occasional cheap bottomless pit death, and “Adventure” gives gamers of average ability every reason in the world to shut it off and never go back.

It goes without saying, then, that casual gamers seduced by the vibrant artwork and promise of puzzle-solving are better off getting those fixes elsewhere. “Adventure” ultimately is one of the DS’ better games, but not every great game is for every player. Disappointing though it is to say it, only those with godly skills and saintly patience need apply here.

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Fallout 3: The Pitt
For: Xbox 360 and PC
Requires: Fallout 3
From: Bethesda Softworks
ESRB Rating: Mature (blood and gore, intense violence, sexual themes, strong language, use of drugs)

Though fun on its own terms, “Operation Anchorage” was something of an awkward way for “Fallout 3″ to kick off its run of downloadable $10 expansion packs. The episode took place almost entirely within a simulation inside the existing game, and because the story focused on past events in the “Fallout” timeline, little beyond a few new pieces of gear stuck with you once it ended and you were back in Washington, D.C.

“The Pitt,” on the other hand, feels a bit more traditional. The location has changed — to Pittsburgh, accessible now via underground rail — but the norms established in “Fallout 3″ mostly translate verbatim. Everything plays out in the game’s real world and present day, and everything from the people you meet to the loot you find is as fair game here as it is in D.C.

Respect to “Anchorage’s” fresh ideas aside, this faithfulness makes for a much better episode. With the ground rules already established, “The Pitt” is free to focus entirely on the human fallout of post-nuclear Pittsburgh, where human slavery has returned and a makeshift monarchy — established by a new strain of the same raiders who run wild in D.C.’s landscape — inexplicably but unmistakably holds rule.

In true “Fallout” fashion, “The Pitt” gives you a starting point — disguised as a slave, with designs to help plot an overthrow — but takes the gloves off from there. A few central characters remain invincible per usual, but the vast majority can, depending on your preferred methods and intentions, be reasoned with, provoked or killed outright. “The Pitt” lets you play devil’s advocate far more than “Anchorage” did, and whether you negotiate with the overlords, play ball with them or pick them off without even introducing yourself, the presence of innocent bystanders means even a reckless gunslinger with good intentions might accidentally find a few casualties on his conscience.

Along with a better roster of characters comes a better storyline with a few fantastic detours and a truly disarming reveal near the end. As it’s presented, “The Pitt’s” storyline matches and arguably outclasses the main storyline from “Fallout 3″ proper, though it also benefits from having to fill three to fours’ time instead of 30.

Like “Anchorage,” though, “The Pitt” ultimately feels like a standalone diversion. You can revisit Pittsburgh as you please upon completion of the episode, but your travails through D.C. don’t change much as result. The major exception, of course, is the gear you bring back. In “The Pitt’s” case, that means two truly vicious new weapons that, once found, likely will become staples of your inventory no matter where the game takes you next.

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Pocket God
For: iPhone/iPod Touch
From: Bolt Creative
iTunes Rating: 9+ (infrequent/mild cartoon or fantasy violence)
Price: 99 cents

With respect to processing power, 3D graphics, tilt sensitivity and Internet connectivity, one of the iPhone’s most understated assets is the wide availability of silly, guilt-free, 99 cent amusements. “Pocket God” aptly demonstrates why. “God” gives you a simple desert island and a single inhabitant. From there you can do whatever you please within the bounds of game, which includes adding additional islanders, tossing them into the ocean or a volcano, changing the weather with a flick of a finger or sending everybody clinging for their lives by turning the device on its side. That, and a few other surprises, is all “God” really does, but that’s the point: You pay a buck once, and the game pays you back by being a perennial source of easy giggles whenever a spare moment calls for them. To its credit, Bolt Creative is encouraging return visits via free updates which it dubs as episodes. Each adds a new trick to your godly arsenal, and the title of the episode offers a hint as to what the new power is and how to activate it. Bolt has released 11 episodes since “God” debuted in January, and all indications point to more ahead.

Posted in Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 Downloadable Content, iPhone/iPod Touch

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard
For: Playstation 3 and Xbox 360
From: Vicious Cycle/D3Publisher
ESRB Rating: Teen (language, mild suggestive themes, violence)

At first glance, it’s hard not to love “Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard.”

Unfortunately, once you dig in, trying not to hate it is similarly difficult.

“Lead’s” concept is ingenious: You star as washed-up action game star Matt Hazard, who is mounting a comeback after a torrent of (fictional) spin-offs and sequels destroyed his marketability. Your comeback meets resistance from inside the game, though, and from there, “Lead” (which employs the voice talents of Will Arnett and Neil Patrick Harris) takes the game-within-a-game idea to new heights in its bid to spoof 20 years of gaming norms and warts.

While “Lead” positions itself as a cover-based third-person shooter in the “Gears of War” vein, the setup allows it to stretch that concept however it likes. You might, for instance, fight cowboys and Russian soldiers simultaneously. Some of them might turn into zombies after you kill them. Fortunately, a bizarre range of weapons, from deadly water guns to plasma pistols, ensures you’ll be able to dispatch the undead in short order.

During these moments, “Lead” is harmless fun. The game’s controls lack a level of polish found in top-tier shooters, but they work, and the ability to bounce from cover to cover with a single button press is pretty clever (as Matt himself points out).

Problem is, many of these shootouts last entirely too long. “Lead” hides its repetition early on by introducing strange new enemy juxtapositions every so often, but by the end of the game, you’re seeing wave upon wave of the same crowd coming at you. Enemy A.I. isn’t particularly sharp, and blasting through these waves becomes an exercise in monotony after a while.

Unfortunately, “Lead” suffers more when it tries to get fancy. A pair of sequences in which you’re bouncing through cover to avoid sniper fire are surprisingly fun, but the fun stops cold during a few of the game’s boss fights, which are funny in concept but aggravating in practice. “Lead” commits a serious cover shooter cardinal sin by spawning enemies out of nowhere behind you, and this problem becomes a deal-breaking liability during boss fights in which one mistake can get you killed instantly. It’s hard to keep laughing when a game punishes you with cheap deaths, and “Lead” is home to some of the cheapest deaths you’ll see all year.

“Lead” goes out on a positive note with a cool final boss fight and a fun end twist, but the overall game outstays its welcome so profoundly that completing it brings relief more than satisfaction. That, along with the lack of any kind of multiplayer option, makes this a better rental than purchase if you’re curious about its finer points.

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X-Blades
For: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC
From: Gaijin Entertainment/TopWare Interactive/SouthPeak Games
ESRB Rating: Mature (blood, suggestive themes, violence)

Children of the 1980s doubtlessly remember the wave of low-budget Nintendo Entertainment System games that didn’t exactly view user-friendliness as a virtue. Instructions and storytelling were minimal to non-existent, and completing the games demanded some mix of cruel trial and error and/or a strategy guide purchase.

“X-Blades” is, on multiple levels, the modern-day embodiment of those old games.

Take for instance, the Observation Site level, which finds you trapped in a room with spikes that pop out of the floor. “X-Blades” gives you no instruction on how to escape the room, nor does it really explain why the trap even exists. So you’re stuck with your contemporary instincts, which compel you to find a way to escape the room. But there exists no such trick: If you can dodge the spike patterns for an entirely indeterminate amount of time, a cutscene plays and you’re freed.

The same holds true for some of the boss fights.

“X-Blades’” mix of sword and pistol combat takes pages out of the “Devil May Cry” playbook, but as you progress through the game, the elemental spells you unlock take precedence.

For the most part, the system makes sense: Fire-based spells devastate ice-based enemies, light magic counters dark magic, and so on. Once in a while, though, the weakness isn’t really defined, and you’ll have to run down your spells to find something that works while the bad guys pound away at you. “X-Blades” gives no quarter in this regard: If you don’t use the right attack, you can’t damage certain enemies at all. Death isn’t devastatingly consequential — you start the fight over but keep any experience you’ve accrued — but that doesn’t make the guesswork any less obnoxious.

But that’s how “X-Blades” rolls. You enter a level, kill or dodge everything that moves, and repeat. The story is threadbare, the existence of various enemies mostly without explanation, and the motives of Ayumi, the main character, left mostly to your imagination. That never changes, and while the second half of the game presents new enemies and challenges, you’ll face them while running backwards through nighttime versions of the same areas you already saw.

Obviously, this isn’t a game for everyone, and the lack of modern frills (to say nothing of replayability once you beat it) makes it nearly impossible to justify the current $60 ($50 for Windows) price.

However, if the idea of completely archaic storytelling and level structure sounds strangely appealing, you’ll at least be pleased to know “X-Blades” gets the technical stuff mostly right. The action is fast and loose, and the spells only get cooler as the game unfolds. Ayumi’s gracefulness can’t match her speed, but outside of a few optional collectables, platforming isn’t even an issue here.

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Downloadable game

Word Fu
For: iPhone and iPod Touch
From: ngmoco
ESRB Rating: Not rated by ESRB
Price: $2

If you’ve ever played Boggle, you’ll understand “Word Fu,” which gives you 20 seconds to roll nine lettered dice to your satisfaction and 45 (and counting) additional seconds to spell as many words as you can using the letters you roll. Naturally, longer words merit larger scores, and “Fu” adds seconds to the timer every time you successfully submit a word. A few additional tricks help ward off the effects of countdown panic: You can use the same die ad infinitum to spell longer words with repeating letters, and submitting words triggers power-ups that let you slow time, reroll one die or play for double points. The Kung Fu motif is purely superficial, but the sounds provide an amusing and satisfying complement to submitting words. “Fu” includes a high score table, achievements (in the form of colored belts) and even local multiplayer over the same Wi-Fi network. The feature set, combined with ngmoco’s now-standard attention to quality, makes the $2 price tag all the more staggering. Unless you can’t read, your return on investment will be almost immediate.

Posted in Playstation 3, Xbox 360, iPhone/iPod Touch