With the holiday season not that far behind us, the video game releases have begun to wind down dramatically. Now that I’ve filled you with excitement, here are the titles that will be released this week:
Nintendo Wii:
- Endless Ocean
- No More Heroes
Playstation 3:
- Burnout Paradise
Xbox 360:
- Burnout Paradise
Endless Ocean is hardly a video game, it’s simply a scuba diving simulator. There is no real goal in the game besides simply exploring all of the ocean and the ocassional tasks your boss will ask you to do. What’s interesting is that this game has by far the largest selection of features in any Wii game out there. Not only do you utilize all aspects of the Wii-mote and Nintendo Wi-Fi, now you can upload music through your SD card slot, giving you the ability to listen to music while you scuba to your hearts content. Honestly, the game seems like something that would sell me on the system if I had no idea what a Wii was and the hot girl at the Wii-osk at my mall showed me the game. Just imagine swimming with a giant virtual shark while listening to Jamiroquai – Deeper Underground. And judging by your reaction, I’ll assume I’m the only one who bought the Godzilla 2000 Soundtrack.
No More Heroes will be the only game on this entire list that I play from start to finish. This game is a hilarious interpretation of American idiocy displayed in beautiful cell-shading, reminiscent of the developing teams work on Killer 7 for the Gamecube. The main character Travis Takedown (AKA Johnny Knoxville) decides to purchase an energy katana (AKA Lightsaber) and simply beat people up with it. Someway or another he finds himself involved with an assassin organization and is charged with fighting his way to the top. His reward? He’d like to tag the girl giving out the missions. This seems like such a stray away from the normal Wii games that I can’t wait to see if it stands up to the hype. The controls are apparently spot on for the combat aspect, even to the point where the higher you hold the Wii-mote and nunchuck, the higher you attack, and vice versa. If you decide to buy a game this week, this should be your pick. I’ll review it as soon as I get a chance to play it.
Burnout Paradise continues the burnout line in the right step. As always, the game play revolves mostly around objectives and crashing your car into tiny pieces, but now you can do that online with your friends! All of the fun of car races and demolition are now combined into one really good looking car game. They even have this feature called “Show-time Mode” that allows you to see even further into what actually happens when you crash your car. Unlike other racing games that show you simulated crashes in specific areas only, you can enter “Show-time Mode” anytime you like, even if your objective is to beat a race and not crash your car. But seriously, who completes objectives?
If you haven’t spent all of your holiday money, consider putting most of it away, except for buying No More Heroes of course. If you don’t have a Wii, go buy that first then buy No More Heroes. There is honestly no reason not to have a Wii unless you just can’t find one. The other games are very interesting, but is your money worth “interesting” or is your money worth playing Jackass/Starwars/Kill Bill in beautiful cell-shaded glory?
Each week I’ll start off by showing you what’s coming out this week and during that week I’ll review all of those games that I can afford to buy or get my hands on. If you have a game I missed or a suggestion on what to review first, speak up! It may be my money buying the games (unless you convince the rest of the staff to buy me them!) but your the ones reading this.
