Puzzlegeddon
We’ll start off this week with the cross-platform release Puzzlegeddon. This is an internet puzzle-battle game for up to six players. Shift tiles around on a 6×6 grid in an attempt to make matches, and gain resources which can be used to attack your opponents, or to shield yourself from their attacks. Each player is an island on an alien puzzle-world, and some worlds have different effects on the outcome of the match. The puzzle itself is unique, rather than just a battle version of a puzzle we already know, and the game has an interesting mode called “Dead Puzzler’s Challenge”. Once a player has been defeated, and thus removed from the map, they get to play a special, dark version of the puzzle in the afterlife, in which they can earn advantages to help them through the next round.
Your Shape featuring Jenny McCarthy
On the Wii and PC this week, fitness nerds are getting Your Shape featuring Jenny McCarthy. It looks like just another fitness game, but this one seems more comprehensive than its predecessors in the genre. Like other fitness games, it starts out by getting a measure of where you are along your fitness ath, and getting a read on where you would like to be. Then it tailors a workout regimen to your body type and goals. This game diverges from that slightly by also allowing the user to tell the game what fitness equipment he or she already owns, so that those can be worked into the plan. With over 400 exercises and a motivator like Jenny McCarthy on board, it should be easy to get going. It has one more unique feature, however, and this is what makes this release really interesting—the game comes with a special camera attachment, which it uses to ensure that the player is doing the exercises correctly. It may just be part of a fitness game now, but like the Wii Balance board, I’m sure that some other games will try to utilize it soon.
Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
For the DS, RPG fans will want to pick up Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. This FPRPG has the best graphics and interface I’ve seen so far in a mobile RPG, and the story and levels are based on the adventure from the old Fighting Fantasy game books. Players navigate the ancient and dangerous dwarven keep on the top screen in first person, while equipment and spells are managed with the stylus on the bottom screen. This setup has been tried before, but never with such crisp and smooth graphics. Add to that an open-ended storyline, and a plethora of weapons, potions, and skills, and we might just have the first serious mobile FPRPG on our hands.
Icrontic’s Spotlight release this week is King Arthur for the PC. This role playing war game puts the players in the role of a feudal Lord in pseudo-medieval Britannia. Use your armies to vie for territory at the strategic and tactical level, while choosing skill paths and making role playing decisions for your kingdom’s ruler. Build a legendary Empire with an evil despot or a benevolent king at its helm. Control multiple platoons of military units at a time on battlefields surrounded by beautiful English countryside. With slick graphics and lots of detail, it’s certainly worth it for any war game fan to take a closer look at this title.
As always, this week’s titles are available at Ye Olde Icrontic Gaming Shoppe.
King Arthur
Following is a list of this week’s announce releases for North America:
PC
- King Arthur – The Role-playing Wargame
- Mahjong Memoirs
- Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove
- Puzzlegeddon
PS3
- Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned
- Karaoke Revolution
- Madden NFL Arcade
- Puzzlegeddon
- Tom Clancy: Double Pack
PSP
- Tekken 6
Wii
Bit.Trip- Chicken Riot
- Cocoto Surprise
- Coldstone: Scoop It Up
- Harvest Moon: My Little Shop
- Karaoke Revolution
- Learning with the PooYoos: Episode 1
- Little Tournament Over Yonder
- Marines: Assault on Terror
- Scene It? Twilight
- Void
- Your Shape featuring Jenny McCarthy
- A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia (VC – NES)
- Super Mario Kart (VC – SNES)
DS
- Castle of Magic
- Electroplankton: Lumiloop
- Electroplankton: Luminarrow
- Electroplankton: Marine-Crystals
- Electroplankton: Sun-Animalcule
- Electroplankton: Varvoice
- Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
- Hello Kitty Party
- MyNotebook: Blue
- Petz Hamsterz Superstarz
- Picture Perfect Hair Salon
Xbox 360
- Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned
- Karaoke Revolution
- Madden NFL Arcade
- Puzzlegeddon
- Stoked: Big Air Edition
- Tom Clancy: Platinum Hits Pack
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