New Releases for The Week of Napalm and Sonar

Magicka: Vietnam

Not much to look at this week. The Magicka: Vietnam DLC is out. It’s got new levels and monsters for Magicka with a cracked Vietnam War theme—of course it’s packed with more goofy humor and cultural references, but since it’s DLC and not really a new release, I’ll let Brian tell you more about it.

Rio

The tie-in for the new movie based on the Angry Birds IP drops this week. Rio is a collection of four-player mini-games, set in Rio de Janeiro, in which the players play as the characters from the film. Two things surprise me about that—first, that they decided not to go with the plot from the movie as the plot for the game and second, that in choosing not to use the movie plot they didn’t make it more like the video game the movie is loosely based on. Imagine doing that with any other property: Like if they made a video game to tie-in with the Doom movie, but that tie-in video game was like a puzzle game or something. Seems crazy. This Angry Birds craze is a strange phenomenon all around.

Dream Trigger 3D

In Dream Trigger 3D, players are challenged with working on two screens at once. On the touch screen, a Lumines-esque puzzle game creates the ‘sonar’ pulses that the player will need to shoot the enemies on the 3D screen. The game uses the full abilities of the 3DS, and puts all the action into three dimensions, in such a way that the screen’s capabilities become a necessary part of the game—not just a gimmick, but an integral part of play. If you’re not into using the 3D feature of the new 3DS, skip this one.

Following is a full list of this week’s announced North American releases:

Windows

• Magicka: Vietnam
• World of Tanks
• Armada 2526: Supernova
• Elements of War
• Time of Fury

Wii

• Karaoke Revolution Glee
• Rio
• SpongeBob Squigglepants
• Attack of the Movies 3D

DS

• LEGO Battles: Ninjago
• Rio
• Squinkies
• TrackMania Turbo

3DS

• Balloon Pop 2
• Dream Trigger 3D

Xbox 360

• Fantastic Pets
• Michael Jackson The Experience
• Rio

PS3

• Michael Jackson The Experience
• Rio

PSP

• Patapon 3