Dungeons
Dungeons looks promising, but despite my love for dungeon crafting, I know that it’s a very hit-or-miss genre. What looks good? The graphics are modern, and the build engine seems flexible. There are a few worrisome aspects, however: First and foremost, there is no multi-player, which is a huge hit. Then the game’s description mentions “3 levels” which must be conquered, which doesn’t seem like much considering the number of levels in other dungeon crafting games. There is also no mention of a sandbox mode, and the screen shots make it seem like the dungeon lord will have to do some of the fighting for himself, rather than having monsters and minions do all the work. All this combined with marketing copy that sounds like it was written by someone who doesn’t know much about the genre (always scary) and it’s enough to make me hold off for awhile.
505 Tangrams
505 Tangram is a collection of 505 Tangram puzzles. No frills here. If you love Tangram puzzles, but are tired of carrying around Tangram tiles and a puzzle deck everywhere, this is for you.
Mario Sports Mix
In Mario Sports Mix, players get access to four sports games—Basketball, Volleyball, Hockey, and Dodgeball. Control Mario universe characters with the Wiimote, and perform wacky special moves, enhanced by powerful item gets. Four people can play on the same system, or up to 6 (3v3 matches) online. Of course, since it’s the Wii, the online play (yay! player codes!) will be an impersonal pain in the hat, so most players will just skip it. Also, it seems that players will be unable to choose to play with the Miis. So, in short, another Nintendo game which would be great for a small family or a party which has very few guests. *yawn* Come-on Nintendo. I know you can do better than this, but at this point, I’m just waiting for the next generation Nintendo to see if multi-player and virtual console get implemented more intelligently.
You Don't Know Jack
The Icrontic Spotlight this week blinds you with the iconic pate of of You Don’t Know Jack. If, somehow, you’re not familiar with the series, they’ve been making trivia games under this name for many years, and although there has been a hiatus in the franchise recently (likely the reason for the naming reboot (This should be You Don’t Know Jack vol. 7)). The appeal of this series was the clever writing, fun host, and general pop culture mockery. Like most series, the attention eventually wanes, and the writing began to suffer. Let’s hope that the decision to reset the title is a good sign, and that the game will be returning to its enjoyable roots. Of course, since I was in high school for the original You Don’t Know Jack, it was easy for my friends to all get together for some riotous trivia gaming, and some of my fondest memories of that era were in front of the PC with a couple friends (the original only allowed three players, but the new one seems to allow four), laughing out loud for hours at our low-scoring games. Now my friends are scattered to the four corners, so perhaps we’ll see how well the online play works.
Following is a full list of this week’s announced North American releases:
Windows
- Breach
- Dungeons
- Dying for Daylight
- Fate of the World
- Jewel Quest V: The Sleepless Star
- Lucent Heart
- Test Drive Unlimited 2
- The Ball
- The Kings’ Crusade: Arabian Nights
- Two Worlds II
- You Don’t Know Jack
Wii
- Mario Sports Mix
- Spot the Differences!
- Top Shot Arcade
- You Don’t Know Jack
- S.C.A.T. (VC)
DS
- 505 Tangram
- Boom Boom Squaries
- G.G Series: Dark Spirits
- Junior Brain Trainer 2
- Magical Zhu Zhu Princess: Carriages & Castles
- Naruto Shippuden: Shinobi Rumble
- Shawn Johnson Gymnastics
- You Don’t Know Jack
Xbox 360
- Body and Brain Connection
- Defy Gravity
- Stacking
- Stick Unleashed
- Test Drive Unlimited 2
- TNT Racers
- You Don’t Know Jack
PS3
- Stacking
- Tales from Space: About a Blob
- Test Drive Unlimited 2
- Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll
- You Don’t Know Jack
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