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Columns > This Week In Games > #31: April 23rd 2006
Michael Anderson reports in every week to keep parents informed about what's recently arrived in stores! Dominating software sales charts out of Japan for months, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day finally comes to North America ... but will it hit the sales charts with a similar impact? Expansions for Final Fantasy XI Online coincide with the XBOX360 release of the game including all expansions. On the PC front there is Dreamfall: The Longest Journey – another adventure game receiving mixed early reviews. It is interesting that the latest LongShot mentions a ‘slowdown', yet my list of in-progress games between the PC, PSP & DS keeps growing ... Just a reminder of what you'll find here each week. I'll tell you what games have arrived in stores in the past couple of weeks – and let you know what the early reviews are saying. I'll call out games that kids will probably love – even if the reviewers aren't impressed. Unfortunately kid's games don't often get timely reviews, so they will often be at the bottom of the article where I look at games out for a month or more that are just getting reviewed. I'll choose a particularly good game to feature – and also a particularly bad one to stay away from. Finally, I'll look for bargains to highlight, and a game that is older but still available, works on current generation hardware and is definitely worth checking out ... if you can find it. Featured Game of the Week: Kelly Club Pet Parade (PC & Mac, Rated E – GamerDad Score 5/5). There are entirely too many mediocre to bad games released for little kids, so it is glorious when a really well done game appears. It is available online fromAmazon.com for the absolute bargain price of $9.97. Grab this and check out the game that GamerDad says "at an age where kids have control over so little in their lives, Kelly Club Pet Parade offers an opportunity to do something special from beginning to end, while controlling the small and large details. The only negative is that it's just too darn short. Kids will play it over and over, but with quality like this, a gamerparent just wants more." Check out the GamerDad review here! Dubious Distinction of the Week: And the medal (for worst sports game) goes to ... Torino 2006 (PS2, XBOX & PC, Rated E, GamerDad Score 1/5) – The Winter Olympics have come and gone and were exciting and entertaining – unlike this weak attempt to cash in on the events. The GamerDad review says "falling down a mountain would be more enjoyable than playing these mindless games and listening to the horrible announcers." Check out the GamerDad review here! Now for some recently released games on the major platforms. Games are grouped with consoles together, then handheld systems and finally PC games. Within each section, they are grouped by ESRB rating, from E to M.
 Gaming Consoles (XBox360, PS2, Xbox, GameCube, and Multi-Platform)
Handheld Game Systems
PC Games
 The Early Buzz for Next Week OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast (PS2, XBOX, PC & PSP, Rated E) – just as everyone in the gaming media is getting ready to head to the west coast, this classic franchise has another entry that will take you there in grand style! Fifa World Cup (PS2, XBOX360, XBOX, GameCube & PC, Rated E) – promises to erase the bad taste of the bland XBOX360 Fifa title, and deliver a wonderful game. Guild Wars: Factions (PC, Rated T) – the first expansion to the wildly successful guild-based online non-subscription MMO has been getting some excellent early buzz from testers. SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars (PC, Rated M) – the sequel to what is called ‘the best RTS/RPG combination ever' promises another huge campaign with excellent multiplayer. Bargain Basement:
Catch Me If You Can!: X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse (PSP, Rated T – GamerDad Score 4/5). The new X-Men movie (and multi-platform games, natch) are just around the corner, and the last round of X-Men games are getting price cuts. But while the console versions are still in wide availability, the PSP version is only available through Amazon.com for $27.95. The GamerDad review calls it "a compelling and interesting story-based action game that constantly drives you to play just a little more. X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse is lengthy and with tons of replayability based on twenty-four different playable characters and fun unlockable content." Check out the GamerDad review here! Catching Up with Game Reviews:
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