Publisher: Sega
Developer: Secret Level
System: Xbox 360
Genre: Fantasy Adventure
Release date: Available now
Reviewer: Christopher J. Troilo

I remember the original Golden Axe for Sega - a relatively simple fantasy-adventure beat-em-up for multiple players. The game was fairly well received because it was similar to the style of games that were popular in arcades, such as X-Men or TMNT. There have been many additions to the Golden Axe series since then, but now it’s finally making its debut on the Xbox 360 in a new game, Golden Axe: Beast Rider.

Beast Rider’s main character is Tyris Flare, the heroine from the first installment of the series. Tyris finds that most of the members of her tribe have been brutally massacred by the magical villain Death Adder and his minions. Tyris vows revenge, but in order to stand a chance against Death Adder, she must reconstruct the fabled Golden Axe, which is needed to destroy him. Her only allies in this battle are the wild magical beasts of the land, each of which has their own unique abilities, such as cloaking or shooting fireballs.

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Publisher: Hothead Games
Developer: Hothead Games
System: XBLA
Genre: Adventure
Release date: Available now
Review by: Ryan Asher

It’s the same stuff, different day for your main protagonist as Episode 2 of Penny Arcade Adventures begins, but this time it’s not a skyscraper-sized robot thrashing your pad. It’s your old buds Gabe and Tycho barreling recklessly into it with their truck. Cue the start of another random, hilarious and sometimes socially awkward misadventure starring the fine duo from Penny Arcade.

After the formalities of your now destroyed home are discussed between the duo and your character, who you can import from the first episode, you’re off to Anne Clair’s for mission details. If it’s the blood of evildoers you crave, no worries; it isn’t long before you’re outside the local loony house cracking the skulls of loitering crazies. The characters feel the need for change when it comes to their various instruments of death. Sure, Gabe still utilizes his fists to dish out his brand of hilarious justice, but Tycho has transitioned to the shotgun and you’ve moved on from the rake…to a hoe.

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Publisher: THQ
Developer: Volition Inc.
System: Xbox 360
Genre: Action
Release date: Available now
Review by: Andrew Clark

The open-world genre has become the next-generation standard, perhaps because giving gamers the freedom to go anywhere and do anything can be seen as indicative of a console’s power. We witnessed humble beginnings on the PS2, shuffling our “hero” through the muddily textured streets of Liberty City, the neon glow of Vice City and the expanse of San Andreas, but when the Xbox 360 hit there was no standard option, no Rockstar-like haven where the chaotically minded could enact their brand of free-form bedlam. So when the original Saint’s Row finally popped a cap in 2006, the Microsoft adopters finally got their chance. Now, developer Volition continues the free-form Saint’s Row experience with the much-anticipated sequel, Saint’s Row 2.

Comparisons between the Saint’s Row and Grand Theft Auto franchises are easy to make. Take, for example, the GPS navigation that Volition put into the original Saint’s game, or the nifty cell phone that allowed you to contact your homies and other fun stuff. Let’s not forget the much-lauded free aiming system that made GTA’s targeting look archaic. GTA IV has these luxuries too, and they’re even a bit more functional, but GTA IV was released long after the streets of SR’s Stilwater were already paved and Saint’s had gone to the platinum hits line. Folks like to identify Saint’s Row as a GTA clone, but it’s really the other way around.

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Publisher: EA
Developer: EA Redwood Shores
System: Xbox 360
Genre: FPS
Release date: Available now
Review by: Ed Humphries

There are no new ideas, just new ways of freshening up the old ones. At least, that’s how the old cliché goes. While it’s a tenet derived from narrative fiction, the same notion can be applied to video games, a medium that continues to push the idea of interactive storytelling with new and exciting ways of involving the player in the narrative, even if the stories never really evolve beyond the same yarns that have been spun in the past. But, as with fiction, old tales can be rendered new when enough care and polish is applied. With the launch of Dead Space, EA presents a new take on a somewhat creaky survival horror genre in desperate need of a fresh voice.

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Publisher: MTV Games
Developer: Harmonix
System: Xbox 360
Genre: Rhythm/Music
Release date: Available now
Review by: Christopher J. Troilo

We move further and further into an age when gaming has become a group activity in which we combine electronics with our favorite pastimes. From a hardware standpoint, Nintendo has learned how to take simple sports and games and make them interactive, and now Harmonix has done the same thing for music with its Rock Band series, and they’ve done it really, really well. With the release of Rock Band 2, it’s more than apparent that the developers have listened to their fans’ calls for improvements and have tried their best to address every one of them.

For those of you who might be new to the Guitar Hero/Rock Band experience, here’s a brief overview of how these games are played. In Rock Band, you choose between singing into a microphone and playing one of three instruments (guitar, bass or drums). While you listen to mainstream songs, you attempt to play along by using your voice or your instrument in synchronization with colored notes moving along the screen in time with the music. For guitar and bass, you “strum” a flat lever while pressing buttons on the guitar’s neck. For drums, you have four color-coded drum pads to hit, and a kick pedal to simulate the bass drum. Vocalists get lyrics and an oscillating line that indicates the pitches of the notes.

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Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Gearbox
System: Xbox 360
Genre: FPS
Release date: Available now
Review by: Ed Humphries

Some days I feel this war is never going to end. Every time I think my tour of duty is coming to a close, along comes another assignment to guide the Greatest Generation through another World War II game. While it has become cliché to rail against the proliferation of WWII-themed first-person shooters, clichés exist for a reason, born of repetitive thoughts and actions. So each successive Axis and Allies adventure needs to bring something new to the forefront, or at the very least, offer a different perspective of the action. These are the marching orders that Gearbox, developer of the Brothers in Arms series, accepts in the creation of its latest title, Hell’s Highway.

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Publisher: The Behemoth; Microsoft
Developer: The Behemoth
System: XBLA
Genre: Adventure/ RPG
Release date: Available now
Review by: Christopher J. Troilo

With home consoles staking a larger and larger claim to the videogame market, it’s hard to remember the days when pre-teen Friday nights were spent in the arcade at the local mall. I used to love going with three of my friends, pumping quarters endlessly into the giant machines and tackling epic beat-em-up games such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Simpsons or X-Men. What made these games a blast was their simplicity. You moved left to right beating up anybody who wasn’t on your team. For hours this formula of action and comedy enthralled me; it was the perfect recipe for entertainment. The creators of the new XBLA game Castle Crashers clearly remember those arcade days and pay wonderful homage to them.

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Publisher: Gamecock Media Group
Developer: Blazing Lizard
System: XBLA
Genre: Sports
Release date: Available now
Review by: Ed Humphries

There’s a great line in Robert Altman’s 1992 Hollywood satire, “The Player.” A desperate screenwriter pitches potential projects as mash-ups of established properties, describing them as “It’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s meets Psycho,” each more ludicrous than the last. The idea is that audiences crave the familiar, rejecting anything new and innovative. The game industry isn’t immune to this Reese’s school of thought – take two great things and make one great taste – with sequel after sequel cannibalizing the innovations that have come before to seemingly build a better game (when Sonic is employing Bullet Time, you know we’ve got problems.) It’s a notion that developer Blazing Lizard has embraced heartily, melding pirate chic with ninja cool in its recent XBLA release, Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball. Based on my time with the title, I can safely say that no one’s got their chocolate in my peanut butter.

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Publisher: Atari
Developer: Namco Bandai
System: Xbox 360
Genre: Sports
Release date: Available now
Review by: Ed Humphries

For a sport that single-handedly fathered the entire video-game bloodline following the release of Pong, tennis seems to get short shrift in gaming these days. Sure, there are a smattering of games released each year—usually timed to coincide with Wimbledon—but compared to the vast iterations of baseball, hockey and of course, football, that are released almost monthly, tennis often languishes on the sidelines. It’s a void that Namco Bandai hopes to fill with the release of Smash Court Tennis 3.

Smash Court Tennis 3 is actually a port of a PSP title released in 2007. While it features the facelift one would expect in the transition to more powerful hardware, this is the exact same game released on Sony’s handheld. That said, the Xbox 360 version of offers a full menu of features to fill your solo and multiplayer needs, so newcomers to the series should find something of interest here.

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Publisher: EA Sports
Developer: EA Games
System: Xbox 360
Genre: Racing
Release date: Available now
Reviewer: Michele White

Ever want to try your hand at maneuvering the banking turns of Daytona or tackle the challenge of keeping a car intact in the demolition derby that is Darlington? NASCAR’s 2008 season may be speeding to the checkered flag, but even if your driver is already out of the chase, you can get an early start on the 2009 season with EA’s NASCAR ‘09. Jeff Gordon (no need to stand up and cheer/boo) is standing by to be your tour guide and mentor in the world of the NASCAR big leagues.

The autosave feature is the first option that presents itself, and I highly recommend its selection to prevent the loss of a great position in a 500-mile race that you find yourself without the stamina to finish in one sitting. Next, Jeff will ask you to choose your driving style: normal or pro. He recommends normal, but those familiar with the NASCAR series will want the options available to them with pro. Finally, you get to give Jeff’s car a test run to become familiar with the controls, and so it’s off to Michigan in the number 24.

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