Publisher: Chillingo
Developer: Tetraedge
Genre: Adventure
Release date: Available now

I hadn’t played a real adventure game in something like 15 years. Perhaps with the coming of the information age, the temptation to look up a walkthrough was just too much, and I thought the genre would lose its magic. But it hasn’t, and Jules Verne’s Secrets of the Mysterious Island proves it. Secrets offers a great adventure experience on a platform perfectly suited to it.

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Datel TurboFire Wireless Controller

Before the Datel TurboFire Wireless Controller arrived at my house, I didn’t even know turbo controllers still existed. The last controller with a “turbo” input I can remember using was the TurboPad that came with my Turbo Grafx 16. After a quick search online, I found that controllers with turbo settings have become popular among the FPS crowd. Datel’s new Bluetooth controller will increase your speed, but in the end, I’d still bet on the tortoise.

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Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Media Molecule
Genre: Adventure
Release date: Available now

There are very few games that reinvigorate the passion we all share for gaming. It could happen a few times in a generation; it might even only happen once. It’s a game that’s so fantastic, so refreshing and so unexpected it reminds us why we play, why we choose to leave the ordinary and immerse ourselves in the extraordinary. LittleBigPlanet is one of those games. It’s simple, addictive, fluid, and has a spark of ingenuity that’s often attempted but rarely achieved. It’s games like LittleBigPlanet that pull us from the doldrums of sequels and rehashes and excite us enough to share our passion and love for our hobby. Critics recognized this last year, and thus we’ve been treated to LittleBigPlanet: Game of the Year Edition.

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Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft
Genre: Adventure
Release date: Available now

When movies are made into games, they never seem to work out. They always feel too much like studio marketing department gimmicks designed to convince consumers to buy something that was churned out in a few hours of development. Of course, there are exceptions (Batman: Arkham Asylum, Chronicles of Riddick, Ghostbusters: The Video Game), but usually this is because the games’ storylines and adventures are completely separate from their movie counterparts. So how does the well-received “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” movie fare in its foray into videogame land? Pretty well, I’m surprised to say.

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Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: 1C Company
System requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista; 512 MB RAM; 128 MB graphics card
Genre: Turn-Based Strategy
Release date: Available now

Back in the spring of 2009 I was thrust into the hexagonal chessboard that is Elven Legacy, a turn-based strategy game that did more to pull me into the genre than thrust me out, as I mistakenly thought it would. I found easily grasped mechanics, functionality on low-tier systems and a $30 price point that adequately fit the amount of content and quality I received. It was a little bit o’ alright by me, to summarize, and apparently the same feelings were had by developer 1C Company, because here we are with the first of a proposed trilogy of expansion packs: Elven Legacy: Ranger.

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Publisher: Activision
Developer: Now Production
Genre: Fighting/Brawler
Release date: Available now

As a 37-year old dude, I pride myself on my ability to stay hip to what the kids are playing these days. While some of that may come from the fact that I’m a parent, I also stay up-to-date on all the latest fads simply out of pure interest and curiosity. No matter how old I get, that boy in me who first geeked out over collectible Star Wars cards knows that “Force” will never die. That said, I admit that when my son first threw down a Bakugan on a Gate Card, he had his old man stumped. Would this new collectible critter craze be the one straw that broke this camel’s back? Alas, I’ve rolled with the best of them, racking up scads of G-Power cards so when Activision decided to take the Bakugan Battle Brawlers into the digital realm, I was ready to enter the ring.

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Publisher: I-Imagine Interactive
Developer: RTL Sports
Genre: Sports
Release date: Available now

I should preface this review by pointing out that, more than most games I review, I am not part of the target market for this game. Even compared to the games made for girls aged 9-12, of which I’ve reviewed many. I know so little about soccer, it is literally impossible for me to participate meaningfully in this game. Watching soccer, to me, is a very small step up from watching long distance running on TV.

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Publisher: Digital Prunes
Developer: Digital Prunes
Genre: Action
Release date: Available now

The iPhone may well be the greatest thing I’ve ever purchased. I’ve virtually no sense of time or space, and the phone does both of those things for me. So long as I keep my iPhone charged, I will probably never be bored again. That is, of course, unless I use it to play Slingshot Cowboy.

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Publisher: Activision
Developer: Infinity Ward
System requirements: Windows XP SP2 or Vista; Pentium 4 3.2 GHz CPU; GeForce 6600GT; 512 MB RAM (1GB for Vista); 16 GB hard drive space.
Genre: FPS
Release date: Available now

Modern Warfare 2, the latest installment in the Call of Duty series, has sold 4.7 million copies in its first 24 hours. At $60 a pop (more for some versions) this equals $310 million in one day. This is despite an ongoing boycott of the title over the lack of some, otherwise common, features. It also flies in the face of the ridiculous ruckus raised by the “think-of-the-children” crowd over the game’s content. Given current economic conditions as well as the opposition, these record-breaking sales are quite remarkable. Inevitably a question is raised: Is this game really that good? Before discussing that, however, let me tell you a little more about it.

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Publisher: 1C Publishing
Developer: Gaijin Entertainment
Genre: Flying Simulation
Release date: Available now

Do you like racing around at great speed, causing mayhem with guns and blowing up things? Look no further: IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey is the game for you, especially if you’ve been doggedly fighting World War II on the ground (World at War; Call of Duty) and are in search of a new outlet. At least you can then decide if you want to swap your infantry boots for a comically overlarge moustache with accompanying leather hat. Think first-person shooter with a bucket load of caffeine. It’s manic; even in single-player mode there’s enough action and activity to keep the most demanding flight simmer happy. Switch to versus mode for a while and you’ll need to lie down in a dark, quiet room for a few hours (days in my case – I am not as young as I once was). It’s by no means a perfect game, but it’s fun and exciting.

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