Publisher: Zen Studios
Developer: Zen Studios
Genre: Pinball
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

Some of Marvel’s toughest villains are running amok and need to be stopped. Enter the Marvel super group of Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iron Man, and…Blade? In Marvel Pinball, developed by Zen Studios, you battle the forces of evil using webs, lasers and a tiny metal ball.

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Publisher: Open Emotion Studios
Developer: Open Emotion Studios
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

One of the cool things Sony has going for it, is the existence of the PS Minis (which can be found in their online store). Essentially, these are small downloadable diversions that can be played on either your PS3 or PSP. So for those die hard Sony fanboys who grab every piece of tech the company puts out, it’s a nice perk to take one of these pieces of casual fare on the go. Is Mad Blocker Ultra – Revenge of the Fluzzles a remedy for those tired of those pesky Angry Birds? Read on and find out.

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Publisher: Doctor Entertainment
Developer: Doctor Entertainment
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

No matter how advanced and sophisticated games get, there will always be a place for the laid-back puzzle game. Sometimes we don’t want to shoot down the bad guys, or wrack our brains to find out how to defeat the impossible boss. Sometimes, late at night, we’re tired and we just want to relax while trying to figure out how to get some…flowers.

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Publisher: Majesco
Developer: Super X Studios
Genre: Shooter
ESRB rating: Everyone 10+
Release date: Available now

Paintball is a fast-paced and incredibly difficult live-action sport. It requires skill, accuracy, teamwork, and the right equipment to win. It’s something that seems like it would find itself at home in the first-person shooter genre. Super X Studios thought the same thing when they developed Greg Hastings Paintball 2, now available on the PSN.

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Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
Developer: Seed Studios
Genre: Real-time Strategy
ESRB rating: Everyone 10+
Release date: Available now

Every once in a while, the RTS genre, which enjoys vast popularity on the PC, makes its way to a game console. The console RTS is a rare breed, often marred by watered down gameplay options and a poor control scheme. Seed Studios took a chance and developed Under Siege, a medieval fantasy-based RTS available now on the PlayStation Network.

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Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix
Genre: RPG
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

There are so many pieces to any well written story, usually with many different fragments of characters that end up colliding, making the incomplete tale whole. It’s Day 13 and you’re not sure what kind of stage is being laid out in front of you, just glimpses of passengers on a train, dressed in similar garb. An armed guard is patrolling. As the cameras weave in and out, you begin to see the opening act for what it’s unfolding to become. You’re watching prisoners, two in particular, who are planning to escape. With a whisper back and forth, a quickening of pace begins as one of these prisoners dispatches his captor, freeing himself and his companion. As more prisoners are freed and as seconds pass, a war of survival between captors and captives ensues, and then the monsters start appearing. The next moments are now in your control, the stage has now been set, and surviving The Purge is left in your hands. Interested yet? These are just the opening moments of the latest installment of Square Enix’s Final Fantasy series. This is Cocoon.

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Publisher: Digital Leisure
Developer: Digital Leisure
Genre: Adventure
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

Sometimes, you can be pretty good at a game and still finish it. Most games allow a little leeway in terms of player skill, making it so that even if you screw up occasionally, you can still complete the game. Dragon’s Lair is not most games. It demands perfection from its players. Dragon’s Lair II, recently released on the PSN, cannot be beaten without precise control and exact movements. Or, in my case, infinite lives and a whole lotta time.

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Publisher: Sony
Developer: Sucker Punch
Genre: Action
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: June 7, 2011

Though they all suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous origin tales, once a superhero gets his powers, he usually gets to keep them. That’s one of the perks of getting bit by a radioactive Chihuahua in the funny pages. Until some evil-doer ups the ante and kidnaps his Auntie, these guys are free to wield that great power with no responsibility. But in video games, it’s one and done. Too often, gamers spend an entire title building their abilities, only to see them stripped by some plot inconvenience in the inevitable sequel. And then it’s back to square one. Having built their own powerhouse in the lightning bug Cole McGrath, the question remains, will Sucker Punch let this guy fly high once again in his long-awaited return, inFamous 2?

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Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Team Bondi
Genre: Adventure
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

L.A. Noire is a triumph of video game storytelling and voice acting, and raises the bar for all future story-based games. The cases are interesting, and the character interaction is phenomenal. The facial-mapping gives everyone a life-like appearance, and greatly enhances the interrogation process.

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Publisher: 2K Sports
Developer: 2K Czech
Genre: Sports
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

Ace, backhand, advantage, deuce, baseline, and slice. These are all tennis-related terms that I learned during my time with 2K Sports’ Top Spin 4. Before I pushed the start button, I knew that you used a tennis racket to hit a tennis ball. Whoever hit the ball the most – won. Now, I’m no Andre Federer, but Top Spin 4 did its best to teach me the game.

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Publisher: Sony Consumer Entertainment
Developer: Zipper Interactive
Genre: Tactical Shooter
Rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

These days, modern warfare is all about the set-piece and those scripted pieces of Michael Bayhem where all hell breaks loose and things blow up real good. The world may be toppling all around the player but with the advent of rechargeable shields that come standard with most contemporary shooters, players can afford to stop for a moment and soak in the blitzkrieg (and a few thousand bullets) before getting going again. Most shooters have become the equivalent of the summer blockbuster and as far removed from the grounded reality of real war as a Governator flick. SOCOM 4: US Navy Seals is finally hitting the ground on the PS3, but it remains to be seen whether this series sticks to its strategic roots or heeds the current Call of Duty.

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Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Zen Studios

Originally published in July 2009, reprinted for additional content.

Few things in my life actually bring back childhood memories. Lemons, “The Goonies” and pinball. The lemons is a long story. “The Goonies” is obvious. But pinball? Yes, it was nothing short of magical to go to the arcade with my father and beat that shiny marble ball around inside those exotic tables of gaming goodness. So when I was given the chance to play Zen Pinball on the Playstation 3, I knew I’d be rehashing those fond memories.

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Publisher: Sega
Developer: tri-Ace
Genre: RPG
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

For whatever reason, Japanese gamers love long RPGs. Perhaps they demand that they get the most out of the Yen-equivalent of $60, but their developers can’t seem to make a game that takes less than 40 to 60 hours to finish. A fine example of this is developer tri-Ace’s 2010 epic Resonance of Fate (known as End of Eternity in Japan), a stylish RPG that throws in everything but the kitchen sink, yet suffers from a disappointing lack of gameplay variety.

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Publisher: Southpeak Games
Developer: Topware Interactive
Genre: RPG
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

One cent. That’s how much a copy of the original Two Worlds would’ve set you back from one online games retailer a few months ago. I know, ’cause that’s where I got my copy of the PC version. It wasn’t all that bad, at least in the first few hours that I played before I started in on the sequel, Two Worlds II. I was unfortunate enough to get a Playstation 3 version instead of one for the PC (more about that later), but I went in hoping that the new adventure would be worth more than its predecessor.

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Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Eugen Systems
Genre: RTS
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

The world war RTS genre is a crowded one in the PC community, but not so for consoles. The PC’s keyboard and mouse combination make for an ideal control scheme for this type of game, but sometimes the console versions get it right, too. R.U.S.E., developed by Eugen Systems, is the rare console RTS that actually controls really well.

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