Publisher: Namco Bandai Games
Developer: Namco Bandai Games
Genre: Action
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

Splatterhouse, a 22-year-old franchise, has a new multi-platform release published by Namco Bandai Games. Any franchise this old is bound to have a high level of expectations surrounding anything released under its name, and based on some of the reviews I’ve read, Splatterhouse is no exception. Most feedback seems to be under the “like it” or “hate it” categories, so before you spend your hard-earned cash, read the only review that matters: mine.

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Publisher: Xona Games
Developer: Xona Games
Genre: Retro Arcade
ESRB rating: Not rated at press time
Release date: Available now

I’m going to assume that at least once in your life you’ve been exposed to the arcade sensation that was known as Space Invaders. A simple concept to say the least, Space Invaders allowed you to fire shots at a horde of enemies that would slowly creep down the screen. Even though the game is decades old, it’s obvious its influence is long-lasting, as evidenced in Decimation X3.

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Publisher: Xona Games
Developer: Xona Games
Genre: Retro Arcade
ESRB rating: Not rated at press time
Release date: Available now

Xona Games has been extra busy as the holiday approaches. With their last entry in the Decimation series just released, two days later they have followed it up with another foray into the old-school arcade game arena with Score Rush.

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Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar San Diego
Genre: Shooter DLC
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

Looking to extend your Red Dead Redemption experience? Undead Nightmare offers more than just the same gunplay of the original game. Rockstar gets credit for concentrating on a single-player DLC story extension when so many developers seem to focus on the multiplayer aspects. That is not to say that Undead Nightmare doesn’t offer any such goodies; one of its new multiplayer modes prompted me to turn my back on normal life and camp out in my living room. My legs are numb, my thumbs are raw, bloodied stumps, and I have to sleep with the light on.

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Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft
Genre: Action Adventure
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

Inside everyone’s DNA lie the memories of their ancestors. With the Animus machine from Abstergo Industries, you are able to obtain and record these memories as if they were your own. The only problem is that Abstergo Industries is the modern day form of the Knights Templar, an ancient secret society that wants nothing more than power and control while hiding behind the mask of religion. They use the Animus machine to find ancient artifacts to help them accomplish this. Luckily, there is an order of assassins that are sworn enemies of the corrupt Knights Templar, and want to bring them down. This is where you, the player, comes into the picture.

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Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar San Diego
Genre: Action adventure
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

If, like me, you grew up on a staple diet of Clint Eastwood westerns you would have received the release of Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption with anticipated excitement. The game was released after a sustained media plug and seen as the successor to Rockstar’s earlier Grand Theft Auto series. So is the game worthy of such hype? Slide off your dust covered saddle, hitch up your horse and come sit down by the campfire. Pour yourself a cup of warm coffee and stretch your aching limbs, and I’ll share my buckshot’s worth of opinion.

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Publisher: Konami
Developer: Zombie Studios
Genre: Survival Horror
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

If it’s Halloween, it must be Saw. At least, that’s how the movie taglines have gone over the last few years as each successive Trick r’ Treat season found a new installment in the popular torture yarn slicing its way through the multiplex. Having received a copy of Saw II for review just before Thanksgiving, I fired up the game with hopes that it would teach me a few new ways to carve my turkey. At the very least, I’d find some innovative methods to extract that carefully implanted stuffing. We already know there will be blood, so the question is, will there be compelling gameplay too?

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Publisher: Activision
Developer: Treyarch
Genre: Shooter
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

Call of Duty games have been around for awhile. Until recently you’d have to have been living on a deserted island to not hear about them. Games in the series are known for being highly rated and wildly entertaining. Call of Duty: Black Ops, developed by Treyarch, is the most recent one to hit store shelves and digital download queues. Can this entry in the famous series live up to the hype?

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Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Electronic Arts
Genre: Family/Party
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

In our text-crazed world, family game nights have become a faded relic of the past. Sure, a walk through your local Toys R’ Us will yield ample evidence that the board games we grew up with as kids are still enjoying shelf life. But they’re usually busted out for special occasions, and even then, Rock Band and Dance Central often command the living-room stage. So game developers look to the ever-popular digital playground to breathe new life into those golden oldies, presenting us with compelling new reasons to gather around the tube and get our game on. It’s this strategy which EA employs in Monopoly Streets.

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Publisher: EA Sports
Developer: Immersion Games
Genre: Wrestling/Fighting
ESRB Rating: Teen
Release Date: Available now

If there’s a sport that seems to be growing in popularity at a lightning fast pace, it’s mixed martial arts. For those of you who are perhaps unaware, mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full contact sport which allows for various fighting styles and techniques, including strikes with hands and feet, both while standing and on the ground. Winners are decided by fighters either knocking out their opponent, having their opponent submit, a technical knockout as determined by the referee or by the total amount of points earned by the end of the match. Trying to capitalize on its recent fame, EA Sports has released their take on the activity with its video game titled simply MMA.

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Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Genre: Racing
Rating: Everyone
Release Date: Available now

In that past age when Nintendo ruled the console roost, Sega arguably held sway over the arcade. While Nintendo busted its mojo to create real magic through their Mario series, Sega was demonstrating that they could also work real wizardry through their arcade circuitry, churning out bright, colorful entertainments that screamed loud and clear from across a crowded bowling alley, compelling players to drop one more quarter. And while arcades never morphed into the bizarre futurescapes teased by Tron, Sega’s legacy lived long as gamers waxed nostalgic for that impressive series of addictive amusements that dominated the tail end of the 1990s. Their Dreamcast might have proven the last gasp for these games, but now that current console owners have virtual storefronts at their finger tips, Sega has a new pipeline to bring that arcade experience back home. It’s time to take Crazy Taxi for a spin again.

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Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Harmonix
Genre: Music
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

The music-game genre has come a long way since that first Guitar Hero was released for the Playstation 2 in 2005. But every step of the way, musical purists have always complained that a player’s time would be better spent learning a real instrument instead of its plastic counterpart. Developer Harmonix has answered this complaint with Rock Band 3, which boasts the ability to teach you how to play, provided you have the desire (and the cash) to add yet another set of instruments to your collection.

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Publisher: Konami
Developer: Immersion Games
Genre: Wrestling
ESRB Rating: Teen
Release Date: Available now

Wrestling is one of those activities that just seems made for the world of video-gaming. Love it or hate it, the theatricality of the sport, even on its worst day, is enough to garner a smile and some amusement. Americans probably think of showy wrestling as something home-grown, but Mexico has had its variation, lucha libre (which means “free fighting”) as an organized sport since the early 1900s. Today, the Mexican style of wrestling comes to consoles with Lucha Libre AAA: Heroes del Ring.

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Publisher: Konami
Developer: MercurySteam
Genre: Action-Adventure
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

In a generation when so many beloved 8-bit properties have made the leap to the third dimension, revitalizing their brand and teaching gamers new tricks while showcasing their fancy new looks, it’s quite jarring that the venerable Castlevania series has stumbled hard whenever it has stepped aside from its usual 2D platforming action. That damned third dimension has haunted the series like a grim specter, cackling madly each time some foolhardy developer has dared to take a Belmont to the big time – with notable failures marring the series on the N64 and PS2. And while the games have lived long off their 2D Metroidvania design, producing a series of stellar items for the handhelds, their big brothers demand something more. Usually the news that Konami is at it again would leave fanboys laughing maniacally in the dark, but the addition of Kojima Productions, as a guiding light to developer MercurySteam, has made Castlevania: Lords of Shadow one of the most anticipated titles of this holiday season.

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Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sonic Team
Genre: Platformer
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

Sonic the Hedgehog is the MC Hammer of gaming. In the mid-1990s, the blazing blue hedgehog blasted onto the scene and dared Mario to keep up. After fumbling for years, Sega finally captured lightning in a bottle, producing a star character they could send toe-to-toe with Mario and crafting a game that measured up to the classic Nintendo action-platform design while in some ways sprinting well beyond it. Mario and Sonic ran neck and neck in the early part of the decade, but eventually hubris kicked in. Following a successful series of inventive sequels, Sega lost its way and began sending Sonic down some perilous paths, and when the time came to leap into the third dimension, Mario stuck the landing while Sonic floundered. Somewhere around the time the rodent went “gangster” and started packing a piece, it was obvious he’d hit rock bottom. All it took was a cameo appearance by the speedster, flying by some familiar looking emerald environments at this year’s E3, to remind players why they chased the hero in the first place. With Sega’s first installment in their new digitally-distributed release, Sonic the Hedgehog 4, Sega hopes to set him back on the right track.

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