It's day three of my week-long gadget gift guide and the theme today is video games. Our producers have asked me to choose and demonstrate three titles for our live show - a family game, a music game, and one for the adults. Keeping in mind that we don't repeat ourselves (so none of the games previously featured on AM allowed), these are my choices. For more great gift ideas check out my video games section for reviews of this year's titles including Beatles Rock Band, Wii Fit Plus, Wii Sports Resort, Ratchet & Clank Future, Uncharted 2, and Batman Arkham Asylum.
DJ Hero
Wii, PS3, Xbox 360
Rated "T" for Teen
From the makers of Guitar Hero, this music game is packaged with a turntable controller. Players push colour-coded buttons, "scratch" the turntable, and adjust cross-fader and FX controls to match the coloured notes on the screen.The fun comes from mixing two songs together including Gwen Stefani with Rick James, 50 Cent with David Bowie, or Queen with Daft Punk. You can mix in sound effects, unlock fun characters and venues. Despite how it looks, it's quite an accessible, easy game for anyone to pick up and play. There are over 100 songs for more than 80 different mixes and a host of celebrity DJs and their featured challenges including Grandmaster Flash, DJ Shadow, Daft Punk, and DJ Jazzy Jeff to name a few.
If you've been looking at DJ Hero with dubious eyes consider this a confident push to go give it a chance.
Assassin's Creed II
PS3, Xbox 360
Rated "M" for Mature
Travelling back in time to the Renaissance Age this sophisticated adventure delivers a breath-taking exploration of Venice, Rome, and Florance during a time of great invention and creativity. Courtesans and acrobatic troupes glide through the streets while party-goers dance among the firelight in masks for the Carnivale festival, one of the game's most inspired locations You spring across rooftops as The Assassin, a Robin Hood/Zorro like character who foils the plans of corrupt officials to help communities thrive in peace. With an array of clever blades and astounding acrobatic skills you slip through cities of remarkable detail into order to seek out your victims for an intimate end to their plans. Wonderfully told and crafted by Ubi Soft Montreal, Assassin's Creed II is my pick for the best game of the year. You can read my full review here.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Nintendo Wii
Rated "E" For Everyone
If there was ever a game to solve the generation gap as families gather for the holidays its the New Super Mario Bros. Wii which delivers a nostalgic look back at the kind of games today's parents used to play with their kids, namely the pan-ultimate Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES. Nintendo has taken that classic game design of the plumbers jumping platforms, descending into pipes, leaping over turtles, and power-granting mushrooms and evolves it forward so that four players can now play together, working as a team to reach the end and try to rescue the kidnapped princess, while competing against each other, shoving and pushing each other off of platforms in order to get to the coins and the mushrooms first.
Handheld Game Systems
This year saw the release of two new game systems that expand the way games are played on-the-go:
The PSP Go
$250
By no means a replacement for Sony's PlayStation Portable, the PSP Go is an alternate model that experiments with focusing entirely on digital content. No discs to load, instead all games, music, and movies are downloaded to the device using its 16 GB of memory and a Wi-Fi connection to the PlayStation online store. With a fold-out game pad and a more vibrant screen the Go offers a more stylish design over the original PSP, but because it can't play the older PSP games won't be for everybody. Of the new games currently available for the Go is Little Big Planet, a handheld version of the popular PS3 game that matches its bigger brother perfectly in look and feel while delivering an entirely new adventure. You can read my full
review of the PSP Go here.
Nintendo DSi
$190
Not a replacement of the popular Nintendo DS, but an alternate design for those looking for some gadget-like features in their game system. The DSi includes two built-in cameras, one pointed at the user for self-portraits, another pointing out to world around. Users can snap photos and then use built-in photo editing software to morph them, add borders and icons, and other fun activities. In addition to photos built-in sound editing software allows users to play with audio picked up by the system's mic and a wireless connection to the internet offers a chance to buy additional downloadable games from the Nintendo online store. For playing games, the DSi will deliver a better visual experience, something that can be seen clearly with the latest portable title,
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. You can read my
full review of the Nintendo DSi here.
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