Heated battles

Ghostbusters, WiiSports, Nazi-hunters,
old-fashioned brawlers and other
ways to console yourself

SPOOKS, KILLERS AND SPORTS:
Ghostbusters, Prototype and Wii Sports Resort

by ERIK LEIJON

Up until the recent high-profile releases of Nintendo’s ring-rattling Wii remake Punch-Out!! and Sony’s PlayStation 3 superhero open-world epic inFAMOUS, spring 2009 gaming-wise was about as barren as the Western Sahara post-Dakar Rally. Game developers have to eat though, and have decided the best time to bring out their big ticket wares is during the hot summer months. Hey, if it works for the movie industry, it should translate easily.

Caustic attitude aside, June is looking like a tremendous month for gaming, especially when one considers how many of these hotly anticipated titles aren’t sequels. It begins early with the latest high-octane racer from the makers of Colin McRae Rally and GRiD, entitled Fuel (X360, PS3, PC/Codemasters). Featuring an enormous open world to explore, Fuel looks to have some of the best looking environments ever seen in a racing game. In Prototype (X360, PS3, PC/Activision), Radical Entertainment has created the ultimate shape-shifting protagonist, capable of killing anyone and absorbing their memories, abilities and appearance.

June 16 is a day to mark on the calendars: the endlessly speculated Ghostbusters (Multiple/Atari) video game—partially written by and starring Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray—will finally be taking your calls on nearly every platform imaginable (X360, PS3, PC, PS2, Wii, PSP and DS). There may never be an official third movie, but if the original cast is crossing the streams and duking it out with Gozer the Gozerian on my television, then perhaps a new film won’t be necessary.

June ends with the unique box tapping party game Let’s Tap (Wii/Sega), the Wild West shooter sequel Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (X360, PS3/Ubisoft) and the gorgeous 2D fighter BlazBlue (X360, PS3/Aksys).

July starts with yet another terrific looking 2D brawler, King of Fighters XII (X360, PS3/SNK Playmore)—a classic series getting a much deserved and badly needed makeover.

TROPICAL SPORTS & RPGS

WiiSports is the one game nearly every living being has played, gamer or not, and Nintendo has decided that their licence to print money need not end with the introduction of WiiSports Resort (Wii/Nintendo), which takes the uber-simple mini-games of the original and places them in more tropical settings—with cute puppies. First-person shooter Wolfenstein (X360, PS3, PC/Activision) will yet again transport Nazi hunters to an alternate historical version of the final days of World War II, one with superhuman mutants and unstoppable weapons.

If there’s one thing the Nintendo Wii unfortunately lacks, it’s good old-fashioned Japanese role-playing games. Phantom Brave (Wii/Atlus) may have already left PlayStation 2 owners spellbound five years ago, but Wii owners should gladly accept a tactical RPG of this calibre, regardless of age, when it hits stores this August. Time-bending graphic adventure Still Life 2 (PC, Mac/Encore) should provide closure for fans still angry about the vague conclusion of the first. John Madden may have retired from his career as a football analyst, but that hardly means he’ll stop cashing his most lucrative cheque as the namesake of NFL football’s only game in town, Madden 10 (Multi/EA Sports).

Wii fans will finally get a chance to revisit the first two Metroid Prime titles (originally released for the GameCube) with Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii/Nintendo), which also contains the Wii’s Prime 3: Corruption.

Not sure if the annoyingly jingoistic G.I. Joe toys will make the successful transition from the sandbox to the silver screen, and I’m even less convinced the video game adaptation G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (Multi/EA) will work. Then again, knowing is half the battle, so I’ll withhold judgement until I’ve actually played it.

Sometime near the tail end of summer, the caped crusader will return in what one can only hope will be a better game than the disappointing Batman Begins. Frankly, if Batman: Arkham Asylum (X360, PS3, PC/Eidos) doesn’t finally bring Batman some justice in the gaming world, I may just check into the famed crazy house myself.