Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End has shipped for every platform under the sun. The movie tiein is based on both the second (Dead Man's Chest) and third movies and extends beyond the world created by director Gore Verbinski. Players can look forward to exploring environments from the sequels, but there are also new areas to see and characters to meet.
Now that they've released Shrek the Third, which is virtually the same as the last game, the flaws are tougher to swallow. The graphics and audio both feel antiquated, and the game is just a bit too kidfriendly for its own good.
It isn't an action adventure game in the traditional sense. Instead of jumping between platforms and hacking away at enemies with one character, you have to jockey control between three different characters and put their individual skills to use to help all three characters reach the exit at the end of each level.
The Paper Mario games (for N64 and GameCube) successfully married the plumber's Mushroom Kingdom trappings with classic roleplaying game conventions, yet still blazed their own path with clever puzzles and offbeat humor.
You, well, touch the dead...a lot.
But groping ghoulies with the stylus just isn't as much fun as blasting holes in 'em with a pistol. The simple lightgun mechanic worked in the arcade because of the visceral feeling you got from blowing the brains out of lumbering lunatics; trying to translate that feeling to a small plastic pen isn't as exciting. It didn't work with Point Blank DS, and it certainly doesn't work with Touch the Dead.
We've already seen the Final Smash and Gooey Ball unveiled for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and today they've revealed another new variable, the Cracker Launcher.
D3Publisher of America and TOMY Corporation today announced the development of Naruto: Path of the Ninja (working title), a roleplaying game for the Nintendo DS.
Silent Hill 5 (working title) has yet to be shown or announced in any official capacity, but rabid fans have been hanging off of every bit of speculation since Silent Hill 4: The Room shipped in 2004. Masashi Tsuboyama, chief designer of the next Silent Hill project, added more fuel to the fire in a recent interview with Dengeki PlayStation, which comes to us in English via aptlynamed fansite, SilentHill5.net.
Released just prior to the theatrical debut of Shrek the Third to maximize its synergistic potential, Shrek the Third for the PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii is more compelling as a brand marketing bullet point than it is as an actual video game.