Think of the Children for November 15th

Written by Dan Keener on 11/15/2007 for DS   PC   PS2   PS3   PSP   Wii   360  

This week there were just a handful of games to look at, as the ESRB only turned around and published 33 games that were rated. I guess some ESRB staffers are starting to burn off those vacation days. Use it or lose it always starts to become a pain in the butt in early November.

There wasn’t a ton of interesting things in this week’s batch, but I still managed to finagle out a couple of nuggets of data. What I saw was that the Nintendo juggernaut (Is it?) keeps on rolling, we had a brand-new playa not seen in almost four years show up and the true-next gen releases look to be slowing down. On to the show:

Nintendo just keeps having titles churned out for its platforms left and right. For this week, there were 13 of the 33 “games” on the DS and Wii. I can understand the Japanese style anime games, kid’s games and downloadable content for the Wii Shopping channel. What I do not get are all the self-help and teaching guides that come across this article each week. Ubisoft will be giving DS owners the option to buy a couple of titles called Mon Coach personnel j'ameliore mon Anglais and Mon Coach Personnel J'ameliore Mon Espagnol. Is that French? Anyway, why in the world do people pay $30 a pop for this stuff? I may need to write an Editorial on this…

There is normally one or two of the odd-ball platforms that see a rated game each week when I review the titles. Usually, I see the occasional web browser, plug-and-play or Mobile game. This week I had a pleasant surprise as a game for Linux (EVE Online) was actually rated. In fact, after checking the ESRB’s database, they have only rated Eight Linux games ever, with the last being 2003’s Puzzle Pirates. Yeah for Linux!

I hope everyone will be enjoying Halo 3, Call of Duty 4 and Assassin’s Creed, because there were only two next-gen titles that were rated this week. Burnout Paradise looks like it may be just another retread from that series, but Codemasters’ Turning Point: Fall of Liberty seems to have some solid buzz and unique storylines that could make it a sleeper hit. Other than those, there weren’t even any Xbox Live Arcade or Playstation Network games that were rated. This is the last big week for release in the retail world, so we may have seen the majority of the rated titles for next-gen dry up until after the holidays.

I didn’t see any an unannounced titles jump out, but it appears that the PC platform is regurgitating some older games including Luxor 3 and Lumines. No word on if these are flash based, or part of Windows Live. This was also the second time in the last several weeks that DreamCatcher Interactive has had a large collection of PC titles rated from the same series. Previously it was SpellForce, and this week it was Gothic. Sounds like another box set may be in the works.

Title	Publisher	Rating	Platforms
Blue's Journey	SNK Playmore USA	E	Wii
Bubble Bobble Double Shot	Ignition Entertainment	E	DS
Burnout Paradise	Electronic Arts	E10+	360, PS3
Dai Senryaku VII: Modern Military Tactics Exceed	Valcon Games LLC	E	PS2
EVE Online	CCP hf.	T	Macintosh, PC, Linux
Game Party	Midway Home Entertainment Inc.	E	Wii
Interactive Storybook DS Series 1	UFO Interactive Games	E	DS
Lumines	Q Entertainment Inc.	E	PC
Rainbow Islands Evolution	Ignition Entertainment	E	PSP
Sweet Tooth 2	Electronic Arts	E	Web Browser
Imagine Fashion Designer	Ubisoft	E10+	PC
Luxor 3	United Developers	E	PC
Ninja JaJaMaru-kun	Jaleco	E	Wii
Super Smash Bros. Brawl	Nintendo	T	Wii
DanceDanceRevolution Disney CHANNEL Edition	Konami Digital Entertainment	E	PS2
Winter Sports	Conspiracy Entertainment Corporation	E	Wii
18 Wheels of Steel: American Long Haul	ValuSoft	E	PC
Alien Shooter: Vengeance	Strategy First	M	PC
Cabela's Big Game Hunter: Trophy Bucks	Activision	T	PC
Gothic	DreamCatcher	T	PC
Gothic 2	DreamCatcher	M	PC
Gothic 2: Night of the Raven	DreamCatcher	M	PC
Mon Coach personnel j'ameliore mon Anglais	Ubisoft	E	DS
Mon Coach Personnel J'ameliore Mon Espagnol	Ubisoft	E	DS
The Guild 2	DreamCatcher	T	PC
Turning Point: Fall of LIberty	Codemasters USA	T	PC, 360, PS3
Kiki Kai World	UFO Interactive Games	E	PS2
Rail Simulator	Electronic Arts	E	PC
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008	Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.	E	DS
Seal Online	YNK Interactive Inc.	T	PC
Sin and Punishment	Nintendo of America	T	Wii
Wrecking Crew	Nintendo of America	E	Wii
Yoshi's Cookie	Nintendo of America	E	Wii

Here is the final tally on who, what and where everything was rated for the last two weeks. There were 33 rated entries on 10 platforms. Windows PC (14), Wii (8), Nintendo DS (5) and Playstation 2 (3) had the most games rated. There were 23 of the 33 games were rated at E10+ or lower, eight rated at T for Teen and three rated at M for Mature.

Until next week, make sure you know what your kids are playing……