Think of the Children For January 30th

Written by Dan Keener on 1/30/2008 for DS   PC   PS2   PS3   PSP   Wii   360  

Boy, I thought the load was light during the Holidays, but we hit a new low this last week in rated titles from the ESRB. A grand total of 20 titles were wrapped up, with the PC and DS having an unusually quiet week. The Xbox 360 led the way, but with a scant seven titles. The Wii and PS3 were virtually shut out, with just a couple titles each. Out of the 20 titles, there were a couple of mild surprises and a couple of highly sought after titles that are getting close to hitting retail. I am also introducing a new section to showcase the best of the worst each week. Usually the Nintendo DS will take that honor, but this week we have a special winner…

I knew that January into February was a traditional slow month, but I was quite shocked to see that the DS and PC (Usually double-digit rated titles) had a mere 10 titles between them. The DS titles were primarily movie tie-ins (Kung Fu Panda and Speed Racer). The PC resorted to card games, fishing titles and movie and TV tie-ins. They also had (along with Mac and Web) the game of shame for this week, but more on that later.

The next-gen system(s) had a several games rated, but it was the Xbox 360 once again leading the way while the Playstation 3 came in second….again. Granted, the Xbox 360 saw predominately XBLA titles, but I rarely see any games slated for the Playstation Network cross this article. The XBLA Xbox 360 titles included two Rocky and Bullwinkle games (possibly), Coffetime Crosswords and the highly anticipated REZ. Both the 360 and PS3 shared the movie tie-in games King Fu Panda and Iron Man as well as Rapala's Fishing Frenzy. Realistically, this was just another poor week with REZ and Coffetime Crosswords about the only saving grace.

A couple of things caught my eye this week with the Xbox 360 rated titles. First of all, the highly anticipated REZ, something we saw the demo for at CES, was rated and is apparently slated for release this week (probably today if this is published on 1/30). In addition, there were not one, but TWO Bullwinkle titles rated from ZEN Studios (Pinball FX). The first, The Bullwinkle Show, is slated for XBLA and originally announced for Holiday 2008. The second title, Rocky and Bullwinkle, could be an update of the NES/SNES title from 1992, or a new retail version. The last title that was a bit of a surprise was Coffeetime Crosswords from Konami. This has the smell of a casual XBLA title.

To spice things up in case I didn’t include enough sarcasm or dry humor above, I thought I would single out what I perceive to be the worst title that gets rated each article. Whether it sounds dumb, is completely unneeded or I just feel like picking on it, I will put it here each week. This week’s title of shame is Wedding Dash by Brighter Minds Media for the Mac, PC and Web Browser. The game appears to be bringing the casual game from the web into the retail segment. While it may be fun as a freebie, taking a look at it, I deem this the most unworthy title to get rated this week. Don’t like my opinion or are you a multiple-time Maid of Honor, toss your comments in below.

Title	Publisher	Rating	Platforms
Rez HD	Q Entertainment, Inc.	E	360
Rocky and Bullwinkle	Zen Studios Ltd.	E	360
The Bullwinkle Show	Zen Studios Ltd.	E	360
Cake Mania	Destineer	E	Mac
Coffeetime Crosswords	Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.	E	360
Drone Tactics	Atlus USA	E10+	DS
Hoyle Card Classics	Encore, Inc., A Navarre Corporation Company	T	PC
Iron Man™	SEGA of America	T	360, PS3
Kidz Sports International Soccer	Destineer	E	Wii
Kung Fu Panda	Activision	E10+	PC, 360, PS3
Kung Fu Panda	Activision	E10+	DS
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3	NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc.	T	PS2
Rapala's Fishing Frenzy	Activision Value	E	PC, PS2, 360, PS3
SEGA Superstars Tennis™	Sega of America	E	DS
Speed Racer	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment	E	DS
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed	LucasArts	T	PS2, PSP, Wii
The Tuttles Madcap Misadventures	Legacy Interactive	E	PC
Tradewinds Legends	Destineer	E	Mac
Wedding Dash	Brighter Minds Media	E10+	Mac, PC, Browser
Winx Club: Mission Enchantix	Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.	E	DS

Here is the final tally on who, what and where everything was rated for the last week. There were 20 rated entries on nine platforms. Xbox 360 (7), Nintendo DS (5), Xbox 360 (5) and PC (5) had the most games rated. There were 16 of the 20 titles rated at E10+ or lower, four rated at T for Teen and none rated at M for Mature.

Got a comment on the rated games, put it in the section below.  Until next week, make sure you know what your kids are playing…