Think of the Children for February 20

Written by Dan Keener on 2/20/2008 for DS   PC   PS2   PS3   PSP   Wii   360  

Finally, the drought may be over, as the ESRB pumped out a total of 39 titles over the last week. This is up substantially from the last several weeks, where the lull was just plain painful. Leading the way was the PC platform (17), and the Nintendo juggernaut seemed to get back on its horse with both the Wii and DS cranking out seven titles each. A few buzz worthy titles hit for the next gen platforms, including a previously unannounced XBLA title. However, the PS3 continues its pathetic lack of rated titles.

Looks like the PC and Nintendo tiles are back on the schnide this week, with a combined 31 rated titles between the PC, Wii and DS. Of note is that most of these are kid based, casual games and general titles most of us wouldn’t play. You know the old saying, throw a bunch of sh*t against the wall to see what sticks, and that is what we have going on this week. I shouldn’t complain, as I was wondering where the titles were the last few weeks, but oh well, it’s my right. There are a couple of decent titles lurking in there, so checkout the list below for a look see.

The next-gen system(s) once again had several games rated, but once again it was the Xbox 360 leading the way while the Playstation 3 came with a pathetic two rated titles. I mean WTF? Last year Sony was chest thumping about all the titles they would be bringing out by Christmas, and it didn’t happen. Here we are almost two months into 2008, and we have had nary a PSN title (finally have ONE this week) and almost as few retail titles. Someone needs to take a look at their claims and call them out for basically lying to the communities and Wall Street. I know they don’t have control over third party games, but at least muzzle their idiotic execs that keep making outrageous claims. OK, I’m off my soapbox, so this week the Xbox 360 had three XBLA titles rated, including Mr. Driller Online, Schizoid and Wits and Wagers. Two of those I believe were not highly published, and the third (schizoid) has been waiting a while since it was announced. The two retail tiles were Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (also on PS3) and Elements of Destruction by THQ, which also hasn’t got much noise. The PS3 only had the previously mentioned Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and NovaStrike for the Playstation Network as a download. Sony, where are the titles for your console?

The buzz this week was for some previously unannounced XBLA titles, and the long awaited rating of what should one of the hottest titles on the Xbox 360 and PS3 this season. The titles Wits and Wagers (we were tipped off prior to the ESRB listing), Schizoid and Mr. Driller Online were all rated at E for Everyone by the ESRB. They are all XBLA titles and I imagine coming to the downloadable service in the near future. One title in the Wii list that caught my eye was the old coin-op classic Double Dribble. I put some money into that thing at the arcade, but I have no idea if it is the NEW or Arcade version that will be coming down the pipe.

Looking over the list, I saw a lot of funky titles, but not too many that jumped out as terrible or completely worthy of the title of shame. However, after considering the old-school Spelunker coming to Wii VC, I decided that I would give the old 8-bit title a break and lay off. Instead, my wrath gets directed toward Pat Sajak’s Trivia Gems for PC, which so desperately in an unneeded title with all the legally sane individuals that inhabit the Earth. Anyway, there it is in a somewhat weak week.


Here is the final tally on who, what and where everything was rated for the last week. There were 39 rated entries on nine platforms. PC (17), Nintendo Wii (7), Nintendo DS (7) and Xbox 360 (5) had the most games rated. There were 29 of the 39 titles rated at E10+ or lower, five rated at T for Teen and five 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……