Think of the Children

Written by Dan Keener on 4/9/2008 for DS   PC   PS2   PS3   PSP   Wii   360  

For the second week in a row, the ESRB gave us a decent amount of newly rated titles. Scanning the list, there does not appear to be anything earth shattering or any blockbusters getting rated, but we are in the middle of a traditionally dry period for video games.

Looks like this week was a throwback, as the DS and PC rated titles were littered with casual games, kids games and a bunch of sequels. If your kid likes Paws & Claws, Tamagotchi and Garfield, then you are in luck. If you want real games on the DS, I guess wait until next week. As for the Wii, it had five titles, none of which will set the world on fire. Emergency Heroes, TV Show King and Cocoto Fishing Master elicit nothing more than a yawn.

A bit of a light week for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, as they each had three games rated included the shared title of Top Spin 3. The 360 also had Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (strange, since it was made an Xbox Original and been available for download since March 28th) and RooGoo, another XBLA puzzler. The PS3 fared little better with Eye of Judgment: Biolith Rebellion 2 and R-Types as downloadable from PSN. Not exactly a banner week for these two contacts.

There really aren’t many games that would qualify for the weekly title of shame, so I just decided to pick out the lamest title that came to mind. That award goes to Dreamcatcher’s Australia Zoo Quest. By reading the official web page for the game you would think it was the second coming, but in actuality it is nothing more than an attempt to cash in on the late Steve Irwin’s fame. I realize it is a kids game, but lame is lame.


Here is the final tally on who, what and where everything was rated for the last week. There were 39 rated titles on eight platforms. PC (16), DS (7) and Wii (5) had the most games rated. There were 24 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 article or a rated games, put it in the section below or send me an e-mail. Until next week, make sure you know what your kids are playing……

*The weekly Title of Shame (and any game that is tossed in that paragraph) is done so based on several factors, including which games were rated that week, how does the game concept stack up, is it a re-hashed sequel, lame movie tie-in, rip off of another game, etc…