Think of the Children for February 11

Written by Randy Kalista on 2/10/2009 for DS   PC   PS2   PS3   PSP   Wii   360  

Not that the ESRB is slacking, but we skipped last week’s Think of the Children article because only four new games had hit the docket. But after two weeks, there’s still only 33 new games total. Oh well. It must be stifling work, meting out judgments on questionable content all the livelong day. While that doesn’t explain why there’s nothing slapped with an M for Mature on it this past half a month, an M is no guarantor of quality content anyway.

The PC takes a narrow lead over the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS as far as quantitative info goes. The Mac nabs a title (get excited for Wheel of Fortune Super Deluxe!) while the venerable PS2 still earned an exlusive with Suzuki TT Superbikes 2, and a cross-platformer with the Wii on Jelly Belly: Ballistic Beans (a puzzler involving the shooting of bricks with the aforementioned beans).

This week’s best bet goes to Rez HD, which already came out on the 360 on January 30, so…so much for getting a look at what’s to come, ESRB. Thanks. But Rez HD resonated so deeply with some of the former 1UP Show crew that they named their new show, Area 5, after the final level of Rez HD. Either that, or Every Extend Extra Extreme, the (doubtlessly) extreme version of a game that forced N’gai Croal to exclaim in his Tumblr: “Love. This. Game.” Oddly, this game’s been out for 360 since October of 2007. I’m wondering what makes the ESRB revisit a game like this after a year a some months…since it’s rated for the 360 anyway.

For cross-console play-nice time between the 360 and PS3, both platforms will be hitting up Walt Disney Pictures Presents Hannah Montana: The Movie (the game), Texas Cheat’Em, and Battle Fantasia--a game of one-on-one combat between animals, creatures and super-powered humans.

I’m going out on a limb by not declaring an “intriguing title of the week.” This could be a personal shortcoming, since I find that the most intriguing aspects out of the ESRB’s reporting comes from their reviews of Mature games. Without an M title to catch my eye from the past two weeks, I’m feeling somewhat stumped. I’m not exactly “intrigued” by My Horse and Me 2--which isn’t technically wrong, but still smacks of wrong-ness, although I admit that “My Horse and I 2” looks like your texting your game title.


Here’s the final tally on who, what and where everything was rated for last week. There were 33 rated titles on eight platforms: 360 (8), DS (8), Mac (1), PC (9), PS2 (2), PS3 (4), PSP (2), Wii (8). There were 29 of the 33 titles rated Everyone 10+ or lower, 4 rated Teen, and--as I’d mentioned--not a one slapped with a Mature rating..

The running tally of game ratings in 2009 is as follows:


Got a comment on the article or a rated game? Put it in the comments section or send me an e-mail. Until next week, make sure you know what your kids are playing…

*The weekly Intriguing Title of the Week (and any game that is tossed in that paragraph) is identified based on a game on the list that catches the eye of the author for any number of reasons. Good, bad or otherwise, feel free to agree, disagree or add some constructive input to the discussion.