Think of the Children for December 19

Written by Dan Keener on 12/19/2007 for DS   PC   PS2   PS3   PSP   Wii   360  

This week continues the year-end slowdown, with a paltry 33 titles getting rated. It was a pretty straightforward week though, as only the most popular and current systems had games rated. No Mac, GBA, Plug ‘N Play or Linux this week.

One title that finally was rated and may cause some comments is Black College Football Xperience (PC), rated ‘E’ for everyone. Despite what some may think the game is about, it uses the Unreal Engine 3 to bring together a football game based on the historical black college and University conferences. The game promises not only prime football action, but all the atmosphere of the halftime and stadiums that make the conferences to cool. With a five-year contract in hand, expect to see this title try to rival the big boys with yearly releases…

The true Next-Gen consoles had several titles this week, with the Xbox 360 (4) and PS3 (5) having nine total between them. The biggest hitters among the titles are Devil May Cry 4 (both), Warhawk (PS3) and Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (both). Otherwise, the rest are XBLA and PSN titles (N+, PixelJunk Monsters and Go Sports SkyDiving) and DLC expansion packs (Overlord: Raising Hell). After the first of the year, I hope to see titles for the PS3 and Xbox 360 pick up as Spring 2008 releases start to get rated.

Nintendo managed to keep its juggernaut rolling one more week (although Sony is nipping at their heals) with another 13 releases. However, the amount of drivel was tempered a bit, with only Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol (barf) and a new Destroy All Human’s: Big Willy Unleashed (Why?) making their way onto the Wii. Of course, Volleyball (Wii), Dragon Quest Sword: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors (Wii) and Assassin’s Creed (DS, not sure of controls) will spice things up a bit. Throw in a couple of other Ninja games for the DS (Naruto: Ninja Destiny and Ninja Reflex) and you have a plethora of games that for once, outweigh the junk that usually gets served up to the Nintendo owners.

Glancing through the titles, they mostly appear to be previously announced, but with all the PC and Nintendo games, sometimes you can lose track. Not a bad week for some games that have catchy titles, hopefully we can start to see some surprises once the submissions to the ERB start getting cranked up in the New Year.

Here is the final tally on who, what and where everything was rated for the last two weeks. There were 33 rated entries on seven platforms. Windows PC (14), Nintendo Wii (7) and Nintendo DS (6) had the most games rated. There were 21 of the 33 games were rated at E10+ or lower, nine rated at T for Teen and three rated at M for Mature.


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