Think of the Children

Written by Randy Kalista on 2/25/2009 for DS   PC   PS3   PSP   Wii   360  

The ESRB was not playing last week. It was nothing but work, work, work out of those fine ratings folks that pushed 45 games through the chute last week. One of those, Toy World, is for the Pavv Bordo model of Samsung TVs (???). Also, while the ESRB doesn’t rate online interactions, per se, they do label “online” as a platform, as in the case of EVE Online (which is having another go-round on retail shelves thanks to a revitalized Atari.

The PC has consistently run the boards as far as sheer numbers of ratings going through: This week there’s 21 more titles to add to the increasingly small shelf space for PC games. The Wii nabs 9 games, while the 360, DS and PS3 have a three-way tie in third place with 6 titles rated each. Ubisoft announced this past week that they’re bringing Prince of Persia and Shaun White Snowboarding to the Mac, but those two titles haven’t been rated for the platform just yet. Rather, the Mac gets two seek-and-find puzzlers, Book of Legends and Little Shop - Memories; and Cooking Dash (not done by the developers of Diner Dash). The cross-platformer award goes to Ghostbusters The Videogame which is rated Teen for the 360, PC and PS3, with the DS version rated Everyone.

This week’s best bet is a tough one. I want to give it to Ghostbusters, but I have a nagging fear. Ghostbusters could very well be the game that’s gotten too much love and attention during pre-launch, then ends up selling bupkis once it hits retail. Ghostbusters, sadly, could end up being the most rented videogame of the year. I sincerely hope that my fear is unfounded.

The 360 and PS3 are still sharing the brunt of their releases, except for a couple instances: The 360 has an exclusive on Autobahn Polizei and the PS3 gets selfish with Comet Crash. However, the 360 still gets a leg up on the PS3 with Velvet Assassin.

I’m naming Big City Rigs: Garbage Truck Driver as the Intriguing Title of the Week. Simply because it won’t be as interesting as one could hope, and one could hope that there would be a sanitation truck scenario (like the much talked about one in Saints Row 2) that allows you to drive around different neighborhoods spraying excrement from a hose.