We are a bit late this week, as the newest ESRB ratings didn’t post to their web site until Wednesday 5/21. Regardless, we weren’t disappointed as 40 titles appeared on the list. The PC, Wii and DS platforms represented on 34 of the titles, and had some decent selections instead of all the usual throw stuff at the wall titles (well, quite a few of those to). It was a bad week for Sony nation, as they combined for the same amount of rated titles (4) across all three of their platforms as Mac and Linux combined. Yikes! As for the weekly title of shame, I bestow the honor on two corporate behemoths that are the leaders in their respective industries….

Each week I usually trash PC, Wii and DS for the amount of junk that gets rated. In all honesty, this week isn’t that much different, but there are a few of the more anticipated titles that were rated. These included Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobos` Dungeon (Wii), NCAA Football 09 (Wii), Penny Arcade Adventures (PC), Deca Sports (Wii), Looney Tunes: Cartoon Conductor (DS) and Carnival Games (DS). Not a great list by any means, but it is better than more Paws and Claws, Sims 2 Add ons, Cake Mania sequels and ….. Oh well, maybe next week.

Last week I trashed Nintendo’s rated titles for not having any freshness to them. This week, I am going to look down my nose at Sony and try to figure out why the PS3, PS2 and PSP had a lousy four titles rated, the same as what the Mac and Linux systems saw? On top of that, the games aren’t anything special with the exception of 1942: Joint Strike for the PSN on PS3. Pipe Mania (PSP, PS2) and Summer Athletics (PS2) for some reason don’t inspire me to spend my cash on the weekly rated titles for these platforms.

I previously mentioned the Playstation 3’s lone title as that of 1942: Joint Strike. This arcade remake also appeared on the Xbox 360 list, as well as Zoids Assault, Puzzle Arcade, Summer Athletics and the overpriced Penny Arcade title. While the 360 didn’t fare much better than the PS3, the volume of titles for the platform has at least been consistent week in and week out. Overall, the Next-Gen platforms were kinda sucky with the exception of 1942: Joint Strike.

Another easy choice for the Title of shame this week, as The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff was my runaway winner. While those crazy pet based games were prolific again, having the world’s largest furniture maker partner up with the world’s all-time best selling PC franchise seems like a natural corporate money grab IMO. For your $20, you get to pick and choose from your choice of flat-packed furniture to deck out your Sims 2 cribs. Yup, virtual furniture from the world’s #1 brand sounds like something to definitely spend that money on. I bet this will be a hot seller in Sweden….





Title
Publisher
Rating
Platforms


Penny Arcade Adventures
Hothead Games
Mature
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