Columns

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: PlayStation 3

By Jonathan Groves

Published: 9/15/2009

Types: Screens & Tech, Games

Publisher: Activision MSRP: $59.99 Comic lovers usually get stuck with unplayable trash when their beloved superheroes are cast in video games. There are a few exceptions, however, and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is the newest game in Activision’s Marvel RPG series that refuses to suck. The two...[MORE]

Guitar Hero 5: PlayStation 3

By Jonathan Groves

Published: 9/10/2009

Types: Screens & Tech, Games

Publisher: Activision MSRP: $59.99 It’s pretty rare for a game series to remain captivating by the time a fifth entry is introduced to the franchise. Nonetheless Guitar Hero 5 has made it to store shelves, and it’s clear that the makers of this ridiculously successful series have been observing...[MORE]

Singstar: Queen: PS2 and PS3

By Jonathan Groves

Published: 8/12/2009

Types: Screens & Tech

Publisher: Sony Systems: PS2 and PS3 PS3 MSRP: $39.99 PS2 MSRP: $29.99 Bust out your microphones and warm up your singing voice, a new version of SingStar has finally hit store shelves! Last year Sony released its first band-specific entry into the franchise with SingStar Abba. Sure Mama Mia...[MORE]

Ghostbusters: The Video Game: Nintendo Wii

By Jonathan Groves

Published: 7/15/2009

Types: Screens & Tech

Publisher: Atari MSRP: $39.99 From the moment the game starts, it’s clear that what you are about to experience is a true sequel to the classic Ghostbusters films released in the 80s. You are treated to the same opening cinematics found in the movies, and when the title song queues up, true fans...[MORE]

Boom Box Bash Party: Nintendo Wii

By Jonathan Groves

Published: 7/15/2009

Types: Screens & Tech

Publisher: EA MSRP: $39.99 Despite the huge popularity of video games, it’s not very often that developers stray from ideas that have been successful in the past. Especially if you've got a Wii, a platform for which a significant number of games are TV or movie tie-ins, ports, or remakes. ...[MORE]

Indiana Jones & the Staff of Kings: Nintendo Wii

By Jonathan Groves

Published: 7/15/2009

Types: Screens & Tech

Publisher: LucasArts MSRP: $49.99 LucasArts tends to focus pretty heavily on cranking out Star Wars titles, so it’s not very often that Indiana Jones gets a new game. You'd hope that means extra effort and development time is put into every Indy release, but that really doesn't seem to be ...[MORE]

Dokapon Journey: Nintendo DS

By Jonathan Groves

Published: 5/20/2009

Types: Screens & Tech

Publisher: Atlus MSRP: $29.99 Most party games are so awful that you could fill a book with all their shortcomings. Since print is dead, Atlus opted for making a game to show DS owners how incredible the genre should be. Dokapon Journey is a party game that sets itself apart by introducing...[MORE]

Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop: Nintendo Wii

By Jonathan Groves

Published: 5/20/2009

Types: Screens & Tech

Publisher: Capcom ESRP: $39.99 Back in 2006 Capcom came out with the original Dead Rising for the Xbox 360. It turned out to be a great new title, one of the few released during the 360’s first year on the market. If you missed it on Xbox then your big break has arrived, like several other ga...[MORE]

MLB 2K9: Nintendo Wii

By Jonathan Groves

Published: 5/20/2009

Types: Screens & Tech

Wii Sports proved that the Wii had the potential to be a great console for the game formerly known as America’s pastime. Its lack of anything beyond batting and pitching was its limitation, however, and Major League Baseball 2K9 by 2K Sports hopes to provide a more complete experience. From the...[MORE]

Trivial Pursuit: Nintendo Wii

By Jonathan Groves

Published: 4/22/2009

Types: Screens & Tech

Most board games don’t make the transition to video games very smoothly. They are usually ways for publishers to try to make a quick buck and gamers get an inferior product as a result. However, EA has managed to keep the fun of Trivial Pursuit intact and even find ways to improve on it...[MORE]

Spongebob vs. The Big One: Beach Party Cook-Off : Nintendo DS

By Jonathan Groves

Published: 4/22/2009

Types: Screens & Tech

For 10 years now the world has been enjoying the wacky antics of Spongebob Squarepants. He has been seen in every merchandising form imaginable, including a video game for most mainstream genres. Spongebob vs. The Big One: Beach Party Cookoff, however, is his first step into the world of cooking...[MORE]

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure: Nintendo DS

By Jonathan Groves

Published: 4/22/2009

Types: Screens & Tech

Here’s an idea for a game: You are a space marine fighting for your life against the demons of Hell. Also, you have just moved to a new town and need to meet all of your animal neighbors and run errands for them. Henry Hatsworth is similarly trans-genre in his first outing, and I mean that with...[MORE]

Grey’s Anatomy: Nintendo Wii

By Jonathan Groves

Published: 4/22/2009

Types: Screens & Tech

Grey’s Anatomy has the unique ability to tell you so much about a person. If I know you watch it, I immediately know that you saw Twilight multiple times in theaters, you bought a Wii for that awesome bowling game, and you are currently updating your Facebook status to say “Trying to piece my mi...[MORE]

Moon: Renegade Kid, Nintendo DS, $29.99

By Jonathan Groves

Published: 3/4/2009

Types: Screens & Tech

Even though it was released a few years ago, the DS continues to sell like hotcakes. As a matter of fact, these days only one in five people even knows what a hotcake is, and the other four own a DS. Those are some startling statistics, and yet few of the games made for the DS tap the huge first...[MORE]

Tenchu: Shadow Assassins: UBI Soft, Nintendo Wii, $39.99

By Jonathan Groves

Published: 3/4/2009

Types: Screens & Tech

If you’ve never played a Tenchu game, think of the plot of Kung Fu Panda. Except instead playing as a cuddly panda trying to master martial arts while making equally adorable animal friends, you are a skilled ninja hitman who must brutally maim and kill anyone foolish enough to oppose you. Hiding...[MORE]

Spittin’ Game: Holiday Edition, Part I

By Jeremy Martin

Published: 12/17/2008

Types: Screens & Tech

Saints Row 2 THQ PlayStation 3 $59.99 If you make it past the multiple screens of character-creation options (obsessives could spend 20 minutes modifying the bridge of the nose alone), Saints Row 2 offers a different experience from the Grand Theft Auto franchise from which it was Xe...[MORE]

Singstar Country

By Jonathan Groves

Published: 12/17/2008

Types: Screens & Tech

SingStar Country features a selection of 30 songs ranging from artists such as Alan Jackson to Johnny Cash to Jessica Simpson.  Thirty songs may not seem like much compared to some games in the music genre, the game offers a healthy variety.  Each artist has made his or her  mark in...[MORE]

Fable 2

By Lauren Martin

Published: 11/5/2008

Types: Screens & Tech

Microsoft and Lionhead Studios' Fable II is adventure/RPG gaming at its finest. You play as Sparrow, a homeless child (you choose your sex) raised by your older sister, Rose. After Rose dies, Theresa, the mysterious leader of the Hero's Guild of Albion, takes you in and raises you to fulfill you...[MORE]

LittleBigPlanet

By Jeremy Martin

Published: 10/22/2008

Types: Screens & Tech

LittleBigPlanet Sony PlayStation 3 $59.99   Add LittleBigPlanet to the short list of modern video games (Halo, World of Warcraft, Rock Band) that start a subculture. As a platformer (a genre always threatening to die out) is challenged in the current generation only by Mario Gal...[MORE]

Blitz: The League 2

By Jeremy Martin

Published: 10/22/2008

Types: Screens & Tech

Blitz: The League 2 Midway Xbox 360 $59.99 I’m going to expose myself as the low-brow gore geek I truly am right up front by admitting that I enjoy this year’s Blitz a hell of a lot more than this year’s Madden. Where the Madden series has grown staler with each year of its exclusiv...[MORE]

Entertainment weakly

By Aaron R. Conklin

Published: 10/15/2008

Types: Screens & Tech

Entertainment Weekly always had an on-again, off-again relationship with gaming. It’s like Derek Shepard and Meredith Grey or Chuck and Blair on Gossip Girl — hot in the broom closet one moment, icily distant the next. For brief periods over the last decade, EW included regular game reviews i...[MORE]

Spittin’ Game: (video game reviews)

By Jeremy Martin

Published: 9/24/2008

Types: Screens & Tech

Too Human (Microsoft) Xbox 360 $59.99 Newcomers to role-playing games will appreciate Too Human’s hand-holding guidance through the insanely detailed and oddly number-intensive aspects common to the genre. Developing your character’s abilities via skill-point allotments is explai...[MORE]

Spittin’ Game: (video game reviews)

By Jeremy Martin

Published: 8/27/2008

Types: Cover Story, Section Cover

Madden NFL 09 (EA Sports) Playstation 3 $59.99 Considering EA’s exclusive licensing deal with the NFL, reviewing Madden is nearly pointless these days. You can’t control the real pro players and teams any other way, so Madden couldn’t extort 60 bucks from you any more blatant...[MORE]

A match made in Madden: (video-game commentary)

By Aaron R. Conklin

Published: 8/20/2008

Types: Screens & Tech

Greg Brady could have told them, and the long-suffering fans of the Chicago Cubs might have had a thing or two to add, but it basically comes down to this: The more you try to avoid a curse, the more certain it is to overwhelm you. Electronic Arts surely thought they had finally found a can’t-m...[MORE]

Spittin’ Game: (video game reviews)

By Jeremy Martin

Published: 7/30/2008

Types: Screens & Tech

Unreal Tournament 3 (Epic Games/Midway) Xbox 360 $59.99 Thanks to climate-inappropriate ski goggles and an awkward-honky soul patch, UT3’s big gun, Reaper — 300-plus pounds of veiny man-meat and phallic wrist rockets — is less space marine than ’roid-raging Backstreet Boy. Even...[MORE]

The kindest cutscene

By Aaron R. Conklin

Published: 7/23/2008

Types: Screens & Tech

Sometimes, the answer to a single question tells you everything you need to know about where a person stands on a topic. The Los Angeles Lakers: Do you like Kobe Bryant?   Coldplay: Do bombastic Chris Martin solos turn your musical crank? Metal Gear Solid: Dude. How do you fe...[MORE]

Spittin’ Game: (video game reviews)

By Jeremy Martin

Published: 7/9/2008

Types: Screens & Tech

The Incredible Hulk (Sega) PS3 $59.99 Is it OK to pretend to destroy New York City again? In this loose movie tie-in you’re actually rewarded with special achievements for knocking down landmarks like Trump Tower, the Empire State building, and the UN headquarters, an idea that s...[MORE]

Spittin’ Game: (video game reviews)

By Jeremy Martin

Published: 6/11/2008

Types: Screens & Tech

Ninja Gaiden II (Tecmo) Xbox 360 $59.99 At its best moments, Ninja Gaiden II will make you soil your Bruce Lee bedsheets. The improved combat system for this third-person slasher features severed limbs, horror-show blood spattering, and downright unsettling death-throe animations...[MORE]

A casual relationship: Game On (video-game commentary)

By Aaron R. Conklin

Published: 5/28/2008

Types: Screens & Tech

Kids like to knock things over. And watch them blow up. As a gaming concept, this is what you call bedrock — it supports everything from serious gaming fare like Portal and The Hulk to Crackdown. Oh, yeah, and Boom Blox. Surely, you’ve heard of Boom Blox. A few years ago, Steven Sp...[MORE]