538734-F408AB09-EB54-4873-9609-A3E65336A392.jpg

“Resident Evil 5” (rated M, $60 on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3): Chris Redfield, one of the stars of the first “Resident Evil” from the PlayStation days, travels to West Africa to deal with the bioterrorism threat posed by the T-Virus, which turns ordinary folks into murderous zombies. The lovely Sheva is his sidekick. Earlier this week, I wrote about how some who’ve played the game have questioned its racial imagery.

“MadWorld” (rated M, $50 on Wii): This ultraviolent, ultrastylized bloodbath is the first game from Platinum Games, a studio that rose out of the ashes of former Capcom subsidiary Clover (“Okami,” “Viewtiful Joe”). With a blood-spattered, black-and-white art style that mirrors the “Sin City” graphic novels, “MadWorld” stars a guy with a chain-saw for an arm who competes on a futuristic, violent TV show. If that sounds like it owes a bit to a certain book that was made into a movie starring the governor of California, it’s because it does.

“Peggle” (rated E, $10 Xbox Live Arcade download): If “Resident Evil 5” and “MadWorld” had a polar opposite, it’d be “Peggle,” whose rainbows and unicorns would kill Chris Redfield with kindness. The casual puzzler, which made some best-of-the-year lists when it debuted on PC in 2007, is a lot like pachinko, in that you fire a ball at a bunch of pegs and blocks. As the ball hits a peg, it eliminates it. Your goal in each stage is to eliminate all the orange pegs and blocks before you run out of balls to fire. There’s a certain amount of luck involved, but true success comes from picking up on the game’s physics model and figuring out how each shot will ricochet.

“New Play Control! Pikman” and “New Play Control! Mario Tennis” (both rated E, $30 on Wii): Nintendo has begun remaking some of its GameCube game with motion controls for the Wii. It’s kind of an odd move, as these remakes don’t add much new content, and you can already play GameCube games on the Wii as long as you have a controller from that system. If you’ve played these games on GameCube, you won’t find much new. “Mario Tennis” is about what you would expect. “Pikman” is a “Lemmings”-like puzzler that was one of the GameCube’s hiddn gems. At $50, these titles would be a ripoff, but at $30 they’re worth a look.

“Trivial Pursuit” (rated E, $40 for Xbox 360, Wii or PS3): This hardly needs explanation. It’s “Trivial Pursuit,” with a couple of new added game modes. Should be decent for parties. Be warned that there’s no online play, however.

“Dokomodake BOING!” (rated E, $20 for DS): Um, I’m not recommending this game so much as looking for an excuse to post the trailer, which might be the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen. The game stars a mascot for a Japanese cellphone company.

What I’ll be playing this weekend: Not much. I’ll be away from my game consoles for the next several days. In lieu of the new baseball titles, “Peggle,” “Star Ocean: The Last Hope” and “Killzone 2,” I’ll be sneaking in a bit of “Final Fantasy III,” “New Super Mario Bros.” and “Robacalypse” on my DS. I’ll also be reading Pat Jordan’s “A False Spring” to get myself ready for baseball season.

(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today)