(Here are the rest of the notable North American game releases between April 2007 and June 2007!)
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Nintendo Wave:
Urban Combat: House To House Fighting
A realistic modern warfare type FPS game taking place in a large city, following a squad of American soldiers fighting a terrorist army in an urban setting. Seen as a bit of a Call Of Duty ripoff, and technologically backward compared to the Xbox 2 and the iTwin, the game's sales are only mediocre, but it's actually praised by reviewers for featuring some of the best urban warfare in a game, and it would get next gen sequels that would perform better.
W.I.T.C.H.: Ancient Runes Of Kandrakar
The first major console game based on the hit comic and cartoon franchise W.I.T.C.H., this is an adventure game set after the show's second season and sees Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, Hay Lin, and Elyon working together to defend both Meridian and Earth from a powerful wizard who seeks to gather six ancient runes to cast a powerful and evil spell. The game takes the form of a 3-D adventure title, but also incorporates some RPG elements to make a game that plays sort of like an Elder Scrolls style WRPG but with a lot more restrictions on what the player can do. The player can select one of the six main girls and then two other party members, who act independently but can be given AI tactical commands. Combat is based entirely off of spells, each girl has a spell that costs no magic energy to use that serves as their basic attack, then other spells that cost magic energy. The game also features a good amount of voice acting from the original animated series voice cast, and the plot itself ties in nicely with both the second and third seasons of the show, even bringing back villains Nerissa and Phobos at various points (though the main villain is still the evil wizard who must be defeated at the end of the game. As far as cartoon tie-ins go, W.I.T.C.H.: Ancient Runes Of Kandrakar is one of the better ones, and achieves decent sales while also serving as a warm-up for the Meridian world in Kingdom Hearts II.
Yoshi And Friends
Yoshi And Friends is a 2-D platformer that adopts the style and gameplay of the Yoshi's Island games. It features a squad of Yoshis, along with the dog Poochy and two Shy Guys, as they traverse a magical new land in search of Baby Mario and Baby Luigi, who have been captured by an evil witch named Cauldronia. The game uses cel-shading and original art to bring a new artstyle to the series that resembles something out of a child's coloring book, but despite the somewhat childish aesthetic, this game is fairly difficult, hearkening back to the original Yoshi's Island game. The game features 56 levels, divided amongst seven worlds, with an optional bonus level available in each world. What sets this game apart from previous Yoshi titles is that it features multiple playable characters, with Poochy and the Shy Guys being playable and each having their own movesets. In addition, the game supports up to four players at once, very similar to the OTL Wii New Super Mario Bros. game, letting players work together to defeat enemies and solve challenges. With great graphics and some truly challenging levels, along with fun multiplayer gameplay, Yoshi And Friends is a surprise critical hit, and becomes one of the best selling first party Wave titles of the year.
Beat Street 2
The sequel to 2005's Beat Street, Beat Street 2 was sort of a side project for Rare, done by a small group of developers not assigned to work on Nomad. The game features similar hip-hop inspired rhythm gameplay to the original, with the same turntable controller usable in this game as well. It features 14 levels in all, and sees the protagonists from the original game, along with a few new teammates, return to battle a mad scientist named Dr. Hater who wants to stamp out all music. The gameplay has changed little from the first game, so this one isn't quite as well received as the first. It's still quite fun, but averages in the 7s with critics and doesn't sell as well as the original.
Apple iTwin:
Tak And The Difficult Princess
The latest game in the Tak platformer series and the first to come to the iTwin, Tak And The Difficult Princess stars the cave boy Tak and all his friends as they work together to protect a princess who is visiting their land. The princess, whose name is Ona, is somewhat of a spoiled brat, having come from a land with many luxuries, and she sees Tak and his animal friends as being unsophisticated and rude. After an evil witch doctor tries to kidnap the princess to use her as an ingredient in his new spell, Tak has to protect the princess from the witch doctor, who sends all sorts of nasty magic across the land in his quest to take her. The witch doctor's spells cause all kinds of spatial distortions and form all sorts of nasty creatures, making for Tak's toughest quest yet. This game frequently has Tak “babysitting” the princess, so he can't get too far from her as he navigates with her across the land. Fortunately, the princess can protect herself most of the time, and there are large segments where the princess does get taken and Tak simply has to rescue her. It's a fairly simple platformer, but the added element of Ona makes for some unique challenges, and of course the game is motion controller compatible and has some really slick graphics. While Tak And The Difficult Princess isn't the biggest iTwin game of the spring, it's still a fairly popular one and scores decent reviews and sales.
Wings Of Courage
Wings Of Courage is a space shooter type game where you play as a starfighter who is caught up in the middle of an interstellar war. Plays somewhat like the old game Colony Wars and also takes advantage of motion controls, though it too features traditional controls. It's probably best known for its majestic, orchestrated score that calls back memories of John Williams' Star Wars music. It's a decent game, though it does try a bit too hard at times to be “epic”, with some moments just coming off as cheesy thanks to some voice actor overacting. It's still a fun space shooter and one of the better looking early iTwin games.
Eternal Sonata
A JRPG developed by Namco, Eternal Sonata, a game based heavily off of classical music and the life and death of the real life composer Chopin, is very similar to OTL's game in plot and gameplay, though it features a major optional gameplay change that takes advantage of the iTwin's motion controls, allowing players to use their controllers like conducting batons in battle to utilize special combos. These combos can also be activated with traditional controls, but it's much easier with the motion controls, and this “conducting” element of the game is heavily focused on in the game's North American and Japanese advertising. The idea of a musical RPG, very novel at the time, is seen as a unique selling point for the iTwin, and this game sells especially well in Japan and makes the iTwin even more an object of desirability. The game never rises above cult status in North America, though it's still reviewed positively here.
Giant Robot
Just as the name describes, this game features a giant, transforming robot who stomps around various areas, battling enemies and destroying things. It's a really fun game, but is a bit short, only featuring ten levels that can be completed in just a few minutes each if the player knows what they're doing. The game also features optional motion controls, though they're not very good and don't take major advantage of the iTwin's functions. However, the game does lay the groundwork for more complex titles later on in the iTwin's life that feature giant robots.
Microsoft Xbox 2:
Bloodrayne: Submerged
An Xbox 2 exclusive installment in the Bloodrayne series, Bloodrayne: Submerged sees the dhampir protagonist Rayne exploring an upside-down underground city, hunting down a vampire coven who uses the city as a staging area to intrude upon our world. The game goes heavily into Rayne's history through flashbacks detailing her relationships with friends and family, including a lesbian relationship with a female vampire named Ingrid and her relationship with a human male named Beck. These two characters, both presumed dead in ways that Rayne blames herself for, would later surface in the underground city playing a key role in Rayne's quest. The city itself is huge, and quite beautiful, showcasing the Xbox 2's graphical capabilities nicely. The hack and slash gameplay is also quite refined, allowing Rayne to gain strength in battle by sucking the blood from her enemies, which she can then use to power magic spells or superhuman abilities. Surprisingly, Bloodrayne: Submerged is considered to be the best game in the series to date, both for its combat and for the surprisingly large and complex city where the game takes place. The storyline gets some criticism but is also praised for expanding the series' rather boring backstory, and ultimately, Submerged becomes a critical and financial success for the Xbox 2.
Fatal Inertia
A futuristic racing title from Koei, Fatal Inertia is very similar to OTL's game, though it adds a few unique features such as car customization and a surprisingly strong collection of tracks, ultimately helping the game to achieve somewhat better reviews and sales than it did IOTL. It becomes somewhat of an alternative to the Xbox-exclusive Wipeout series, with better car combat and simpler controls.
March Of Death
March Of Death is an adventure title with permadeath, but with a major twist. You start as a random peasant and when you die, you immediately enter the body of another living person. This cycle continues without end until you achieve enough objectives within the game to reach the core of the underworld to battle Death itself. Another interesting concept game, it's a decent enough adventure title but it has too many flaws to be very successful: the combat is rather boring, most peasants simply aren't fun to play as, and objectives are much too vaguely defined, while the game's story also isn't highly compelling. It doesn't receive a sequel.
The Trick
The Trick is an open world action/crime game published by Take Two Interactive and developed by Rockstar East, a new division of the company. The game takes a lot of gameplay cues from Grand Theft Auto and Bully, featuring an open world with lots of side missions and places to explore. The protagonist, Cieran Archer, is a small-time sleight of hand magician and con man who performs shows and then steals from his dazzled clients with the help of his beautiful assistant Shana. In-between missions, Cieran can explore the city and commit various crimes with the aid of his street magic (he's unable to perform violence on innocent civilians, instead he can perform magic tricks to divert their attention or temporarily dazzle them). His main goal is to collect money so he can buy expensive luxuries for himself and so he can also improve his magic act: as the player collects money, they can buy more impressive props to improve Cieran's act, in similar fashion to how players in Grand Theft Auto can purchase more powerful weapons with their ill-gotten gains. Most of the time in The Trick will be spent performing missions, either as part of the main story or as part of side missions and odd jobs: for example, in some of these odd jobs, Cieran will be asked to entertain a birthday party, or to use his trickery to steal something for someone: occasionally, Cieran can steal something WHILE he's entertaining a birthday party. Cieran himself is probably among the “nicer” Rockstar protagonists: while he is a criminal and a thief, he does have a heart and doesn't like hurting people physically. Also, while sometimes it seems like he just keeps Shana around for her looks, he really does love her and treats her extremely well, the two have somewhat of a playful banter amongst themselves as they participate in various cons together. The Trick is an Xbox 2 exclusive game, but fairly low budgeted for a Rockstar title and doesn't look as polished as say, Grand Theft Auto II will, it looks more like a graphically enhanced version of Bully and is rather mediocre graphically for an Xbox 2 game. The voice cast of the game is also fairly obscure: Rockstar East doesn't spend a lot of money and mostly hires New York-area talent for the game, there are a couple recognizable anime voice actors in minor roles but nothing major. The game DOES have a few guest cameo voice actors such as Penn Jillette (who plays a mob boss with a fairly big role in the game) and Stephanie March (who plays a nosy FBI agent investigating Cieran), but don't expect to see any names that would be recognizable to fans of cartoon/game voice actors.
The game's plot involves Cieran and Shana pulling off small time cons in the city, though when they make $60,000 in one night after a lucky break, their activities draw the attention of the Russian mafia, who eventually forces Cieran to work for them after threatening his and Shana's lives. Cieran thus spends much of the game attempting to figure out how to weasel out of his entanglement with the criminals while also trying to make as much money off of them as he can. He winds up getting himself involved with other figures along the way, such as a corrupt cop, more mob bosses, and an aged magician who wants to pass down his knowledge to Cieran. Numerous tensions between Cieran and Shana also result as a consequence of all this, but the two work through it and come out of their ordeal as close together as ever. Ultimately, Cieran pulls off his greatest show yet, not only achieving fame as a legitimate magician, but also getting the members of the Russian mafia either arrested or killed. He saves Shana and the ending implies that the two get engaged. It's a fairly upbeat and happy ending for a Rockstar game, though the game does have the feel of a heist movie, so that's to be expected. Ultimately, The Trick gets a fairly positive critical reception. It's seen as not being quite as permissive as the Grand Theft Auto series (magicking people instead of killing them can get kind of boring, even if there are some funny results depending on the person, the trick, and the situation), and the graphics are pedestrian for a next-gen system. However, it's still solid, the production values are high, and the plot is also well received. The game would get decent sales and would be considered a success, though it's definitely no Grand Theft Auto.
California Beach: Back 2 The Beach
A hastily made sequel for the Xbox 2, California Beach: Back 2 The Beach is the sequel to 2005's extreme sports game California Beach, featuring sexy, scantily clad women participating in a variety of aquatic sports. Apart from a massive boost to the graphics, there's not too much new in this game: there's the addition of jet skiing, though it's not nearly as fun as it is in Wave Race. Ultimately, this game is seen as a poor imitation of Thrillseekers and is also a rushed product with terrible production values. Despite this, it still gets enough sales to be considered a financial success, albeit only a minor one. The series would continue with several more games, none of them really notable enough to mention in future updates.
Codecrawlers 2
A stealth/action/puzzle title and the sequel to 2004's Codecrawlers, Codecrawlers 2 features more of the same hacking/puzzle solving action of the first game. It features the same six protagonists from the previous title and adds three more characters to the bunch, for a total of nine playable characters. This does cause the plot to get a bit confusing as it tends to try and give equal screen time to all nine characters, diluting them somewhat, but the gameplay itself is solid as each of the nine Codecrawlers has their own special quirks and abilities, and there's also a multiplayer mode where players can either work together or race against one another to clear areas or solve puzzles quickly. That's enough to make this a popular title, especially among younger Xbox players, and it sells a bit better than the first game.
Turning Point
A combination RTS/tactical/shooter game, this title plays like a cross between Starcraft and Ghost Recon, but at certain points in the battle you can take control of an individual soldier and fight the enemies yourself. The game takes place on a futuristic battlefield where powerful corporations fight over territory and control of the world using their private armies. The plot is mostly an excuse plot to serve as background for the actual action of the game. It's compared a lot to a similar game that came out on the Wave a few months before, though Turning Point, with much better graphics and deeper missions and gameplay, pulls it off a lot better and ultimately overtakes that game in critical and commercial notoriety. Ultimately, Turning Point is very well received by both critics and players alike, and becomes one of the more successful new Xbox IPs of the year.
Warhammer 40,000: Legion Of The Emperor
This is an RTS game, based on the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game series in which the player commands an army of Space Marines and other Imperium units in various battles against the legions out to destroy the Earth. Players can level up their units over the course of the game as they battle against increasingly powerful enemies, and ultimately confront a Daemon Prince himself, along with his corrupted army. Legion Of The Emperor is one of the first video games based on Games Workshop properties, and it appeals quite nicely to the Xbox 2 crowd. The gameplay and graphics are very sophisticated for a console RTS, and the voice acting gets high praise too. It's not the “perfect” Warhammer 40,000 video game but it does get strong reviews and is popular amongst fans of the franchise.
Fight To Survive 2: Delinquency
Fight To Survive 2: Delinquency is the sequel to 2004's Fight To Survive for the original Xbox. Like its predecessor, Fight To Survive 2 is a violent beat 'em up game that takes place in Carcer City, and features a new protagonist, a former juvenile delinquent turned adult criminal named Zekks. Zekks teams up with other former outcasts from his old reform school as Carcer City comes under the rule of a corrupt mayor who's running for governor on the claim that he “cleaned up” Carcer City. In order to do so, the mayor sends brutal mercenaries into the city to execute all the criminals. Zekks recognizes the mayor as the former headmaster at his reform school who used to brutally beat all the kids, and he wants revenge, deciding to cause as much mayhem as possible while slaughtering the mayor's hired guns. Needless to say, this is a very brutal game, and lacks a lot of the subtlety of the original. Most of the missions revolve around simply killing as many people as possible in increasingly brutal ways, and a lot of critics see the game as distasteful, though the gameplay itself is pretty fun. The game is released to mixed reviews, and isn't quite as successful from a sales standpoint as the first, while sales also lag behind fellow Rockstar game The Trick.
Runner Mike: The Ancient Factory
Runner Mike: The Ancient Factory is the latest game in the Runner Mike series, whose head writer continues to be Dan Brown (OTL's Da Vinci Code author who's mostly writing for games ITTL). The game features Mike and his friends venturing into a vast underground space where they discover an ancient ruin where futuristic technology may have been built far ahead of its time. The game features plenty of the familiar puzzles and banter, and boasts some very good graphics, as it's the first Runner Mike game to come to a seventh-generation console. It's not quite Uncharted, but it's decent enough, and is probably the best game in the series to be released in quite some time. This was seen as a fairly big get for the Xbox 2 as an exclusive, though the series has lost its prestige and ultimately the game doesn't sell as well as expected, despite the positive reviews. Many Xbox 2 owners are waiting for Memory Hole, which has a similar premise but is anchored by a stronger plot and much stronger gameplay, and The Ancient Factory largely falls by the wayside. The Runner Mike series would be re-geared in future years to focus more on emerging consoles and the mobile market, and wouldn't appear on the Xbox 2 as an exclusive again.
Victory: The Underground War
This is a multiplayer-focused shooter based on Capcom's Victory series, particularly the “new” storyline. It doesn't actually continue the main storyline and is instead more of a side game, featuring Nash Grieves and friends heading into areas of Earth decimated by the recent alien wars in order to battle insurgent groups and warlords. Each “mission” is presented as a battle between two fairly evenly matched sides, where players must use Nash's abilities to take down the enemy in a war-like combat setting. The campaign itself is fairly short, but again, the real attraction in this game is the third person multiplayer combat which allows up to 32 people to battle at once online. Players can participate in giant 16 vs. 16 battles, 8 vs. 8 vs. 8 vs. 8 skirmishes, or any number of different personnel configurations, including a massive 32 player elimination free-for-all. While some players are disappointed that a continuation of the series' main storyline is at least two years away, this is a solid shooter and becomes one of the more popular early Xbox 2 online games. It doesn't sell as well as a typical Victory game would, though.
Game Boy Supernova:
Team ND Racing
This isn't so much a port of any of the classic Naughty Dog racing titles as it is a full-fledged sequel, with enhanced graphics, a ton of all new tracks, and 26 playable characters from Naughty Dog properties both old and new, including Crash Bandicoot, Tales Of The Seven Seas, Goblins, and X-Plore. It's a kart racer and quite a good one, though not quite as good as Mario Kart: Road Trip. For fans of both kart racers and Naughty Dog games, it's a satisfying experience, though most people still prefer Mario Kart.
Triple Orb: Revolution
The fourth title in Capcom's Triple Orb series (there was a Triple Orb 3 that wasn't previously mentioned, it got worse reviews than the first two for being somewhat unoriginal), Triple Orb: Revolution gives the game a fresh coat of paint and sees Tri and his faithful girlfriend/camerawoman Tezuka jumping into action yet again. This time, the two are battling another powerful person wielding three orbs of their own: the evil villain Raizas, who has all of Tri's powers but stronger, and is using them to commit crimes all over the world. Tri has over 200 different power combinations in this game (somewhat less than Triple Orb 3, though there are more useful ones now and they all look outstanding thanks to the game's graphics). The game also features lots of enemies who also have power orbs, sometimes two and sometimes three like Tri. Fortunately, Tezuka is now playable in this game and has a unique set of powers: she has dual orbs but switchable power armor that compliments these orbs and gives them a “triple orb” effect. The rapid-fire switching of combination powers and the vastly faster combat, along with the gorgeous graphics, make this game a huge step up from Triple Orb 3 and arguably the best game in the series, becoming one of the Game Boy Supernova's best received games of early 2007.
Ace Combat: Precision Strike
A companion title of sorts to Ace Combat 5, Ace Combat: Precision Strike comes out at the same time and features similar aerial combat gameplay, though it has less missions than its console counterpart. The game, as the title implies, features missions requiring a precision strike on a certain target, and often requires the player to evade enemy fire as they approach this target. With excellent graphics and realistic voice acting, the game is positively received, though if portability isn't a factor, Ace Combat 5 is still preferable.
Everybody's Golf
A Sony-developed golf title, this series was known in North America as Hot Shots Golf for a while, but ITTL, this ends up being the first game in the series and it's known as Everybody's Golf from the very start. Like IOTL, the game is a golf game aimed at casual players, with a cartoonish playstyle and graphical aesthetic. It's very similar to OTL's Hot Shots Golf: Out Of Bounds in terms of playstyle. It comes out about a year before a Mario Golf game would be released to the Supernova, and in the absence of that game, this one does quite well, achieving good sales amidst solid reviews.
Santa Cruz Sunset
A surfing game featuring original characters, it's another Thrillseekers-type game, but in lieu of any kind of storyline mode, it strictly focuses on surfing. Featuring gorgeous water animation that really pushes the Supernova, it manages to carve out somewhat of a niche, even in a year that sees the release of Thrillseekers: Waveriders (it helps that Waveriders doesn't come to the handhelds).
World Of Color Championship
A handheld World Of Color game with a focus on online multiplayer, this is a puzzle title and the continuation of Nintendo's popular puzzle series. A notable feature of this game, apart from the extensive online tournaments and leaderboards, is the ability for crossplay with the upcoming Sapphire title, at least online. It's only allowed in one mode but it's still a novel feature, and players can even do this locally, using their Game Boy Supernova as a sort of “second screen”. Reviews are quite good, averaging in the low to mid 8s, while sales start out slow but eventually become impressive over time.
iPod Play:
No One Lives Forever: From The Files Of UNITY
No One Lives Forever: From The Files Of UNITY is a first-person shooter that takes place in the No One Lives Forever universe, once again featuring protagonist Cate Archer as she fights to save the world from evil. The game plays much like the Katana titles did, with the same basic gameplay and graphical style, but instead of being one large campaign, it's a collection of smaller missions which take the form of flashbacks that Cate experiences as she gives a new agent a tour of UNITY HQ. The missions are very loosely interconnected but for the most part are separate, each involving a different aspect of Cate's career. The five missions take place in different locations and usually involve a different gameplay focus: one of them is a stealth mission, one is a protection mission, one's a combat mission, the other focuses on driving, and yet another combines combat and stealth. The missions can be completed in about 30-60 minutes each, depending on the player's skill and how many optional objectives they want to complete. Cate is alone in three of the missions, while one of them involves the ninja Isako and another involves her on-again off-again partner, John Danger. When the five missions are all completed, one of the new recruits turns out to be a mole, and Cate has to team up with Danger and use some of the lessons learned in the previous missions to stop the mole before they blow up Unity HQ in another mission that takes around 30 minutes to complete. The game, which takes around 3-6 hours to finish, has probably the shortest campaign of any of the No One Lives Forever games, though it also features a multiplayer mode with online play. The game has frequent checkpoints and is thus designed to be easily taken on the go, making it perfect for portable play and a great way to get the No One Lives Forever experience on the go (though by this time, all three Katana games are available on iTunes for download to the iPod Play). Despite being criticized for its length, the game is considered an excellent FPS with a wide gameplay variety, and the multiplayer mode is quite fun as well, though it doesn't enjoy as big of a community as other hit iPod Play multiplayer games such as Merciless. Overall, From The Files Of UNITY enjoys strong reviews and excellent sales, becoming the top handheld game to launch in April 2007.
Eschaton
Eschaton is a first person shooter title taking place on a moon colony following the destruction of civilization on Earth by an invading army of aliens, who then turn their sights on humanity's last bastion, the Moon. The game features excellent graphics for a handheld and plays a lot like a full console FPS, utilizing a full control scheme and pushing the iPod Play's graphics fairly hard. It lacks multiplayer but it does have a meaty campaign, lasting around 12-15 hours (drawing comparisons with From The Files Of UNITY and its much shorter campaign). Generally, critics find Eschaton to be the better game by a little bit, but the lack of an established franchise behind it does hurt its sales, as does the lack of multiplayer. Ultimately, the publishers consider it a mistake to have launched the game on a handheld, and a proper sequel would find its way to the iTwin, which would include an HD remake of this game.
Fatal Frame: The Fear Is Real
A game that utilizes the iPod Play's camera functionality to create an in-game experience, this title is a very early attempt at AR, playing its demonic horrors in the “real world” for the player to snap photos of. The game itself doesn't rely on this functionality, realizing that it can't carry a full campaign, and instead integrates it into a sort of “dimensional portal” that plays with the fourth wall while incorporating it into the fictional story of Kala, a female office worker who is dragged into an abandoned series of subway tunnels by an apparition and must find her way out by capturing the spirit that is keeping her prisoner. The AR function is seen as this game's distinguishing mark, as the game itself lags behind its console mainline games in gameplay and story, and ultimately it gets reviews ranging from mediocre to decent, most of them praising the novelty of the augmented reality aspect. This game would sell a decent amount of copies in the West but would be a hit in Japan. A version of the game with more AR would come to the iPhone as a launch title.
Shadow Ocean: Seek And You Shall Find
Based on the hit anime series Shadow Ocean, this game is an RPG that sees the four dark magical girl protagonists working together to stop a serial killer utilizing dark magic to murder his victims. The game is an M-rated RPG, with violence and mature themes all over it, and is somewhat similar to the Shin Megami Tensei series in gameplay, minus the monster catching aspects. It involves a number of detective-like minigames, though it's fairly light on side quests, and while it features voice acting (from the same actors as the English dub), it doesn't have very much of it, or very many cutscenes. It's a generally well received JRPG though, and popular amongst fans of the series, even if it's pretty much a niche title elsewhere.
Aquila Destiny
The first Battle Engine Aquila game to wind up on a handheld, Aquila Destiny adapts the mech/aerial combat gameplay of the console titles to a handheld game, featuring 10 levels in all. This is essentially an abridged version of the console games, though it features a brand new plot. It's light on cutscenes (with no animated cutscenes to speak of), and generally can be summed up as “the console games, but less”. It's seen as a disappointment by fans of the console titles and a fairly poor adaptation when the iPod Play is clearly capable of more. It scores disappointing reviews and sales, though it doesn't kill any of the hype for the upcoming Aquila: Blue Sky.
Boom Blox
Similar to the OTL puzzle title that appeared on the Wii, Boom Blox is a block stacking/demolition puzzler for the iPod Play, featuring fairly identical graphics to the Wii's game, though it obviously lacks the motion controls of that title and instead features a more traditional control scheme. Like OTL's game, Boom Blox was a collaboration between Electronic Arts and film director Steven Spielberg, and Spielberg decided on the iPod Play because both he and his kids enjoy the handheld and love puzzle games like Super Monkey Ball. Like IOTL, the game is very positively received by critics, and though it becomes a sales success, it's a bit of a slow burn, not getting big sales right away but ultimately becoming a hit later on through word of mouth and price drops. A sequel title would appear on the iPhone and iTwin later on, the iPhone version would incorporate touch controls and the iTwin version would add the motion controls from OTL.
J.B. Harold Murder Club
Both an enhanced remake of and a sequel to the original 1986 detective game for PC, J.B. Harold Murder Club features a brand new 3-D graphical interface, new voices, and new aspects to the original mystery, along with additional cases that didn't appear in the original game. This title is an attempt to bring back classic detective games to the iPod Play, and it actually achieves a limited amount of success thanks to its budget price ($20) and favorable reviews.
Peggle
Another puzzler from OTL, Peggle is one of the more successful puzzle games to get an iPod Play port in 2007, where it would appear on this console first before showing up on the other seventh generation devices later on. It would also see a version for the iPhone at launch. The success of Peggle on the iPod Play demonstrates the system's increasing gravitation toward casual games, as it will share many titles with the iPhone once that device is launched. Since the iPhone is compatible with every iPod Play game, this shouldn't come as a surprise, but it does show that Apple is working to develop games that will be popular across the interactive iPod line of products.
Multiplatform:
Power Punks
Power Punks is a 3-D beat-em-up game featuring over the top combos and a cast of strange but endearing characters, most of them styled as classic street tough stereotypes. The game's plot is essentially an “excuse plot” involving nuclear waste seeping into the sewer system, causing all the gangsters in a city to gain superpowers. Fortunately, these are “family friendly” gangsters, so aside from some comic mischief, there's not much in the way of violence other than cartoony stuff, the game has an E10 rating. Power Punks is one of the more popular new beat 'em up properties in recent memory and launches a decent franchise after debuting on the Wave and the iTwin, where it's more popular on the latter system.
Silent Hill: Decay
The fourth mainline game in the Silent Hill series and the first to be featured on seventh generation systems, Silent Hill: Decay is a survival horror game taking place 10 years after the events of Silent Hill 3. It takes place primarily in a decrepit apartment building, though the concluding segments in the game see the player returning to the titular town. Its protagonist is apartment manager Andrew Wilford, who begins to investigate after several residents of the apartment go missing. As he investigates their empty rooms, he gets mysterious visions of a decaying town and a cloaked woman beckoning him to join her. As the visions intesify, the apartment itself becomes slowly infested with creatures and faceless figures who Andrew must either defeat physically or find a way to overcome via stealth and via his wits. As Andrew investigates, he encounters numerous residents of the apartment whose lives are in danger, and depending on the player's success or failure in dealing with the visions, these residents will either be saved or taken away like the previous victims. Eventually, no matter what happens, once the player finishes investigating seven different cases, Andrew will be compelled to go to Silent Hill, where he'll confront the cloaked woman: Lori, the protagonist of Silent Hill 3, who was forced to become the cult leader after the evil in the town overtook her soul. If Andrew saved all the apartment residents, he'll be able to purge the evil from Lori, allowing her to die in peace. If he saved some, he'll have to kill Lori, but he himself will survive. If he wasn't able to save anyone, he'll kill Lori but be forced to take her place as the cult leader, taking all the evil of the town into himself and then returning to the apartment, where it's implied that the massive city where he lives will share the fate of Silent Hill.
Silent Hill: Decay had a four year development process, in which fans took to calling the game “Silent Hill: Delay”. Konami cited difficulties in innovating the game play, as well as difficulties with the game's plot, as factors in the numerous delays. A final delay was undertaken in order to bring the game to the Xbox 2, where it launches in April 2007 alongside a Wave version of the game. An iTwin version would be released later in the year. The game, which features significantly more puzzles than OTL's Silent Hill 4, gets a positive reception from critics, who see it as an improvement over Silent Hill 3 and one of the seventh generation's most terrifying horror titles to date. The game is a sales success on the Xbox 2, though the Wave and iTwin versions don't fare quite as well.
Ace Combat 5
Ace Combat 5 is the follow up to Ace Combat 4, which achieved both critical and commercial success on the Nintendo Wave back in 2004. The game features much of the same aerial combat gameplay as its predecessor, though it introduces more complex battles with more planes on screen, as well as more complex mission objectives including dynamic objectives that change during the course of a battle. The game's plot is a bit simpler and features fewer major characters, focusing on a protagonist named Mercury, who is sent on a mission to blow up a seemingly abandoned castle, only to be attacked by modern fighter jets that come out of the castle and shoot his plane out of the sky. The antagonist is a deposed dictator who has holed up in secret bases all over the continent with a powerful air force of highly advanced planes that could pop up anyplace, anytime. The game is released for both the Wave and the iTwin, though the iTwin version is a bit of an afterthought as the game was originally intended as a Wave exclusive, and features graphics that aren't quite up to HD snuff. Ultimately, Ace Combat 5 is seen as a bit of a disappointment: despite the gameplay improvements, it isn't seen to have innovated enough over the previous game. It gets solid reviews, but not the glowing ones the previous game enjoyed, and sales dip a bit as well.
He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe
A 3-D brawler based on the classic 80s cartoon He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe, the game features the titular character in a grand and epic battle against Skeletor and his armies of evil. It's what you'd expect from a He-Man game: lots of sword fighting, epic battles, and plenty of magic. The game has a pseudo-RPG level up system with limited loot, though it's more Gauntlet than Diablo. It features a cel shaded look meant to emulate the classic cartoon, though the effect is much better on the Xbox 2 version than the Wave version, which features too many jaggies to look that much like the cartoon. The game features a voice cast different from the original animated series, though they sound close enough to avoid many complaints from fans. Ultimately, He-Man is a mediocre brawler that captures some of the spirit of the original show but isn't good enough to be considered a standout in its genre. It's a bit of a disappointment, but fans of the cartoon are largely willing to pay a reduced price for the game once it goes on sale down the road.
Old Hollywood
Old Hollywood is a mystery/point and click title for the iPod Play and the Supernova. The game features a detective solving a string of murders, complete with 30s-serial style graphical motifs and voiceovers. It's a very fun game for fans of the old detective titles, but isn't a mainstream hit. It does become a cult classic and would get a new life on mobile platforms, where detective games would start to experience a mini-revival of sorts in the latter part of the decade.
The Simpsons Game
Similar to OTL's The Simpsons Game, TTL's version of the game is also a 3-D action platformer that features a myriad of in-jokes and references to the show itself, pop culture, and the video game industry. It's developed by Electronic Arts, and features the titular family gaining superpowers that allow them to right various wrongs throughout Springfield, only to later discover they're being manipulated by Matt Groening himself. The basic gameplay itself is similar to that of the OTL game, but the plot and individual levels are quite different from the original, due to the various changes in pop culture and the video game landscape ITTL. The Kang and Kodos level, for example, is now a parody of Encounter, and features Eliza Dushku and The Rock (the voices of Encounter 2's protagonists) making guest appearances to help the Simpsons fight the aliens, with Homer eventually having to fight The Rock in a wrestling minigame. There's also a brief Steve Jobs parody in the game, prompting the Simpsons characters to lampoon the fact that he seems to be trying to take over everything. The Simpsons Game is as fun and funny as it is IOTL, though like OTL's version of the game, it's criticized for being somewhat short. The game is released on the iTwin, Xbox 2, and the Wave, with the Wave version featuring the same content as the iTwin and Xbox 2 versions but inferior graphics. All versions of the game sell fairly well, and the game trails only Thrillseekers: Waveriders amongst debuting multiplatform games in sales for the month of June 2007.
Thrillseekers: Waveriders
The latest spinoff game in the Thrillseekers extreme sports series, Waveriders focuses on aquatic sports, and features four in particular: surfing, jet skiing, wakeboarding, and kitesurfing. The game features a slightly tweaked engine from previous Thrillseekers titles, designed to allow the four sports to play dynamically differently from one another to create a robust experience across the board. Surfing plays how it usually does in previous games in the series, though it's a bit more polished thanks to the new engine, allowing for slightly more tricks to be linked together more quickly, though it's also a bit easier to wipe out. Jet skiing in Waveriders is different from how it is in games like Wave Race: it's focused on tricks, and the player is encouraged to take tight turns and go for big waves to get as much air as possible. Wakeboarding is generally considered the weakest of the four sports featured in Waveriders, as it's a bit awkward to string together large combos of tricks, but it does play differently enough from surfing to be a unique challenge. Kitesurfing combines elements of surfing gameplay with elements of wingsuiting from the original Thrillseekers, and is considered by most players to be the best new addition to the franchise, with big air multipliers factoring into the tricks, which are usually more complex and rewarding to pull off than the wakeboarding and surfing tricks. The typical gameplay elements of character encouragement and friendship bonuses from previous games return, though they don't factor as much into the gameplay as they do in previous titles and are most prominent in the wakeboarding and kitesurfing sports, where they play a part in bonus multipliers and trick opportunities. In wakeboarding freeplay and occasionally during the campaign, you can choose which character drives the boat, which leads to different encouragement/friendship interactions. Waveriders features the series' best graphics to date: it's the first title in the series specifically made with seventh generation systems in mind, with the Wave version being somewhat of an afterthought. It's a brilliant demonstration of the water effects on the next gen consoles, particularly on the Xbox 2, though the iTwin version looks great as well. The Wave version features all the content of the seventh generation games, but with graphics on par with the original 2004 game: they looked groundbreaking back then but now pale in comparison to the new consoles. All the voice actors from the previous games, including Avril Lavigne as Alex, reprise their roles in this game. The soundtrack would be slightly smaller than the Winter Challenge soundtrack but would feature all new songs, most of them from the last decade and about half of them from the last few years, with the centerpiece song being Paramore's “Misery Business”. Paramore, a new band at the time, would see their profile elevated by being featured in the game, and it would be the beginning of a long association between the band (particularly lead singer Hayley Williams) and the game franchise, including Williams voicing a playable character in the upcoming Thrillseekers 2.
As in previous games, Thrillseekers: Waveriders features both a campaign mode and a freeplay mode. In Waveriders, the campaign mode, while still somewhat lengthy, is the shortest in the series to date, a bit shorter than the campaign mode for Winter Challenge. It focuses on Marina, the surfer girl of the Thrillseekers, and takes place in Maui, where the girls have decided to go for an extreme aquatic sports vacation. Though Marina is the featured character (like Kirsten was in Winter Challenge), the campaign features playable segments for all six main girls, particularly Alex but also Stacy, Elissa, Kirsten, and Vivian. The main storyline involves Marina meeting up with some old surfer friends of hers, as well as an attractive local man named Sammy. Marina and Sammy hit it off, and soon Marina is spending more time with her new friends than with her old ones. While the others are fine with this, eventually it seems that Marina might decide to stay in Maui in order to compete in worldwide competitions with her old friends and her new boyfriend, and Alex in particular doesn't like it. The story also features numerous flashbacks from when Alex and Marina first met, detailing how they started as bitter enemies/rivals but eventually became extremely close friends. A lot of these events were covered in the novella Marina's Story, released back in 2005, but the game details them more heavily and ties them in with the current plotline. The campaign also features a “B plot” in which Stacy, Vivian, Elissa, and Kirsten form their own team of sorts, with each of them specializing in a different aquatic sport (Kirsten in surfing, Vivian in jet skiing, Stacy in wakeboarding, and Elissa in kitesurfing). Though things between Alex and Marina get fairly heated toward the climax of the campaign, eventually the two of them patch things up, and Marina decides to stick with the Thrillseekers and leave her old friends behind in Hawaii. However, Sammy (who is a stand-up guy all things considered) is fine with Marina's decision and it's implied that the two may begin a long distance relationship (Sammy shows up in later Thrillseekers media, though after a few years he gradually fades out of the series and he and Marina are never all that close post-Waveriders). The “final bosses” of the campaign mode actually turn out to be Stacy and her team, who compete against Alex, Marina, Sammy, and Ciara (another of Marina's old surfing friends) in a four on four battle for aquatic supremacy in the game's final campaign mode challenge. It all comes down to Marina vs. Elissa at kite surfing for the final challenge of the game (which is ridiculously difficult due to Elissa being an extremely good kite surfer, prompting “Stacy should have dropped Elissa in the first game!” to become a popular fandom meme out of frustration toward the mission).
Thrillseekers: Waveriders is released on June 26, 2007, for the iTwin, Xbox 2, and Wave. Initial reviews are somewhat more favorable than those for Winter Challenge: on the Xbox 2 and the iTwin, reviews are outstanding, on par with the original game's reviews, though the Wave version would average about a point lower and would drag down the game's overall score from the low 9s to the mid 8s. Ironically, initial sales go in reverse order of the graphical quality of the games: the Wave version sells best, followed by the iTwin version, followed by the Xbox 2. It's a function of the Wave's vastly greater install base: as more people buy the seventh generation systems, the game begins to sell better on them. All three versions would eventually pass a million sales overall. Waveriders would also be the first game in the series to sell more amongst male players than female players, most likely due to the prominent featuring of Marina, considered the most popular character amongst the male segment of the fandom. The game's launch is the centerpiece of what would become known in the fandom as the “Summer Of Marina”: not only is she the focal character of this game, but also the focal character of one of the book installments released around this time, and would feature prominently in the comics released during the summer of 2007 as well, particularly a comic flashing back to one of Alex and Marina's first really bad fights and also the moment when the two finally started to become friends. After Waveriders, the franchise's focus would shift to the upcoming Tony Hawk crossover game, set to be released in just a few short months. The franchise remained extremely popular, and the Tony Hawk crossover would be one of the year's most anticipated games.
Tomb Raider: Generations
Tomb Raider: Generations is a handheld action/adventure title for the Supernova and iPod Play. It's a side game in the series and serves as somewhat of an anthology, stitching together stories from some of Lara Croft's previous exploits, while also prominently featuring Lara's mother. It uses a conversation between the two of them as a framing device, with Lara telling about some of her previous missions and then the player reliving them, thus making the game somewhat similar to OTL's Chronicles in its format and structure. It features the same classic Tomb Raider gameplay as previous titles, with plenty of platforming, puzzle solving, and run and gunning, combining plot and gameplay elements from previous titles to provide a sort of mish-mash of previous games in handheld form. That said, the game doesn't retread any old content, it gives the player all new missions set in those previous games, including a brand new confrontation between Lara and her old rival Jade Bessemer. Unlike From The Files Of UNITY, the game doesn't have any “bonus missions” after the stories have all been told. Lara saves her most dramatic story for last: a mad dash through an ancient temple with Jade hot on her trail, where Lara has to solve a number of increasingly difficult puzzles while dodging Jade's hired goons, eventually confronting and briefly battling Jade herself (of course, Jade gets away since this last mission takes place before the original game). The game then teases Lara and her mother going on an expedition together, leaving on a heartfelt moment between them before coming to a close. Tomb Raider: Generations receives mixed reviews: while it is considered a fun adaptation of the series for modern handhelds, fans were expecting a full-fledged Tomb Raider adventure, not a “greatest hits” style compilation. Also, the game's short length leaves a bit to be desired. The game still sells well, though it's not quite as big a hit as previous Tomb Raider games. The tease DOES set up a proper next-gen console Tomb Raider game which will ultimately be unveiled at PAX later in the year and released in 2008: a proper next-gen handheld Tomb Raider adventure would be released in 2009.
Warcraft: The Dreaded
Warcraft: The Dreaded is an RTS based on the Warcraft series and released for the Xbox 2 (and later for the Sapphire). The game focuses on an ancient star that appears in the skies above Azeroth, prompting ancient demons known as the Dreaded to begin rising from the ground. These demons coalesce into a mighty army commanded by the star itself, and the heroes of the realm must form a brave army of their own if they are to counter the terrible threat to their world. The game features 40 missions and 20 side missions, and an online battle mode as well. It's intended to bring the experience of the classic Warcraft games to consoles with fully next-generation graphics, and for the most part, it succeeds in that goal. It's a fun game, and ties into World Of Warcraft as well, with many characters and elements from that game appearing in this one. It's obviously no World Of Warcraft on consoles, but for RTS fans it's one of the best console efforts in the genre, and does well with both critics and players alike. It's not an overwhelming sales hit, but it does make a healthy profit, and would become a launch game on the Sapphire, giving that console a solid RTS to add to its robust launch lineup.
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Top Selling New Console Games In North America (in terms of sales over the first four weeks of release):
April 2007:
1. Mortal Kombat: Betrayal (Microsoft Xbox 2)
2. Mortal Kombat: Betrayal (Apple iTwin)
3. Silent Hill: Decay (Microsoft Xbox 2)
4. The Trick (Microsoft Xbox 2)
5. From The Files Of UNITY (iPod Play)
May 2007:
1. Yoshi And Friends (Nintendo Wave)
2. Wheelman 4 (Microsoft Xbox 2)
3. Rogue's Story III (Microsoft Xbox 2)
4. Dirty Doggs 2 (Nintendo Wave)
5. Power (Apple iTwin)
June 2007:
1. Thrillseekers: Waveriders (Nintendo Wave)
2. The Legend Of Zelda: Sage's Knight (Game Boy Supernova)
3. Thrillseekers: Waveriders (Apple iTwin)
4. Ogrekill (Microsoft Xbox 2)
5. Thrillseekers: Waveriders (Microsoft Xbox 2)