Lock's Quest
5th Cell| Nintendo DS | Tower Defense RTS
I played about an hour of Lock's Quest at PAX, and I was really impressed by it. I'm a sucker for Tower Defense games, and I'm also a sucker for RTS-style games, so this combination of the two did me in. In essence, you control Lock, a kid who can make walls and turrets and the like, and you have to stop the impending hordes of clockwork knights as they try and attack your village. There's a setup phase, then a battle phase in which Lock can walk around, attack enemies, and heal his turrets.

From what I played, it was a nice breath of fresh air for the typically brutal Tower Defense genre: it's not too hard, features awesome 16 bit sprite work, and the story actually seems to fit the action. There should be a downloadable demo via Wii within the next few days, so I highly suggest everybody give it a try. The demo's beefy, too!

Yakuza 2
Sega | Playstation 2 | Seedy Tokyo Mob Adventure
I never got around to playing the first Yakuza, but I heard only good things about it. I can only assume that the second game improves upon the first while keeping intact the magic that made the first one great. So let's just stick with that description and hope for the best, despite Sega's newfound tradition of bungling sure things.

Rock Band 2
Harmonix | Xbox 360 | Best Party Game Ever redux
To those about to rock (on the 360), I salute you. To everybody else (I.E. PS3/PS2/Wii), tough luck. You oughta know that we're livin' on a prayer, and I'm hungry like the wolf with an uncontrollable urge for some chop suey! Whether you've got the eye of the tiger or you're at a white wedding, play Rock Band 2 any way you want it.

(I do realize that Rock Band 2 comes out next Sunday, technically going past the week that this column is for. But I don't care. I'm a free spirit, baby.)

Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise
Rare | Nintendo DS | Gardening for Fun
How many times have you been sitting with your DS, away from your 360, wishing you could be playing Viva Pinata? If you're me, it's been entirely too many times. Well, never fret! Now you can take that fun Viva Pinata action anywhere you go with Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise for the Nintendo DS! Catch fudgehogs and chewnicorns on the train! Oh my god what have I become.

WiiWare: Groovin' Blocks
Empty Clip Studios | Wii | Rhythm block puzzle
This puzzle game looks a little like...I dunno, Lumines or something. You drop blocks into a rectangular playing field in time with the game's music, in any case. That's pretty, um, luminecious.

VC: Final Soldier
CrunchTime Games | PC Engine via Wii via Japan | Space shooter
The third game in the Star Soldier series, direct from Japan to you, with love. And lasers. And the standard $1 VC import game surcharge.

VC: Cho Aniki
CrunchTime Games | PC Engine via Wii via Japan | Totally gay shooter
Gee golly jeepers, is Cho Aniki really out here? Really? WTF, Nintendo?

If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's...well, just google it. It's obviously mind-bogglingly weird, and it's been a curiosity on the Internet for ages now. It's also, for lack of a better term, totally gay -- not in the grade-school pejorative sense, but in the oiled-burly-men-in-speedos and gigantoids-with-cannon-wangs sense.

Reading through all that again, I might have to buy it after all.

XBLA: RocketBowl
Garage Games | Xbox 360 | Mini-bowling
Once again, I fall for gaming's clever naming conventions. Where I assumed this would be either a turbocharged game of American football or a high-speed breakfast cereal adventure, RocketBowl defies my expectations by being a cross between bowling and mini-golf instead.