Videogame Releases: Week of August 7th, 2011

The summer drought continues. There aren’t many new releases worth talking about this week, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t videogames worth playing. I have a huge back catalog of titles that I’ve barely touched, so I’ll be highlighting some of the games I plan to spend some time with this week.

Fruit Ninja (XBLA)

800 Microsoft Points, or $10 in real money, will get you the Kinect version of a game that costs 99 cents on the iPhone. Still, if chopping up virtual fruit by waving your hands around in your living room appeals to you, this game will allow you to do that.

Yggdra Union (PSP)

When I picked up the game ‘Knights in the Nightmare’ a while back, the game ‘Yggdra Union’ came with it. It’s $15 on PSN right now. Though I’ve only spent a bit of time with it, I can already tell that I’m going to be spending a whole lot more. It’s a cool little game that plays similarly to the ‘Advance Wars’ games for the GBA and Nintendo DS.

‘Yggdra Union’ takes place in a fantasy setting and features anime-style graphics and some pretty solid voice acting. It’s much less complex than a game like ‘Disgaea’ or ‘Final Fantasy Tactics’, and battles are over fairly quickly. It’s perfect for playing on the go.

Angry Birds Chrome (Chrome)

Yeah, I know. Still, when a title gets as big as ‘Angry Birds’ has, I feel like I’d be hampering my gaming literacy by not playing it. Of course, the fact that there’s an in-browser, free-to-play version makes the idea a lot more compelling.

‘Angry Birds’ isn’t a bad game, but so far it hasn’t blown me out of the water. The concept is simple: Shoot birds from a slingshot to knock over buildings and destroy this green pig creatures or whatever they are. It’s fun and simple, but also pretty easy too. If you’ve spent a lot of time with puzzle games, then you probably won’t have too difficult a time with ‘Angry Birds’.

Overlord (360, PC)

I picked this one up during the Steam Christmas sale, and I’m finally getting around to it. So far, so good. It’s an interesting 3rd-person action game with real-time strategy elements. You play as an evil overlord and you tell your minions where to go, what to do, and whom to kill.

It amazes me that more games don’t allow you to be the bad guy. That was half of the fun of ‘Dungeon Keeper’ after all – defeating the heroes with your traps and forcing them to fight your minions. ‘Overlord’ allows you to wreak all kinds of havoc, and it’s only $4.99 on Steam. It’s definitely worth checking out.

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