by [name redacted]

Week thirty-six of my ongoing, irreverent news column; originally posted at Next Generation

Game of the Week:

Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day
Nintendo
Nintendo DS
Monday

Times sure are a-changin’. Even given that this game is the biggest sleeper hit in perhaps all of Japanese history (or at least since Godzilla), I dare you to imagine it getting released over here even five years ago. No, wait; Seaman came out in 2000. Let’s say seven years ago, then.

Not so much a game as a utility for daily life and health, Brain Age is essentially a set of mental exercises – math, especially – that you’re meant to run through once a day to keep your brain limber. Even for math dumbos like me, it’s nothing hard or frustrating; that would go against the whole point. The idea is just to see how quickly and how well you process information – then to flex that, gently, over an extended period. The “younger” your brain is, by the game’s measurement, the further you are from senior onset dementia.

With a population aging as rapidly as Japan, you can see where the appeal lies. Over here, the trick is in unconventional marketing. Nintendo’s trying to play up how much fun the product’s quizzes are. They’re… kind of not, for their own sake. Sure, the overall package is charming as hell. It’s not really a videogame, though. Try to get it on Oprah, guys. That’s the real test.

Rest of the Week:

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
Funcom/Aspyr
Xbox/PC
Monday

This game has been coming for a long time – and now that it’s here, it’s also got an Xbox iteration. Hey, that’s convenient. Dreamfall is basically the next in a scattershot series of attempts to reform, revise, and revive the graphical adventure genre. The original Longest Journey, released in 2000, got a 9.3 rating from GameSpot and was described there as “a hybrid of classic Sierra and LucasArts games… one of the best adventure games in years”. This sequel is a bit more of an action-adventure game, though Funcom has settled into simply classifying it as a “modern adventure game”. The premise is to use various tools to overcome situational obstacles and challenges; most problems have a variety of solutions, depending on how your brain works. The overall goal is to keep the game constantly moving, from place to place and from task to task, to keep the player from getting too bored. As you might expect, there’s a bit of hype behind this release. If it’s even moderately evolutionary in execution, expect everyone and his horse to hail it as the revival of classic PC adventure games. Sorry; that ain’t really coming in a mainstream sense. It’s sure to be an excellent entry in the current adventure niche, though.

Final Fantasy XI Online
Square Enix
Xbox 360
Tuesday

The only really interesting thing about Final Fantasy XI appearing on the Xbox 360 – and it’s not as fascinating as it might be – is that it’s a Square Enix production on the Console That Japan Ignored. The reason this event isn’t more of an event is that Final Fantasy XI has already appeared just about everywhere else – and anyway, FFXI is kind of played-out by now. Still, you know, baby steps. We already know Sakaguchi’s putting all his eggs in Microsoft’s basket. We’ve already heard mumbles that future Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games might go multiplatform. How long before Square Enix dedicates something big and interesting to the Xbox 360? That is, besides a few Tri-Ace games that only a few really dedicated fans will pay attention to?

Final Fantasy XI: Treasures of Aht Urhgan
Square Enix
PlayStation 2/PC
Tuesday

And hey, just to keep Sony from sending out a hit squad, here’s an upgrade to make sure the PS2 version of a game always has the most junk in it.

Take Command: 2nd Manassas
MadMinute Games/Paradox Interactive
PC
Tuesday

I am continually boggled by the bottomless market for inexpensive historical strategy games. This one – typically geared toward the hardcore historical strategy PC buff – claims the 2nd Manassas campaign from the American Civil War, which Wikipedia translates for me as the Second Battle of Bull Run. Oh heck, no points for clarity on that one. So yeah, I guess that right there tells you who the intended audience is. There’s only one review that GameRankings tracks; it gives the game an 8.0, and applauds MadMinute’s attention to historical detail. All righty.

Tokyo Xtreme Racer DRIFT
Genki/Crave
PlayStation 2
Tuesday

I’ve mused before on how weird it is that no one publisher has control over all the Shotokou Battle (and related subseries) games. Just a few weeks ago, Konami published one semi-obscure spin-off; now here’s Crave – which originally introduced us to the games on the Dreamcast – with the most recent entry in the main Shotokou series, under Crave’s own well-established trademark. This entry changes a few things up, most of which were have been introduced in the spin-off games over the last few years. Now, instead of taking place exclusively on creepy Tokyo highways in the dead of night, the series is venturing out into the mountains and hills of rural Japan – and at high noon, no less. Further, the game premise is a bit broader, offering a number of goals besides the traditional high-stress “duels” between the player and one opponent car.

WRC: FIA World Rally Championship
Traveller’s Tales/Namco Bandai Games America
PlayStation Portable
Tuesday

Speaking of mixed-up racers, the consistently pretty-well-received World Rally Championship series continues with a new platform and yet another publisher. In the US the original PS2 series has moved from Bam! Entertainment to Sony to Namco (and three of the soon-to-be-six games have never been released in North America). Even this one entry can’t decide on a worldwide publisher. In Europe it’s Sony again; over here the new Namco-Bandai Alliance has the license; and in Japan, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai commisioners Spike are handling things. The game itself is rather attractive. It looks, and apparently plays, kind of like a more realistic Sega Rally. Out of fourteen reviews, only maybe half of which are from publications I’ve heard of and most of those are both print and British, the average score comes out to 71%. So that’s about par for the course.