Entertainment

VIDEO-GAME PICKS-N-PANS

October 5, 2007

VIDEO-GAME PICKS-N-PANS

DYNASTY WARRIORS: GUNDAM

The long-running “Dynasty Warriors” series thrives on repetition. During typical play, a gamer employs various attacks and combos to plow through hundreds of foes massed on large battlefields.

“Dynasty Warriors: Gundam” is the same thing, just with robotic suits instead of ancient warriors. Gamers can follow the story of the “Gundam” anime series in one set of missions or an original story line involving a mysterious planet heading for Earth in another.

Players can choose from several characters and robotic suits; each has a set of attacks, combos and special moves. Characters level up with combat experience and learn new moves and earn parts for their machines over time. The graphics look below average for a PS3 game, and the sound isn’t good enough to stand up under the endless repetition the game demands. And, frankly, neither is the game play.

PUBLISHER: Koei

SYSTEM: Sony PlayStation 3, also for Microsoft Xbox 360

PRICE: $59.99

AGE RATING: Teen

CARNIVAL GAMES

“Carnival Games” packs all the frustration of the real thing into a video game only there’s no way to win the cheap prizes, no matter how lucky or skilled a player gets.

Players can trade their virtual tickets for digital prizes, though tickets they earn by playing such standard games as alley ball, ring toss, balloon darts, dunk tank, shooting gallery, and 20 or so others. The games all cost tickets to play, but if a player is good, they’ll earn more than are spent.

The motion controls do a fair job of approximating the actions required for each game’s real-life counterpart; alley ball is probably the most entertaining of the group. And up to four players can game at once. But, also like its counterparts, “Carnival Games” is really only fun for a few minutes.

PUBLISHER: Global Star Software

SYSTEM: Nintendo Wii

PRICE: $39.99

AGE RATING: Everyone

SUPER PUZZLE FIGHTER II TURBO HD REMIX

A block-stacking puzzle game with a “Street Fighter” coating, “Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix” is a mouthful to say and a handful to play.

The main mode of the game has a player trying to create blocks and strings of connected, like-colored gems, then removing them with a well-placed Crash Gem, which explodes any gems of the same color to which it’s connected. Doing this drops a bunch of Counter Gems, which can only be removed by blowing up gems beside them — that is, until their counters run down and they become normal gems.

Versus the computer or other players (online or off), “Puzzle Fighter” matches are a frantic back-and-forth as each side tries to fill up the other’s playing field. The game features the original arcade game, a revised version, and two other play modes.

PUBLISHER: Capcom

SYSTEM: Microsoft Xbox 360 (Xbox Live download), also for Sony PlayStation 3 (PlayStation Network download)

PRICE: $10 (800 Microsoft Points)

AGE RATING: Everyone

-- McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

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