Bloggers, as reported earlier, are specifically mentioned by the recommendation, which has obvious implications for the speciality press covering video games. “The post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.”

The pivot here is what constitutes an in-kind payment. Games do have a value, but is agreeing to review a game an endorsement, regardless of whether the review recommends it or not?

It’s also important to note these new guidelines do not themselves have the force of law. They are:

“administrative interpretations of the law intended to help advertisers comply with the Federal Trade Commission Act; they are not binding law themselves. In any law enforcement action challenging the allegedly deceptive use of testimonials or endorsements, the Commission would have the burden of proving that the challenged conduct violates the FTC Act.”

So there are two layers here: One, that it’s not even law and two, does it even apply to video game reviews? Either way, the singling out of a blogger’s endorsement is significant.

FTC: Freebies Must Be Disclosed [Game Politics]

With some 800 licensed cars and over 35 tracks on which to race them, Gran Turismo for the PSP offers a broad driving simulation experience that seems to focus more on car collecting and driving technique than high speed thrills. It also offers local multiplayer, car trading and a slick package.

The PSP game’s spec sheet mostly matches the raw numbers of its PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 counterparts, minus a few concessions, but does it offer the same deep feature set of the games that have come before it?

Loved
Easy In, Easy Out: Gran Turismo for PSP feels more forgiving, more inviting than ever for new players. As someone who dabbled in the first three games and Gran Turismo HD, I typically consider myself a GT noob every time I dive in. The PSP version is generous with credits, initially friendly with its competitive AI drivers, ensuring that getting back into the swing of things is a breeze. It’s ideal for pick and play session, more so than I’d expected.

Driving Challenges: Also kinder to the casual Gran Turismo fan (who might’ve had horrifying flashbacks to cruel licence tests in previous games) are the PSP game’s Driving Challenges. Most can be cleared at bronze level on the first go for easy in-game income, but others offer a serious and addictive challenge for the driving sim disinclined. The demonstration videos of each challenge, narrated by Jay Leno, are generally pretty helpful.

It Gets The Numbers Right: Gran Turismo PSP nails the numbers, with a rock solid frame rate and hundreds of cars to collect, giving the game a Pokemon-like that will have completionists returning for more. There may not be much variety in the gameplay modes, but you can’t fault the game for a lack of incredibly diverse cars and trucks to drive.

Technically, It’s Gran Turismo: It may not look as sharp as its forebears and some of the early screen shots released for Gran Turismo PSP, but the game’s physics model, tracks, car models and general technical prowess impress. The number of cars that can compete in a race have been whittled down to just four, but the game still runs well enough to merit mention.

Hated
Directionless Grinding: After completing the game’s Driving Challenge mode and tackling a handful of random time trials, single-player races, drift trials, you may start to wonder where the rest of the game is. There’s no campaign mode, no career mode, no structure to the game that would give one much of a sense of accomplishment. This lack of things to do beyond finding things to do with your time gives Gran Turismo a barebones feeling, in spite of the wealth of vehicles to drive.

Limited Time Offers: Gran Turismo PSP curiously randomises what cars will be available to the player when they’re in the mood to do a little shopping. Only four car manufacturers are available at any given time—per day in the Gran Turismo calendar, which admittedly passes quicker than real-time—and up to ten cars per manufacturer are up for purchase. That makes car shopping somewhat of a crap shoot, sometimes limiting the appeal when ultra-expensive Audis or the meek Land Rover offerings pop up.

Personally (and curiously), I found the Driving Challenge aspects of the game—the deep list of driving technique tutorials—to offer the most appeal, helping to make me a better virtual driver. Perfecting some of those techniques was made a little more challenging by my distaste for the PSP’s awkward analogue nub, a control hang up that might be a turn off to GT fans downgrading to the portable version.

After all this waiting, it’s somewhat surprising to see the limitations that Gran Turismo for the PSP comes with. The core essence of the driving sim is intact, offering an enjoyable simulation on the go. And that may be all you require of the PlayStation Portable entry, a largely capable if not impressively feature rich driving sim, a portable copy of the Nürburgring on which to study its turns, chicanes and corners.

Gran Turismo was developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PSP on September 29. Retails for $US39.99. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played 50 single player races, completed Driving Challenge mode and tested Ad Hoc multiplayer.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

First introduced at Capcom’s 2008 Captivate event, a ho-hum reception cause Bionic Games to go back to the drawing board, changing what was a cartoony action-adventure puzzler into a darker, somewhat grittier cooperative beat-em up. What could have been a subtle, nuanced title became an in-your-face, no-holds-barred biomechanical brawl to the death featuring three cyborg spies taking on an evil army led by a rogue member of their organisation. Was this rapid change in direction a change for the better?

Spyborg Style: Spyborgs feels like an attempt to establish a brand, and in order to do so you need to have a distinctive style that sets you apart from similar titles. While not wholly successful, Bionic Games certainly nailed it with the visual design of the characters and enemies in the game. The robotic enemies you face have a unique look about them that I really liked, and the player characters are unique enough that I really wanted to know more about them and their motivations. Unfortunately the game doesn’t delve into those areas, but I appreciate the effort the developers put into making things at least look interesting.

Loved
Playing Doubles: Spyborgs shines brightest when played with another living person. The repetitive gameplay and lack of depth that make the game a poor single-player experience make it perfect for an afternoon of mindless cooperative gaming with a friend. There isn’t much thinking involved, there are hidden items to squabble over, and when the game gets too tedious you can always poke fun at it mercilessly to help keep things fresh. Definitely a title that plays better with a partner.

Difficulty Curve: In its quest to appeal to gamers of all different skill levels, Bionic Games has include a wide range of difficulty levels in Spyborgs. At its easiest, you’ll be able to survive for a good long time merely mashing the attack buttons. Ramp up the difficulty and suddenly you’ll find yourself hugging the guard button for dear life. It’s a nice spread, though even at the lowest setting you need to keep an eye on your health bar when fighting larger enemies.

Hated
Invisible Gimmicks: Talk about tacked on. Spyvision is a mechanic that requires you to point the Wii remote at the screen, press a button, and then swing the remote in order to reveal hidden objects that the enemy has cloaked in order to impede your progress. There is no compelling reason for this feature to be in the game, other than to perhaps half-heartedly justify the word ‘Spy’ in the title. When the ’spies’ spend 95% of the time mindlessly bashing away on a horde of robots, stopping to play hide and seek seems like a silly way for them to catch a breather. As you progress through the game, enemies begin to cloak, but the action of de-cloaking them just seems silly. Obviously you can see where they are. Why not just hit them to make them appear and cut out the extra step?

Walking The Beat: Endless hordes of enemies, walls that appear and disappear when you clear the area — you all know the drill here. While new enemies appear on a regular basis, they’re generally just slight variations on the old enemies. Repetitive stages don’t help either, and it soon becomes readily apparent in any given level when and where the bad guys are going to pop up. Upgrading your abilities doesn’t have enough of an effect on gameplay to really keep things fresh.

Mindless Cyborgs: Without a human partner at your side, Spyborgs’ flaws become more obvious. The repetition eats away at your patience faster, and the fact that your AI teammate for the most part does their own thing doesn’t help matters much. At several points during my play through I noticed my partner standing off to the side, waiting patiently for something while I got pummeled senseless, or wandering off to chase down some smaller enemy while the larger ones showed me their various implements of destruction. Luckily the enemy AI seems to suffer similar problems, sometimes failing to acknowledge your existence until you are right on top of them, and other times seeing you from a mile away. A little more consistency would have been appreciated.

Ultimately Dull: Despite the visual flair that went into creating the characters and their enemies, Spyborgs suffers from a distinct lack of personality. These unique characters do battle across repetitive landscapes, with brief tidbits of story teasing a depth that never really gets explored.

Simply put, Spyborgs feels like a video game based on a licensed cartoon property, only there is no licensed cartoon. Cartoon tie-ins tend to present simple gameplay and only the barest of stories, relying on the animated properties they are based on to fill in the blanks. Unfortunately, Spyborgs’ blanks are just that — blanks. There is no fill-in.

Spyborgs was developed by Bionic Games and published by Capcom for the Wii on September 24 in Australia. Retails for $79.95. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Completed the game on Hard, and played a couple of hours of co-op on casual.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

NHL 2K10 sees the franchise at somewhat of a crossroads. It’s in its 10th year overall, scrapping with a competitor afforded both cult status and best-in-class accolades. But 2K Sports’ hockey offering is also in its second year on the Wii, where it remains wholly unopposed. Will NHL 2K10 on the core consoles veer more to a casual experience, or will it fight for the puck in a realistic league simulation?

Loved
Multifaceted Multiplayer:This is a game noticeably built for multiplayer, adding it into every mode of gameplay and then some. It’s best deployed in season mode, where you are now able to play any in-season game against an online opponent. It’s not a full online dynasty but it doesn’t need to be, and it provides a great incentive to keep your season going even if you’ve grown bored beating down the computer AI. This innovation really should be imitated in other full-season games. A cooperative mode also has been added, allowing you to call in a wingman and combine forces against the CPU, with devastating results if you’re both on your game. One feature touted in the manual that I didn’t get much of a look at (for a lack of NHL-playing friends with the game) is a new persistent online team mode that allows you to staff a full side, and battle other user teams, supporting up to 12 players on separate consoles. Assuming everyone stays committed, it can be like a league night for video game hockey instead of bowling.

Do Wii Want Some Hockey?:The Wii Version: This review is based on the Xbox 360 version but I did get the chance to play the Wii version with a friend. Unfortunately, we did not have MotionPlus, which is where the most substantial improvements are said to have been made. But the game’s presentation on the Wii gets a thorough upgrade, particularly in the graphics. And I know some might consider it trivial, but the Mii skills competitions—shot accuracy, skating speed, etc., as seen at the NHL’s All Star Game—are an enjoyable way to play this game with others without having to commit to a full-blown match.

The Great Outdoors:Surprisingly, NHL 2K10 and not NHL 10 is the game with outdoor stadiums from the NHL’s extremely popular Winter Classic series. This year it adds Wrigley Field, where the Blackhawks and Red Wings played last year, to Buffalo’s Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the 2008 game. If this matters to you, and it does to some, keep that in mind. Also, diehards who hold a torch for the old Hartford Whalers will find their sweaters, home and road from 1993, in the Carolina Hurricanes’ uniform options. These are two big ways in which the game’s visuals are very enjoyable. Also, the playoff beards are one of many neat hey-look-at-that touches.

Hated:
Sludgy Skating: The nimbleness of your players does not seem that much improved over previous versions, and the speed is still nothing to write home about. It left me sitting on the speed burst trigger any time I wanted to get anything going. By contrast, opposing players make tight turns and immediate stops, get back on defence in a flash and always break first to a loose puck. Some of this is attributable to the fact that when your player begins an animation he’s in it until it’s over, so if you blow out someone with a check, you’re still finishing that up unless you can jump to a free man. Remember that tuning up the speed in the sliders affects all players, so while you boost your own performance, the defence is still there with you, meaning it’s still largely a game of taking the puck to the wings and flipping out a hot centering pass for an unbeatable one timer. I felt the speed issues hindered my attempts at other forms of offence, such as dump-and-chase hockey, making me almost one-dimensional in my attack.

Bland Season-ing: It felt like little attention was paid to improving or deepening the season mode, and it’s where NHL 2K10 is most vulnerable to criticism that it’s last year’s game with an updated roster. Yes, it has added in a dynamic player progression mode, but this is a background feature and won’t be fully realised until the NHL season begins and the game starts incorporating player performances. Trade AI is kind of shrimpy and you’ll get the better of most deals, which suits a game with heavy offence and a have-it-your-way tone. Again, season mode’s biggest selling point is the multiplayer capability as opposed to anything in a simulation or singleplayer mode.

Them’s the Dekes: In hockey, I am still a crude enough player and button-spammer that an extra control set is like pearls before swine. While last year’s mindboggling two-analogue setup for your fakery gets a welcome streamline to a shoulder/face button combo (or shoulder/right analogue, similar to NHL 09), they never seemed to respond fast enough to mean much in what is definitely a bang-bang style of hockey play. Then again, as I said, I’m probably not the guy most able to take advantage of this. But while the dekes and their cousins, the stumbleshots, are pretty to look at, functionally they seem a little removed and triggered mostly by chance. When I bore down to score goals I focused more on spacing and passing, not whether I could beat my man or a goalie 1-on-1 or huck garbage into the net from my arse.

Singleminded Intelligence: The opposing AI is not hated per se, because even a rank amateur like me could blow out Detroit 6-3 in its own building shortly after picking it up. It’s not formidable as much as it feels singleminded. With some teams, even in a power play you’re getting pressed hard, making it difficult to square off your men and work the puck around like you see in the real-life game’s set pieces. It can drive you back to run-and-gun arcade hockey even with a man advantage, and can also lead to cheap short-handed goals against you. The box says they completely rewrote the AI, and maybe I didn’t play last year’s close enough, but you still seem to be faced with a singleminded opposition that doesn’t incorporate a lot of variables in hockey strategy. I only really noticed it late in the third period, with the CPU up by two goals, and then the opposing team finally started playing a puck-control, clear-out-the-zone game to frustrate a comeback.

Even for all its shortcomings—which are rightly viewed in light of Electronic Arts’ uncommon excellence in its NHL title, and 2K Sports’ conspicuous focus on its Wii presence and multiplayer strengths—NHL 2K10 is not a bad or unworthy title. But nor is it particularly compelling if you are principally playing it in singleplayer modes.

It can, however, be a blast when you’re winning and racking up the goals, pushing over your man, taking the puck and top-shelfing it to turn the Pepsi centre into a morgue. These kinds of things just don’t feel that hard-earned. But if playing arcade hockey on a core console is a disappointment to fans wanting a deeper game, flip the coin: 2K10 offers the only core hockey on a casual console, and after last year’s shoulder-shrugging debut on the Wii, is significantly upgraded there. For those on the 360 or PS3, who want to relive dorm-room hockey nights with next-gen presentation, or those who are just new to hockey and its finer points would be lost on them anyway, NHL 2K10 can still be a comfortable and fun experience.

NHL 2K10 was developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K on the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii on on Sept. 15. Retails for $US59.99 USD on Xbox 360 and PS3, $US49.99 on Wii. Rated E10+ on all three platforms. Reviewed on Xbox 360. Played on all singleplayer and multiplayer modes except for “My Team.”

The detectives in MySims Agents perhaps aren’t in the same class as Holmes. For one thing, they never solve murders and don’t get into martial arts smack down fights with any evil professors. Instead, the Agent you play as is asked to unravel rumours, keep track of their employees via text message and get to the bottom of an old mystery involving missing persons, evil artifacts, a yeti and a zombie.

Yeah, Sherlock had it easy.

Loved
Strong Linear Gameplay: MySims Agents shifts the series away from open-ended gameplay where you go pretty much anywhere you want and build stuff for other Sims. Instead, Agents features linear gameplay around a central story plus some side-quests to keep you busy in between story missions. This is a good change for the series because it gives the player a goal to work toward, and it gives MySims the chance to build out characters in a consistent environment. Much better than just randomly building stuff in a hodgepodge world where rocket ships and cowboys somehow exist alongside medieval stuff.

Fixed Camera: A big gripe for fans of the series is the camera. It’s hard to line it up, it’s finicky, it gets stuck — the usual complaints. Most of these issues are addressed in Agents with a fixed camera angle that the user can’t control. It lines itself up for a good perspective when you go into build mode (which is mostly used to decorate your Agent headquarters), and pans back to show you what you need to see in order to solve mysteries or complete jumping puzzles.

Freaking Adorable: I spent almost the whole game playing in the Isaac Clarke suit from Dead Space. It was hilarious and adorable – two things Agents is good at being. From the funny dialogue to the subtle background actions (like your partner randomly falling on his face), the game goes out of its way to amuse and entertain even cynical gamers who’d much rather play Mirror’s Edge than watch their younger sibling and/or girlfriend play through Agents.

Not A Walk In The Part: Yes, it’s a kid’s game and yes it’s cutesy — but it’s a mistake to assume that Agents is totally easy. About half of the game involves puzzles, like jumping puzzles, maze puzzles and mini-game puzzles that occur whenever you need to pick a lock or analyse a sample. As the game progresses, the mini-game puzzles get pretty complex. It shames me to say I got stuck on one of the chemistry puzzles where you have to bond molecules together in specific patterns so that one too many of them aren’t touching. But, hey, being challenged is better than being bored.

Hated
Changing Clothes: A big draw of Agents is finding or unlocking new stuff like decorations for your HQ, paint for the walls, little trophies for the trophy case, or spiffy costumes like the Isaac Clarke suit. The problem is, changing into the clothes you find is a right pain in the arse. Not only does it entail a couple of loading screens, the wardrobe system makes it hard to find just the right combo of stuff by filing different pieces of clothing in various categories. If you pick the wrong category to find the Isaac Clarke suit, you can’t just back to the outfit selection menu — you get dumped out of the whole wardrobe system and have to go through the loading screens all over again ’til you find the right outfit. Trifling, sure, but still a pain.

Intrusive Wiimote Notification: I’m not sure if this is Nintendo’s fault for having high standards or the developer’s fault for not coming up with a better solution. Either way, when your Wiimote is running a little low on battery (say, down to the last bar), a notification pops up in Agents. The problem is it pauses gameplay with no warning. Also, it can totally mess up your jump if this happens in the middle of the jumping puzzle. Even worse, there’s no way to turn off the notifications or make them less intrusive. So while you could in fact play the entire 7-8 main game with only one bar of battery like I did, you’re not going to want to. Because the effing game keeps interrupting you.

Maybe A Bit Too Repetitive For Some: Most adventure games can be broken down into go-here-talk-to-this-guy-solve-puzzle-repeat patterns. I have no problem with this in Agents because it’s a kid’s game and kids need repetition to learn stuff (like how to solve those effin’ chemistry puzzles). However, jaded gamers might get super-frustrated when they find that all the cases in the game follow the same pattern. Sometimes the writing is funnier in one case than another and the setting is always dramatically different – but that might not be enough to break up the monotony.

People have a sad habit of saying “game X is a good game…for the Wii.” As if a game on the Wii can’t just be good all by itself. MySims Agents fixes this problem for me, because I feel like I can say it’s a good game. Period.

It could be on any other system and I would say the same thing: it’s fun, appropriately long with decent controls and appealing visuals. If there’s more to being a good game than that, I’d have to hire a professional detective to determine what that could possibly be. And since I don’t have the money to waste, let’s just say Agents is a good game. Case closed.

MySims Agents was developed by The Sims Studio and published by EA for the Wii and DS. Released on September 29 for $US50 and $US30 respectively. Played through the main story mode and finished about half of the dispatch missions to work toward the secret ending. Spent almost all of that time in the Isaac Clarke suit because it’s awesome.

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Superficially, it appears it’s done very little, especially when compared to the drastic overhaul that’s been made to Pro Evo’s visuals. But then, superficially doesn’t count for squat around here.

Loved
Loose as a Goose — For the first time ever in a FIFA game, your players aren’t restricted to eight-directional movement. There’s true, 360-degree recognition of where you’re pointing them, allowing for incredibly fluid control over where your player is headed. It sounds like your standard back-of-the-box bullet point, but in reality, it’s as fundamental and impressive an improvement as a new graphics engine.

Ball Control — The same fluidity now carries over into ball control as well. When receiving the ball and running onto it, it no longer appears pre-programmed to simply attach itself to their feet. It truly has a life of its own, making the whole game flow naturally, and appear almost lifelike. Another plus is that, aside from a single routine where the keeper punches a corner to the same spot every time, there’s no sense that the ball is following a pre-determined route. It just feels…random. Unpredictable. Just like a football on the loose should be.

Jumpers For Goalposts — FIFA has long had the finest commentary of any sports game on the market, and FIFA 10 is no exception. Remarkably, Martin Tyler and Andy grey have been dragged back into the recording studio and, atop lines we’ve heard in previous examples, recorded a ton of new chit-chat as well, bringing the volume and quality of commentary closer to that you’d expect from a real broadcast than any sports game I’ve ever seen. Well, heard.

Training Days — The training ground makes a welcome return to FIFA 10, allowing players to get a handle on certain settings and concepts while fine-tuning tricky moves like set pieces. It was a nightmare trying to learn all this in-game, where some games you may not even get a decent set piece to practice, so having the chance to test it outside of game day—it’s activated on the main screen’s “arena mode”—is appreciated.

Role-Playing Game — You remember that stuff I was on about in a recent feature, talking about sports games incorporating RPG elements? FIFA 10 doesn’t incorporate elements, it is an RPG, thanks to the new “Virtual Pro” mode. There’s now an option to create a player that is “stuck” in the game’s roster database, and can be used in “Be A Pro”, single-player, season, multiplayer, the works. Every game you play, every goal you score or tackle you make in any game mode improves their stats, with progress milestones rewarded with attribute upgrades and trinkets like celebrations and better boots. It’s a captivating addition to the game, and one which will surely become the focal point of the entire thing for many people.

Hated
Fix Up, Look Sharper — While significant improvements have been made to the nuts and bolts of the game, FIFA 10’s more visual aspects are starting to show their age. There’s been little improvement to the cartoonish stock player models (which are trumped this year by a resurgent, gorgeous Pro Evo), and it’s a shame to be stuck with the same menu system for what is at least the third year running.

You know, when you play a team sports game, you’re expected to lower your expectations of what you’re about to see “simulated”. That what you’re about to experience is a game based on a sport, and not the sport itself.

But thanks to the greater sense of fluidity in FIFA 10, both from the players and from their control and movement of the ball, FIFA 10 comes close (damn close) to both feeling—and, for spectators, looking—like the real thing. And there’s no higher compliment for a sports game than that.

FIFA 10 was developed by EA Canada, and published by EA Sports for the Xbox 360 (version reviewed), PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PC & iPhone. Released in Europe on October 2, in North America on October 20. Retails for $US59.99. Played all game modes in single-player, and several matches in multiplayer, both locally and online.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

These diminutive titles all run less than $US10 and are designed to be quick bites that run on both the Playstation Portable and PSPgo.

Hit the jump for our even quicker impressions of them to help you decide where to spend your money.

Alien Havoc
Developer: Creat Studios
Price: $US4.99
Impressions: Classic action play and an isometric point-of-view, makes this title fun and engaging. You play as an alien roaming endless farms in search of cows to carry off to your ship while avoiding farmers. Lots of fun, but no probing!

BrainPipe
Developer: Hands-On Mobile
Price: $US4.99
Impressions: Independent Games Festival winner for excellence in audio, BrainPipe is a trippy visual and auditory journey through the human brain with Tempest-like play. A must for anyone looking for a bit of pick-up-and-play.

FieldRunners
Developer: Subatomic Studios
Price: $US6.99
Impressions: A classic tower defence iPhone game with sharp graphics and controls make this a must mini for those not willing to shell out for the richer experiences of a full Playstation Portable title.

Funky Punch
Developer: Solus Games
Price: $US4.99
Impressions: A funky concept and art don’t make up for the fact that this is a very stripped down fighter. That might work for the iPhone, but with so much competition on the PSP, this is a pass.

Hero of Sparta

Developer: Gameloft
Price: $US6.99
Impressions: Simplistic controls, muddled graphics and abysmal sounds turn what was a fantastic iPhone game into a oddly disjointed Playstation Portable experience.

Sudoku
Developer: Electronic Arts
Price: $US4.99
Impressions: With KenKen slowly replacing Sudoku as the it brain twister, the puzzler still has a little life left in it. This mini’s version of the number game doesn’t include a lot of extras, but it offers a solid, easy to play version of the game with five levels of puzzles and a manual creation option.

Tetris
Developer: Electronic Arts
Price: $US9.99
Impressions: Featuring a dozen new modes, a glossary and even replays of “master” Tetris players, this first appearance of the classic Russian puzzler on the Playstation Portable is a terrific addition to the minis library. Most importantly, though, the mini nails the basics of Tetris control and play.

What they’d tell you in a catalogue is that Dead Space Extraction is the Wii prequel to last year’s PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 sci-fi horror hit Dead Space, a shooter that runs on rails and is rendered in the first-person, can be played with a light gun and that looks and sounds better than most Wii games.

The catalogue wouldn’t tell you it’s shorter than an honest work day. Nor would it classify it, as I would, as the Wii Sports Tennis of so-called hardcore games. It is a most unusual specimen even among the few spectacular games on the Wii not developed with mums in mind, because it uses the Wii’s attributes to do something new, daring like Nintendo’s famous pack-in game to get more with less.

Plus it single-handedly justifies the use of the Nintendo nunchuk.

Loved
This Wii Tennis Thing:Like Wii Sports tennis, Dead Space Extraction dares to present a fully satisfying experience in its genre—not tennis this time but sci-fi horror—without giving players control of its characters’ legs. We just get to use our hero’s arms. Plenty of people, myself included, wanted to classify this game as an on-rails shooter. The game’s creators accurately resisted that, because this game feels less like a shooting gallery on wheels and more like players have been given a chance to ride—and shoot—shotgun on board someone’s perfect play-through of a Dead Space game.

Just as Wii Sports tennis let us both forget about body movement and focus on the swings of a well-played tennis match, Dead Space Extraction presents a more physically involved adventure than even the one the first Dead Space’s protagonist had — the various heroes we can control in Extraction one at a time run, crawl, climb, swim, fall, pilot spaceships, spacewalk, jump through zero-gravity—all under the control of the computer—while the player worries about making those same heroes shoot, chop, saw, hack, heal, illuminate and snatch. And there’s no dull downtime, because the computer always knows the next exciting event toward which to drive the player.

The Adventure: The bulk of Dead Space Extraction involves the attempts of four horror-movie-cast survivors—the leading man, the pretty lady, the wry Brit, the suspicious old businessman—to survive the bad things happening on the planet of Aegis VII following the unearthing of a mysterious artefact. Said bad things arrive in the form of monsters who, as in the original Dead Space, are best defeated using the game’s arsenal of limb-severing pistols, welding tools, laser rifles and buzzsaws. Our quartet has a hell of a time on Aegis VII, constantly on the run, reaching level-ending cliffhangers involving surprise attacks, crashed shuttles, unexpected encounters with other humans, all of which make it hard to stop playing. Could you film a movie of the first Dead Space? Not without removing a lot of the walking, shooting and exploring that are fun to play but would be dull to watch. Extraction, however, might as well be a movie, as it is paced like a relentless thriller.

The Echoes: Curious business decision that it is, this Wii game was made for people who have played the 360/PS3 original. Though it is a prequel that just barely bumps into the events of the first Dead Space, the game is full of narrative references to the 2008 adventure, overlaps much of the same terrain often in interestingly distinct ways, and manages more than a few winks that expose or twist the facts players of the first game may have thought they knew. The developers even had the guts to pull a Super Metroid and begin this game in the location where its well-known predecessor left off, but with the added challenge of doing that on a weaker system. Which brings me to my next point…

The Fearlessness of the Developers: It’s amazing enough to play a Wii for which the developers appear to have been given the time, budget and talent to make the graphics and sound top-flight. It’s all the more extraordinary that the creators of Dead Space Extraction had the will and the chops to render many of the same environments on Aegis VII and aboard the spaceship Ishimura that were produced in much higher detail on much more powerful consoles last year. That Extraction’s environments look as good as they do—dark, high-tech, detailed, moody—is both a triumph of technical juice-squeezing and a testament to the value of art design over raw processing power. Many of the set-piece rooms that dropped jaws on the PS3/360 will drop jaws when people encounter them in this game as well. But why stop at the graphics? The soundscape in Extraction is in the league of the original’s, providing ample intercom-voice and gun sounds through the Wii remote’s speaker as well as a stirring mix of sound effects, whispers, growls and other frightful sounds from the main audio channels. As good as all that is, however, the best sights and sounds might be the convincing acting of the fellow survivors in the game who emote with voice, facial expressions and body language in believable ways.

Motion Controls Worth Handling :Shooting and circuit-board-soldering is, unsurprisingly, handled with a point of the Wii remote. Twisting the remote to activate a gun’s alternate firing modes is inspired. Meleeing with shakes of the nunchuk isn’t as good, until late in the game when it is used for an extraordinary use I won’t spoil. I was skeptical about needing tho shake the Wii remote to illuminate darkened passageways with a glow-stick, but I was won over by the wisdom of mapping that to the Remote in such a way that forced me between having to decide whether to shoot in darkness or stop shooting so I could shake more light onto the scene. (For the record, you can also activate a slowdown power and the much-needed telekinesis grappling beam, both of which are triggered by buttons.)

Hated
The Brevity: The game could have stood to have been a little longer, ending abruptly and offering little reason to go back other than for those who want to get better scores in its levels. I know that light-gun games are short, but since this game feels more like a third-person adventure a la the first Dead Space, it’s disappointing to see it done with so swiftly.

Boss Fussiness: Some of the game’s few bosses are best beaten with a narrow selection of weapons. Pity the player who encounters them with the wrong load-out and then has to re-play the whole level to make sure they approach the encounter with the right set. Always keep that Pulse Rifle handy!

Lack of Online Leaderboards: One of the few extras contained on the disc is the score-based challenge maps, all unlockable as you play the campaign. These maps require the player to face waves of monsters, racking up kills for high scores. If only the player wasn’t going up against just the high scores saved on the disc.

Dead Space Extraction is not just a light-gun shooter. It’s not just an on-rails game. It’s an adventure as exciting as anything I’ve played in a while. If players can stand the brevity and don’t mind something else controlling their hero’s legs, it’s well worth playing.

The game presents a model, like tennis in Wii Sports, of how to get a whole lot more out of a simplified user set-up. I can imagine some gamers—and some potential gamers—who wouldn’t have the skills to have a fun time in the original Dead Space. They’d have ample skill to get through Extraction and might even have a better experience doing so.

(Dead Space Extraction was developed by EA’s Visceral Games and published by EA for the Wii on September 29. Retails for $US49.99. Played through the campaign on “hard” using Wii Remote and Nunchuk (Zapper mode also available). Tried Remote-only second-player co-op. Played a challenge level.)

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Loved
Come-Back Story: Unlike NFL 2010, which kicked you back to the beginning of the current quarter, in iPhone Madden you may leave a game at any point—whether or not you select pause from its menu—and come back to it exactly at that point. This alone makes it the football sim to buy for your Apple mobile.

A Monster in Your Pants: For such a pocket-sized download (102.3 megabytes) this still delivers the core gameplay and presentation one uses and expects through 90 percent of a console Madden experience. Most notably, you get roster management—including trades—within your full season simulation. The real-life stadia are used; booth commentators Tom Hammond, Cris Collinsworth and (a bit obtrusively, however) John Madden himself supply analysis. The stadia you play in are the ones you see on Sunday, not generic clones. And most of all, the framerate and camera remained reasonably smooth and definitely well positioned. The game definitely exceeded what I expected to find in a Madden port to this platform.

Hated
The Clock Stops You:: Madden, like NFL 2010, employs a bullet-time mechanic to let you pull off running back jukes, punishing hits, and timely pass breakups. The good news is in Madden, you have a manual trigger, and don’t have to rely upon the game to slow down time for you, which sometimes never came. The bad news is it’s one more part of the screen to touch, and fat-fingered button-spamming spazzes (*raises fat-fingered hand*) will face an inscrutable learning curve as to when to key this feature, and even hitting it correctly. I want to be clear, my quibble is only with the trigger; bullet-time itself is the best solution to performing finesse moves on this platform, and once I figured it out, I was springing runs of 12 and 20 yards, and more. It’s the only shortcoming of what is, overall, a very solid control scheme given the platform. I loved drawing the custom receiver hot routes with a flick of my finger, and being able to touch any player on the screen and take over his control, rather than cycle through them with a pre-snap icon.

Now I can see why Gameloft hustled NFL 2010 out the door for the iPhone. They won the race to be first, but not to be best, and its offering shows glaring weaknesses against what Madden 10 on the iPhone brings to the table, even at double the price. You’re still playing a complex game with a virtual stick and buttons — but once you grow accustomed to that, it easily becomes a football experience that fulfils both the Madden brand and the promise of mobile gaming.

Madden NFL 10 was developed and published by Electronic Arts for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Released to the iTunes App Store on Sept. 3. Retails for $US9.99. Reviewed on an iPhone 3G. Played through play-now and season modes.

Zuma’s Revenge is the PC/Mac sequel to the multi-million selling Zuma, itself one of those PopCap games from the era of PopCap games that seemed to be awfully similar to other, already-released games (in this case, see Magnetica/Puzzle Loop). The simple Zuma design presents single-screen level after level of snaking pathways that each point toward holes in the ground. Rolling onto the pathway are coloured marbles that, if they reach that hole, end the game. To prevent failure, players control a frog-shaped turret that is usually placed in the middle of the screen. With clicks of the mouse in the direction of the desired target, the frog will shoot coloured marbles at those in the advancing path. Marbles are eliminated by matching three of the same colour, or by power-ups such as bombs, slowdown or direction-reversals. Eliminate all the marbles clears the stage.

Zuma’s sequel adds a large helping of new content based on that concept — so much content that it took me longer to beat the game’s main campaign than it did Halo 3: ODST. mums may love this game too, but now I know the truth: With boss battles, a steep difficulty spike and an elaborate series of fights needed to clear its campaign, Zuma’s Revenge might as well be a hardcore gamer’s game.

Loved
The Going Gets Tough: The early, all-new stages of Zuma’s Revenge’s 60-level campaign are so easy that they can instill in a son the unhealthy scepticism of a mom’s gaming ability. If her games are this easy, perhaps she’s merely been wading in the kiddie pool of gaming all these Zuma-loving years? Then the game ramps up and mum is absolved. The marbles roll faster, and one learns that finding and using power-ups are essential. My favourite power-up, new for the sequel, eliminates all marbles of a certain colour. One discovers the deep scoring system that makes a challenge out of even the easiest levels. The campaign got so brutal I thought I was playing a Capcom game on hard. That’s a level of difficulty I can’t enjoy in console action games anymore, but in a puzzle game that has so few parameters and that can be re-started and retried so easily, I welcome it. mums who play this game far are in the gaming deep end as much of the rest of us. They are performing precision shooting, aiming with a mouse, you know (A suggestion to anyone who struggles: Don’t play full-screen; the game’s easier when played in a window.)

Smart, If Infrequent, Level Cleverness: In only 20 levels my complaints about the game’s difficulty were disposed of. It took longer to get over my despair that the levels in Zuma’s Revenge can be uninteresting. I’m sure there are a finite number of ways to snake a path of marbles past the rotating statue of a frog it seems. But cherish the levels where PopCap opted for ingenuity: Levels in which the fog can hop to another lily pad, needing to alternate between two of them for its sniping position; Levels in which part of the snaking path is shielded by stone; Levels that have two paths leading to two possibly game-ending maws. I wish the developers had included more design twists in their 60 campaign levels, but there wind up being just enough to make this a positive. The levels that don’t break ground are still generally challenging and fun to play.

Hated
The Wrong Lessons Learned: If playing Zuma’s Revenge introduces my mother to some of the worst design aspects of the last two decades’ worth of hardcore games, then I think she deserves an apology. All of you game creators out there who are guilty, please say you’re sorry. The first foul is locking a lot of content. In the year 2009, a puzzle game need not have its harder campaign mode, its ultimate “Iron Frog” gauntlet mode, and much of its 70 score-based challenge maps mode — all three modes which are displayed on the game’s front menu from the start — locked off to the player until they’ve completed the game’s campaign. That’s an archaic amount of content-locking for a game that’s been paid for.

Also undesirably old-school was the developers’ decision to bounce the player back to a checkpointed level (the nearest preceding multiple of five) after the player runs out of lives. Level 57 might be a back-breaker, but there’s no joy, after failing at it for five times, to have to replay Level 56. And boss battles… They add little to this game, as they add little to so many games (Hello, Arkham Asyum). That written, I have to acknowledge the hilarious inclusion of one hardcore gaming boss trope: The multiple-form final boss who will… not… stay… dead. I thought the game ended four different times.

You can download the free version of Zuma’s Revenge and test most of my analysis yourself. Or you could ask your mum about this game, because there’s a strong chance she’s already played it or its predecessor. Let her teach you about games for once.

I was happy to play Zuma’s Revenge, even if I wished for a little more progressive free-thinking and a little less adoption of some ideas I wish could just collect dust in the past. I feel like I understand my mother just a little better now. Plus, Zuma’s Revenge has one of gaming’s magically perfect maneuvers. Just as any self-respecting gamer should perform the triple-jump in Super Mario 64, shame on you if you never experience a Double Gap Shot in a Zuma game. Whether you pay to unlock the rest, well… judge for yourself.

(Zuma’s Revenge was developed and published by PopCap Games on September 15. Retails for $US19.95 USD. Cleared the 60-mission campaign in a whopping six hours, 41 minutes. Played some Challenge levels. Got beaten to a pulp in Iron Frog. Wondered if the people on my NYC-Tokyo flight thought I was a nut for playing the game on my laptop even though its omnipresent predecessor was available to be played on the small screens embedded in the back of every seat.)

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