I’m going to go out on a limb here, and guess that when you look at this week’s list of releases, there’s going to be one game that sticks out: Rainbow Six Vegas 2 releases this week, another entry in the inexplicably successful line of Tom Clancy games. Ubisoft has gone ahead and said that Vegas 2 will be the last entry in the Vegas line of Rainbow Six games, but it’s hard to feel any sense of climax or finality when there will be more Rainbow Six games. There will be more acronymical Tom Clancy games (GRAW, RSV, GRIT, SCDA, and so on). We just won’t be slinking around casinos anymore.
So what’s the real star this week?
Condemned 2 looks like it’s at least as visceral as the somewhat overlooked first installment, even though Greg Grunberg isn’t involved this time around (because, I mean, Greg Grunberg. That guy’s been excellent since at least Alias). There’s a free ad-supported PC dance mat game that’s finally hitting wide release this week called Dance! Online, and the production quality is actually pretty impressive for free software. You can use your keyboard, too, in case breaking a sweat isn’t your thing.
Still…Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword. Have you seen some of the previews for this thing? I always end up seriously impressed when a developer takes the Nintendo DS and makes it do things it was never meant to do, and Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword makes that underpowered little DS look almost PSP-ish. The cinemas look true to the classic original, the gameplay looks innovative (swordfighting with a stylus is always good), and it’s a Ninja Gaiden game, so you know you’re going to be giving your DS the finger and throwing it at walls at some point. This is a good thing for you, because you need a challenge, and for Nintendo, who will profit from all of the new DSes you have to buy because your old ones are in a thousand pieces on the sidewalk outside your house.
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Diary Girl, a password-protected diary/PDA for your DS, which actually allows voice chat, which in turn means it has at least one leg up on Super Smash Bros. Brawl. To this I ask: when do we get Diary Boy?
The scheduled releases for this week are after the jump.
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Xbox 360:
Sega Superstars Tennis (18 March)
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (18 March)
Nintendo DS:
Diary Girl (18 March)
Fantasy Aquarium (18 March)
GoPets: Vacation Island (18 March)
Lost in Blue 3 (18 March)
Sega Superstars Tennis (18 March)
Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (20 March)
PS3:
Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds (18 March)
Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore (18 March)
Sega Superstars Tennis (18 March)
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (18 March)
Condemned 2: Bloodshot (20 March)
Wii:
Worms: A Space Oddity (17 March)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (18 March)
Sega Superstars Tennis (18 March)
PC:
Dance! Online (17 March)
Merv Griffin’s Crosswords (18 March)