Microsoft

Voodoo Vince is easily the best platformer currently on the Xbox, but saying that is a lot like saying George W. Bush is currently the best president of the United States living in the White House—there ain't a whole lot of competition. However, even if there were more games of the platforming variety on Microsoft's big black box, Vince would still be worthy of attention. While it may not be the most original game on the block, it certainly does a fine job of taking the core elements of the platforming genre and implementing them into a game that looks more aesthetically interesting than any comparable game on the market.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Mild Violence

Game Description: Voodoo Vince is an outrageous venture—from the streets of New Orleans to the depths of a Louisiana bayou—where players explore and fight as a tattered-but-tough voodoo doll on a quest to find the whereabouts of his keeper, Madam Charmaine. In true voodoo style, Vince encounters and defeats quirky monsters and villains ... by kicking his own butt! By racing under a falling safe, jumping into a high-speed blender, or leaping under falling rubble, Vince is sure to defeat his enemies—all while managing to escape completely unscathed.

At its core, Voodoo Vince is a very conventional platformer, and I suspect that those who frequent the genre will find the game slightly less appealing for its lack of original mechanics. But this is a game that nonetheless excels because of its bizarre theme and the humorous contexts through which it is acted out.

Nightcaster was one of Microsoft's lead titles. It was bankrolled by Microsoft; it was published by Microsoft; it was advertised by Microsoft; and it was on store shelves before the Xbox even went on sale. Clearly this is title would be a showcase for what the Xbox could do, right? No, obviously. Barring the rare instance, Nightcaster never demonstrates why it is on the Xbox.

Thom and I are basically on the same wavelength about MechAssault, though I daresay I squeezed a little more enjoyment out of it than he did.

Books written about videogames are odd prospects. Fiction expanding on published properties has existed for years, but it's been mostly limited to feverish fantasies written by fans in dark corners of the Internet, usually involving bizarre and improbable sexual situations.

Game Description: You are a 40-foot tall walking tank known as a BattleMech. MechAssault is a 3rd-person action or shooter, where the environments are your weapons. Choose from a dozen Mechs ranging from quick 30- tonners to huge 100-ton monsters. Customize your Mech and annihilate your opponents. 20 single-player missions keep you hooked and multiplayer mode gives you a fantastic online experience.

A game like MechAssault poses an interesting problem in terms of how it should be reviewed. The problem revolves around the dual nature of the game. MechAssault is a transition point in terms of console gaming, and it's a transition between a mainly single-player existence and the fairly recent addition of multiplayer action via an online connection. PC games have been forcing critics to deal with this question for quite a while, but this is a fairly new experience for console games. The question becomes what balance is given to the two experiences, and whether one or the other goes further in influencing the direction of the review. I've come to the conclusion that I can't worry too much about the balance between the two different modes of play and just try and talk about what makes up the nature of each and how that reflects on the game as a whole.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Blood, Violence