If the official Katamari Damacy website is to be believed, then today marks the (North American) release of the series final installment, Me and My Katamari for the PSP. The obvious question is how will the lack of a second analogue nub affect the game's mechanics? The short answer — for fans reeling from the recent announcement — is that it doesn't matter. Anyone itchin' to roll on the go is going to re-learn the controls. But will nagging load screens and recycled material sour the sweet farewell?

• GameBrink (88/100) - "Due to the controls and the repetitive level design, the game won't be stealing the spotlight of the PS2 titles, but at the same time it's still a great game that can now be played on the go." [JPN Import]
• GameSpot (80/100) - "The paltry number of levels in Me and My Katamari proves to be its biggest shortcoming, as the game otherwise does a pretty phenomenal job of re-creating the Katamari Damacy experience on the PSP."
• 1UP (70/100) - "While it may be the most lackluster chapter to date, it's still pretty entertaining — but only in small doses. Just be aware that the price is too high and the replayability is too low."

EA has already lost millions due to delays of The Godfather. But for gamers, there is more at stake than just dollars. When you combine The Godfather license with GTA-style gameplay, you run the risk of trashing one of cinema's greatest feats, as well as fueling gaming's ever-staling sandbox genre. The Godfather will no-doubt sell (probably not nearly enough to recoup EA's losses), but does it deserve to rank among the current-gen's true Dons?

• Xbox Advanced (83/100) - "I was in the camp of skeptics at the announcing of this title... However, after playing this game I must say I’ve come away impressed. It has its flaws: inconsistent AI, lack of fast transit, and lack of in-game character customization, but at the core this is a very good game."
• GameSpot (81/100) - "If you're a fan of the film, you'll appreciate the way the game pays tribute to the movie. Even if you've never seen the film, the satisfying combat and challenging missions make this game worth playing."
• IGN (79/100) - "I can honestly say that the Godfather doesn't suck... People looking for a perfect game, however, will be disappointed... Still, there are elements that totally stand out from any similar games in the category, from the extortion system to the business take-over model to the globally responsive respect system."

[Via Metacritic; see also: PlayStation 2, PC]

There were lofty expectations for developer Turbine (Asheron's Call, LOTR Online) and their latest MMORPG, Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach. They had a famous franchise with a tradition of successful RPGs to live up to, as well as the high bar set by successful MMO contemporaries World of Warcraft, EverQuest, and Guild Wars.

Hardcore fans have wondered what new experiences DDO would offer over the oft compared Neverwinter Nights series. If you're looking for a graphically rich world with a new campaign setting and challenging, real-time combat, then DDO could be worth a look. After reading these reviews, however, you might conclude that the solo options, the more frequent and higher leveling, the library of downloadable modules, and the free online play of NWN is time better spent.

• EuroGamer (80/100) summarizes DDO's battle system nicely: "Fighting isn’t simply ‘hit the auto-attack button and occasionally buff your character’. Depending on your character’s abilities, you can roll, sidestep, jump and block, all of which affect how hard you are to hit and how much damage you do. Where WOW is like Connect 4, a solved game, DDO is not always predictable and relies on you swinging, dodging and blocking at the right times."
   
  
• GameSpot (75/100) explains the lack of PvP and solo-friendly play: "The point of the game is to play through and enjoy successive quests together with several other players like you. This isn't a game for those who prefer or expect the option to be able to play solo, though it makes quickly finding a player group quite easy."
   
  
• 1UP (65/100) has a more sobering description of party creation: "The bottom line is that it's tough to keep a group together for very long -- even a group that works well together. The instanced missions are static and don't scale to party size (though you can select one of three difficulty levels when entering a dungeon) so you need to have a decent-sized party to succeed. Further, you need a well-rounded party to succeed and/or get the most out of a quest."
   
• GameSpy (60/100) expected a more immersive world: "The sense of scale is elusive: every time you do leave Stormreach (or delve into its belly), your party gets its own private instance of whatever mission you're in, which locks you away from the rest of the playerbase. There's no travel time outside of the loading screen, and while excessive journeys are by no means fun, their complete absence really does a lot to shrink a world."

[via Metacritic]

Metal Gear Solid 3 was released today, again. The remix, which includes the debut of online play, a new camera system, ports of the original MSX Metal Gear titles, and the addition of numerous other gameplay modes, spans two discs and is available for a mere $29.99. This substantial package has garnered an unprecedented Metacritic score of 99 (6 reviews). While this average is sure to drop in the coming days, there's no doubt that Subsistence has made an early bid for game of the year and has reassured current-gen gamers that the PS2 is far from dead. Peep the word:

• PSM Magazine (100/100) - "...we wish our review scale went to 11."
• IGN (98/100) - "For the price and the extras, you can't go wrong with Subsistence -- even for those that have played and beaten the first game once or several more times, it still can't be missed."
• Yahoo! Games (90/100) - "Subsistence is easily the greatest same-gen remake ever..."

Here's one that's all over the galactic map. While most of the gaming press acknowledges Star Wars: Empire at War as superior to its RTS predecessors (Rebellion, Force Commander, and Galactic Battlegrounds), scores still ranged from 60 to 92.

It was unanimous that the land battles were less interesting than the space conflicts, due in part to repetitive environments on the ground. Additionally, many reviewers had issues with the game's lack of strategic depth. However, Petroglyph has been applauded for presenting the Star Wars universe on a much grander scale than has been seen in any of the franchise's other titles to date, and it's quite possible they simply wanted to make Empire at War as accessible as the Battle for Middle-earth series.

• GameSpot (87/100) was impressed with the Star Wars authenticity and overall presentation: "Logical differences in the optimal playing style between the Empire and Rebellion, as well as an epic presentation befitting of the license, contribute to a fantastic overall package that any strategy-game player can appreciate."

• 1UP (80/100) enjoyed the Galactic Conquest mode, but had this to say about single player: "Campaign mode moves at a sort of jerky pace, and everything moves too quickly to really enjoy. It's climactic, yes, but the abruptness cuts short your time to enjoy finally accessing your ultimate technologies."
  
  
• IGN (76/100) would have liked to see larger maps, but enjoyed the action: "While the galactic management of the game is satisfying, the game really doesn't take off until you actually take part in the full battles. The space battles come damn close to capturing the excitement of the films. It should be mentioned that, while heroes can play a big role in space battles, they tend to be much more effective on the ground."
  
  
• GameSpy (70/100) had issues with the interface and too many hidden features that should have been more obvious: "It does a wonderful job of bending, breaking, and often reinventing the normal RTS rules to create as Star Wars a feel as you could possibly hope for... But the bad news is that it's not easy to play Empire at War so that it lives up to its fullest potential."

[via GameStats, Metacritic]

This was arguably the biggest week for the 360 following its late November launch. After an initial outpour of launch games, the system has been just getting by with occasional late entrants: Dead or Alive 4, Fight Night Round 3, and now Ghost Recon: Advanced Warrior and the next-gen version of EA's crashtacular Burnout series. If the CES demo was "jaw dropping," what's the concensus on the retail product? Does it deliver?

• Gamespot (88%) - "While Burnout Revenge might not have enough new stuff in it to drag you back in if you've been playing it on other platforms, this is definitely the version to get if you're shopping around."
• 1UP (90%) - "People who haven't played the current-gen version should get the 360 version if: They are breathing."
• Team Xbox (90%) - "The gameplay is as solid as its predecessors, the online support is some of the best out there, and the graphics and audio rival most other Xbox 360 titles."

With an average of 89%, Burnout: Revenge and G.R.A.W. are giving 360 owners plenty to be excited about. March will also see the 360 launches of Far Cry Instincts: Predator, Elder Scrolls IV, The Outfit, and more!

Any haters in the house? The early consensus (8 reviews, all 90% or above) suggests that Ubisoft's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for the Xbox 360 is going to become a prime target for Xbox-loathing fanboys who still think the 360 isn't next-gen. Will they find a kink in the armor? Or did the four-month delay allow Ubi to reach perfection? Here's a glimpse of the praise so far:

• GameSpot (92/100) - "Advanced Warfighter is the best-looking game to date on the Xbox 360, and it offers exceptional tactical shooting action to back up those great visuals."
• IGN (92/100) - "You'll be impressed with the stunning single-player game, and when you're done, you'll finally get to play long sessions on Xbox Live with an online game that's fully equipped to deliver a next-gen package. My advice, get this game..."
• Stuff (90/100) - "Advanced Warfighter on the 360 is so beautiful, we actually dry-humped our conference room TV set."

After procuring the literary rights to The Lord of the Rings, EA was hoping to breathe some new life into its prized gaming franchise. However, their first attempt resulted in the disappointing Lord of the Rings: Tactics for the PSP.

Last year's Battle for Middle-earth was a moderate success, and the new content inspired by the novels has allowed the dwarves, elves, and goblins to join the party in the sequel. There are also new maps and modes to explore, as well as some moderate enhancements to the graphics and gameplay.

So far, the results are consistent with last year's effort, giving EA another solid entry in the RTS category.

• IGN (90/100) enjoyed the sequel, but cautions the more casual RTS fan who might be expecting the simplicity of the first game: "There's a lot to experience with this entry into the series including three new factions, a redesigned base building mode, some awesome new powers, terrific improvements to the engine, a tighter campaign mode, and both skirmish and War of the Ring."

• GameSpot (83/100) really enjoyed one of the new modes: "The good news is that things get really interesting once you play with the new War of the Ring mode. Essentially, War of the Ring links all the real-time battles to an overarching strategic campaign, but one that's deeper than the superficial strategic mode in the original Battle for Middle-earth."
  
  
• Yahoo! Games (80/100) found the battle AI lacking, but raved about the game's presentation: "It's a beautiful-looking game, brought to life with spectacular maps, excellent models, and a real flair for visual design from opening sequence to game-over screen. You'll be spending most of your time zoomed out, but you'll still enjoy watching your troops stomp about Middle Earth causing havoc."
  
  
• GameSpy (70/100) was even less impressed in the AI department: "Both unit AI and pathfinding can be extremely troublesome, particularly when it comes to the game's naval battles. Not only is your navy incompetent, they also seem unable to avoid friendly fire. And the problems extend to your land-based forces as well. I can't count the number of times I saw my boys come under enemy fire and not respond."

Baseball season is nearly upon us, and if third-party publishers can't make an MLB game due to Take-Two Interactive's exclusivity deal, then let first-party publishers continue to do so. That said, Sony has released MLB '06: The Show for both the PS2 and PSP with some critics calling it a worthy replacement for EA's MVP series. Here's what the reviewers are saying with a Game Rankings composite score of 84% at the time of writing:

• GamePro 80% - "Because the game engine is basically the same, we see just about all the same hitting and fielding animations in The Show, with fielding animations near top-notch in the baseball genre. The fluidity with which fielders can step on a bag and throw, or make running throws for that matter, is surprisingly realistic and accurate."
• GameDaily 90% - "MLB 06 features the best commentary in a sports game, period, but it's also loaded with cool animations as well, so players make less awkward catches. But beyond the actual games there's also a hell of a lot of modes to play around with, such as King of the Diamond, the all new Rivalry mode, a retooled Franchise mode, and the ability to play as the Cooperstown legends."
• Yahoo! Games 80% - "After all the small additions and mode debuts, it's also nice to see that Sony has finally started to apply some moxie to the online aspect of baseball. The new lobbies, matchmaking, and friend lists are all excellent, as is the option to play King of the Diamond online."
  

Super Princess Peach marks a big plot reversal for the world of Super Mario Bros. Bowser, in his infinite wisdom, has kidnapped Mario, leaving Princess Peach little choice other than to fight her way through scores of Bowser's minions in an attempt to free the red-clothed plumber. Key differences in gameplay from previous Mario platformers include emotional superpowers (obviously feeding off the stereotype that women can be more emotional than men), an umbrella used as a weapon (Peach isn't heavy enough to kill enemies by jumping on them) with a bunch of mini-games along the way.

Planet Gamecube (80/100) by Unknown - this review gives the impression that Super Princess Peach is a quality Nintendo platformer, but one that's a little on the easy side. In fact "the easiness is really the only thing that should dissuade a purchase, but it's not so easy it's terrible". According to the self-described "hardcore Mario fan" reviewer, the game doesn't reward skilled players as much as he/she would like, but we're pretty sure the majority of players won't care about this.

IGN (78/100) by Craig Harris - again, a feeling that the game is too easy is the reviewer's main criticism of the game. For example "Nintendo goes completely out of its way to spoon-feed the player, going so far as to nearly spell out the solution to every boss battle before the player enters the fight." We'd imagine that would get annoying, fast.

Gamespot (72/100) by Ryan Davis - this review brings up something that was at the back of my mind since the mentioning of "emotional superpowers". "There's something rather sexist about the idea that Princess Peach's big secret weapon is that she can get really overly emotional at the drop of a hat" (emphasis added). We've got to ask our female audience; what do you feel about this feature? The review concludes on the note that Super Princess Peach is a great introduction for rookies to the world of 2D platformers, but if you're looking for the next Super Mario Bros. you better wait until Mario Bros DS is released.

EA's much trumpeted "gun porn" first-person shooter hits the shelves this week, so we thought it'd be a good idea to compile the thoughts of a selection of reviews from the web. Overall, Game Rankings gives Black a good score of 79%, but does it live up to the hype?

IGN (87/100) by Chris Roper - this interview can be summed up by the statement that Black "is everything you'd ever want in a shooter if all you ever wanted to do was shoot stuff". In other words Black is the Serious Sam of the PS2/Xbox (read: irrelevant plot, limited replayabilty but with plenty of pretty guns, gore and explosions to stop you from caring).

EuroGamer (80/100) by Kristan Reed - this review plays the statistics game to point out the hectic nature of the game. By the end of Black, reviewer Kristan Reed had killed a total of 2758 enemies equating to one kill every ten seconds. This kill count wasn't easily earned; the A.I. in Black is pretty tough. Unfortunately the lack of a plot to explain why the hell you have to kill all these people lets the game down. That plus the absence of a multiplayer mode and the occasional slowdown due to unoptimized code (or the PS2's aging hardware) means that Black doesn't quite fall into the genre defining category.

1UP (70/100) by Garnett Lee - "Do you like to blow stuff up?" If you do, then Black is the game for you. According to this review, Black elevates shooting things/blowing things up to an almost artistic level. But if you're looking for more of a Half-Life style experience from your shooters, Black won't satisfy you - unless you have the ability to switch off your brain.

What happens when a popular real-time strategy game for the PC gets ported to the DS... and gets translated into a turn-based title in the process? That's the question in the minds of Age of Empires fans who finally got to check out this reinvention of AoK this past week.

Luckily for fans of Ensemble's work, the reimagining turned out a bit better than they might have hoped, even if the overall 82 out of 100 metascore means it didn't fare much better than its PC big brother. Nevertheless, here are a few scores and review excerpts to make up for past strategic miscues on the platform:

• The New York Times (86/100): "Missions are quite interesting, as you seek out holy relics or protect besieged cities. They can also be very difficult, and there were times when after an hour of desperately trying to wipe out the enemy my army would be decimated and my general slain, forcing me to start over with a fresh approach. Fortunately, the varied strategic choices can make a mission play out quite differently a second time."

The Grandia series has had its share of hits and misses over the years, and the latest iteration, Grandia III, follows that same pattern with its great graphics and battle system, but poor story and character follow-through after the game's first disc. Here are a few representative reviews and quotes for GIII:

• 1UP (8.0/10): "I almost feel like I'm reviewing two games -- the first disc, which is awesome, and the second, which is ho-hum."
• RPGFan--the domestic review (81%): "The first disc features some great character development.... The emotional scenes in the first disc are really striking, especially with the great dialogue.... The [voice] acting is good as a whole, though there are some stinkers.... The music, on the other hand, is, to put it bluntly, crap."
• Penny Arcade: "With RPG combat systems wresting more and more control away from players... it's a relief that Grandia has retained a fully turn-based system where position and timing still matter. There are actually spots on the controller where our tears of jubilation disturbed the hand oils and snack residue."
• IGN (7.6/10): "Despite its relatively short playing time and lack of things to do outside the main quest, its battle system, initial character introductions, and boss fights are compelling enough to warrant a total playthough."

If you find the good (a great first disc and crazy combos) to outweigh the bad (a short, linear game with uneven difficulty), then GameArts' latest might be the thing to hold you over till FFXII. Otherwise, it's mired in a decidedly average spectrum of titles--good, but not spectacular--clocking in with a 79 out of 100 overall metascore (out of 20 current reviews).

Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure is the latest urban action game. A mash up of Jet Set Radio, Prince of Persia, and Grand Theft Auto, there is hardly consensus on the controversial title. A look at some notables:

• Gamespot (87%) - "It's easy to look at a game that has a non-gamemaking fashion designer's name right in the title and assume that it's going to be some sort of flashy, style-over-substance licensed product, but Atari, The Collective, and Ecko have effectively teamed up here and put together a game that has plenty of flashy style, but is a quality game underneath all that flash."
  
• 1UP (70%) - "The worst thing a decent action game can suffer from is bad camera control, and this malady afflicts Getting Up... The game strikes a nice balance between fighting and tagging. Although frequent, the fighting winds up being secondary to advancing the story line. In some missions, it even works out better to evade authorities and simply complete your objective."
  
• GamePro (50%) - "Focusing the majority of gameplay attention on the actual art of writing, rather than on a hackneyed up-from-the-streets story, would have been a good start. And, regrettably for Ecko, development just couldn't work the kinks out of the shoddy Getting Up game engine. Frame rate consistently dips to horrific lows, and many in-game objects and actions break frequently during gameplay."

The reviews criticize the tempermental camera system and technical glitches, while praising the title's quality voice-acting, solid soundtrack, and immersive graffiti culture.

See also:
Australia knocks down Marck Ecko's Getting Up
More Joystiq coverage of Getting Up

What do we need to know about new PSP release Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX (otherwise known as Street Fighter Zero 3: Double Upper in Japan)? The port's pixel-perfect, ad hoc multiplayer is great (despite the lack of infrastructure support), stretched widescreen is serviceable (though the "letterbox" version might better suit 2D purists), and the controls are wonky (even with the sticky D-pad cover that came with pre-orders). Other than that, SFA3M is the epitome of 2D fighting games, a decent title (metascore: currently 80 out of 100) which will probably appeal to fans more than the critics. Here are some review highlights:

• GamePro (4.0/5): "Yes, the game is essentially a port of a decade old fighter and it can be hard as hell, but all the horsepower the PSP brings to the table can't keep this game from being at times mind-numbing frustrating when it comes to control. Put simply, the D-pad the PSP has just isn't cut out to be used for a fighting game, where fast fingers and accurate directional control is paramount."