The dashing Nathan Drake explores underground civilizations in Sony’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Season’s top games don’t take things too seriously
This fall isn’t quite as jammed with big video game releases as recent years have been but what’s lacking in numbers is more than made up for in quality. Here’s a look at a few of the recently released.
Brutal Legend (Electronic Arts; PS3 Xbox 360; rated mature)
Eddie Riggs is the world’s best roadie. He can fix anything he can build anything and he’s always ready with a tuned guitar and a new set of strings. After a stage collapses on him Riggs wakes up in a world that looks to have been pulled right out of a Judas Priest album cover. Armed with a battle-axe and an axe of another sort (an electric guitar named Clementine) Riggs helps the humans in the wild world including the aimless and large-necked headbangers by greasing the wheels of revolution. You don’t have to be a fan of heavy metal to appreciate Brutal Legend — the story is funny the character designs clever and the acting excellent — but metal fans will better appreciate the metal stereotypes that are both honoured and lightly ridiculed. A hilarious homage to the heavy metal of old the game stars Jack Black as Eddie Riggs features the voice talents of metal gods such as Lemmy Rob Halford Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne and includes 108 classic heavy metal songs in the soundtrack. From game designer Tim Schafer (who brought us the wonderful and subversive Psychonauts ) Brutal Legend exceeds expectations in every way.
Mini Ninjas (Eidos; DS PC PS3 Wii Xbox 360; rated 10+)
This action game is ideal for kids but it’s fun for everyone. It has ninjas and swords yes but the ultimate objective of the game is to restore the balance of nature. You see the Evil Samurai Warlord has used Kuji magic to create an army of samurai and they are marching across the countryside. The Ninja Master has sent forth ninja from the village but none have returned. The only two left are young friends Hiro and Futo. The two of them are all that remain to save the world from the ego of the Evil Samurai Warlord. They do so by shaking fruit from trees to eat and heal by entering the Plane of Spirits to conduct sneak attacks and possess animals for sneaking around and by turning their samurai enemies into the forest animals they once were. Mini Ninjas is a cute and charming game but it’s sorely in need of a co-operative mode.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Sony; PS3; rated teen)
Uncharted 2 starts off exactly how every action adventure should: with the protagonist Nathan Drake facing certain doom. It’s the way such stories have been told since the days of the movie serials. Drake has been in a train crash and his railcar is hanging over an icy cliff edge. By the time you help Drake pull himself from the wreckage — and learn the game’s smooth and intuitive controls while you are at it — the stage has been set through a series of flashbacks. It turns out that Drake is searching for the Cintamani stone said to have been kept in the mythical city of Shambala but the path to the jewelled prize is not without obstacles and the protagonist will be falling from many of them. Drake taking a tumble from rooftops and massive statues is a recurring source of hilarity in this game as the developers at Naughty Dog play up the hero-as-punching-bag esthetic that made Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones so empathetic. The narrative jumps back and forth in time to tell the entire story and when you’re controlling Drake the linear path through the levels is never so obvious that you feel like a rat in a maze but clear enough that you’re never left wondering where the hell to turn next. The varied environments — ranging from snowy mountain peaks to underground caverns to teeming jungles — are rendered with stunning vibrancy. Make no mistake this game is cinematic and the action between cut-scenes is varied well-designed and perfectly balanced. Drake survives of course as he always will. The fun with the Uncharted games is in seeing how close he gets to the point of no return.
