Las Vegas

SORE THUMBS: WHAT’S NEW IN VIDEO GAMING

NO MORE HEROES    (M)

Rating ****1/2

Ubisoft

Wii

True cult classics are always bad. Whether they’re films, comic books or video games, there’s something about them that’s so shoddily produced or emotionally dissonant that they fail to strike a chord with mainstream audiences. But because there’s something about them that’s so revolutionary or truly unique, small groups of people are able to rally behind them in spite of their tremendous flaws. Some people are already hailing No More Heroes as an inevitable cult classic, but they’re wrong. It’s just too good.

Director SUDA-51’s last game, Killer 7, was definitely a cult classic. It was truly bizarre and offered an experience completely different from what you’d find in any other video game. But it was also agonizingly unplayable. No More Heroes, however, plays spectacularly. The adventures of Travis Touchdown, a porn and action figure-collecting weirdo who orders a genuine lightsaber off the internet, are as absurd as anything in Killer 7, but swinging the Wii-mote to slice your enemies into stylized blood geysers, screaming for the loss of their spleens, is pure bliss. No More Heroes is no cult classic. It’s simply classic.

ADVANCE WARS: DAYS OF RUIN    (E10+)

Rating ****

Nintendo

Nintendo DS

 

The cutest war simulation on the market has traded its colorful, happy-go-lucky aesthetic for a grim, post-apocalyptic makeover. But with its fundamentally lightweight story still rendered in quasi-cute anime, Days of Ruin comes across less like a leather and chains-clad Mad Max than a leather and chains-clad rebellious teenager. The addictive gameplay, however, remains entirely intact. And now that commanding officer powers have been reduced for greater balance, strategically navigating your units across the grid to victory has never been more satisfying.

BOMBERMAN   (E)

Rating **1/2

Hudson Soft

PlayStation Portable

Bomberman has always been about traveling through 2D mazes and blowing stuff up. Nothing more. But Bomberman Land tries to pretend this series has had some kind of story, complete with a Bomberworld filled with Bomberpeople. It’s all an excuse to give the title character some sort of stage where he can play out a series of inane mini-games, most of which…well, bomb. But it’s not a complete loss. The disc also includes a revamped version of the original Bomberman game. No story. No other characters. Just blowing stuff up. Just as the Bombergods intended.

WARRIORS OF THE LOST EMPIRE    (T)

Rating *1/2

UFO Interactive

PlayStation Portable

 

Warriors of the Lost Empire belongs to a genre of video games, consisting of a single game that is continually re-released with a new title. Don’t ask me what the previous titles were. I forget them as soon as I’ve played—sometimes while still playing. But this should sound familiar: You’ve got a Highlander, a Dark Seeker, a Gladiator and an Amazon Archer to select from, and with them you hack and slash your way through one randomly generated dungeon after another, gradually upgrading your weapons in order to hack and slash some more. You probably already have this game in your collection, and it’s not worth playing again, let alone buying again.

When Las Vegas Weekly contributor Matthew Scott Hunter realized his career as a lab technician was seriously interfering with his gaming, he pink-slipped himself into a successful career as a freelance writer. Bug the hell out of him at [email protected]

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