The hilarious fourth entry in the Oddworld franchise has headed out to the wild, wild (and weird, weird) west. Rather than following the further adventures of series hero Abe, this time there's a new stranger in town, and his name is ... well, Stranger.
All we know about Stranger is that he needs an expensive operation to survive, and he'll get it even if he has to collect the bounty on every wannabe-Yosemite Sam outlaw in Oddworld. Departing from the series' typical format, you alternate between third-person platforming and first-person, shooting as you roam from one gorgeously bizarre chicken town to the next. Because of this greater emphasis on action, you'll be packing some live ammo—literally.
Rather than gradually upgrading your weapons, you upgrade the assortment of destructive critters you find in the wild and use for munitions. You can wrap an enemy in a web by shooting a spider at him or distract him by firing off an annoyingly chatty chipmunk. The ammo nearly steals the show, making me wonder if I can go back to the mundane, faceless bullets of Halo 2.
Shadow Of Rome (M) (4 stars)
Capcom
PlayStation 2
This Gladiator rip-off alternates between hack 'n' slash arena battles and tense stealth missions. Both modes are well done, but the coliseum carnage is the main attraction. Breakable weapons will have you frantically rushing to attack with whatever you can pick up, including your enemies' severed limbs. And nothing gets the crowd cheering like beating your opponent with his own arm while taunting, "Stop hitting yourself!"
Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel (T) (2.5 stars)
Square Enix
PlayStation 2
There are some excellent ideas in this title, based on the popular anime series, but alchemy has transmuted them into canine excrement. The ability to transform trash cans and other junk into assorted weapons is somewhat pointless when your default attack is sufficient to wipe out waves of tedious adversaries. And there are so many text boxes, it's more like a novelization of the TV show than a game.
Ridge Racer DS (E) (3 stars)
Namco
Nintendo DS
Playing Ridge Racer with the DS stylus is about as natural as driving a car by pushing the steering wheel with a pencil. Fortunately, this port of the N64 title still holds up as a fun, arcade-style racer, making it easy to forgive the lack of analog control. Of course, I'd rather the DS stop releasing titles that need us to forgive it.
Matthew Scott Hunter has been known to mumble, "Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start" in his sleep. E-mail him at
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