If Ocean's Twelve had been shot in 3-D, featured a cast right out of Noah's Ark and—most importantly—didn't suck, it would be Sly 3. This third outing for the titular raccoon and his band of likeable, anthropomorphic thugs spans multiple continents as they recruit an international gang for the ultimate job: the recapture of Sly's family vault.
Though originally Sony's answer to Mario, the Sly series has come a long way. Sly 2 added Bentley the Brains and Murray the Muscle as playable characters, and Sly 3 continues the trend with a veritable zoo-ful of new thieves, all with unique abilities that bring added complexity to the gameplay. The game also experiments with 3-D, but as nifty as the effects seem at first, they're not quite worth the discomfort and ridicule that the 3-D glasses inevitably bring. But that shortcoming isn't nearly enough to take this title off the most-wanted list.
GENJI: DAWN OF THE SAMURAI (M) (3.5 stars)
Sony Computer Entertainment
PlayStation 2
At first glance, you may wonder if you've accidentally stumbled into an Onimusha game, but give this hack 'n' slasher a chance and it'll blossom into a breathtakingly gorgeous and stylish experience. The action is unoriginal and the story is easily simplified to "kill the bad guys," but seldom is a title such as this done with such grace, allowing you to skillfully cut through hordes of enemies as though it had been choreographed that way.
NHL 2K6 (E10+) (4 stars)
2K Games
PlayStation 2, Xbox
We have a winner! As realistic hockey sims go, 2K6 is the game to skate with this year, a slapshot into the nuts of Gretzky NHL and a bitchslap to NHL 2006 from EA Sports (which tried to kill the 2K franchise by buying its ESPN license). The AI's been tremendously vamped up, leading to better defense and less ridiculous scoring rates than last year's version. It's nice to know that at least one game developer got through last season's player lockout without forgetting what hockey's like.
TRACE MEMORY (T) (3 stars)
Nintendo
Nintendo DS
Hooray! The DS's peculiar features have finally made it possible for a handheld to host an old-fashioned, point-and-click adventure. And if people still played point-and-click adventures, that might mean something. But if you still like your gaming experience to play more like an interactive novel with an occasional puzzle thrown in, this mystery of missing persons and lost memory is a decent virtual page-turner.
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
[email protected].