With the Burnout series, developer Criterion did for racing games what atomic bombs do for quiet desert test sites. Winning races became far less important than enjoying how satisfyingly things went boom. With Black, Criterion has applied this same principle to first-person shooters. In this game, bad guys have an ill-advised tendency to huddle around objects that explode when shot. But you can't really blame them, since everything in Black—from propane tanks to tombstones—explodes when shot.
What the game lacks in challenge and length it makes up for in the euphoria you get from taking out three adversaries with one bullet. The only thing holding Black from true greatness is the shocking absence of multiplayer. In a game this explosive, every death-match kill would be as glorious as winning a race for the rocket launcher in Halo just as your opponent enters the room. An inevitable sequel will surely correct this oversight, but until then, you'll have to save your trash talk for the AI.
GRANDIA III by Square Enix (3.5 stars)
Platforms: PlayStation 2.
Rated: T.
Here's another decent RPG with combat that requires clever strategy and has images so beautiful, you'll want to download a few of its vistas to your desktop. But you might not be able to escape the nagging feeling that if Square hadn't devoted its resources to this title, we might already be treating ourselves to the less cliché-riddled stories of Final Fantasy XII and Kingdom Hearts II.
SONIC RIDERS by Sega (3 stars)
Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube.
Rated: E.
The fastest character in video games has passed his athletic prime. But rather than retire, Sonic has enlisted the help of a hoverboard to continue his speedy antics. This makes for a fun futuristic racer that's half F-Zero and half SSX. Irritatingly, the pace is frequently interrupted by pit stops Sonic insists on jogging to on foot. It seems that poor hedgehog can't let go of his glory days.
SUPER MONKEY BALL: TOUCH & ROLL by Sega (2.5 stars)
Platforms: Nintendo DS.
Rated: E.
Why do designers insist on making DS games that highlight the flaws in the hardware? As if navigating a monkey in a ball through a hundred floating mazes wasn't difficult enough, we're forced to do it with the unintuitive stylus or the imprecise D-pad. Our evolutionary cousins deserve a modern analog stick.
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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