METROID PRIME 3: CORRUPTION (T)
Rating: *****
Nintendo Wii
Leave it to Nintendo themselves to show everyone the right way to use their new-fangled hardware. Third-party game developers take note: This is how you make a first-person shooter for the Wii.
Corruption is an action-packed climax to the Metroid Prime trilogy. Sure, there are the requisite morph ball puzzles and back story-illuminating computer scans to slow down the pace and create that Metroid-esque sense of wonder and exploration, but this is still predominately a frantic-as-hell shooter. You’ll get more use out of Samus Aran’s arm cannon on this adventure than you did in the previous two Metroid installments combined.
With the nunchuk analog attachment handling forward motion and strafing, all other movement and targeting is controlled with precision swings of the Wii remote. It’s shockingly intuitive. And with its series of epic boss battles, which vary in difficulty but are steady in fun, Metroid Prime 3 will likely wear the Wii shooter crown for a long time to come.
TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 08 (E)
Rating: ***1/2
EA Sports Xbox 360
It wouldn’t be fair to say that the Tiger Woods games are caught in a sand trap -- that would imply that they’re frustrating or flawed. So let’s just say it’s taken way too many strokes for the series to move down the fairway. The game’s a solid golf sim, but it hasn’t made any substantial progress in three years. The new ability to map your avatar’s face off of an imported photo just isn’t enough to cut it. I’ll give Tiger one more stroke, but if 09 doesn’t bring improvement, I’m calling it a bogie.
MONSTER HUNTER FREEDOM 2 (T)
Rating: ***
Capcom PlayStation Portable
Freedom doesn’t even begin to describe this game. There are more than 250 quests, 70 species of monster, 700 weapons and 1,400 armor types. You can customize your appearance, dress for cold weather, cook yourself meals, volunteer for fetch quests and, of course, hunt monsters -- and all of this on a tiny PSP disc. There’s almost no limit to what you can do, so it’s a shame the game contains such nagging flaws. 250 quests -- awesome. 250 cases of struggling with cumbersome fight and camera controls -- not so awesome.
DEAD HEAD FRED (M)
Rating: ***1/2
D3 Publisher PlayStation Portable
Maybe it’s the stylized Tim Burton-esque graphics, or maybe it’s the hilarious vocal stylings of actor John C. McGinley, or maybe it’s the fact that you get to decapitate your enemies and use their heads as power-ups (okay, it’s definitely the decapitating part), but this game manages to rise above its repetitive action-platformer formula. Hunting down the man who stole your head is such a great video game premise, I’m surprised it hasn’t been done before.
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]