TOM CLANCY’S RAINBOW SIX VEGAS 2 (M)
****
Ubisoft
Xbox 360
What’s the difference between your average tourist and the Rainbow Six series? When the Rainbow Six series paid a visit to our fair city of sin a year and a half ago, it didn’t lose all its money. On the contrary, its Vegas vacation was such a monetary success, Ubisoft immediately began plotting a return trip. Unsurprisingly, the lights on The Strip don’t seem quite so bright the second time around, but that doesn’t mean Rainbow Six Vegas 2 isn’t money well spent.
Part prequel and part sequel, RSV2 begins 
before its predecessor, but eventually goes on to tie up that game’s infuriating loose ends. With a new character you get to design from scratch, you’ll guide your squad through casinos, convention centers and dustbowls on the outskirts of town. You’ll cover a lot more ground than you did in the first game, partially due to the new sprinting mechanic. Rainbow Six purists may object to this change in the series’ slow and methodical pace, but when you find yourself in an enemy grenade’s blast radius, it’s nice to have the option to quicken your steps. There’ll still be plenty of time to duck behind cover and take in the sights, before inevitably blowing those sights to smithereens.
SEGA SUPERSTARS TENNIS (E10+)
***
Sega
Xbox 360, Wii
Taking a cue from Nintendo, Sega has
fashioned an arcade-style sports game and filled it with the company’s most memorable mascots. That would include Sonic, Nights, the monkey from Super Monkey Ball, and … well, at that point they’re forced to pack in unmemorable characters. The tennis is serviceable, but the minigames are the real draw. Classics like Puyo Pop and Virtua Cop have been cleverly redesigned to be conquered with a swing of your tennis racket.
WORMS: A SPACE ODDITY (E10+)
***1/2
THQ
Wii
The latest Worms game may have taken the warring invertebrates into the future, but thankfully its gameplay is gloriously rooted in the past. After a few disastrous attempts at 3D, this series has finally realized that the best kind of video game worm is a flatworm. With a careful wave
of the Wii-mote you can aim missiles and other space-age weapons at your rivals until every battlefield in the two-dimensional galaxy is yours.
RATCHET & CLANK: SIZE MATTERS (E10+)
**
Sony Computer Entertainment
PlayStation 2
Size truly does matter, and Sony continues to prove that with each PSP title it unwisely ports to PS2. On the handheld’s tiny screen, Size Matters looks flawless. But on a TV screen, you can see plenty of flaws in every generic robot you blast to pieces and every fuzzy bolt you repetitively pick up. This game should be burned as an offering to the gods in the hopes that they will spare us a PS2 port of the recent God of War: Chains of Olympus.