Namco

According to ESRB, this game contains: Mild Launguage, Suggestive Themes

According to ESRB, this game contains: Language, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence

With the announcement of Tekken 5, I was prepared for a by-the-numbers sequel only adding a few new faces. Now that it's here, I'm quite pleased to say that unlike its predecessor, Tekken 5 is anything but uninspired.

In the world of entertainment media, similar properties come out simultaneously all the time, usually as bandwagon hopefuls trying to cash in on whatever the hot topic of the day is. In 1997, Hollywood gave us Pierce Brosnan and Tommy Lee Jones battling molten lava in both Dante's Peak and the aptly titled Volcano. Today's bookshelves overflow with DaVinci Code wannabees. It happens in modern media all the time, and more so in gaming as it becomes an even larger player in the entertainment industry. Over the past few years, there have been five or six versions of Taiko: Drum Master put out before Namco finally released a North American console version of it in 2004 for the PS2 (around the same time Nintendo/Namco released Donkey Konga for the Gamecube). Having first gone ape playing Donkey Konga, I just had to see how the console version of Taiko stacked up comparatively. The short answer? It doesn't. But that's far too simplistic.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Mild Language, Violence

Game Description: Tekken 5 is a sight to behold for fans of realistic, exciting fighting action. After the events of Tekken 4, Heihachi Mishima is dead. It was thought that the crime syndicate that ran the Iron Fist Tournament ("Tekken") would cease to exist with its leader gone, but a mysterious new figure has stepped in to take command. Now the Mishima Zaibatsu has announced the fifth Iron Fist Tournament, and old warriors will meet new challengers as they try to claim victory one more time.

I found Katamari Damacy brilliant thanks to its sheer simplicity of purpose. This madcap star building experience is addictive to the point of genius. Only sheer exhaustion and cramped thumbs made me stop for any period of time.

Katamari Damacy may not have the flashiest graphics or the most intuitive controls, but what it does have is something far more important: the ability to evoke a sense of wonder within me as I experience the work of such creative and inspired minds.

Game Description: When the King of All Cosmos accidentally destroys all the stars in the sky, he orders you, his pint-sized princely son, to put the twinkle back in the heavens above. The only way you can do that is by rolling everything on Earth into clumps so that he can replace what's missing in space. "Everything" includ es cookies, lawn mowers, lamp posts, sumo wrestlers, bulldozers, brontosauruses , cruise ships, and more. Katamari Damacy also includes a two-player battle mode where you and a friend can see who can grow the biggest ball of stuff.