Only one shopping week until Christmas! And oh, what a forgettable week it is.
 Pick of the Week: Rock BandFear not, last gen supporters, the PS2 continues to soldier on with a downsized port of Harmonix’s excellent music game. While the PS2 version doesn’t support downloadable content (obviously) or online multiplayer (unfortunately), up to four friends can still rock out locally and live out their dreams of rock n’ roll super stardom vicariously through plastic instruments. |
 Runner-Up: Warhammer 40,000: Squad CommandAlready available for the PSP, this pint-sized RTS is opening up a second front on the Nintendo DS. The game makes great use of the DS’ touch screen as well as its WiFi capabilities, with local and online multiplayer modes. After Dawn of War and its two excellent expansions, it looks like the terrible Warhammer 40k video game curse may finally be lifted. Praise the Emperor! |
Hit the jump for the rest of the week’s multiplayer offerings.
Also available this week:
 Legends of Norrath: ForswornLegends of Norrath is a surprisingly good collectible card game playable through EverQuest, EverQuest 2, or as a stand alone product. Forsworn, its first expansion, offers a huge amount of new content, including team battles, raid encounters against powerful AI decks, and single player elements. A virtual card game based on an MMORPG really has no right to be this awesome. |
 MX vs. ATV UntamedMX vs. ATV?! What’s next, baseball vs. football? Clearly, the end is nigh, but should curiosity get the better of you before armageddon hits, this next gen racer is now available for every single console under the sun. Besides split-screen multiplayer and 12-player online racing, the game also features *shudder* minigames. There is a Wii version, after all. |
 NeoGeo Battle ColiseumA tag team fighting game featuring a massive roster of SNK characters! Great! What’s that, it’s hopelessly generic and a lackluster port of the arcade original, to boot? Even better! Oh well, at least it’s cheap. |
 NiGHTS: Journey of DreamsWe’re still in shock over the fact that the Saturn classic is actually getting a sequel. Even more surprising, given Sega’s recent track record, is that it actually looks great… as a single player game. Multiplayer is rather limited, featuring battle and racing modes, but at least it’s playable online. Of course, this being a Wii title, annoying friend code limitations still apply. |
 Sensible World of SoccerThe 1992 Amiga title (voted one of the Ten Most Important Video Games of All Time by the History of Science and Technology Collections at Stanford University) gets an Xbox Live Arcade (and Windows Vista) remake this week, and early impressions indicate it’s just as wonderful as the original. Even if you’re not a soccer fan (hello, entire population of the United States), Sensible World of Soccer is still worth checking out. At worst, you’ll only be out $10. |
December 19th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Sweet! Looks like I’ll be getting a new DS game! It’s far and few games that are good and are wifi enabled for the DS. Seems to be the same for the Wii, but Warhammer looks like a must buy.
December 19th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Squad Command definitely looks to be the premiere multiplayer experience on the DS until the next Advance Wars hits the console.