Games Reviews
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Imagine Girl Band, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, PixelJunk Eden
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DS, PS2, Vivendi, £24.99
As the latest Mummy movie lumbers on to our screens, it’s with a heavy heart that I fire up this title. Where to begin? The hideous camera angles? The arbitrary and logic-free puzzles? The thumb-numbingly tough-boss characters? The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor has it all. It plays like a sub-sub-standard Tomb Raider, without any of that iconic title’s charms and certainly no leading character like the much-loved Ms Croft. The only plus side is that everything looks very pretty, but, alas, that’s only skin deep.
Imagine Girl Band (Rated 3/ 5 )
DS, Ubisoft, £29.99
Ubisoft’s Imagine range is designed for young ladies between the ages of eight and 16, so it’s fair to say that Girl Bandwon’t appeal to every gamer looking for a new handheld adventure. Still, for tweens and teens brought up on a diet of XFactor and Girls Aloud, this title ticks all the boxes, with customisable characters who can be corralled into forming a popular beat combo, and sent off to earn money and, presumably, race up the virtual pop charts. Halo it is not, but then it doesn’t want to be.
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 (Rated 4/ 5 )
Xbox 360 Live Arcade,Activision, 800 MSP
One of the jewels in the crown of Xbox Live Arcade when it first launched, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolvedwas a highenergy abstract shooter that first started life as a mini-game in the Project Gotham racing series. In its new incarnation, a few things have changed: there are now five new tricksy modes to keep you on your toes, you are equipped with a superior weapon that makes life a lot easier, and you can collect far more enemy spoils than before. It’s bright, frantic and brilliant. And it’s a bargain, too.
PixelJunk Eden (Rated 4/ 5 )
PSN, Sony, £4.99
Funnily enough, gardening fans aren’t served terriblywell by the hi-tech world of video games. With the exceptions of the candy coloured plots of Viva Piñata and the farm yards of Harvest Moon, PixelJunk Eden is the first game in a long time to make a garden a viable setting for action. It’s an enchanting-looking title, with tendril-filled areaswaiting for your “grimp” – jump and grip – to swing from branch to branch, spreading pollen and catching floating spots called “spectra”. Weird but wonderful, PixelJunk Eden is a PSN game well worth digging in to.
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