video games

Ultimate Spider-Man: Disappointing. I was hoping for a game that would improve on the Spider-Man 2 experience. This didn't. The graphics are fine - I like toon shading. The story is very short, and not nearly as good as Spider-Man 2's. The controls and the fighting are vastly simplified from Spider-Man 2. There is almost nothing in the way of ability upgrades, unlike Spider-Man 2.

We ♥ Katamari: Satisfying. There's nothing revolutionary here, but there are some nice new features. Katamari Damacy left me wanting more, and this meets that desire well. The soundtrack is not as good, though.

Sly 3: Band of Thieves Satisfying. I thought the original Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus was pretty good, and I thought Sly 2: Band of Thieves was great. This is a lot like Sly 2, but the clue bottles are gone, you get to play several extra characters with neat abilities, and the mini-games are quite fun. Also, remarkably, Sly's special attacks work against the bosses, which is pretty unusual in my experience.

I'm looking forward to Shadow of the Colossus (from the creator of Ico), and I'll probably buy SSX On Tour and Ratchet: Deadlocked too. Yes, I've noticed that five of these six games are sequels.