Over the past several months, I have become smothered under an avalanche of games to play. There were so many to play this year that I’ve missed out on several top games in many people’s Game of the Year debates, like Dead Space, Fable 2 and Fallout 3 (which is in the mail). Here are some quick thoughts on some games that I’ve recently finished and other that are in rotation:
My 4-year-old son is in his ‘I love superheroes’ phase and, naturally, I have encouraged this love by recording certain Batman, Spider-man and Iron Man cartoons, buying select toys and books, as well as video games.
Through “Marvel Ultimate Alliance,” I have seen my son’s gaming skills grow, from an inability to maneuver his character up a flight of stairs to button mashing bad guys until they released their gold coin innards. The game also became his main introduction to the other superheroes that had yet received the Hollywood treatment. Although he only wanted to play as Spider-man, he quickly learned about Captain America, Thor, Wolverine and the other main teammates. Knowing my son’s gaming skill set, “Spider-man: Friend or Foe” was an easy buying decision. Even though the game did not score well (Metacritic rating of 60), I’m sure that most reviewers did not sit down with a child and play the game. The easy controls unleashed a series of combos, making my son exclaim “Wow!” and “Hey, did you see that?!” and, in essence, making him feel like a superhero – and isn’t that the point? While there is a versus mode in the game, I wanted different characters. So I went looking for a new superhero game to play with him.
