JOE’s Gaming Round Up

JOE's Gaming Round-up features the release of Michael Jackson: The Experience, the possible return of Guitar Hero and Sony's digs at the Nintendo DS.

JOE

JOE’s Gaming Round-up features the release of Dynasty Warriors 7, more Call of Duty: Black Ops DLC and Nintendo’s reaction to The Sun’s 3DS headline news.

By Emmet Purcell

Welcome to another week of JOE’s videogame round-up. As always, we’re looking to provide you with up-to-the-minute news, download reviews, weekly charts and forthcoming release dates on a weekly basis.

So if there’s anything you think we’re leaving out, or would like us to shine a spotlight on, feel free to leave a comment below.

News

Sony CEO Jack Tretton: Nintendo DS is “a great babysitting tool”

Worse, it’s extended the careers of Jedward

There’s nothing more bitchy than a Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo CEO throwing a few barbs at the competition and this week Sony Computer Entertainment America head honcho Jack Tretton didn’t let us down in an extraordinary interview with CNN.

“Our view of the ‘Game Boy experience’ is that it’s a great babysitting tool, something young kids do on airplanes, but no self-respecting 20-something is going to be sitting on an airplane with one of those. He’s too old for that,” Tretton told the network. Jeez, way to make us feel like a sex offender there Jack. Tretton also had some choice words for console rivals the Xbox 360 and Wii:

“I mean, you’ve gotta be kidding me. Why would I buy a gaming system without a hard drive in it? Motion gaming is cute, but if I can only wave my arms six inches, how does this really feel like I’m doing true accurate motion gaming?”

So what console should we all rush out and buy, Jack? We’ll enjoy a long downhill roll behind it [the Playstation 3] because the technology that was so cutting edge in 2006 is extremely relevant today and is conspicuously absent in our competition.” Hmm… we had a feeling you would say that.

Activision: Guitar Hero isn’t cancelled, it’s just “on hiatus”

In retrospect, consumers were never going to buy a new plastic guitar every year

We eulogised on the demise of Activision’s Guitar Hero a couple of months back (*cough* shameless plug) but it now appears as though we may have been a little presumptuous – “Actually, just to clarify, we’re just putting Guitar Hero on hiatus, we’re not ending it,” Activision head of developer relations Dan Winters told GamesIndustry.biz this week.

“We’re releasing products out of the vault, we’ll continue to sustain the channel, the brand won’t go away. We’re just not making a new one for next year, that’s all.”

With the dance video game craze showing no signs of abating, not to mention Activision rivals Ubisoft’s huge market share within that genre (Just Dance, Michael Jackson: The Experience), we wouldn’t be shocked to hear of a ‘Dance Hero‘ announcement pretty soon.

Download of the Week

The Dishwasher: Vampire’s Smile (800 MS Pts from Xbox Live Arcade)

If you enjoy the darker side of Xbox Live Arcade, you’ll find it hard to resist the oddly-named The Dishwasher: Vampire’s Smile, a genuinely disturbing slice of downloadable action spread across 50 levels. A polished, blood-soaked adventure that won’t be to everyone’s tastes, we’ve heard that Vampire’s Smile is a pretty intense title for those that can stomach the distinctive art style.

Friday Releases 15/04/11

Everyone’s favourite Fulham FC statue visits Kinect and Move

Another snoozesome weekend of releases is livened up by Michael Jackson: The Experience, which arrives on Microsoft Kinect and Playstation Move after shifting 3 million copies on the Nintendo Wii over Christmas. Elsewhere, there’s precious little to get excited about, for the second week in a row. If you ever needed proof that video game releases are decided by idiots, next week heavy hitters Mortal Kombat, Portal 2, The Conduit 2, SOCOM 4 and Final Fantasy IV on PSP are all released on the same Friday. Sigh…

Out this Friday:

Xbox 360

Fantastic Pets

Michael Jackson: The Experience

Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes (XBLA)

WSC Real 11: World Snooker Championship 2011

Playstation 3

Michael Jackson: The Experience

WSC Real 11: World Snooker Championship 2011

Wii

None

Nintendo 3DS