What It Is: Uh, it’s Guitar Hero starring Van Halen. No, really, that’s all it is. Okay, it’s also a collection of some of Van Halen’s favorite bands, all crammed onto a disc for a full band experience.
Why It’s Hot: The short, easy answer is that it’s a game full of Van Halen songs. Guitar Hero: Metallica showed us that the single-band approach, when coupled with killer tracks, could actually be a ton of fun, but Activision has been rather mum on the progress of their latest one-band-focused project. Still, the formula’s proven successful already, what could possibly go wrong?
What It Is: The continuation of Visual Concepts‘ roundball sim, another year means another trip out onto the various courts and lanes of the 2010 NBA season. This year, 2K Sports is promising more than just roster changes and some fancy new visuals.
Why It’s Hot: The biggest additions to the series this year are the proliferation of online play across all modes, constantly updated rosters that mirror the current season and a career mode that lets you go from rookie to superstar. This should give the game plenty of single-player meat to enjoy.
What It Is: Like the Sigma before it, this sequel is a port of the original game that started on Microsoft hardware — in this case, Ninja Gaiden 2. Seen as something of an attempt to make a “definitive” version, Sigma 2 adds more modes, more characters and online multiplayer challenges.
Why It’s Hot: There’s still really nothing like Ninja Gaiden’s blend of skill-based action gaming. The sequel might not be as lovingly regarded as the original and Black remakes on the first Xbox, but it’s still the kind of game that will make you get better… or annoy the crap out of you. As there’s obviously more here to enjoy, Sigma 2 should offer plenty of value for fans of the series.
What It Is: The continuation and (in some ways) epic conclusion to the events that started with Ratchet and Clank’s 2007 outing, Tools of Destruction. A Crack in Time will re-unite the titular pair, explain the lack of Ratchets race and provide explosions. Lots and lots of explosions.
Why It’s Hot: Though there have been a few stumbles here and there, Insomniac’s Ratchet and Clank games are some of the most dependably enjoyable action platformers out there. The mix of gunplay and exploration is consistently creative — even innovative, and the continual improvements to the core engine have left this latest adventure looking gorgeous.
What It Is: Pandemic’s World War II game was already looking like more than just another WWII re-tread when it first announced the whole “liberation of Paris = color returning to a black and white world” angle, but the mix of vertical traversal and open world options makes it seem even better.
Why It’s Hot: Driving, shooting, hand-to-hand combat and, uh, scaling just about any building sounds like a pretty good start. Making it open world and moving in a decidedly different direction than most World War II games is better still. And putting a barbed-tongued Irishman at the fore? Best move of all.
What It Is: A video game take on the horror franchise that has spawned a whopping half-dozen movies in almost as many years, you’ll now find yourself as one of the victims of the killer Jigsaw’s elaborate traps.
Why It’s Hot: Licensed games, as a rule of thumb, are to be avoided, but it appears that both the trap-based offerings and ties with the films’ creators might make this work far better than most licensed fare. After all, who wouldn’t want the chance to quickly think their way out of a do-or-die situation where you won’t actually die?
What It Is: Krome Studios‘ take on the CG TV show currently running on Cartoon Network is a mix of two fairly different play styles; the shooting bits of Clone Troopers and the melee-based attacks of the Jedi (namely Anakin and Ahsoka, his Padawan), with a look, feel and story pulled from the show.
Why It’s Hot: There’s still a relative lack of drop-in/drop-out co-op experiences — particularly ones aimed at younger players — and Republic Heroes was designed from the ground up for it. A fitting sub-in for 2007’s Fall family fare, LEGO Star Wars, no?
What It Is: An updated version of the original 2008 tale that bridges the gap in the Star Wars mythos between Episodes III and IV, the Ultimate Sith Edition collects the Coruscant and Tatooine DLC packs and adds a third set of missions on Hoth that lets you square off against Luke Skywalker himself.
Why It’s Hot: As much as the original release of The Force Unleashed made our heads hurt with some of the decisions, there was no denying the feeling of being the ultimate Force-wielding badass, and the Hoth expansion that lets us smack around Whiny Luke is an amazing bit of crossover awesomeness.
What It Is: Namco’s flagship fighting game series is finally hitting home consoles, adding a light bit of weapon-based combat and delivering a ton of customization and bonus modes to keep fighting game fans busy all the way through the Holidays.
Why It’s Hot: Online play, the evolution of Tekken Force Mode, sexy visuals, classic Tekken gameplay, a massive roster of characters, and tons of in-depth customization. Sure, it might have taken ages, but this arcade classic is arriving bigger and better than its coin-op origins.
What It Is: The follow-up to what many still consider to be the best game on the PlayStation 3, that’s what. Leveraging developer Naughty Dog’s impeccable ability to squeeze jaw-dropping visuals out of the PS3 hardware with the same pulpy single-player adventure and, now, online multiplayer and co-op.
Why It’s Hot: There isn’t a single game on the PS3 saddled with more hype right now, and deservedly so. Every time Naughty Dog has shown the game, whether it be to the public or to us press folks, the result has been utterly gob-smacking. The single-player was already sound, but now it’s getting an injection of killer multiplayer offerings, too.
What It Is: If you haven’t heard of the SmackDown series, we welcome you back to the present and hope your coma was nice and relaxing. As sure a thing as any of the yearly sports games, THQ and Yuke’s’ 2010 version promises a huge amount of user-created content.
Why It’s Hot: Everybody loves to make cool looking custom characters, but SvR 2010 lets you create that character, then a logo, then their moves, then their entrances, then their story, all from the ground up. Oh, and once you’ve spent all that time making something spiffy, you can share it with all the other players online.
Wow. The PS3 is getting HD purchases and rentals from all six major studios. A quick search turns up that Xbox is missing Fox and, duh, Sony.
