Game Review: Extreme Justice meets expectations

Endless Ocean
Platform: Wii
Genre: Adventure
Publisher: Nintendo
ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
Grade: 3.5 stars

The life of a video gamer can sometimes be described as such: Play sports game until you get bored with it, switch to first-person shooter. Play that until you’re tired of it, go to role-playing game. Back to newly release sports title, and the circle repeats. This is surely an OK gaming life to lead, but when a genre-busting game arrives, it awakens your brain to new possibilities.

 Endless Ocean is this genre-buster. Here’s a game where there’s no danger, no boss battles, no scores being kept. Instead, the ENTIRE point of the game is to peacefully swim amongst aquatic wildlife, learn more about them and pretty much enjoy the tranquility and beauty of the ocean itself.

Sound like a bore to you? Well, it shouldn’t. This is such a radical shift from traditional gameplay that you cannot help but appreciate its simplicity. Maybe it’s the Enya-inspired dreamlike music that lulls you into glossing over the fact that you learn about whales, sharks and so much more by petting them, which is a tad odd. Whether you are taking photos for a magazine or collecting species for an aquarium, that mellow sensation you will feel won’t bother you at all.

No matter if you end up loving or hating Endless Ocean, Wii owners should at least try it just to experience something wholly original in the video game world.


Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice
Platform: PSP
Genre: Adventure
Publisher: Sony
ESRB Rating: T for Teen
Grade: 3.5 stars

Sony has found gold with its Pursuit Force franchise, and the second game in the series lives up to the expectations of the original without feeling repetitive.

Extreme Justice is an apt title, seeing that the action is ramped up considerably. You are no longer playing as a rookie on an elite crime-fighting task force. Now you are the team’s commander, and when your marriage ceremony is interrupted by gunfire and packs of angry villains, it’s time to unleash your harsh brand of justice.

The story is predictable but engaging, if only because it’s exciting to guess what the next twist will be and finding out that you are right. There’s lots of minigames throughout and the action is spread out among third-person shooting and some platforming elements that are the franchise’s bedrock.

Jumping from car to car during a high-speed pursuit never gets old, and neither does laying waste to your foes from the cockpit of a helicopter. Luckily once you are done with the main story there are plenty of multiplayer modes to keep you sticking around awhile.

You have to wonder how great this franchise could be if it was a full-fledged PS3 game, but then that might take away one of truly great franchises the PSP has to itself.


Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
Platform: Wii, DS
Genre: Sports
Publisher: SEGA
ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
Grade: 3 stars

Since we have about five or so months left until the actual Beijing Olympics, SEGA has stepped up to the plate introducing the first Olympics-themed game featuring two classic video game rivals, SEGA’s own Sonic vs. Nintendo’s Mario.

Over the course of around 20 or so events, you can compete