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Let's Tap
Platform: Wii
Publisher: Sega
Price: TBD
Rating: E
If you were to see gamers playing Let's Tap before you knew what it was, you would probably think they needed to dial down the caffeine after seeing their twitchy motions. That's because they'd be intently tapping their fingertips in an effort to win in any one of the several addictive included minigames. In Let's Tap, you place a Nintendo Wii Remote upside down on a flat surface or an empty box, where it senses vibrations from your taps. In one game, you'll run a race through an obstacle course where your gentle rapid fingertip taps give a stick-figure runner fuel; more forceful whole-handed taps let the runner jump over obstacles. Other included modes utilize your taps for art, puzzles, and even rhythm games. The game comes out this summer.
Rhythm Heaven
Platform: Nintendo DS
Publisher: Nintendo
Price: $30
Rating: E
Alongside the launch of Nintendo's new portable game system, the DSi, will be the North American debut of a much-loved Japanese game series called Rhythm Tengoku. Finally, we will get a taste of this bizarre and brilliant rhythm game, known for its kooky animations and toe-tapping soundtrack. Game play is deceptively simple to pick up, though near impossible to put down: you'll use the stylus to tap or swipe the screen to the catchy soundtrack. As the game progresses, crazy distractions like clapping monkeys and singing Easter Island statues move across the screen to make you laugh and throw you off the beat.
Noby Noby Boy
Platform: PlayStation 3
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Rating: E
Price: $5 on the PlayStation Network
You'll be hard-pressed to find a stranger-looking character than Boy of Noby Noby Boy. He has a small round face, four legs, and a multicolored body that will stretch forever. In fact, the goal of the game is to eat objects and stretch Boy's body to impossible lengths, catching it on anything he comes across. The PS3 controller's two analog control thumbsticks independently control his front and back sets of legs. The longer Boy's body becomes, the more points the player accumulates. You can submit these points to a character named Girl, causing her to stretch across the universe, in turn unlocking more planetary levels where Boy can stretch out. While strange in appearance and concept, you'll quickly be wrapped up in Boy's charms.
Hammerin' Hero
Platform: PSP
Publisher: Atlus
Rating: E10+
Price: $30
In your typical side-scrolling beat-'em-ups, you'll usually play as some hero cop out to save a city from a crime syndicate. Boring! Hammerin' Hero mixes up the classic formula: you'll play as Gen, a humble carpenter with a strong sense of justice. He uses a massive hammer to knock out a corrupt construction company and save Japan. As he progresses, this everyday man will learn other common jobs and then use those skills to defeat the evil Kurokomu Group. Imagine using a sushi-pressing technique to punch construction workers in the face or using DJ scratches to knock out machinery, and you'll get an idea of how crazy this game is.
Patapon 2
Platform: PSP
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Rating: E
Price: $30
A strange mix of both tactical and rhythm game play, Patapon 2 is the sequel to last year's odd, addicting PSP game. In it, you play as a god who oversees and commands a tribe of beings that look like little eyeballs with arms and legs. These beings, the Patapon, have washed ashore in a strange land, where a hostile-but-similar tribe called Kamepon has attacked them. But instead of direct orders, you'll communicate to the Patapon through the power of music and rhythm. Your job is to use the PSP's buttons to tap out certain rhythms that will command your followers to attack, defend, advance, and retreat.
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