A Different Kind of Trade
A 13-year-old boy was put in juvenile detention this week after bringing an illegal handgun to his middle school. The weapon was not loaded and it looks like the boy had no intention of using it -- he was actually hoping to trade it for a PlayStation Portable. I'd rather have the gaming system too! Though this trade wasn't officially organized, the article in What They Play tells of official police "ammnesties" where people can trade in illegal items such as guns for electronics. Perhaps someday people will be able to legally trade their guns in exchange for games for themselves and their kids.

Call it The Week of the Overlooked. REO Speedwagon and Styx hit Rock Band, Motörhead hits Guitar Hero, The Cranberries hit Lips -- it's like the music directors of all three franchises took a look at their catalogues and said, "Wait, we don't have these bands in here yet? Get on it, people!"

I thought that last week's release list was pretty dismal, but I guess that's because I hadn't yet seen this week's releases, which include xFart, a piece of software that includes 80+ fart sounds, 50+ fart jokes, 50+ fart definitions, a fart chart, and a soundtrack with "11 of your fart favorites!" And no, I am not making this crap up (pun somewhat intended). So what else is out this week?

Even though I didn't grow up wanting to write about games for a living (which sets me apart from at least 95 percent of the other people who do this), I do realize how lucky I am. It's incredibly cool to have a job that requires me to have a nice big flat-screen TV with several game consoles attached sitting on my desk, and even though I don't usually get to play games much during the actual work day (that's taken up by meetings and organizing and writing and posting), there's nothing like getting in a copy of a game that I've really been looking forward to and getting to play it at work.

While my perspective is definitely skewed thanks to the industry in which I work, I am one of the only people I know who still has her first Xbox 360. For example, Amanda is now on her fifth system. Fifth!!! Thank heavens Microsoft doesn't make cars or we'd all be dead!

Witch touching! Dog walking! Spanking! Typing! Scarf stretching! Where can you find all this and more besides? In Japanese games, of course! Japanese game developers are known for not being afraid to make something a little bit off the wall, sometimes with big critical and financial success (Katamari Damacy, Brain Training) and sometimes… not. Here’s a selection of some of the strangest titles from the land of the rising sun, which are unlikely to ever be huge worldwide hits.

My parents wanted to know if they should buy a Wii for playing Wii Fit. I decided to find out by playing for two weeks myself, measuring whether the game offered what I know they want in a workout. So does it?

If you're susceptible to getting songs stuck in your head, then be forewarned that Rhythm Heaven may end up driving you crazy. Yes, it is a great game, but I promise you that you will find yourself humming the songs under your breath over and over and over...and over. (On the plus side, I can attest that babies find the music quite entertaining.)

As Portal certainly demonstrated with great success, not all first-person shooter games have to revolve around sprays of blood and pumping hot lead into evil beasts. Puzzle and platforming game mechanics can actually be a perfect fit for first-person perspective gameplay. Taking a few cues from Valve’s hit and adding their own unique flavor to the formula, a team of students at the DigiPen Institute of Technology recently took home an Independent Games Festival award for their gaming project Tag: The Power of Paint. And it’s a powerfully fun game indeed.

What do you do when people don't seem to be able to get enough of a franchise? Why, combine it with another franchise that's equally beloved, of course! Yesterday it was announced that many many companies (including Warner Bros, MTV Games, and Lego for starters) would be collaborating to bring us the consumers Lego Rock Band, for those of us for whom being non-blocky rockers was just too racy.