Review: Dragon Ball Z – Ultimate Tenkaichi (PS3)

If you’re looking to beat the heat this summer, there’s a couple cool titles coming out next month for Wii… along with the usual assortment of non-starters aimed at ruining kids’ summer vacation. I’ll let you decide which is which!

July 7
We’ve been covering it like mad… The Bigs 2 arrives for Wii (and every other platform) next week.

Monkey Island returns on the 7th, in the form of the latest episodic Telltale game for WiiWare. Perhaps ironically, it is not a pure point-and-click on the Wii; you use the Nunchuk to walk Guybrush around. Tales of Monkey Island is also coming to PC.

July 14
Cooking Mama has long held her minigame crown, but get ready to meet Science Papa. Seems like more of the usual minigames, just this time with a science-based palette swap. Papa is also coming to DS (same release date) and I can’t help but imagine it will be better on the portable. That tactile touchscreen is so much better for the Mama series than the floating-in-midair Wii editions.

Then there’s Sudoku Ball – Detective, which I prefer to pronounce as “Sudoku: Ball Detective.”

July 21
Here’s the big one of the month for me: Little King’s Story. It’s been described as part Pikmin, part Animal Crossing, and part Harvest Moon… because game journos do so enjoy defining something new in half-assed terms of previous games. I’m excited because one of the leads on Little King also worked on underappreciated PS2 rarities Rule of Rose and Chu-lip.

Finally, G-Force comes to consoles. Old-school anime fans have been waiting for… wait, this is based on some dumb Disney CG hamster movie? Pass. I’ll wait for something not-junk to test 3D glasses technology in gaming.

Wii Rock Band owners will get to go a little bit country with the Rock Band Country Track Pack.

July 26
And wrapping up the month is Wii Sports Resort, Nintendo’s latest Mii-flogging family minigame fest. It’s Nintendo’s first sequel in the Wii ____ series, and will likely erase the bad taste left in everyone’s mouth from last year’s esoteric non-game Wii Music. You’ll want this one more than Wii Music because it comes with the MotionPlus add-on.

Although I’m not a fan of casual candy, I do like the sound of one of Wii Sports Resort’s swordplay games… it is apparently Gears of War Horde mode with the charging enemies composed entirely of your friend and family Miis. TO THE LAST MII, WARRIORS!