Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

In case you haven’t noticed this summer hasn’t been a dry one for games and it is with some measure of dread that the onslaught of Fall games rises up before me not just on the PS3 but the long-ignored PSP. But if hints of Adhoc Party appearing in September’s release of PS3 Firmware 3.00 for North America do come true, I will be stuck with an even bigger list of older PSP titles I would want to buy and play online. Enough grumping about not having infinite time and money: to the games!

PSP gamers will get some hot numbers this month, with IGN already giving Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny an 8.0 and it features Kratos. Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days launches on the 8th along with Persona on the 22nd, MotorStorm Arctic Edge on the 29th, and Duke Nukem Trilogy: Critical Mass. A PSP version of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is also coming on the 15th which could be very good considering how the previous game and the X-Men Legends games before it did well. One quirky RPG (is there any other kind?) is Adventures To Go coming on the 22nd. That’s a lot of potentially excellent stuff on the handheld that’s about to be reborn as the PSP Go and, possibly, a rumored PSP 4000 model with a UMD slot to carry the disc media torch.

Music gamers will of course be ready for Beatles: Rock Band coming to the PS3 on the 9th, and those who have held tight to the Guitar Hero franchise will want Guitar Hero 5 on the 1st. I’ve been flirting with the idea of having plastic instruments in my home for a while now. In truth, if my wife wanted it I’d already own it (she enjoys the Buzz Quiz TV game), but I still look at the music announcements — Talking Heads on Rock Band this week! — and wonder what it would be like to sing or strum along.

You’d think that the Wii would be the haven for all family-friendly fare but a few games hit PS3 this month that you will probably be able to play with your significant other and/or kids. If you haven’t picked up LittleBigPlanet yet first, shame on you! Seriously! Go buy the Game of the Year Edition that comes out on the 8th. Next, Katamari Forever rolls into view on the 22nd and is another huge family-favorite in my house. My kids have heard and like the soundtrack to We Love Katamari and my oldest has played it as well, but this version will bring in Trophies as well as nice quirky visual modes that I’ll be happy to buy it for. The possible Pokemon Snap clone Afrika finally lands in the US and given its age probably will not have Trophies built in, but it will offer some nice visuals while you stalk wild animals and collect great pictures of them.

Our last stop on this tour is what you’d think a hardcore console like the PlayStation 3 should have: some meaty Rated T and Rated M fare. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 sounds in previews like it’s cured some of the problems I saw with the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance game — it sounds more like a dungeon crawler with superpowers than the first game. And last, but not least, you have the blood-and-gore-and-jiggle-fest of Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma that promises to give people who enjoy being frustrated all the time by horrifyingly hard games a lot to love. Hint: I’m not one of them.