Pick & Play: December 4-10

Pick & Play: December 4-10

December has arrived! Snow! Lights! Carols! Menorahs! It’s that time of year and we’re all getting in the spirit, save a few scrooges still lingering about. Sadly, one of those scrooges is the weekly release list, which has shrunk to a mere shadow of its former self. Of course, there is one extremely notable exception, as a certain mascot’s perennial racing series makes its first stereoscopic 3D outing. To the picks!

Picks:

Mario Kart 7
(3DS)

Is Mario Kart 7 the first numbered entry in the Mario Kart series? Yes, yes it is. It’s also the first to introduce hang-gliding and underwater segments to the mix, and the first to have the stereoscopic 3D effects that the 3DS offers. The classic gameplay is intact, with green and red shells a-flying (appropriately festive, no?) and even a blue sparks and grey asphalt for those of us who celebrate for eight nights instead of one. Read our review before picking up the game. It came out on Sunday, December 4.

Fortune Street
(Wii)

Can Fortune Street be described as “Nintendo does Monopoly”? Yes and no. It also has some Dragon Quest characters, for good measure. The game advertises that you get to play the real estate and stock markets in a board game. Perhaps not the most exciting prospect, but any game that mashes together Bowser and slimes is worth a glance. It also gives Mario written dialogue for the first time in, well, over a decade. Even in his RPGs, he’s the silent hero type. There are minigames to be had, but Mario Party this ain’t. Players can invest in Fortune Street when it hits shelves Monday, December 5.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Game
(3DS, PC, PS3, Wii, X360)

Just in time for the 3D animated movie that shares its name, The Adventures of Tintin: The Game brings the classic journalist-cum-detective under your control in a side-scrolling platformer that, occasionally, breaks from its constrained axes for vehicle sequences and 3D movement. For the most part, though, this is an action/puzzle/platformer in the traditional sense. It introduces co-op to the equation, allowing players to game together not only as Tintin himself, but as his friends and colleagues. The Adventures of Tintin: The Game will be available this Tuesday, December 6.

Oregon Trail
(3DS, Wii)

When I was but a boy, Oregon was a mythical place that existed solely in fables and fairy tales told by the settlers of old. That was because my only knowledge of this distant land was garnered from sessions of Oregon Trail. I desperately tried to convey a family from the eastern United States across raging rivers and vast plains, fording the former and hunting buffalo upon the latter (seriously, did anyone play any part of it besides the hunting minigame?). They were in search of a better life, but, more often than not, found only dysentery and destruction somewhere in what is now fly-over country. Relive your childhood this Friday, December 9.

The Rest:
Tuesday, December 6