Videogames are the hot product this year, and well for the most part they really are every year. Each year, right before Christmas a bunch of new games are released in hopes of getting our money, but they all can’t be great games can they? No matter how hyped they are, no matter what the premise is, a lot of games that come out are just not that good. When it comes to games that are modeled after their movie counterpart, most of the time they’re not that good really,  why? Well because the developers are trying to just make more money with something that ties into the movie, and often times it shows that they just didn’t put any real effort into creating a decent game.

Today for review I’ve got the movie tie-in video game for the PS2, Madagascar 2 Escape 2 Africa. M2E2A is a platformer style game that is aimed at children obviously, but it’s got numerous mini-games included, along with a multiplayer mode as well and the ability to unlock more things by collecting coins while playing.

For children it’s a great game, but most adults or older kids will get bored very quickly with it as it can be repetitious at points, and the controls aren’t the best at all.

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Crash Bandicoot is almost as famous as that little blue hedgehog fellow that runs around collecting rings, but I think Crash should be the more famous one as he’s got a lot more charm and pizzazz about him.

In the latest Bandicoot adventure we see him up against his arch nemesis Neo Cortex, who’s devised yet another fiendish, and dastardly devilish, evil scientist plan to take over the world. This time he’s using basically a brain control device to turn the denizens of Wampu island into his unwitting pawns, and of course they fall for it through Neo’s clever use of infomercials. So it’s up to our friendly neighborhood bandicoot to come save the day once again, this time though he’s got some special tricks up his sleeve, or should I say in his pockets. Crash has the ability to ‘jack’ monsters, or take control of them to do his bidding to help him fight Neo Cortex and his hordes of henchmen. When Crash doesn’t need the monster he puts it in his pocket for later use, Crash and his monsters can be upgraded as well by collecting jewels, or Mojo.

Crash Bandicoot - Mind Over Mutant is a rather fun game, but it can get repetitive at times. Even with the repetition I found I had to keep playing because the cut scenes are just great, from spoof infomercials, old style cartoons and to even anime inspired movies, they’re just well worth playing to get to them.

So continue on for a bunch of screen shots, and two movies for you, including one of the aforementioned cut scenes..

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Manufacturer: Warner Brothers

Product Name: Speed Racer: The Videogame for PS2

Review Date: 10/01/08

Author: Kristofer Brozio

Here he comes, here comes speed racer, he’s a demon on wheels!! -I couldn’t resist, I love that theme song, the old, original one of course, I grew up watching him battle, jump, cut or even dive under water on his way across the race track. Yeah I’m old, but it’s still one of the best anime shows out there, and now a new generation has been introduced to the Mach 5 and the Racer family with the release of the new movie. I have to admit I was sort of disappointed by the new movie, but I did enjoy it though, now I’ve got a chance to review the Playstation 2 version of Speed Racer The Video Game.

Most movie based video games really aren’t that good, but Speed Racer The Videogame does a great job at bringing the sights, sounds, action and even the overall feel of the Wachowskis movie to your little screen for you to be part of the action. Speed Racer the Videogame takes place after the events in the movie, so it’s sort of a continuation, but not really, as there’s no real story to the game just racing.

Of course if you’re looking for any semblance of the original Speed Racer then you’ll have to go somewhere else, as this new version is nothing like the original show.

Gameplay is fun but it can get rather repetitive and sort of tedious as it’s the same tracks over and over again with some races lasting over five minutes, then again I’m an adult and it takes a bit more to keep me interested. My children love the game, they’ve been playing it non-stop since I handed it over to them, they think it’s just so cool, in fact they went clothes shopping recently and had to have Speed Racer pajamas! That should tell you something about how much they enjoy the game, and actually they’ve gotten pretty far in the game, though of course they haven’t got the whole control scheme down yet, just the basic ideas behind it, and that’s enough for now I guess to get them by.

For now continue on to check out a whole bunch of screenshots and several movies I’ve got for you of the new Speed Racer The Videogame…

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