Gaming in 2010 Part 2

All formats, Warner Bros/Travelers Tales

Another hillarious LEGO game set to have you 'Rowling' with laughter

LEGO Harry Potter? Whatever next? Mechano Lord of the Rings? OK, we may be a few years behind with our lame opening jokes, but then Traveller’s Tales are a few years behind with their game design, too. From what we’ve seen of LEGO Harry Potter, (Which is admittedly very little) the series has still failed to evolve from where they go to in the fantastic LEGO Star Wars 2, back in 2006.

This title features the plots of the first four Harry Potter books, meaning that the final three can be used for the inevitable sequel. These are, thankfully, the four most fun-loving adventures for the boy wizard, which means that there’s plenty of broomstick-riding, magical creature-battling and stud-collecting, rather than listening to tales of how X person’s friends were killed by Voldemort.

Whether the fairly innovative level creator that appeared in LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues will return remains to be seen, but the charm of the LEGO games is finally beginning to wear off on us. Can the works of JK Rowling add a much-needed spark, or will TT have to find that themselves? We should be able to answer all these questions when the game is realised in the summer of 2010, but until then, we’ll just keep on hoping that they can make LEGO Guildiroy Lockhart as funny as he should rightly be.

-Toaroni

Rugby '11 (All formats, EA)

Will it ever see the light of day? Last year we had absolute confirmation that there would be a Rugby title announced and realised in 2009. We've had nothing of the sort this year, with the possible exception that we now know there will be a Rugby Union game realised to tie in with the Rugby World Cup in 2011.

There is currently a Rugby League game in the world for Wii, but we'll save our opinions on Rugby League for our preview at a later date. What we want is FIFA-levels of customisation and effort, but with Shane Williams, McCaw and Habana in the place of Wayne Rooney, Messi and Rolando. We want updated rosters, and all major league licensed- Not just the Guinness Premiership, the Top 14, Magners League and Super 14 as well. And how could YOU possibly miss the Heineken Cup? Oh, and we should have a Lions tour mode on there, too. Frankly, we could go on all day. But we won't, simply because we're supposed to get another preview into this bar.

-Toaroni

Green Day: Rock Band (All formats, EA)

After the success of the Beatles version, EA where always going to pick another big band to go for. And, in the eyes of KN's local music guru (Erm, TR's dad) every major band will have a video game to call their own within four years, so if that's the case, then EA and Activison had better hurry up and get these games out the door.

Based around the world-famous group, you'll essentially play their tracks over and over and over, until you're blue in the face. Of course, this is all fine if you're into emo music. (Which,

  erm, we’re not.)

DS, Nintendo/Intellegent Systems

WarioWare Where? WarioWare in your shed...

WarioWare D.I.Y is whatever game you want it to be. You can make it do literally, whatever you like. It’s got your standard microgame-packed WarioWare inside, but you can edit the microgames. For example there’s a “Pop the balloon” microgame, but your amazing powers can turn the balloon into, say, a fish.

But there’s more. Not only you can edit the games microgames, but you can create the games microgames. Basically, you can do whatever you like! And then, share them on Wi-Fi! We at the KN team sure will have some to share with you. Is this the next big step for DS gaming? We had Flipnote giving you the ability to create and share movies and animations, and now we have WarioWare D.I.Y. giving you the ability to create and share video games. The game has been a great success in Japan, and we hope Nintendo can live up the games’ potential when the understandable version is realised here.

-Grancko