It’s that time again, where I list and comment about monthly releases. The month of May seems to hold a few very interesting releases, including my most anticipated game of the year.

This month we have 9 multi-platform releases, 2 Playstation 3 releases, 1 Xbox 360 release (plus one in japan as well), 2 Wii releases, 4 PSP releases and 2 DS releases. Of course, this only includes noteworthy releases.

The multiplatform releases indicate what systems they’re coming to, and if a release is Japan-only it’s properly marked as such.

Read on and see if May has anything that might interest you!

MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES

Batman: Arkham Asylum (Game of the Year Edition) 5/11 (PS3, 360)

Batman: Arkham Asylum was one of the winners in our Games of the Year awards, in the Multiplatform Games category. It was definitely a really good game. The GotY edition will include the DLC, and 3D compatibility(not sure what type of 3D it will be using though) and… I don’t know what else. But if you missed it last year, don’t pass it up again, it’s well worth playing.

Lost Planet 2 5/11 (PS3, 360)

I found the single-player demo to be pretty bad… But it was probably just an early demo, so it might not be representative of the full version. And I haven’t played the first game. So I don’t really know what to expect for this… nor am I interested.

Skate 3 5/11 (PS3, 360)

Maybe it’s because I’m used to the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games, but I wasn’t able to get accustomed to the more “realistic” controls and gameplay of the Skate franchise when I played it. I think it’s just that I prefer the more arcadey gameplay in the first few games in the THPS series. But the Skate series has a good fanbase and is admittedly not bad, so this one should be good. I tried the demo and I didn’t like it much, but I can see the appeal, and it’s probably much more enjoyable when you get used to the controls.

Rocket Knight 5/12 on Xbox 360, 5/18 on Playstation 3 (PS3, 360)

Rocket Knight Adventures was an AWESOME game on the Sega Genesis, and it’s getting a badass-looking sequel. I cannot wait to try it out. Hopefully it retains the super fun gameplay from the original.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands 5/18 (PS3, 360, Wii, PC, PSP, DS)

A new Prince of Persia game, back with the Sands of Time trilogy’s Prince and the gameplay of the Sands of Time trilogy. The story takes place between Sands of Time and Warrior Within. So this could be pretty good, or at least more interesting than the boring Prince of Persia “reboot” we got 2 years back. This is getting a version on every current system, though I don’t know what the DS and PSP versions will be like.

Red Dead Redemption 5/18 (PS3, 360)

Well from what I’ve seen it looks sort of similar to GTA, but in the Wild West. I can’t say that it doesn’t look interesting. The shooting mechanics look good, there’s a bunch of historically accurate weapons, seemingly tons of stuff to do… I definitely want to try this one out.

Split/Second 5/18 (PS3, 360, PC)

This looks like a very interesting racing game. As you do stunts and drifts and such, you fill up a meter that you can use to blow up various explosives strewn across the courses in the game, trapping enemies in explosions, or altering the course completely. This definitely looks like loads of fun to play.

UFC Undisputed 2010 5/25 (PS3, 360)

I… didn’t like the UFC Undisputed that came out last year. It felt rather cheap. The hits didn’t look like they had any impact and the ground game SUCKED (moreso than watching it on TV)… But once I get a hold of the demo for this one, we’ll see if it might be better… But I don’t have high hopes for this.

Blur 5/25 (PS3, 360, PC)

With Split/Second coming not too long before, I’m not too sure what to think of this one. It looks okay, but it seems to lack the utter chaos and fun Split/Second has. I might try it out, but I’m not hyped for it.

Green Day: Rock Band 5/31 (PS3, 360, Wii) (Wii version comes out a bit later)

I really hope I can just rent it and export the tracks. I also really hope that I can choose which tracks I want to export, since more than half the game is made up of terrible music. I mean, it’s missing 1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, Kerplunk, it has almost none of the good songs in Insomniac, Nimrod and Warning… At least it has all of Dookie. But fans of the 2 latest (crappy) albums will definitely want to buy this since it has them in their entirity (other than 6 songs that are currently DLC). There’s also a “Plus” version coming out a few weeks after with the (crappy) DLC included and a different case… lame.

PLAYSTATION 3 RELEASES

3D Dot Game Heroes 5/11

Ah yes, the most exciting game of the year is finally coming. Not just inspired by the original Legend of Zelda, but also some elements of Link to the Past, and it’s not scared of saying it’s a rip-off (and it jokes about both in-game and in trailers). And it has lots of interesting unique elements to it too, so it’s not JUST ripping off Zelda. The 8-bit inspired 3D graphics using cubes instead of pixels looks incredibly awesome, and the gameplay looks great. And to top it off, it’s only 40$ new. Definitely worth checking out.

ModNation Racers 5/25

The beta was pretty good, but it didn’t convince me to buy it. My problem with it was that the cars all drove the same, no matter how you customized them, so that kinda removed any variety from the game. But I’ll still rent this and see if any features (customizing-wise) weren’t in the beta and just in the final version. I’m still pretty excited to rent it.

XBOX 360 RELEASES

Alan Wake 5/18

Alan Wake has been delayed a lot, it’s been cancelled from a PC release… And I have next to no idea what it’s about. It’s probably because it’s a survival horror-type game, which I’m not too fond of myself. But nonetheless this will probably be a very good game, and one of the few Xbox 360 exclusives this year to be any good.

DeathSmiles IIX (JAPANESE RELEASE) 5/27

A new game in the series is coming to Japan. You can once again soar through the skies as Gothic Lolita anime girls to shoot the crap out of monsters. Fun. But while this is a Japan-only release, I want to at least note that the first game in the series is coming to the US in June. Yay!

WII RELEASES

Trauma Team 5/18

Ah, a new Trauma Center game. This one looks really interesting, since it has various new types of operations, as well as diagnostics and forensics. Hopefully the controls are just a tad bit more precise than Trauma Center Second Opinion.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 5/23

This will surely be fun. The first Super Mario Galaxy was really great, both visually and gameplay-wise, and is still to this day one of the best Wii games out there. This one seems to be just about as good. And it includes Yoshi! Yeah, I’m pretty excited for this one.

PLAYSTATION PORTABLE (PSP) RELEASES

Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake 5/04

I haven’t played Fat Princess on the PS3, but from what I understand this is the same game as the PS3 version, with a few more maps and game modes, but inferior graphics (not that it matters). And also lesser online capabilities. Fans of the PS3 version will probably like it.

What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord!? 2 5/04

Oh I loved the first game in this series. It was actually one of the winners in our Games of the Year award, of course in the PSP category. It was a really fun arcade style strategy/management game, with lots of really interesting gameplay mechanics (despite only having one “move” at your disposal). It was simple, but had tons of depth. This one seems to improve in quite a few aspects, and with more of a narative structure than the first one. Can’t wait to buy this one. Too bad they had to remove the “Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman!” part of the title… Some people are just too sensitive.

Hexyz Force 5/25

Not sure about this one, it seems like a pretty standard JRPG. But those are hard to get excited for unless you learn about the gameplay and leveling mechanics beforehand, which I haven’t. But it should be worth checking out.

ModNation Racers PSP 5/25

Well, I’m not too sure about this. I mean, shouldn’t they try to maximize sales with the PS3 version before releasing the PSP version? It feels kinda strange on a marketing standpoint… But anyways… I have no idea what the differences will be between this and the PS3 version, but it’s probably gonna be pretty fun, just like the PS3 version.

DS RELEASES

Dementium II 4/20

The first game was a horror FPS that… I haven’t played. But it looked quite interesting. This one seems quite similar, with slightly better graphics, and just as creepy and gory (at least according to images I’ve seen of both games). Could be worth checking out.

Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow 5/18

I haven’t played the first Blue Dragon game on the DS, and the Xbox 360 Blue Dragon game kinda bored me after 4-5 hours in (though I might give it another chance later). I never completed the anime either, it became boring rather fast. So I have no idea what this one will be like.

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