By Matthew Scott Hunter
‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’ (M)
Right on target
*****
Activision
Xbox 360
“Modern Warfare 2” is like one of the remotely operated Predator Missiles that it features — one targeted at the great first-person shooters of the past. “Quake,” “GoldenEye,” “Half-Life,” “Halo” — even the original “Modern Warfare” — appear dull and monochromatic when seen through the camera in the nose of “Modern Warfare 2’s” missile. And within seconds, they’re all blown away by this game’s pitch-perfect combination of multiplayer, co-op missions and a single-player campaign that is alternately suspenseful and panic-inducingly frantic.
Multiplayer definitely wins the most medals. The maps feature an incredible amount of strategic subtlety, insuring that players around the world will be finding new ways to win kill streaks for many months to come. Cooperative play, which utilizes a series of Special Op missions, will have you and your brother-in-arms constantly coming up with creative solutions to chaotic problems. And finally, the single-player campaign may be disappointingly short, but it’s as close to real combat as most of us will likely come. There’s been a lot of controversy about one level, which has you infiltrating a terrorist cell. To preserve your cover, you’ll have to do some pretty reprehensible things, but this level is optional and in no way exploitative. On the contrary, it’s dead serious and thought-provoking. I wouldn’t recommend it for kids, but this game isn’t rated M for “Minors.” The M stands for “Mature,” and, in this case, “Masterpiece.”
‘Jax and Daxter: The Last Frontier” (E10+)
***
Sony Computer Entertainment
PlayStation Portable
Brooding Jak and his wisecracking sidekick may have completed the “Precursor Trilogy,” but there’s still plenty for the duo to do. With aerial dogfights, dark eco upgrades, Daxter’s occasional transformations into a hulking monster, and the platforming and gunplay that the series is known for, “The Last Frontier” winds up being a hit-and-miss hodgepodge of just about everything. The new content fares the best, while the traditional gameplay is hampered by the camera issues that arise due to the PSP’s lack of an essential second analog stick.
‘Rabbids Go Home’ (E10+)
***
Ubisoft
Wii
After a series of amusingly wacky motion control mini-games, those spastic, bug-eyed Rabbids have finally earned their own platformer. The plot is predictably unpredictable, involving an insane mission to reach the moon by collecting junk and piling it into a massive tower. The Rabbids are often genuinely hilarious, but the platforming, with its emphasis on item collection, is something we’ve seen countless times before, and thus it gets pretty repetitive pretty fast.
‘Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron’ (T)
**1/2
LucasArts
PlayStation Portable
It’s disappointing that the PSP Go — the newest version of the PlayStation Portable — didn’t find a way to cram in a second analog stick to improve game control. “Elite Squadron” makes a spectacular effort to feel epic by giving us battles both in space and on foot. But whether you’re blasting TIE Fighters or ground forces, you’ll feel like you must’ve lost a few crucial bits of DNA in the cloning process. Storm Troopers had better luck hitting their targets than you will. CV
