Game Releases - Week Of November 22nd, 2004

Author: by Andrew Wilson, Simon Carless

Looking at this week's worldwide releases, things finally seem to be calming down a little in the U.S. market, although the Nintendo DS debut has put a spike in the tail of the cooling off. The European market is still seeing some significant movement, though, and the Japanese market also sees a few big releases. Game releases in the United States: PlayStation 2: GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, Outlaw Golf 2, American Chopper
Xbox: GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, Cabela's Big Game Hunter 2005
GameCube: GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, Alien Hominid
PC: Sid Meier's Pirates!, Alexander, World Of Warcraft, Galactic Civilizations, ER, Demon Stone, X-Plane 8, Bad Mojo, Painkiller: Battle Out Of Hell
DS: Super Mario 64 DS, Spider-Man 2, Madden NFL 2005, The Urbz: Sims in the City, Feel The Magic: XY/XX, Asphalt Urban GT
Game Boy Advance: Donkey Kong Country 2, The Polar Express This week's set of game releases in the U.S. was the slowest seen in some time now in sheer amount of SKUs, but there were major releases in the form of the Nintendo DS and its launch titles, as well as EA's not spectacularly well-reviewed multi-format title GoldenEye: Rogue Agent. Blizzard’s long-awaited PC MMORPG World Of Warcraft also finally launched its retail version, and the PC remake Sid Meier's Pirates! also hit retail. With titles such as Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within for multiple formats, Final Fantasy 1 & 2 for GBA and the also multi-format Ghost Recon 2 just around the corner, next week is likely to pick up again. Game releases in Europe: PlayStation 2: Driven to Destruction, Get On Da Mic, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, Hot Wheels Stunt Track Challenge, Jak 3, Killzone, King Of Fighters 00/01, Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events, Power Rangers Dino Thunder, SpongeBob SquarePants Movin' with Friends, Syberia 2, The Polar Express, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2
Xbox: Atari Anthology, BlowOut, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, Guilty Gear X2 Reload, Hot Wheels Stunt Track Challenge, King Of Fighters 00/01, Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events, Miami Vice, Pro Evolution Soccer 4, Scaler, Still Life, Syberia 2, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2, Tron 2.0
GameCube: Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
PC: Alexander The Great, CSI Miami, Joint Operations: Escalation, Law and Order 3: Justice is Served, Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events, Sonic Heroes, Zoo Tycoon 2
Game Boy Advance: Beyblade G Revolution, Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events, Premier Manager 2004/2005, Super Mario Ball The European games market was a bit more active this week, in contrast to the relatively limited amount of game releases in North America. Although lacking the Nintendo DS launch, the European market nonetheless saw the GameCube launch of Retro's much-awaited sequel Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, the PC debut of Zoo Tycoon 2, and the multi-platform launch of GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, continuing EA's worldwide release co-ordination tactics. Also notable is Pro Evolution Soccer 4 for the Xbox, taking Konami's extremely successful soccer series on to Microsoft's console and Xbox Live, and a SpongeBob SquarePants EyeToy-compatible title from THQ. Game releases in Japan: PlayStation 2: Super Shanghai 2005, Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal, Slotter up Core 5, Tecmo Hit Parade, Majommusume A La Mode, Men at Work! 3, Katakamuna, Dragon Quest VIII, Lupin III, Teikoku Sensenki, Tenkuu Danzai Skelter Heaven, Wizardry Empire III - Ancestry of the Emperor
Xbox: Need For Speed Underground 2, Xbox Video Chat, Mr. Incredible
PC: Mission of Murder Box Set
Game Boy Advance: Mobile Suit Gundam: Seed Destiny, Kawaii Koinu Wonderful, Game Boy Wars Advance 1+2, Riviera: Yakusoku no Chi, Boukyaku no Senritsu, Hamster Paradise: Pure Heart, Arekkubo Adventure: Tower & Shaft Advance The Japanese market also saw an increase in titles released over this past week. This week’s largest title is without a doubt Square Enix’s Level 5-developed Dragon Quest VIII for PlayStation 2, which will actually launch this weekend in Japan, though the Asian version has already been released. But the week also saw the debut of Microsoft's Xbox Video Chat, not yet available in the West, and the Japanese debut of the Advance Wars GBA series, finally, in the form of the Game Boy Wars Advance 1+2 compilation.