PLAY FOR TODAY: VIDEO GAMES / AARON BURGESS

Column #6: Green Day: Rock Band, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Toy Story 3, The Sims 3: Ambitions; plus Nintendo 3DS.

By Aaron Burgess

Green Day: Rock Band

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Developer: Harmonix / Publisher: MTV Games

ESRB Rating: T

Offer up the Beatles on one end and Green Day on the other, and odds are good that many current-generation rock fans would have a hard time picking favorites. (Don't snigger, pop purists.) So it's fitting that, for its second band-themed Rock Band game, Harmonix has followed up the Fab Four (last year's mega-popular The Beatles: Rock Band) with a game devoted entirely to the Dookie-spawning American Idiot savants. Though less cinematic-and surreal, for that matter-in scope than its Beatles counterpart, Green Day: Rock Band is everything a fan of the Bay Area trio could want and then some: 47 playable songs' worth of classics spanning Green Day's evolution from punk brats to stadium-packing, generation-crossing icons. Unfortunately, for those of us who remember the band before 1994's breakout Dookie, the set list for Green Day: Rock Band skips the Lookout! Records era where Green Day not only cut their teeth, but also wrote some of their catchiest three-minute tunes. (Read here for more.) Dookie, 2004's American Idiot and 2009's 21^st Century Breakdown appear in their entirety, however, with a smattering of hits from 1995's Insomniac, 1997's Nimrod and 2000's Warning bookending the three albums.

Gameplay loosely mirrors the storyteller formula of The Beatles: Rock Band, following Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool from their salad days (via the fictional punk venue The Warehouse) to real-life locales both large (the National Bowl in Milton Keynes, England) and small (the Fox Theatre in Oakland, California). Likewise, in addition to standard guitar, bass and drums playability, the fun-but-tricky three-part harmonies and Career achievements also follow those of The Beatles: Rock Band, with troves of MTV archival footage (Green Day, after all, are nothing if not products of the MTV era) available for the unlocking. Ironically, the games' similarities tend to magnify the areas where Green Day: Rock Band doesn't quite meet The Beatles version: fewer venues, less song diversity, a reliance on realistic visuals where fantasy would tell a better story (Green Day did, after all, did ride two concept albums all the way to Broadway). But if you're looking for similar levels of pop smarts with a mega-dose of adrenaline to drive them home-well, you had to see this coming, but welcome to paradise.  

Rating: 8/10

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Platform: Wii

Developer / Publisher: Nintendo

ESRB Rating: E

Maybe it's because of the world in which it lands-a realm of co-op shooters, rock-band simulators and grave, hyper-realistic realms where faux physics supplant our own in all manner of settings-but Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the rare videogame that truly feels like a game. If that sounds a bit heady, know that there's nothing brain-bending about the game itself-with its objectives set across multiple wacky 3D planets, SMG2 feels like the logical sequel to 2007's fun, frivolous adventure starring everyone's favorite Italian plumber. (No offense, Luigi.) But it's the Zen-like simplicity and childlike sense of wonder with which Nintendo approaches this platformer that makes it such a standout-that, and the addition of Yoshi, of course.

Available as a power-up (one of many such boosts to Mario's mojo this time out), the lovable, long-tongued dinosaur makes for a delightful addition to Super Mario Galaxy 2-but really, he's as much a symbol of everything that's right with the game. Bowser, his captured Princess Peach and a map that takes you further toward them are the primary catalysts for action, while the incredibly designed levels that comprise the map are the reasons you'll lose yourself in the quest. Long, challenging and beautifully framed no matter which dimension (2D or 3D) you're experiencing it through, Super Mario Galaxy 2 tests your preconceptions about platformer games while holding you to the basic platformer premise. Even memory (with warm tinges, both visual and musical, of Mario games dating back to the Nintendo 64 days) plays a role in how you experience SMG2-and by the time you finish it, you'll have carved a new space in your memory bank for this one.

Rating: 9/10

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Platform: PSP

Developer: Kojima Productions / Publisher: Konami

ESRB Rating: T

It's ironic that you can only get Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker on Sony's smallest system. Infinitely playable, the handheld-only game from MGS series mastermind Hideo Kojima offers huge potential whether you're playing it in linear fashion or experiencing the countless side missions offered as detours. Picking up where Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops left off, the 1970s-era prequel puts a full-sized console adventure-gorgeous graphics and all-in the palm of your hand.

You're transported, via one of many comic-book-style cutscenes, into a storyline where Naked Snake, a.k.a. Big Boss, is leading the private mercenary unit Soldiers without Borders when fate intervenes to send him on an emotionally riveting mercenary mission of his own. Stealth and strategy remain key tactics for fighting your way through Peace Walker, but the integration of deep RPG elements expands the way you interact with everything from weapons (which you can develop and upgrade) to enemies. You can develop your own army by literally plucking soldiers from the field and sending them (this time via balloon harness) back to your Mother Base for training. Just make sure you also have some real friends (up to four in co-op mode) along for the ride. You'll need all the help you get to make it through Peace Walker's more daunting boss battles.

Rating: 9/10

Toy Story 3

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PSP, DS, PC

Developer: Avalanche Productions / Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios

ESRB Rating: E10+

You know what to expect from most licensed kids' videogame tie-ins before you even crack the shrinkwrap: predictable storylines, simple challenges and a handful of minigames to help justify the sticker price. However, just as Toy Story 3 is no mere kids' movie, the film's videogame twin isn't your run-of-the-mill 3D platformer with a simplified control scheme and seemingly endless string of collectable items. That's not to say you won't find both elements in Toy Story 3, just that once you clobber the game's eight relatively easy levels, you still have a whole other videogame to explore.

Playing as Woody, Jessie or Buzz Lightyear, you run, jump, chase and object-gather your way through a story mode whose colorful, action-packed settings play off scenes from the movie. Then, well, you're done-at which point it's time to crack the lid on the game's Toy Box mode, which itself is worth the price of admission. The open-world adventure lets you customize an entire Old West toy town to your liking, embarking in literally hundreds of side adventures along the way-and, perhaps more importantly, out of the way. Complete missions to earn gold. Herd cattle or corral townspeople into buildings of your own silly creation. Or, heck, simply roam through the sandbox, move stuff around and see how many boundaries you can push. Much like the experience of play itself, Toy Story 3's Toy Box is alive with possibilities.

Rating: 8/10

The Sims 3: Ambitions

Platform: PC

Developer: The Sims Studio / Publisher: Electronic Arts

ESRB Rating: T

Anyone who's played a version of The Sims knows that, just as in the real world, work is part of your pint-sized avatars' daily lives. Until now, however, your Sims simply donned their work attire and headed off to do whatever it was they did all day-but with The Sims 3: Ambitions, you can experience a veritable "take your creator to work day" that

The expansion pack for 2009's The Sims 3 expands on your ability to choose a Sim's career by tacking an actual profession-and its attendant tasks, challenges, hobbies and war stories-onto it. It's a subtle difference, but it makes for huge possibilities and, particularly in the roles of ghost hunter, firefighter and private investigator, some curious dramatic twists. No matter what your lot in (fake) life, though-doctor, stylist and architectural designer are among the other options-you'll find hours' worth of adventures to expand your world. Here's hoping EA similarly expands the available careers, because the potential here is just, well, ambitious.

Rating: 8/10

Moving in Stereo: Nintendo 3DS

Goodbye, fourth wall. It's like we never knew you. At least that's expected to be the reaction next year when Nintendo succeeds its DS handheld with the 3DS, which will deliver 3D graphics without the need for glasses. The system will, thankfully, be backward-compatible with your existing DS and DSiWare titles, and there's talk that several major movie studios are working with Nintendo to bring 3D movies to the 3Ds' 3.53" stereoscopic top screen. (The bottom is a 3.02" touch panel.) Of course, that's just the basic visual experience-the 3DS also features beefed-up wireless capability (including hardware that "talks" with other 3Dses while your system is asleep) and three cameras for recording your own real-life action. Yeah, that's right: three. One for you, and two facing the outside world so you can capture it in stereo, too.

Check out the details, complete with some excellent teaser video, at Nintendo's 3DS site.

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Our game guru, Aaron Burgess, lives digitally but dreams in analog down in Round Rock, Texas. Contact him at first2letters@gmail.com  / AIM: First2Letters