PLAY FOR TODAY: VIDEO GAMES / AARON BURGESS

Column #9: Mafia II, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, And Yet It Moves, Grease The Video Game, Ivy The Kiwi?, Madden NFL 11. Incidentally, don't miss the debut of "Play For Today - The Print Version" in the Fall 2010 issue of BLURT, due on newsstands in mid September.

By Aaron Burgess

Mafia II

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC

Developer: 2K Czech / Publisher: 2K Games

ESRB Rating: M

Becoming a wiseguy ain't all it's cracked up to be: For every step you take toward made-manhood, there's a bigger chance you'll be betrayed, ripped off or whacked by the up-and-coming gangsters beneath you. So when you step into the shoes of Mafia II's complex, conflicted lead character, Vito Scaletta, you do so with the accompanying psychological weight of being in "the family."

The sequel-in-name-only to 2002's 1930s-era hit Mafia, Mafia II starts in the winter of 1945, when Vito, home on leave from the service, is an immigrant son looking to get his family a piece of the American dream. And, with help from a few friends with ties to La Famiglia, that's just what he does over the ensuing years during which the game takes place, in just the crooked ways any Goodfellas fan would expect. (Unlike Henry Hill, however, Vito is a surprisingly sympathetic character.)

The game's fictional city, Empire Bay, comes to life with period detail that extends from the snippets of anti-Hitler propaganda heard on the radio to the gaudy '50s-era decor that gives Vito's pad a touch of, er, class. Though the basic story is typical Mafia fare - young gangster moves up in the business, evades whacking along the way-the realism with which it's conveyed pulls you into Vito's story. Add top-notch animation and voice acting, and you feel like you're in the sandbox with Scorsese. Until you get to the gameplay, at least.

Though it has all the trappings of a sandbox game, Mafia II is organized around missions, which means you can free-roam your way through Empire Bay only insofar as it gets you to the next job-or, depending on how good you are at evading the law, the next police stop. This causes frustration when you're itching to interact with your environment and end up hitting an invisible wall instead.

Divided by some incredible cutscenes, the action in Mafia II is standard third-person shooter fare, which means you'll spend your time shooting, punching, hiding and crouching (not to mention driving-a whole lot of driving) to complete missions. You'll do a lot of mundane stuff just to make it through the day, of course-and it's the inherent potential of these routine activities that, explored to its fullest, could help the next Mafia become more than just a great shooter.

Rating: 8

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC

Developer: IO Interactive / Publisher: Square Enix

ESRB Rating: M

The uneven (and, in some cases, controversial) critical response to 2007's Kane & Lynch: Dead Men made it seem as though the nascent franchise might ironically realize its title right out of the gate. So consider it surprising that Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is arriving so soon after its predecessor-particularly since the game doesn't fix the wonky fundamentals that hampered Dead Men's potential.

Aesthetically, Dog Days hits all the right buttons, amplifying the grimy world of Adam "Kane" Marcus and James Seth Lynch through intentionally amateurish camera work that makes it feel as though you've stumbled into a bootleg documentary on the two criminals. (Depending on the scenario, you may also feel like you're watching a torture video.) Set in Shanghai's underbelly, Dog Days magnifies the city's seedier aspects to a nauseating degree, and adds enough profanity, gore and wanton violence to make even a sociopath feel dirty behind the controls. Unpleasant stuff, to be sure-but it really works in making the game get under your skin.

You play the basic campaign as Lynch, re-teaming with estranged partner-in-crime Kane for the proverbial "one last job" that, of course, takes you both 180 degrees from what's expected. Despite an attempted emotional subplot, neither character has gotten any more likable since the Dead Men days-and the basic strategy of "shoot, kill, don't look back" doesn't instill much depth in either. Compounding things, your enemies pack frustratingly smart AI and a cover system that rivals your own, and with a few exceptions (hint: go for the shotgun), your weapons don't live up to their promise. You wind up on a playing field that feels unnecessarily level, especially since there's nowhere else to go beyond it.

Luckily, Dog Days' single-player repetition gets broken up with a handful of co-op, multiplayer and Arcade modes, the best of which (the returning Arcade mode "Fragile Alliance") finds you playing the subtleties of a tenuous multiplayer relationship that could turn traitorous at any moment. It's a fun way to get mileage out of the single-player campaign, so here's hoping the game's developers decide to add more of this type of substance to their style the next time around.

Rating: 6

And Yet It Moves

Platform: Wii (WiiWare)

Developer: Broken Rules

ESRB Rating: E

Already available on PC, And Yet It Moves delivers a new experience-whose tactile feel arguably comes closer to the game's intent-in its newly released WiiWare form. The award-winning indie game, whose title lifts from the Galileo quote "Eppur si muove," plants you in a fantastical world that literally looks like remnants cobbled together from an artist's studio: Pencil-drawn figures, ripped-paper backgrounds, cardboard scraps and crumpled textures abound.

Physics, meanwhile, is the science that makes And Yet It Moves' art truly, well, moving. As you run and jump in standard left-right formation throughout the platformer, you can rotate your entire world up to 180 degrees to reach seemingly unattainable goals. What sounds easy in theory turns into quote the challenge in execution: Your momentum stays constant no matter which way your world turns (no easy braking system here, pal) and you can easily do yourself in by miscalculating the degree to which your world turns.

Rating: 8

Ivy the Kiwi?

Platforms: Wii, Nintendo DS

Developer: Prope / Publisher: XSEED Games

ESRB Rating: E

Do one thing very well: That's the concept Ivy the Kiwi? developer Pope seems to have taken with this unique little platformer, and it pays off in the game's Zen-like simplicity. You don't play so much "as" the game's titular character as with her-Ivy is a cute kiwi hatchling in search of her mum, and it's your job to guide her from point A though points B, C and beyond by "drawing" vines on the screen. (In the DS, you do this with your stylus, while the Wii version lets you use your Wii Remote to point and click.)

Hazards abound, of course, so Ivy's journey is beset with creatures and pitfalls of all shapes and sizes-but beyond merely drawing paths around these dangers, you can create obstacles and simple machines that send Ivy over and around them. The basic game is simple enough that even novices can pick it up and start playing, but you can add up to three friends in multiplayer mode to enjoy deeper challenges and team up for even more inventive obstacle-dodging fun.

Visually, the game is just as delightful, thanks to an artistic vision that grafts the warm, hand-spun feel of an A.A. Milne storybook onto the kooky platforming style of Kirby: Canvas Curse. However, despite any similarities to worlds we've seen before, Ivy the Kiwi? offers a new experience, complete with new challenges whose complexity (the later levels in particular will test your dexterity's limits) is couched in simple pleasure.

Rating: 8

Madden NFL 11

Platforms: Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3, PS2, PSP, PC, Nintendo DS, iOS

Developer: EA Tiburon / Publisher: EA Sports

ESRB Rating: E

The annual release of a new Madden title is as much an event as the Super Bowl that defines the game's money shot-more so, if you consider that Madden NFL 11 will keep you busy long after Feb. 6 has come and gone.

As in years past, developer EA Tiburon has packed enough obsessive detail and (artificial) intelligence into this year's Madden to rival the experience of running your own NFL franchise. Of all the nuances, play calling gets the most attention in Madden NFL 11, via the new "GameFlow" option that draws its logic from actual NFL game plans as well as from the real-life tendencies of each team. Though it's less a cheat sheet than a new layer of realism, GameFlow significantly cuts your time in the huddle, which means games that previously took an hour-plus can be wrapped in half an hour.

The ultra-realism also extends to the most basic player controls, thanks to tweaks that fine-tune everything from your sprinting speed to the capability of your blockers. This, of course, is just the view from your end of the controller-with a new Online Team Play experience (just one of Madden NFL 11's online features), up to three players can share responsibility for winning the game-or getting smack-talked out of it.

Rating: 9

Grease: The Official Video Game

Platforms: Wii, Nintendo DS

Developer: Zoë Mode/Big Head Games / Publisher: 505 Games

ESRB Rating: E10+

If a video-game version of Grease never existed, would we need to invent one? Probably not, but when you get past its oddball premise, Grease: The Official Video Game works well enough as a simple party game to be, er, the one that you want.

Combining karaoke-style play with simple mini-games and calorie-burning events, Grease casts an ambitious net across generations and playing styles. Sure, you'll appreciate the game more if you already have a social context for the world of Pink Ladies and T-Birds (Mom and Dad, we're looking at you), but the variety of challenges ensures that even Grease newbies can find an outlet at Rydell High.

Feel like channeling your inner John Travolta or Olivia Newton-John? Pick up your Wii-compatible USB mic and start belting. Got an urge to do the hand jive? The dance competition awaits you. Ready for a race? Hit Thunder Road and go, go, Greased Lightnin'. Replay value may not be stellar, but for those who tend to break out their consoles primarily for special occasions, Grease is the word.

Rating: 7

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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