Pre-assessing the gaming damage.

I do this for me, you know. I realize you couldn't possibly be interested in this.

I currently have four pre-orders in with Gamestop. Beatles (9/9), Scribblenauts (9/17), Uncharted 2 (10/13) and Ratchet & Clank F2 (10/27). In each case, I'm in solely for the preorder bonus. I did have Arkham Asylum preordered with them, but the morning I heard about the Toys R Us $30 gift card deal, I called and shifted those five dollareedoos onto Scribblenauts. I actually was going to put them on LEGO Rock Band, but it was not yet in their system and the manager thought it was DS only. No.

Obviously I must be talking about Scribblenauts A LOT at home, because I brought up a Scribblenauts movie on the Wii's Nintendo Channel and Clark ID'ed it right away. Should be fun to test his imagination by asking him what silly stuff we should summon in the game.

It seems a little too aggressive for Sony to drop Uncharted 2 and the new R&C in the same month, eh? But then again, Sony needs to have a highly successful holiday this year.

So, with those four marked as definites, here's the second round of likely purchases. Some of these I'm just waiting for Gamestop to announce some sick preorder so I can jump on that as well.

September 22: Katamari Forever (PS3). Of course. Afrika (PS3) is also out that day. Both of these are slightly cheaper than the usual PS3 game... Katamari at $50 and Afrika at $40. It's going to be tough to swallow a Katamari game at $50.

October 4: Wii Fit Plus is only $20! That's crazy great. This will be a good test of the Wii's longevity (and marketing acumen). The original Wii Fit sold so well, that there is a built-in audience for this $20 expansion. If nobody buys it, then we can call the Balance Board a fad and move on. If it sells amazing, then it's a victory for budget pricing and could lead to more "Plus" titles from Nintendo. Which makes me yearn for Smash Brawl Plus with online voice chat, full friend stats, and online buddy list.

November 17: EyePet (PS3). $40 without the camera. I think this is going to be hilarious, in a stupid way. I wish the critter wasn't so damn "cute by committee" in his design.

And then there's the aforementioned LEGO Rock Band (PS3), which was just revealed to allow a full song export to Regular Flavor Rock Band. That just officially became a no-brainer. The only missing angle is, can you play 100% of your existing DLC songs in LEGO Rock Band?

Now for the Maybes.

Here's a couple of DS games that are big iffies for September... Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story and Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days. I kind of feel like I can safely pause on both, although I expect great things from them. Between Scribblenauts and Professor Layton, I think my DSi is going to be occupado for a while.

I do so love Kingdom Hearts, but this version seems to downplay the Disney angle, which does not meet with my approval.

September 8: Muramasa (Wii). I mean, yeah. I know. It's going to be a critical darling, but I'm not positive it's my bag.

October 13: A Boy and His Blob (Wii). Another maybe. I doubt I'll have the interest in this one for a while, and as a third-party title that will likely underperform, that means I can pick it up later on sale.

Same story with Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Wii) and Ju-on: The Grudge (Wii). I kind of forgot about Cursed Mountain (Wii), which came out last month, so it will be a race to see which horror game hits the discount first. Something here is happening to me, I just don't know which. I mean, look at what Ju-on is doing:

Why again didn't we get Fatal Frame 4?

October 20: I'm awaiting some reviews for Marvel Super-Hero Squad (PS3). It's cutified super-hero brawling in the LEGO Star Wars mode, which would probably be great for me and Clark. I'll need to see a playable character list. The inclusion of Silver Surfer would be a deal-clincher.

We don't have dates for God of War 1&2 (PS3) and New Super Mario Bros Wii, but it hardly matters as they're both maybes.

Hurm. Looking back, I've got a lot of PS3 action queued up, and most of the Wii stuff on potential.

And I still don't see any of these rising above Batman: Arkham Asylum.