Recently in Farewell to the PS2 Category

Hard to believe it took this long for an American Idol-branded karaoke game to show up.

And, being over three years after the first Karaoke Revolution game, this means we're up to some very full-featured titles. Good song list, a microphone instead of a headset (duh!), plenty of unlockables, and an eerie face-mapping application that puts your head in the game.

The American Idol aspect is a nice fit; judges Randy and Simon critique your performance. The Idol scheme really helps this feel like a real event, even if the judges' comments are only tangentially related to your singing. It's even more fun in multiplayer where you can actually stage your own American Idol sing-off (just without voting from the audience at home).

This is a fine capper to the series... albeit for a franchise that is likely DOA these days thanks to Sony's own SingStar and the upcoming karaoke+music monster Rock Band.

Memory Score: Laura?

Definitely one of those games that I had to have, no matter how it would turn out.

This little-known game was just barely released in the US, becoming an EB budget exclusive after years of almost total abandonment. It's an adventure game (very point-and-click in feel, actually) where you have to perform errands and talk to people until you find the right moment to kiss them. Oh yeah.

It's a subtle kind of nuts. Very Japanese, but not in the colorful, over the top style of Katamari or No One Can Stop Mr. Domino. It's subdued and charming, full of memorable characters and bizarre story fragments.

It is also unfairly, tragically, monstrously hard.

It is impossible to tackle Chulip without a guide of some sort. You just can't. The puzzles (most of which involve a lot of waiting around during day/night cycles) just can not be parsed by humans. It's not even possible in the cheap old RPG way of "I'll just level up like crazy and then defeat the boss." It's just complete nonsense from start to finish, and you need the patience of a saint to muddle through it. I died from going down a slide at the playground, for crying out loud.

That's not to say it's a bad game, or that it isn't a rewarding experience. It just is not the kind of game where you can expect to logic out solutions. You can't even expect the game to provide gentle hints. Swallow your pride and have a guide at the ready.

Memory Score: And it won't play on older PS2s, so don't bother unless you have a slimline.

I had every intention of getting Okami when it came out, but I was pretty jammed up at the time (Bully, LEGO Star Wars II, Wild World and Killer 7!) I figured it would be good, but I also figured it could wait.

And then the game sold so poorly (especially in Japan) that the studio that created (Clover Studio, previously known for the Viewtiful Joe series) was shut down completely. So no, you probably can't wait too long because I doubt they printed a million billion of these.

I probably don't need to heartily endorse Okami because everybody else did. It's a sure-fire Best of PS2 contender, but nobody bought it. I don't get it. Was it the wolf-as-main-character? Was it the Wind Waker-ish visuals? Was it the lack of established IP? Was it marketing's early emphasis on the sumi-e brushwork? Was it too Japanese for even the Japanese? What the hell went wrong here?

This is a lengthy, worthwhile, high-quality experience. It is an indictment on PS2 owners that it just squeaks in as the 100th best selling game of 2006, ranking behind such luminaries as Happy Feet and Superman Returns. And you can't blame the press, because, to a man, they were all behind this game. No, this is a marketing failure and an audience failure. Gamers are notorious for creating word-of-mouth successes... I just can't understand what happened to let this one slip by.

Memory Score: Buy it. The stylized art means Okami could have legs even when set against new-gen games.

Next time: it's cheap game catch-up time!

LEGO Star Wars 2 was just as good as LEGO Star Wars 1. But also just as bad.

I mean, they didn't fix a damn thing. The co-op camera still actively works against you, often stranding players in infinite-falls or forcing unexpected dropouts. Plus, one player can "push" the camera along, dragging the other player whether they want to move or not. It's a mess, and after all the generous buzz the Crappy Trilogy Version received, it sucks bantha poodoo that nobody bothered to polish up the Awesome Trilogy Version... because they knew it would sell anyway. (I wish I'd've snapped a picture of it, but during one level the Minikit counter went nuts and it showed a final tally of 11 out of 10.)

It's even more annoying that the bugs weren't fixed because the game is, otherwise, superb. The conflation of the chibi-LEGO worldview and the Star Wars mythos is unavoidably compelling... and not that nobody tried to make Cute Star Wars happen before (**Super Bombad Racing**), but this particular package works because both licenses work. Somebody somewhere sure deserves a cookie for this, but they don't get another one until they get it 100% right.

Memory Score: Two player racing in the first scene of New Hope, using hidden cars found during a convoluted sidequest. AWESOME.

Thinking back, I love how scared we all were of this one.

My god, it's a school shooting simulator! It's a bullying simulator! It's Grand Theft Auto with children! You're going to be able to have sex with baby hookers and then kill them!

And it wasn't. Instead, it was a sarcastic riff on 1950s/60s teen movies, with a strong emphasis on the terrible things kids do to each other as they divide into groups by choice or by being ostracized... very much like Animal House or Revenge of the Nerds.

The main focus of the game is ending bullying, not performing it... as star Jimmy Hopkins bounces from one clique to the next, teaching them to stop acting like dicks. Yes, usually through violence, but nothing more violent than a slingshot, a trash can lid, or good old fashioned fists. You can't even drive a car in this game.

The great debate is whether or not this is Bully as originally intentioned by Rockstar, or if they watered a more violent concept down to avoid planting a very intentional industry landmine. I don't believe I've ever seen a straight answer, but Bully's sometimes-weird script and overall character arc for Jimmy leads me to believe that something was altered in midstream.

I have to give Bully a gigantic recommendation, mainly because it permutes the finest elements of Grand Theft Auto gameplay into a very new, very focused world... and especially if you're part of the group that finds GTA either too distasteful or too overwhelming. Whatever your opinion of Rockstar, they have this act down.

Memory Score: That incredible bassline when you step outside.

I found this on clearance for under $15 and even though I had already worn thin on Donkey Konga, I had to buy it. There's a Katamari song on there, man!

Taiko Drum Master feels like a creepy alternate universe Nintendo game. Instead of DK, Cranky Kong, and banana chickens, you have anthropomorphized drums (and drumsticks!), bipedal wolves, and glassy-eyed children in festival clothes. Donkey Konga came out first (in the US anyway), but both games were created by Namco so it's easy to see why they are virtually identical in everything except window dressing.

The drum itself is harder to play than the DK Bongos (FANBOI!!1!!!), but the game's presentation is much nicer. Namco's home-grown characters, weird as they may be, are much more fun and appealing than Nintendo's Donkey Kong Country sub-universe. Plus, Taiko Drum Master has the Dragon Ball Z theme in there, not to mention the aforementioned Katamari track.

At this point, you know there's never going to be anything else that supports the Taiko drum controller (as if you would have expected otherwise, even in '04), so any kind of closeout price on this one is a fair deal. Fun, silly game.

Memory Score: "Even though I was scolded for not washing my hands, I still feel happy."

Next time: A game that killed a company, a game that killed my PS2-phat, and a game that killed all hope of self-respect. The end is nigh for the PS2!