Fun list over up on Yahoo! Games (am I allowed to use that many prepositions in a row…?): the 10 Worst Game Sequels Ever.

And we’re not talking lackluster franchise installments like Final Fantasy VIII or Super Mario Sunshine. OH NO. These are games that physically killed franchises. Murdered them and drank blood from their shattered skulls. Let the bloodletting begin.

Por ejemplo:

Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly

The Little Purple Dragon That Could came out of nowhere to become one of the brightest stars in Sony’s galaxy, enjoying three successful outings on the original Playstation. But when ace developer Insomniac bailed out, Sony sold the rights to Universal, who very nearly slayed the good-hearted dragon by foisting this abysmal effort onto an unsuspecting public. Horrendous frame rate problems, laughable sound glitches, game-ending crash bugs and a nigh-incomprehensible plot ruined both Spyro’s PS2 debut and his chances at becoming a lifelong Sony mascot. Burned.

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This made me laugh. Spotted this dead 360 sporting the notorious “Red Rings of Death” at a Toys R Us in Staten Island (by The Mall, for any locals out there). Nothing inspires consumers to buy your $350 product like a broken display unit!

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There’s an interesting article on Game Funk that calls out and discusses the main criticism of the Wii: a distinct lack of good games, and a plethora of ludicrous ones. Something called “shovelware” seems to be the main culprit according to them.

Shovelware is a term used to denote software churned out solely to turn a quick buck. Generally, there is very little effort put into these titles, and it shows. When you think of shovelware, titles like movie tie-ins or the latest Hannah Montanna games should immediately come to mind.

So how did this happen? How did so much shovelware infestate the Wii’s library? A multitude of factors have contributed to this situation.

The insinuation is that Nintendo is somewhat taking advantage of their main audience, who largely skews way, way younger and therefore are: A) fanatically attracted to popular brand names, and B) uninformed consumers.

Either way, it doesn’t seem to to bother the public at large at all, who laudably seem to want their video games to remain a diversion and not become an all-consuming lifestyle. So, I doubt Nintendo is losing any sleep over the “problem.”

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While there’s been relatively little hype surrounding today’s “PlayStation Day” event in London (honestly, I didn’t even know it was happening until this morning), Sony has shown off some promising material (including Killzone 2 and Resistance 2) and a few surprises.

Most impressive among those surprises is EA’s Mirror’s Edge for PS3. Never heard of it, and I have no clue what it’s about, but it looks pretty amazing:

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Truthfully, I’m not sure: A) how Stevie G. found these, or B) why he sent them to me to post since he’s the big Sly Cooper fanatic around these parts. But either way, here you go, proof positive that people can get a little too weird (i.e. creepy) and serious about everything, including a group of harmless, minor, mildly effeminate funny animal video game characters.

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Bucking pretty much every economic trend in the world, video game sales were way up again last month.

Nintendo’s ‘’Super Smash Bros: Brawl'’ for the Wii was the month’s top-selling game with 2.7 million units sold.

Coming in a distant second was ‘’Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2′’ from Ubisoft with 752,300 units and ‘’Army of Two'’ from Electronic Arts Inc. with 606,100. All three games hit store shelves in March.

Hardware sales grew 46 percent to $551.3 million from $377.9 million, with Nintendo’s Wii and portable DS far outselling every other system. The Japanese company grabbed 58 percent of the game hardware market during the month as Wii shortages seemed to abate.

Save us, Nintendo! Save us! Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

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After playing Capcom’s zombie shooter, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, which combines zombie shooting with all the fun of mouse clicking, I was worried that a lightgun-type interface was impossible on the Wii. But contrary to the cranky predictions and naysaying regarding the topic in last month’s Wii Mid-Term Report Card, I’m happy to say that Sega has proved that it can be done with House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return.

House of the Dead 2 and 3, two classic on-rails arcade shooters, make a surprisingly successful transition to the Wii, looking arcade perfect. But the real story is the controls. Somehow, Sega made the Wiimote feel like a real lightgun. Shooting is intuitive, and all you have to do to reload is point the Wiimote off-screen. Blasting zombies with The Wife-To-Be was crazy fun and felt like a trip to the arcade, which is always awesome. Not only that, but thanks to a new crosshair (which can be turned off, for you purists), targeting is dead on, and more accurate than any arcade shooter I’ve ever played. I don’t know how Sega did it (maybe they’re the first 3rd party to actually put some effort into Wiimote controls), but they did.

Shortcomings: arcade shooters ain’t the deepest of games, and this is no exception. But at $29.99, you really can’t go wrong. Plus, the game gets Irony Bonus Points for the worst voice acting and inane dialogue this side of “All Your Base Are Belong To Us.” Now, c’mon Sega. Get The Lost World and Star Wars Trilogy shooters out ASAP.

Grade: B+

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GTA IV, or The Reason You Own a Next-Gen System, is almost here. The fine diehards at NeoGAF have posted details from the first review released for the game from The Official Xbox360 Magazine (UK). For those who consider this type of thing spoiler, leave now, others can check out some highlights from the review after the jump.

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