Adventure Island

Adventure Island
If you want more than target practice, these titles offer guns, swords, magic spells, and deep storylines.

Brütal Legend
EA (Xbox 360, PS3)
Conventional wisdom tells us that roadies usually get the short end of the stick. They’re stuck carrying the gear, they get the crappy seats on the bus, and, most important, they end up boning the not-hot groupies. None of them have it as tough as poor Eddie Riggs, though, the best roadie for the worst band. After an onstage accident, Riggs ends up inside a heavy-metal fantasy world that looks like a cross between hell and Boris Vallejo’s paintings. Riggs is forced to fight his way out (with the help of a backup army of headbangers) against freakish creatures that could only have spawned from heavy metal imagery.

Good to know: Voice-overs never make a game, but creator Tim Schafer (Psychonauts) brought in Jack Black to play Riggs and filled out the cast with Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister, Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, Ozzy Osbourne, and Tim Curry. It certainly ups the entertainment factor.

Borderlands
2K (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
It’s a postapocalyptic Mad Max–style world. Refugees fight in factions against other tribes and aliens using more than five million weapons. Yes, you read that right, and no, it’s not a misprint. This shooter–meets–role playing game features 160 quests and more weapons than any other game on the market. On top of that, there are 500,000 item and armor options, thanks to the random generating system, which also changes the terrain.

Good to know: You can hop into a friend’s game and play along with his team, then jump back into yours, keeping the elements of your character and everything you’ve earned.

Assassin’s Creed II
Ubisoft (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
Last time Desmond stepped into the Animus machine, he traveled back into the memory of an assassin living in the time of the Third Crusade. This time, he’ll jump into the past of a Venetian man intent on avenging the murder of his family. Your hidden arm blades have been improved (one has a firing mechanic), and you’re now able to swim. However, the bad guys are also improved. They’ll seek you out when you hide and take smarter approaches to melee battles.

Good to know: Leonardo da Vinci is your best bud and will outfit you with contraptions.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Sony (PS3)
Nathan Drake’s back to solve another history mystery—this time the disappearance of most of Marco Polo’s fleet—and he looks damn cool doing it. There’s lots of leaping from collapsing buildings and hanging from helicopters in Nepal, Turkey, Borneo, Tibet….

Good to know: You’ll still have to eat through your ammo to put down some enemies, but at least they don’t just stand there shirtless, making you feel like a bad shot. You’ll see how good you really are in the competitive and co-op multiplayer modes.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Nintendo (DS)
It’s looking like it’ll be years before we see another new Zelda title for the Wii, but in the meantime, you can use your stylus to go dungeon-crawling and puzzle-solving. This new adventure is set 100 years after The Phantom Hourglass, and this time, you can play online with up to three other gamers.

Good to know: There’s a new wind-propeller tool that requires you to blow into the DS, adding another level of interaction with the game. Shooting pigs from the train as you ride around the world is fun. Unfortunately, they don’t turn into crispy bacon.

Saw: The Videogame
Konami (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
Saw returns to theaters and consoles again this year, just in time to make you lose your lunch all over your Halloween costume. The game bridges the gap between the first two films and opens with Detective Tapp wearing a jaw-splitter device. Once you remove it, you’ll be following Jigsaw’s trail down one disturbing rabbit hole after another until you solve the puzzle—or don’t.

Good to know: There are plenty of moments when you’ll want to look away but can’t, yet the game’s real heart is its challenging and entertaining puzzles.

Fairytale Fights
Playlogic (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
If you crave sick, gruesome humor, you’ll enjoy this. You run through this drop-in/dropout co-op title as one of four characters—Red Riding Hood, Jack (of the beanstalk), the Naked King, and Snow White—killing chubby kids, beating up beavers, slicing and dicing cute, fluffy bunnies, and generally being a nuisance to anyone and everyone in your way using an arsenal of lollipops, knives, axes, and whatever else you can find.

Good to know: If slipping around in blood isn’t gross enough, look for the brains and bones that pop out of dismembered enemies.

Dragon Age: Origins
EA (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
The talented team that brought you Mass Effect delivers this deep role-playing game—a spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate—which boasts extensive customization that reaches into battle strategies and more, and shapes your journey across distant fantasy lands. There are only three character classes but plenty of origin stories, each of which drastically affects the storyline and replay-ability.

Good to know: Whether you’re playing as a male or female, you can screw the women in your camp. You can even have a threesome with ladies of the night at an in-town brothel.

New Super Mario Bros.
Nintendo (Wii)
Everything you loved about the original Super Mario Bros. returns in this new adventure—and more. Three characters at a time more, to be exact. You’ll run and jump, spin in midair, and squash goombas with the help (and sometimes hindrance) of characters who battle to score the most points in each level.

Good to know: Mario’s suits have always rocked. This time you can fly with a propeller suit and freeze enemies with a penguin suit, both of which almost make up for the lack of an online multiplayer mode.