Bakugan: Battle Brawler

Developer: NOW Productions
Publisher: Activision
Release Date: Oct. 20, 2009
Systems: Wii (Reviewed), Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Nintendo DS
ESRB Rating: E
Official web site

In a nutshell: I still don't exactly know what a Bakugan is supposed to be.

0:00 The back of the box promises that "This is Bakugan like never before." That's highly accurate for me, since I'd never heard of Bakugan before receiving this game in the mail. But I like to keep up with the "youth culture" with its "Internet" and its "sexting" and its "industrials" and so forth, so I figured I'd see what this was all about.

0:01 Two Yu-Gi-Oh rejects stand alongside the game's logo as an awesome guitar riff plays on the preview screen. BWAH-NOW!

0:02 What seems like a billion game company logos fly by, then we see a view of the earth from space. A red-jacketed guy throws what looks like a gem. A circle with six colored gem pie pieces appear briefly. A blue-haired girl rides a robo-lion. The red jacket guy summons four girls, then throws another gem ... oh, no, it looks more like a poké-ball. Out of the ball comes a HUGE RED DRAGON to battle a HUGE BLUE DRAGON. They both shoot energy from their mouths in huge streams that EXPLODE in a HUGE CONFLAGRATION ARGH SO MUCH AWESOME AND TITLE!

0:03 A light electric guitar slow jam plays over the title screen. When I press +, red-jacket guy tells me how his "whole world changed one day when all these random cards rained down everywhere." Really? Cards falling from the sky? Really? Anyway, the kids made up a game to play with the cards, but it turns out the cards opened up a new dimension of monsters or something. "We are the Bakugan Battle Brawlers. Bakugan: One goal, two worlds." What goal would that be? And what two worlds, exactly?

0:05 I guess I'd better go to the Tutorial first. Maybe it'll teach me what a Bakugan is. "Hello, I'm Alice. I'll tell you all about playing Bakugan," She's a cute little redhead in a yellow summer dress. "Let me help you out." You can help me out anytime, Alice... *swoon*

0:06 I have a deck of cards and three Bakugan. My goal is to win three Gate Cards. That's great, but WHAT'S A BAKUGAN?

***-->CONTINUE READING AT CRISPY GAMER<--***

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PQ: Practical Intelligence Quotient 2

Developer: Now Production
Publisher: D3 Publisher
Release Date: June 16, 2007
System: PSP
Official Web site

In a nutshell: The instructions ask: "Ever wonder if you might be the world's greatest genius?" If you're playing this game, you probably have.

0:01 The name entry screen doesn't let me enter my standard name "Ace." Why do names have to be four characters or more? Also, why do they care about my blood type?
0:03 The controls are a lot smoother than the first game. It's nice not having to wait for animations to finish before making my next move.
0:07 The police aren't the mindless automatons they once were. Eep!
0:09 My first non-tutorial test... completed in ten seconds flat. 95% score, an estimated PQ of 100. Yeah, I rock.
0:10 Not as hot on the second puzzle... 20 whole seconds this time. 73.8%... I'm getting dumber.
0:11 I get a 52% on the third puzzle. But then I retry and get in the mid-90s. Who knew repeating the exact same puzzle made you smarter?
0:15 I score 103.1% after retrying a level? I may not be a genius, but I know that is mathematically impossible.
0:17 I bounce back and forth between retrying each stage to get a better score or blasting through to complete as many as possible. The ever-present five-hour countdown in the corner doesn't help my anxiety.
0:18 These new smoother controls have a downside... I keep accidentally walking into lasers. Only a minor annoyance so far.
0:20 I actually get completely stuck on a puzzle for the first time. It takes a bit of brain bending to figure out that I have to put a bigger block on top of a smaller one. I can almost feel my neurons re-wiring themselves.
0:28. The last eight minutes have been spent on one ridiculously tough laser puzzle. Of course, once I figure it out it seems so simple. Either you get it or you don't, I guess.
0:31 Despite my pathetic initial performance, a couple of retries get me 100% on the same laser puzzle that gave me so much trouble.The ever-present master time limit continues to worry me, though. Maybe I'll come back later.
0:34 The puzzles are getting clever incredibly quickly. This one with extending blocks was interesting but not too tough.
0:38 There seems to be a continuing theme of using items in ways other than you might initially think to. "Outside the box" thinking, if you will.I like it.
0:52 It's way too easy, and tempting, to cheat the timer by pausing and contemplating the slightly greyed out puzzle in the background. Stop tempting me... black out the puzzle when I pause.
0:56 Another insanely tough level... they seem to come up every ten. I spend a good ten frustrating minutes just fiddling with this one. It's so satisfying when I finally figure it out, though.
0:57 After 20 levels my approx. PQ is 105. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. And I do.
0:58 Finally quitting out of the 100-puzzle test, I find there are a bunch of other options. Who knew?
1:00 I stare at a "one move" puzzle for a full two minutes before I figure out the one piece I need to jigger to get a clear path. 110% score! Whoot!

Would I play this game for more than an hour? Yes
Why? Excellent interface and ingenious puzzle design so far. I can't wait to see what's next.

This review is based on a retail version of the game rented from GameFly.