Iron Man game rusts

`Iron Man'
I'm dying to see the "Iron Man" movie, but my wife insists I wait for her. And she's busy with work this week.

So as I waited to see Tony Stark on the big screen, I stuck in the new Sega video game that's based on the ultra-successful film.

I was let down, to be honest.

You take two levels to build and experiment with your armor and then you mainly fly around and blow things up.

The playing "world" is big, and you can interact with a lot of people and weapons, but I wanted more time against some famous Iron Man foes like Titanium Man -- and less time just zapping tanks with my repulsor rays.

It's cool that some of the stars from the movie (including Robert Downey Jr.) did voice work on the game, but the whole experience needed more bite to be good. And it didn't have it.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time
Nintendo, for Nintendo DS, $34.99
Rating: 2/4


I'm tired of Poke-mania. I'll admit it.

And the new game's plot -- waking up on a beach with no memory to discover you've been turned into, oh no, a Pokemon -- didn't really freshen things up for me.

Your mission: to find out what changed you into a virtual Poke. After answering some questions and choosing a) a Pokemon character to fit your personality and b) a Pokemon partner, you join an exploration guild and aid other Pokemon in trouble.

If you lose a battle, you can ask other players for help, which -- unlike in past games -- doesn't cost you money or items (unless they cannot rescue you). But for me, Mr. Tired Of All Things Poke, playing the game was like watching the 700th episode of a sitcom you don't like anymore.

The magic is gone.

More GTA fallout

Top-selling "Grand Theft Auto IV" continues to generate controversy. There've been protests from feminists, immigrant groups, New York City police and New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg.

Florida attorney Jack Thompson called "GTA IV" "the gravest assault upon children in this country since polio."

This week, Mothers Against Drunk Driving came out against the game, which enables players to drive while under the influence of alcohol. The organization wants the game to be rated "Adults Only" (I think it should be, too).

"Drunk driving is not a game, and it is not a joke," MADD said in a statement released last week. "Drunk driving is a choice, a violent crime, and it is also 100 percent preventable."

MADD is calling on publisher Take-Two Interactive and developer Rockstar Games to consider stopping distribution of the game "out of respect for the millions of victims/survivors of drunk driving." Of course, Take Two has no such plans.

"We have a great deal of respect for MADD's mission, but we believe the mature audience for `Grand Theft Auto IV' is more than sophisticated enough to understand the game's content," Rockstar Games said in a statement to The Associated Press. "For the same reason that you can't judge an entire film or television program by a single scene, you can't judge `Grand Theft Auto IV' by a small aspect of the game."