Can you hit ten apples with a slingshot at point blank range? Congratulations you may advance through Coraline for Nintendo Wii.

Gamers who haven’t seen the animated film are going to be confused when the game accidentally skips over a few key moments, but later assumes you knew what happened. For example, there’s a pivotal snowglobe scene that is omitted from the game, although it is later mentioned as if it was included after all.

Players assume control of Coraline and battle wonky, static cameras as they navigate through the few environments from the film, accomplishing menial tasks in what rarely amounts to more than tutorial-style action.

If you’re looking for my opinion, it’s a slow-paced take on a frighteningly boring kids movie. But, if that’s too harsh for you and you’re already a Coraline fan, you might be able to forgive the slow pace of this title and enjoy it for more than the sum of its parts.

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I arrive at this conclusion after a bit of real life analysis (read: watching from the couch as my girlfriend commands her minions through the Fable-esque settings of the original Overlord for Xbox 360).

It may not appear very feminine, but ladies know it’s what’s on the inside that counts!

Overlord has the simple but compelling premise of commanding an army of minions to fulfill the controllable Overlord’s either evil or only-slightly-less-evil whims when it comes to killing enemies and/or townspeople, looting treasure and well, lots more killing and looting.

The dark trappings keep the stereotypical girl gamer (for the purposes of this article, a female who does not already consider herself an actual gamer) from rolling her eyes at another typical, shameless attempt from a development company to appeal to her demographic’s focus-group-approved tastes (Cutesy! Pink! Cakes! Flowers!).

In battle, the minions provide a way of dealing with danger and dishing out punishment without getting too close to the action. March the little hellraisers around with some guidance from the joystick and let the Overlord look on from a distance. It makes the learning curve less steep and will keep the attention of a video game rookie (i.e. most women). Traipsing back through easier areas later in the game is a good way to ease off the tension while still grinding for additional minions and loot.

Top it off with an appeal to a lady’s natural nesting-sensibilities with some evil-castle customization (furniture, decorations) and you’ve got a winner for the women.

Perhaps more than anything, Triumph Studios and Codemasters’ Overlord is a solid game despite some confusing level design, and that kind of quality cuts across demographics. If you or your lady missed out on Overlord the first time around, pick it up now that it’s gone cheap! Plus, if she gets hooked, you can always get her the sequel for the holidays!

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Without checking, Sega’s Incredible Hulk (I tried it on Nintendo Wii) had to have been rushed out to coincide with the release of the film, because after just a few minutes with this title, it’s obvious that it belongs in the big proverbial pile of sucky, movie-licensed shovelware.

With some clever PhotoShopping, this might say The Incredible Suck. But I’m not that crass.

If Ubisoft’s King Kong shows us that big movie monsters can fare well on home consoles, The Incredible Hulk helps us forget it. In this title, you’re the titular green guy, only the camera pulls back too far, making you look small and taking you out of the action.

Then you set about spamming the punch button to quietly dispatch of enemies and obstacles with little impact or oomph. In vast warehouses, on city streets and high up on rooftops, you can pick objects up and throw them offensively, but it’s mostly a forgettable experience trapped in blocky 3D environments that look decidedly last-gen.

Worse, it’s hard to judge how far or high the Hulk can jump, and when you have to go exploring a sea of same-looking building tops and ledges before finding a route that brings you to the next randomly placed checkpoint, things get even more tiresome - particularly if you misjudge a leap and fall to the pavement where you must begin again.

Explore. Punch. Jump. Punch. Eject.

This is one licensed game that’s painful to play, and it’s tough to relive it for this writing, but I do this as a service for anyone thinking about picking up The Incredible Hulk for Nintendo Wii from a bargan bin. Save your cash.

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I finally picked it up myself and have blasted my way through to 30% completion and the early verdict is that this strategy game strays from its roots but still delivers an entertaining experience worth today’s bargain bin pricing.

Your troop types are at the bottom of the screen. Here, the player controls a grunt while simultaneously issuing orders to the AA (anti-air) vehicle.

The biggest switch from the handheld origins of this series is the move from top-down, turn-based strategy to third-person, real-time strategy. That means while there’s still a certain amount of rock-paper-scissors in play, your long-term planning will take a backseat to your ability to react to situations on the fly.

The controls are a bit complex, but the game holds your hand in the early going to get you up to speed. Basically, you control a small army made up of a handful of unit types. Each has their own strengths and vulnerabilities. You’ll find grunts, bazooka veterans, light tanks, anti-air turrets, some cool naval units and more.

It’s possible to issue orders to one unit type or to every unit at once. It’s even possible to choose a single unit for a given task. Additionally, players take direct control over one of the units in play and can switch at any time. It’s a lot to keep track of, but it’s mapped to the Remote and Nunchuk in the simplest way possible.

The battleship unit can blast faraway targets from a safe distance while the support frigates protect the group with anti-air capabilities.

Objectives are marked on an overhead map, but gameplay generally consists of approaching a group of bad guys and attacking with the right units and some sense of strategy while trying to wipe out the bad guys before your troops are gone. Last man standing wins.

Some of the coolest moments will be things like switching to an anti-air vehicle and taking out a transport plane before the enemy reinforcements ever reach the ground.

The result is a fast-paced, action game with a gradual learning curve that seems like it might climb pretty high by the time the single player campaign concludes.

I haven’t taken the online multiplayer for a spin, and it’s possible that there’s not much action happening online anymore. It was a missed opportunity not to have same-screen co-op play. Instead, co-op is only available via Nintendo WiFi Connection.

At the bargain price, strategy fans and particularly fans of the Advance Wars series ought to take a look at Battalion Wars II. It’s a solid title at a good price, which is a rare find for Nintendo Wii. Fans of more complex strategy titles including Civilization or StarCraft may still get some enjoyment here, but know that it’s a narrowly focused title that highlights fast combat with limited force over expansive resource gathering and army building.

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Nintendo charm meets the addictive workout of DDR in this rare Gamecube title.

With the backwards compatibility of the Nintendo Wii encouraging me to revisit this heart-rate boosting game (an aerobic workout before aerobic workout games were the norm), I hooked up the Nintendo Gamecube DDR mat to the Gamecube controller input on the Wii console and danced around for a few days, posting new scores and beating old ones on the games Very Hard difficulty mode (I’m only just now getting skilled enough to leap to Super Hard.)

What I like most about DDR in general, is that with enough discipline to keep moving in between songs, this game provides a consistent, aerobic workout to rival any other game out there. The songs in the Mario Mix are fun and often nostalgic for longtime Nintendo fans, although attempts at a single-player storymode and a mode where some arrows are replaced by Mario enemies that travel up the screen in unusual patterns are largely forgettable experiences.

So, we’ll see if I can stick with DDR, posting new scores and attempting the Super Hard mode long enough to burn some calories and maybe drop a pound or two. DDR is probably the tried-and-true workout technique for many gamers, and Mario Mix is a nice way to get back into the exercise habit.

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This heavily armored soldier is the story mode’s central figure. Alex Corde is the new recruit in the 8th Armored Infantry, or Section 8. He shows his face early on so as not to be a total Master Chief knock-off.

Section 8 is a futuristic shooter featuring a squad of heavily armored good guys blasting away at alien and robotic invaders. Its typical sci-fi trappings serve up a light dose of decent shooting, although the $60 price tag seems a bit steep.

The single player mode is a short one that features infinite respawns and minimal enemies on the easiest difficulty. The gameplay generally consists of clearing bases of baddies and the occasional big robot boss encounter. These overpowered hulks will have you thankful for the respawns (your character skydives into the battlefield from a shuttle passing through the stratosphere, which is pretty cool).

It’s the United States Imperial Forces of the Frontier Colonies (yay!) versus the vicious, evil, tenacious Arm of Orion (boo! hiss!).

With a rechargeable sprint that’d leave Olympic runners in the dust and a limited, rechargeable jet pack boost, the playable character is agile enough to get out of trouble and into a good vantage point. Equally agile enemies mean the limited lock-on targeting is a God-send while it lasts.

Different weapon loadouts are available and appropriate for different situations. Healers, heavy weapons, snipers, there’s enough variety to give some strategy to the onslaught, particularly in the final battle.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long to reach that final battle. The rest of the game is meant to be enjoyed via Xbox Live, and if you can find a crew to engage in battle, expect some by-the-numbers shooting with a bunch of frustratingly mobile targets. And watch for snipers!

The occasional, automated sentry turret and supply deopt can be deployed on the battlefield to make things more interesting.

Section 8 is like a summer popcorn flick. It’s not the best in its league, but its fun for what it is and offers up a few surprises to go along with the bullet bonanza. At $60, you’d better be ready to sink your teeth into the multiplayer mode, however, as the single player mode alone just can’t live up to that cost of entry.

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See, publisher Ubisoft is taking a gamble with a new motion-tracking camera peripheral for Wii that will lead to a unique experience for Your Shape Featuring Jenny McCarthy.

Stock photo, this is Jenny McCarthy from the cover art to her film, Dirty Love. Do you want her game already?

First, let’s talk Jenny. Jenny McCarthy is a genius pick for covergirl on this project, and here’s why. Since her Singled Out MTV days and her time as a Playboy playmate, Jenny McCarthy has earned a following that may have never tried a fitness game before, and her role with Your Shape could change that.

McCarthy has also become a decent comedic actress and a wholesome, published author and mom. It might have been an unlikely career turn, but it’s endeared her to another valuable demographic in young-adult and middle-aged women. These ladies may have tried Wii Fit and then given up on Wii, but a Jenny McCarthy fitness game may be enough to get them to pry open their wallets once more.

The other hook is Ubisoft’s unique peripheral which sounds like it’ll bridge some of the gap between Wii gaming and Microsoft’s Project Natal experiment. According the Ubisoft, the camera will come bundled with the game and features Ubisoft’s proprietary motion tracking technology, which provides a completely personalized and interactive work-out by scanning players’ bodies, assessing their current fitness level and then projecting their images onto the TV.

We’ll see!

Hey, what do you suppose the odds are that the game will include a jogging exercise where you recreate the supermarket scene from Dirty Love?

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When we left off, I had yet to try out Treasure World’s online setup, figuring that would be the hook that gave this game some longevity. I checked it out and there’s some mildly interesting things to discover there, if you search, but there wasn’t enough content that interested me beyond what the game offers on its own.

As your character locates new Wi-Fi spots (or “stars”), more and more treasure is unlocked.

Treasure World has rewards players for locating (not connecting to, just finding) Wi-Fi hotspots, even if the game is idling and the Nintendo DS is closed. The rewards are generally in the form of treasures. Objects for the in-game garden, clothes for the playable character. Beside trying to unlock everything, the game lets players decorate the garden or create songs with items as each one coincides with a different sound effect or tone, and they can all be arranged along the musical scale.

Online, it’s possible to browse the creations of others, but without being able to download back into the game, there’s some lost potential there. In the game, players will also discover treasure keys that work online to reveal images, printable paper games and other minor surprises.

The community is pretty small and relatively inactive, so the whole thing could’ve died right there. Instead, I’ve found that Treasure World’s unique hook, the ability to play the game with the DS closed simply by exploring the world around you, is enough to keep me coming back.

A photo of someone playing Treasure World.

When I travel, I make sure to have Treasure World searching for Wi-Fi spots in a pocket. The game tops out after 10,000 Wi-Fi spots, and so far I’m somewhere near the 3,000 range. I’ve recently made an interstate journey which netted about 1,000 spots total, and the rest have come courtesy of some day-to-day driving around the city where I live.

For people in the sticks, it’s possible that the game will be dormant more than it’s active. But for people in urban and suburban communities, Treasure World is an oddly addictive creation that will ding away whenever you approach a new Wi-Fi spot. You might be driving to work or shopping with a friend, but when the game dings you’ll be reminded that you’re playing a game - and winning!

It’s fun and if you’d like to try something original on the Nintendo DS, look no further than Treasure World.

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The first level in the game tasks players with getting a star piece out from the top of a tree as Maxwell, the game’s main character.

The lure of Scribblenauts is the number of creative ways players can succeed, and the imagination it will take to find various solutions to each level. Let’s brainstorm a few for the tree level.

What you do is type in an object and the game will match it up with an index of more than 10,000 objects. From bowling balls to unicorns, zombies and cannons, you type it in, and the object will appear.

At E3, gamers spent most of their time having unlikely characters do battle by summoning the undead, God, sea monsters and more. But the depth of the game should come from replaying the same levels without using the same items twice.

So, back to the tree. The easiest options for getting the star piece are to summon a ladder to climb the tree or an axe to cut it down.

But what else? The challenge is to go beyond that. Summon stilts and walk over to it. Anything to lift Maxwell up should work. Type in escalator.

It’s rumored that a secret mode won’t let you reuse items throughout the entire game, not just in each level. If that’s the case, you may need to be even more creative. What happens if you summon a cliff and a hang glider and attempt to soar over to the star. How about building a ramp and hopping on a dirtbike. You might even be able to summon a cowboy hat, chaps, spurs, a horse, a saddle and a lasso. Yeehaw!

The developers have tried to give basic properties to each object in the game so that they can be interacted with in a way that one might expect. Bounce off a trampoline into the tree. Hop on a pogo stick.

I wonder if you could put chewing gum on the end of a whip and pull the star down that way? The puzzles and levels will get more and more complex, so the chance to exercise your imagination will only grow exponentially as the game progresses. This is sand-box gaming in its purest form and anyone with an active imagination should keep this game in mind.

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One of my first reactions was, surprisingly, no. I was trying the first few minigames, performing terribly with the Frisbee mode, not caring much about the swordplay game, and ultimately wishing that there was some point to it all. Mini-game collections have lost their luster for me.

The basketball game is a bit of a mess, but the straight 3-point shooting contest is a fun challenge.

But I stuck with the game long enough to try some fun two-player, which helps, and long enough to find a few of the games that I think will provide some depth, and overall I’ve come away pleased, even if I think the Motion Plus accessory may be a bit overhyped for what it does.

And what it does is require you to wield the remote with more precision than you have before. This is great for my early favorite, archery. With subtle motions, it’s like you’re aiming your bow carefully left and right, up and down. The effect is obvious in games like Frisbee, golf and swordplay where your motions are transferred precisely. In real life, I’m generally pretty bad with a Frisbee, and my first few rounds in-game had my disc flying wildly off course. I had to practice hard to keep a level hand, same with golf.

One game where it doesn’t seem to work for me is bowling. In the previous Wii Sports, you could hold the controller at a steep angle and curve into the pocket with pretty decent results. This quasi-exploit hasn’t really changed much, which surprised me.

Basketball 3-point shooting was a tough one for me to get the hang of. I thought it was just a timing game, but you actually have to hold the remote perfectly straight or you’ll throw off-center and miss. Tricky.

Another surprise for me is airplane mode which recalls Pilotwings in its relaxing ambience and exploration.

So, despite my initial disappointment, I walked away from Wii Sports Resort with a favorable impression, although the Wii MotionPlus hasn’t impressed me much beyond archery (that should be a lot of fun with Zelda) and Frisbee golf. Swordplay is fine, but the gesture-based swordplay we had gotten used to doesn’t really feel much less fun by comparison.

One thing’s for sure, I’m itching to get back into the game, and that’s always a good sign.

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