Release Chat : Week of 7 / 9 / 09

There’s no doubt that the game that’s going to be flying off the shelves this week is the long awaited Beatles Rock Band. You may not be able to buy their music on iTunes, or listen to it on Spotify, but now you can play, drum and sing along in your living room with plastic instruments.

Mini Ninjas is a new game from IO interactive, the Danish team behind the pioneering ‘Hitman’ series. Although doing a game about ninjas might not seem like a huge departure for the team, the game couldn’t be further from the rest of their catalogue. It has more in common with Psychonauts, or Ratchet and Clank. It’s cute, funny, and deceptively deep.

This week’s oddball award has to go to Oktoberfest: The Official Game DS. It’s a collection of mini games based around the festival of the same name, which challenges players to eat sausages, drink beer, finger-wrestle and direct a Bavarian Oompah-Band. Is there anything that can’t be turned into a collection of DS mini games?