Big Releases for the Week of September 5th, 2006: LocoRoco, Yakuza, Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged Vol. 1

The fall rush starts this week with some anticipated titles across all platforms. Sony’s off kilter platformer for the PSP LocoRoco finally sees release in America today. Players control not the main character of LocoRoco but the world itself, tilting left or right in order to guide the gelatinous, yellow blob avatar to safety. Early in development, the game was praised for its pop-art presentation and irrepressibly cheery soundtrack but was met with slow sails and lukewarm reviews after its release in Japan.

Sega’s Japanese mafia epic Yakuza also comes out this week. Yakuza is in many ways the spiritual successor to Yu Suzuki’s overly ambitious Dreamcast game Shenmue, known for its sprawling narrative and pre-Grand Theft Auto open world gameplay. Yakuza is notable for its reportedly tight and satisfying beat-’em up mechanics and its intricate story, written by crime novelist Seishu Hase. Look for a review of Yakuza here on Associated Content in the near future.

Another notable release this week is Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged Vol. 1. This collection of games available on Microsoft’s Live Arcade download service serves two purposes: to give unconnected 360 gamers yet another incentive to join Xbox Live by using the free month of Gold that comes with the disk and by letting them play the much acclaimed titles available on Arcade and to make yet another few bucks for Microsoft. Games included on the disk are Bejewled 2 Deluxe, Wik: Fable of Souls, Outpost Kaloki X, Texas Hold ‘Em, Hardwood Backgammon, and the obsession inducing Geometry Wars.