Fall’s bountiful harvest

Old Nintendo classics get an overhaul in their new fall releases

 

 

Ah, Fall. It’s the greatest time of the year, when the games publishers have been cultivating all year finally bear fruit. Here are upcoming titles sure to fill your cornucopia:

‘Brutal Legend’
Console: Xbox 360/PS3
Company: Electronic Arts
Release Date: Oct. 6

It’s a rarity for a big-name actor to not only do voice work for a video game, but also to promote it as if it were his new film. That’s just what Jack Black is doing with “Brutal Legend.” It seems to be a labor of love for Black, considering it spoofs heavy metal even more than his joke band, Tenacious D, does. Think Adult Swim’s “Metalocalypse” mixed with the point-and-click adventure titles of decades past.

‘New Super Mario Bros. Wii’
Console: Wii
Company: Nintendo
Release Date: Nov. 15

This is not even out yet, and it’s already won the award for “most matter-of-fact game title of all time.” Guess what? It’s a new sidescrolling Mario Bros. game on the Wii, only this one allows for multiplayer action. Finally, you can settle roommate grudges where they were meant to be settled: next to a bunch of strange mushrooms.

‘Assassin’s Creed II’
Console: Xbox 360/PS3
Company: Ubisoft
Release Date: Nov. 17

Renaissance-era Italy is once again receiving the video game treatment in this follow-up to 2007’s flawed but fun original. Get ready to skulk around the city again, stalking and assassinating your prey. Then afterward, you can have a cup of coffee with Leonardo da Vinci. Really. He’s in the game.

Doesn’t his estate have lawyers or something?

‘The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks’
Console: Nintendo DS
Company: Nintendo
Release Date: Dec. 7

Link returns on the DS to fight more monsters, solve more puzzles and, um, ride some trains. That’s right — the steam locomotive will replace the horse and boat as the game’s primary mode of transportation. No word on if Link will be facing off against all of those newly armed Amtrak passengers.