New PAL Releases Roundup - 17/04/09

It's a bit quiet out there. Well, that's putting it mildly - so mildly, in fact, that you could probably have six rounds of it and still drive home afterwards. Not only can you hear a pin drop in videogame shops this week, but you can hear the pin thinking about it too - agonising over angles and rates of descent, the needy little sprig. "Look at me!" he cries, alone on a shelf full of nothing.

Well, there's Phantasy Star Portable and Dementium: The Ward, but you wouldn't exactly stop traffic for them.

Instead you're perhaps better off retiring to the walled gardens of Xbox Live Arcade and - in Europe - PlayStation Network, where past abuses are forgotten in the sunshine and magical sound showers of OutRun Online Arcade, a simple, reasonably priced cut of the 8/10 variety, which does almost nothing but delight.

In fact, it's actually rather nice that it's so quiet out there, because OutRun deserves the spotlight. Leave the pin to its brooding and drift more!

This week:

• Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars (Wii Virtual Console - Master System)
• CID: The Dummy (PSP, PS2, Wii, PC)
• Dementium: The Ward (DS)
• Disney's Action Game Feat. Hercules (PSN - PSone)
• Dragonball Evolution (PSP)
• Mixed Messages (DSiWare)
• Mytran Wars (PSP)
• Need for Speed Most Wanted 5-1-0 (PSN - PSP)
• OutRun Online Arcade (PSN, XBLA)
• Phantasy Star Portable (PSP)
• Secret Command (Wii Virtual Console - Master System)