‘Turok’ provides only mild thrills

‘TUROK’

(Touchstone) for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

First-person shooter; Rating: M

Grade: C

When you get right down to it, there’s nothing wrong with getting to gun it out with dinosaurs and jam a knife through a velociraptor’s head, is there?

While there seems to be a lot going on in “Turok,” the game can best be judged by how well it handles fighting mighty prehistoric beasts. And on that front, it succeeds quite nicely.

The story that drove the original “Turok” games has largely been abandoned for a more movielike approach.

That doesn’t matter, however, because once on the ground of this alien planet, you’ll find dinos, giant scorpions and other mangy beasts stalking around trying to kill you.

Armed with your trusty knife and an assortment of guns, you’re off to rescue folks and then escape the planet.

Fighting dinosaurs is what gamers expect from a “Turok” game, so it’s great to see that the visuals and battle scenes with T rexes and raptors are handled well.

Some of the button-mashing gets repetitive, but once you have slain the beasts, you do feel kind of giddy.

Overall, the game is a bit linear, and there is some frustration from a lack of save points on more difficult levels, but overall it is balanced.

There are some technical difficulties and repetitive play that keep this from being a perfect game, but you won’t be disappointed by it.

‘TWISTED METAL: HEAD ON’

(Sony) for PlayStation 2

Genre: Driving; Rating: T

Grade: C

In college, my roommates and I easily spent a semester’s worth of our lives playing “Twisted Metal 2,” a top-five PS2 game if there ever was one. With Sony’s release of “Head On” (originally a PSP game) for the PS2, it was time to relive the joy of firing homing missiles and fearing the wrath of Sweet Tooth.

It’s been forever since a “Twisted Metal” game has been released, and why a new PS3 title is not out yet is beyond me.

Mostly a straight port of the PSP game to the console, “Head On” features new levels to run rampant on and plenty of classic “Twisted Metal” send-ups that will leave fans smiling.

Besides the frenetic road-rage combat, this game is filled with fantastic bonus content — like character endings and some playable lost levels from a “Twisted Metal: Black” sequel that never happened.

At its budget price, this game will not quench everyone’s “Twisted Metal” thirst, but it certainly brings lots of new things to make you dream that a full-fledged PS3 game could be on the horizon.

‘DOWNSTREAM PANIC!’

(Atari) for PSP

Genre: Action; Rating: E

Grade: 2.5 stars

The tagline for nearly the entire first season of “Heroes” was “Save the Cheerleader, Save the World.”

Well, in “Downstream Panic!” it can best be said as “Save the Fish, Lose Your Sanity.”

“Downstream Panic!” is actually a fun game to play for the first several hours.

Tiny fish are floating downstream and it is up to you to save them from being eaten by bigger fish.

The levels are built like pseudo-mazes, so you’ll have a variety of tools to direct the fish to freedom.

The process is all well and good until about halfway through the game’s 80 levels. Then everything gets really difficult, and there’s no explanation behind it.

Those tricks — like plant seeds, clouds and bombs — that helped you successfully guide the fish suddenly stop working properly, and soon you’re losing multitudes of fish. If not for this conundrum, this would be a more impressive game and certainly less frustrating.

Fans of like-minded games like “Loco Roco” will notice similarities in everything from the color scheme to the overall presentation. So, if you were unimpressed by “Loco Roco,” you probably won’t be thrilled by this game either.

—Chris Campbell, Scripps Howard