The Drop: Week of March 28th 2011 New Releases

Make sure your PSPs and PSPgos have a full charge this week, because you’ve been invited to celebrate Parasite Eve’s third birthday, brought to you by the best party planners in the virtual city of Manhattan, Square Enix. Fans of action-rpgs, rejoice! The 3rd Birthday arrives this week on your favorite PlayStation Portables.

Legends and all-stars from the wrestling ring to the driving range, fight for your attention on the PS3 with the arrival of WWE All Stars and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 on Blu-Ray. Free Realms, Split/Second and Sonic the Hedgehog all make their notable cameos on PSN bringing you countless hours of digital hotness. It’s a Drop filled with speed, golfing and parasites.

PlayStation 3

WWE All Stars: WWE All Stars is an over-the-top, arcade-style beat-down featuring the WWE’s past and present superstars of the ring. WWE All Stars delivers one of the greatest rosters ever assembled in a wrestling-centric videogame. Renowned WWE Legends will align with today’s most prominent WWE Superstars, inviting players to generate fantasy matches and ultimately determine the greatest competitors of all time.

Shift 2 Unleashed: Need For Speed Shift 2 Unleashed builds on the true driving experience that the NFS franchise is renown for by introducing the driver’s battle, an even more authentic and primal feeling of power and speed which elevates the fundamental competitive race into a struggle for supremacy against other drivers and even the track itself. In Shift 2 Unleashed, players’ hands sweat and ache as they clutch onto the controller, their pulse races from the break-neck speeds experienced through the first-person cockpit view.

Dynasty Warriors 7: Based on the epic novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the genre-defining Dynasty Warriors series depicts the massive battles ignited by the fall of the Han Dynasty when three rebellious states moved to overthrow the Emperor of China.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters: (PlayStation Move Enabled) For the first time in the history of this award-winning sports franchise, players are able to step onto the hallowed grounds of Augusta National, experience the rich history and tradition of the Masters Tournament and begin their own journey to capture the most sought-after prize in professional golf — the Green Jacket.

NASCAR The Game 2011: NASCAR The Game 2011 completely redefines what fans can expect from a NASCAR racing game. Players can choose to play as themselves or as one of the sport’s real-world drivers as they battle it out for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship. Each pro driver has the AI characteristics of his or her real world counterpart, setting the stage for intense rivalries played out on the track. From the 22 real world tracks to full pit stop strategy action, NASCAR The Game 2011 captures the real atmosphere, sense of speed and spectacle that embodies NASCAR.

MotoGP 10/11: MotoGP 10/11 will bring fans the most authentic and realistic MotoGP experience of the series. Gamers will get all of the 2010 MotoGP season content and downloadable updates for the 2011 MotoGP championship shortly after the season starts.

PlayStation Network

Rush’N Attack Ex-Patriot: Rush’N Attack Ex-Patriot takes players through three massive environments of a Siberian prison complex, a bio-weapons laboratory, and a nuclear weapons base. In each location, gamers will have to complete a variety of mission and survive encounters with a variety of Russian soldiers from prison guards to elite paratrooper, snipers, and more.

Free Realms: A light-hearted MMO designed for a broad range of game players, including children and families. Free Realms allows you to do what you want to do, when you want to do it, in a lush, living, 3D world, filled with rich landscapes and fun wildlife. From pet raising to mini-games like soccer and racing, or battling giant spiders and adventuring with friends – there’s something for everyone! With weekly and monthly content updates, regular and special events scheduled, and even the potential player-created parties and celebrations there is always something new to see and do in the world of Free Realms. Read PlayStation.Blog Coverage.

Split/Second: An intense action racing game set within the world of a hyper-competitive reality television show. Competitors vie to be the first across the finish line in a made-for-TV city built for destruction, with the ultimate goal of becoming the season champion. Competitors in Split/Second don’t just collide with other vehicles to knock them from the track — they can also trigger explosive events that drastically alter the dynamics of the race. Players must use strategy and pinpoint timing to derail opponents, tactically alter the track or create entirely new routes.

Chime Super Deluxe: Chime mixes up the addictive action of puzzle games like Tetris with elements of music synthesizing. You arrange note blocks on a grid which form patterns of sound, then secure them by surrounding them with other blocks, intensifying the audio and creating new melodies as you play. As you build larger block segments (quads) and cover the grid, the combo meter starts and the underlying song develops in full. But take care – if you build yourself into a corner, the blocks shatter and the music dies. Read PlayStation.Blog Coverage

Sonic The Hedgehog: Burst the videgame speed barrier wide-open with Sonic the Hedgehog. Blaze by in a blur using the super sonic spin attack. Loop the loop by defying gravity. Plummet down tunnels. Then dash to safety with Sonic’s power sneakers. All at a frenzied pace. Sonic has an attitude that just won’t quit!

Moon Diver: At the dawn of the 22nd century, an evil power brought inanimate objects to life, and they turned on humanity. Bridges, automobiles, cities – the whole of humanity’s creations were all made to turn on their makers. Mankind’s fears of apocalypse became reality! Read PlayStation.Blog Coverage

Back to the Future: The Game Episode 2: This episodic game series takes you back in time as Marty and Doc embark on a completely new cinematic time-travel adventure based on the blockbuster movie franchise about a nutty scientist who has invented a time-traveling DeLorean.

PSN Demos

• echochrome ii
• MAG
• Chime Super Deluxe
• Moon Diver

PlayStation Portable

The 3rd Birthday (Also on PSN): Hideous creatures descend on Manhattan. Ground reports from the squad tasked with containing the pandemonium refer to these life forms as the Twisted. An investigatory team known as the CTI is formed within the year. The Overdive system emerges as a means of opposition, but only one viable candidate exists — Aya Brea. A gift as she awakens from a lost past on this, the occasion of her third birth.

WWE All Stars (Also on PSN): WWE All Stars encompasses a fluid, intuitive and original gameplay style, creating a highly competitive environment and an engaging spectacle. Packed with high-flying, hard hitting and over the top action, players will explore a variety of responsive quick grapples, strong grapples, standing and running attacks, as well as combination sequences.

Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky (Also on PSN): Blazers are gallant warriors that consider the well being of others and the safety of the land as their priority, and work hard to defeat monsters and criminals. Estel is an aspiring Blazer who lives near the city of Rolento in Rebel Kingdom. Together with her friend Yoshua, Estel continues to train herself in the arts of Blazers. The story begins when Estel’s father receives a strange letter, starting a chain of events. The Legend of Heroes VI gives players an assortment of gameplay with its Blazer quest system, cooking system, opal arts system and many other features. With highlights like the AT bar and the AT bonus, battles in The Legend of Heroes give players that further tactical edge.

Dragon’s Lair: A portable version of the classic FMV videogame. In this single-player action game, you play as heroic knight Dirk the Daring as he journeys to a mysterious castle filled with danger, in order to save the fair Princess Daphne from the forces of evil and the towering dragon Singe.

[Editor’s Note: The following dates are subject to change. Game details are gathered from Press Releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]