Are you curious to know what Thor and Osama bin Laden have in common? Can you explain why publisher Majestic publishes good games that they don't understand? Can you turn your eyelids inside out? All of these questions and more are answerered in this week's Reviews Spotlight. Wait, who am I kidding? We don't answer questions; we highlight reviews...or do we? What if this is the secret communication hub for Seal Team Six? What if we're stealing your personal data right now? What if -- ACK!! [Shoe pulls the plug on Damon's computer].

A Last Hurrah for the DS: Monster Tale
By Chase Koeneke

Monster Tale is a really strange game. No one seems to know how to describe it. Majestic calls it an “adventure/pet simulator” game and apparently…it isn’t. In his review, even community writer Chase Koeneke doesn’t give a clear explanation of what kind of title it is. But in his attempt to ink out a workable description he name-drops some pretty good games: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game, A Boy and His Blob, Castlevania, Metroid, and Henry Hatsworth. Suddenly, I’m reminded of a great line from Pulp Fiction when Marsellus Wallace tells Jules that he’s bringing in the Wolf. Chase, that's all you had to say.

Hands-On with Age of Empries Online Beta
By William Pansky

We gave out free codes for Age of Empires Online last month. William managed to snag one of them and now he's rewarding us with his impressions of the real-time strategy. The game has a lot of changes over previous titles in the series, and William covers everything. How the free-to-play subscription model will play out, however, is left for us to wonder until it releases sometime this year.

He shall smite thee for Asgard!: Thor: Bring the Thunder
By Ryan Conway

Let us celebrate this week's release of Thor the movie with a review of Thor the free-to-play Flash game. Ryan calls it a mix of Mega Man and Super Mario Bros., so expect cute characters with big heads, a lot of beep and boop noises, and a power-up move that will clear the screen with one push of a button. If you’ve got some time to kill, Thor sounds like fun. And, remember: It's free.

Playing it Old School: “Spec Ops: War on Terrorism” and the popularity of browser games after 9/11
By Stan Rezaee

This is a good article for any video-game historians out there. In the aftermath of Osama bin Laden's death, Stan Rezaee uses a browser game from 2001 to illustrate the psychological state of the country after the events of 9/11. He also makes the bold claim that Spec Ops: War on Terrorism is the GoldenEye 007 of browser games. It isn’t everyday that someone bothers to write about such a thing. Check it out.