Best New Games This Week: 8/11

Olympic fever might be sweeping the nation, but this week, gamers will have only one sport on their minds: pro football. Indeed, Madden NFL 09 will begin its assault on the sales charts by storming down the field for every console and handheld on August 12, leading a solid crop of new games to the development end zone. If pigskin ain't your thing, try impersonating a tiny ninja in N+, go old-school with the platforming remake Bionic Commando: Rearmed, or blast off with the intergalactic RPG, Space Siege. Now that's a team we can root for.

Top Three:

Madden NFL 09

WATCH TRAILER

Love football but too daunted by Madden to ever give it a go? Say goodbye to daylight and hello to your new best friend. Though brimming with enough depth to keep the hardcore fans glued to the couch for days, Madden NFL 09 introduces a wealth of new features that should make this year's version more accessible than ever, including a handy Virtual Trainer, in-game analysis of failed plays and even the ability to backtrack and rewind plays for the ultimate in second chances. Hey, maybe that's why Brett Favre is on the cover?

Space Siege

WATCH GAMEPLAY TRAILER

Can one really lay siege to space? We don't know, and you shouldn't care. If you crave the addictive action-RPG gameplay of Diablo but need a break from all those goblins, this science fiction entry is just the thing. Blast your way through an alien-ridden space station while picking up cybernetic implants that improve your powers -- but at the cost of your humanity.

Bionic Commando: Rearmed

WATCH GAMEPLAY VIDEO

Having a grappling hook for an arm might make handshakes difficult, but in the world of Bionic Commando, such an odd extremity is your ticket to superstardom. This remake of the 8-bit NES side-scroller comes to Xbox Live!, Playstation Network and PCs sporting flashy new graphics and classic, old-school 2D platforming. In other words, it's hard as nails. Definitely not for the weak at heart...or limbs.

Best of the Rest

• Glyph 2:
  Soothing puzzler gets a sequel. Addiction pending.
• N+ (PSP, DS):
  The tiny ninja platform game hurdles over to the handhelds.
• Discovery!:
  Find items for cash in this hidden-object game show.
• Line Rider 2 (Wii):
  Draw your way down a mountain in the Wii version of this internet phenomenon.