It's hard to say whether anyone's actually marked their calendars for anything that's coming out this week, save for the somewhat anticipated (not to mention a little bit dreaded in some circles) Guitar Hero on Tour for the Nintendo DS. Yes, it's Guitar Hero; yes, it looks as though the DS peripheral will actually be somewhat functional (though it still looks a bit like a hand cramp waiting to happen); and yes, the track list could be worse. Still, every look at this week's releases inspires gravitation toward a different release, something that's making itself known on both major portable systems this week. You know what I'm talking about: It's none other than Space Invaders Extreme.

Now I'll be the first to admit that updating a classic game with modern graphics and color palettes and then slapping the word EXTREME on the title is more than a little bit tacky. Still, everything I've seen of Space Invaders Extreme is that it will be the exception to the rule. Rather than an uninspired update, you see, Space Invaders Extreme looks like a re-imagining of the entire concept of Space Invaders. Not only are you a little ship at the bottom of the screen blasting away at wave after wave of 2D sprites, you're fighting organized waves, sprites that flip from 1D to 2D (like Super Paper Mario minus one dimension), and a few giant invaders. All of it is in front of a new musical backdrop that actually manages to incorporate the in-game sounds to create a tapestry of noise that just feels right. The early impressions that I got from it were that it was like Space Invaders meets Lumines, and I don't know how a combination like that can possibly fail.

Not only that, but Space Invaders Extreme even has a peripheral of its own, the "Taito Paddle", which you can use to guide your ship. It also works with the newly-released Arkanoid DS. Take that, Guitar Hero!

Elsewhere, it's a pretty quiet release week, as most of the gaming community tries to recover from the behemoth release that was Metal Gear Solid 4. Wii owners get Rock Band (huzzah!), PS3 owners get Fatal Intertia (whoopee?) and the gamers that simply won't let go of the PC are the recipients of a little thing called The Political Machine 2008, which is unfortunately not a remake of The Incredible Machine with a bunch of obvious metaphors. In this one, you get to be a campaign manager, which would surely have me drinking brown liquor out of the bottle in a matter of days. This edition has Obama, Clinton, and McCain as candidates.

What are you looking at this week? Leave one in the comments and let us know. The full release list (and a trailer for Space Invaders Extreme) is after...the...JUMP!

DS:

Arkanoid DS (17 June)

Code Lyoko: Fall of X.A.N.A. (17 June)

Imagine Rock Star (17 June)

Space Invaders Extreme (17 June)

Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop 3 (17 June)

Wacky Races: Crash & Dash (17 June)

Guitar Hero: On Tour (22 June)

PS3:

Fatal Inertia EX (19 June)

Wii:

Wacky Races: Crash & Dash (17 June)

Rock Band (22 June)

PSP:

Secret Agent Clank (17 June)

Space Invaders Extreme (17 June)

Xbox 360:

Deadliest Catch: Alaskan Storm (17 June)

PC:

Requiem: Bloodymare (16 June)

The Political Machine 2008 (16 June)

PS2:

Shhh...it's sleeping.