I'm running a bit behind with E3 coverage, but I'm going to try to catch up today. While everyone else covers the predictable stuff, I'm going to try to share my impressions of the more unique games on the floor this year.

I knew about The Bible Game from Crave before arriving at the show and was happy to stumble upon it on the floor. There are two flavors, one for GBA and one for PS2. Disappointingly, both are quiz games, although each tries to overcome that creative defect in a different way.

The GBA game uses an isometric RPG-style game to frame the Bible quiz questions. The player chooses a male or female character and traverses the environment, searching out demon enemies to battle. Battle takes the form of, you guessed it, a series of Bible trivia questions. If you answer correctly, you win a piece of some sacred object (sorry, I can't remember what it was) and move on to the next area. The goal is to successfully reassemble this object to win the game.

The PS2 game sports more of a game show interface, with characters at buzzers and the like. It features a few action/arcade minigame modes, like the "jacob's ladder" DDR-type interface pictured at right.

While I'm wouldn't personally be interested in developing a Bible game, it seems that so much more than a quiz game is possible. The GBA game, which I played much more extensively than the PS2 game, offers extremely rudimentary correlation between the Bible facts and the gameplay. The quiz questions aren't even categorized or thematized; they seem to come up at random. A board game would service this end just as well -- and perhaps better -- than a videogame.

It's curious why Crave didn't choose to contextualize the bible as a series of stories and allegories about coherent, thematic topics. Even Veggietales does this in linear media like TV and film. The most obvious example I can think of would be a game that exposes the different perspectives on Christ's teachings in the gospels. It's good to see this kind of content on major consoles, but I can't help but fear that the gameplay will undermine future similar efforts. Nevertheless, as a title with unique subject matter on the console, I imagine the game will likely see reasonable success.

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