Ratatouille - first look

Developed by Heavy Iron (makers of the surprisingly playable SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom), Ratatouille looks to deliver mercurial platforming gameplay that emulates everything from Super Monkey Ball to Zelda. In the levels we've seen so far on the 360 and Wii - which include a French marketplace, a farm populated by murderous chickens and several weird, food-themed dreamscapes - the action switched gears every few seconds. Remy is a versatile rat, able to hop across the tops of poles like Sly Cooper, raft down rivers in a tin can and roll around on top of big toy balls. He's also no slouch when it comes to beating down rat-sized enemies (with a waggle of the remote on the Wii version), and he gets even better at it if he can find a wooden spoon or an explosive hotsauce bottle.

Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.