November turned out to be a relatively light month for downloadable games, with a lower than average number of titles released for each platform. Microsoft's standout was a fantasy-themed puzzler called Switchball, while Nintendo's top November game was the classic Super Mario Bros. 3. However, it was Sony's human slingshot title PAIN -- the only full game released through the PlayStation Store in the last 30 days -- that kept us coming back, making it our favorite downloadable game this month.

PICK OF THE MONTH

PAIN
(PlayStation Store)
Score: 4.5 (out of five)

Arcade simplicity, modern graphical glitz, humor. These three key ingredients combine to make PAIN easy to pick up, hard to put down, and an experience you won't soon forget. The concept is simple: Place an idiot in a giant slingshot, fling him toward cafés, billboards, and old ladies, then sit back and watch the calamitous results. PAIN owes much of its success to the powerful Havok physics engine, which makes almost every object in the game behave in wonderfully lifelike manner -- glass shatters, wood snaps, and limbs flail in rag doll fashion. Should your human ammunition happen to hit his head on a street lamp while being blasted at a far-off building, he will issue a loud grunt as the inertia still carried by the rest of his body throws him into a wild spin likely to do even more damage once he arrives at his target. You can also strike poses while flying, and twitch your broken body around on the ground after impact to cause a bit more mayhem. It's laugh-out-loud funny stuff; one pinch Half-Life, two pinches Jackass.


Power Golf
(Wii Virtual Console)
Score: 2 (out of five)
Power Golf is a good example of just how spoiled we gamers have become. We bemoan the latest golf simulators for offering only a dozen courses or not providing some obscure game mode, like whack-a-mole or real-time weather, but Power Golf, -- considered one of the best golf games of the early 1990s -- served up just a single course and provided options for only stroke and match play. That said, because we've come to expect so much from our golf games, going back to play such an elementary emulation of the sport is markedly underwhelming. Now, if Nintendo had re-released Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf instead....


Asteroids & Asteroids Deluxe
(Xbox Live Arcade)
Score: 3 (out of five)
The trick in both Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe is to use your thrusters sparingly. Nothing brings big rocky death faster than zipping around the screen at maximum velocity. And, as it turns out, the same is true for the so-called "evolved" editions of both games (included as extras in this Xbox Live Arcade Asteroids bundle), which, despite their modern visuals, play nearly identically to their predecessors. Asteroids fans couldn't ask for a better deal, but that doesn't change the fact that these are among the most basic games ever made, and probably won't hold your attention for more than five or ten minutes at a time.


Super Mario Bros. 3
(Wii Virtual Console)
Score: 4 (out of five)
Many blowdie hard Nintendo fans still think Super Mario Bros. 3 represents the pinnacle of the moustachioed plummer's adventures, perfecting as it did virtually everything people loved about the Nintendo Entertainment System Super Mario experience. And you won't get much of an argument from us; it is indeed one amazing little platformer. But it's also the fourth time Mario lovers have been given the opportunity to buy it (in addition to the original NES version it was released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as Super Mario All-Stars, and on the Game Boy Advance as Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 -- confused yet?). That means anyone who has a thing for SMB3 probably already has between one and three ways of playing it, which keeps the Virtual Console edition, which is more or less an exact duplicate of the original NES game, from achieving essential status.


Shrek 'n' Roll
(Xbox Live Arcade)
Score: 3 (out of five)
The only reason Shrek's green mug (along with those of more than a dozen other characters from the Shrek films) was attached to this little distraction is because nobody would have purchased a game about rolling a piece of food back and forth on a board without some extra incentive. That said, it's not as lame as it sounds. There is a surprising amount of strategy involved in rolling the chow into the arms of ogre babes perched in windows and keeping it from tumbling into vortex-like openings on the building's edifice. It's no Tetris, but it's passably entertaining in short blasts.


Double Dribble
(Wii Virtual Console)
Score: 3 (out of five)
One of the finest games of basketball available prior to PlayStation-era gaming, Double Dribble nailed the spectacle of the sport by playing little cut scene movies whenever players drove up to the net for a slam dunk. Plus, with full court action, five-on-five play, and customizable quarter lengths, it acted as a template for many more graphically robust games that followed. Still, playing it today is less a truly compelling sports game experience and more an exercise in nostalgia for older players who grew up playing this 20-year-old classic. Definitely worth checking out if you're one of those people, but unnecessary for just about everyone else.


Switchball
(Xbox Live Arcade)
Score: 4 (out of five)
This three-dimensional ball rolling game combines the inventive platform play of games like Super Monkey Ball and Marble Blast Ultra with its own unique puzzle sensibilities to create a challenging and compelling little diversion. Success depends on your understanding of basic physics: Heavy metal balls can be used to smash through piles of blocks or move wooden planks, while air balls can be employed to roll up and over teeter-totter-style ramps or safely tumble down a cotton chute. The graphics are gorgeous, the conundrums clever. It's a sure-fire bet for players who prefer games that require a little more lateral thinking and a bit less hand/eye coordination.