Female fighters in games

Female characters are taking the lead in some much anticipated new games. The downside of this is that they're pretty violent. See USATODAY's review of the much-anticipated "Perfect Dark Zero" for Xbox 360, featuring 2020 bounty hunter Joanna Dark (the game is rated "M" for Mature/17+ - "Joanna has an extensive arsenal of weapons"). Then there's Kokoro the fighter geisha in Dead or Alive 4. Reviewer Matt Slagle of the Associated Press says there's a reason for its M rating: "In learning how to play this game, I felt like Uma Thurman's "The Bride" in Kill Bill: Vol. 2, as she's beaten down by sadomasochistic master Pai Mei. Moving into gentler gaming fare, check out USATODAY's Mark Salzman on three games rated either E (for "Everyone") or E/10+ for the most popular handheld gameplayer, the Nintendo DS: Electroplankton, Lost in Blue, and Mario Kart DS. As for the game version of the box-office hit The Chronicles of Narnia, USATODAY's Ginny Gundmundsen says the E-rated version for Game Boy Advance "focuses too much on combat."