Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu For DS

A big part of the niche appeal of card-battle video games can be attributed to their relative complexity. Unfortunately, this complexity also tends to alienate the majority of players. And that these games often assume familiarity with real-world collectible card games doesn't help matters, either. Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu attempts to address this by offering a simplified card-battling system and couching it in a story mode that makes the whole experience more accessible. In the process, though, the game loses much of the strategizing that makes card battling fun. 

Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu is essentially like the old playing-card game War--two players draw cards against each other, and the player with the higher card wins--except with a few layers of nonsense piled on top. During a battle, each combatant has a five-card hand--no more, no less. Every card has three defining characteristics--power value, guard value, and action type. The power and guard values simply determine that card's offensive and defensive levels, while the action type determines what the card actually does. There are eight different types of actions, including a straightforward attack action, the ability to raise the power and guard values of the cards currently in your hand, the ability to swap cards with your enemy, and more.

Playing a card is simple, since you don't have to worry about card placement or tapping mana points or anything like that. Just select a card from your hand, and your opponent will do the same. Whichever card has a higher power value will generally win, at which point the difference between the winning card's power value and the losing card's guard value will determine how much damage the loser takes. This goes back and forth, with a new card from your imaginary deck taking the place in your hand of any cards that have been played, until one combatant's life bar is depleted. It's terribly easy to pick up, and the game offers a painstakingly detailed tutorial to make sure everything is crystal clear. The problem is that by stripping out elements like card placement and tapping mana points, luck becomes a much greater factor. Since the power value of the card you're playing all but determines whether the card will have any positive impact for you, it's mostly a matter of luck as to whether the card you play will outrank your opponent's. Not to belabor the point, but it really does feel an awful lot like War.

There are card combos to consider that potentially make the action more involved and, hence, more interesting. If you have multiple cards in your hand with the same power or guard value, you can play them at once, adding up whatever the common value is. It still mostly comes down to whether you've got good cards in your hand, but it's useful if you've got lousy cards that you just need to get rid of. It's just too bad that the story mode takes its sweet time introducing card combos. You'll probably be a good four hours or so into the game before guard combos are even introduced.

The story mode, which sleepwalks through the same, tired Dragon Ball Z story arcs that have been used to prop up countless other DBZ games, adds another layer to the action by having you seek out your enemies on a map screen in a series of separate scenarios. The same hand of cards you use in the card battling are used here as well, with the power value of the card you play during a given turn determining how many spaces you'll move and the guard value determining whether you'll be able to avoid engaging in a random-encounter card battle. The goal in any particular scenario is usually just to chase down and beat up any number of opponents, though there's also plenty of meaningless wandering around that's seemingly designed to force you into more random-encounter card battles. 

What's most exasperating about the scenarios is that after you've spent a bunch of time toiling about the map and getting into a series of relatively easy card battles, the process will usually culminate in a battle against a foe that's significantly more powerful than any of the enemies you've faced up to that point. If you lose this card battle, you'll have to start that scenario from scratch. With an average scenario lasting about a half-hour, the prospect of having to go through all that tedium just for an opportunity to advance to the next scenario is a grim one. That you'll be subjected to the same looping battle music and repetitive 2D animations doesn't help matters.

There are some multiplayer options, but it's no more fun to play the game against live local opponents than it is against the computer. Points should be given to Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu for trying something that doesn't just feel like a palette-swapped Yu-Gi-Oh! game. It's certainly something different, but it lacks the necessary strategy elements that actually make card-battling games fun. 

Source:http://www.gamespot.com

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars For DS

At first glance, Chinatown Wars could be mistaken for a return to the Grand Theft Auto series' humble 2D beginnings. The action is viewed from a more or less top-down perspective, and of course you still spend much of your time driving stolen cars and causing trouble with firearms. But the similarities between this superb Nintendo DS game and its '90s progenitors pretty much end there. Chinatown Wars actually has more in common with GTAs III and IV than it does with earlier games, and, remarkably, it even adds to and improves on the formula that made those games so successful. That's a bold statement for sure, but Chinatown Wars really is that good. 

Set in the same instantly recognizable Liberty City as GTAIV (minus one island), Chinatown Wars tells the story of a power struggle within the Triad gangs from the perspective of Huang Lee, whose crime-boss father has recently been murdered. Huang flies to Liberty from Hong Kong to avenge his father, and predictably becomes embroiled in the war between those hoping to step into the dead man's shoes. As Huang, you advance the story--which should take you about nine hours to play through--by undertaking missions for a number of different characters within the Triad organization, as well as for one or two people outside of it. Many of these missions involve the usual mix of driving fast, killing people, and not getting caught by the cops, but there are plenty of varied and memorable missions as well, a number of which put the touch screen to great use.

For the most part, Chinatown Wars plays just like any other GTA game, which is an achievement in itself. Basic controls for movement and car-jacking are mapped to the same button positions that they are on other platforms. The uncomplicated on-foot and vehicle controls are largely the same (sprint becomes accelerate, shoot is still shoot), so even those of you with no prior GTA experience should have no trouble picking them up quickly. There are some great options to make the game even more user-friendly as well, such as autotargeting for drive-by shootings and a subtle steering assist that automatically straightens up your vehicle so that it's parallel with the road that you're on. There's even an option to superimpose GPS directions directly onto the street, which works a lot better than having to look down at the map on the bottom screen.

One downside to Chinatown Wars being so uncompromising in its attempt to replicate the GTA experience is that, because the DS has fewer buttons than other systems, you're occasionally required to use the touch screen at inopportune times. It's not a big problem, but despite the fact that it's implemented well, having to use the touch screen to both switch between weapons and to throw projectile weapons such as grenades, Molotov cocktails, and flashbangs is a little unwieldy. It's unfortunate, because elsewhere in the game the touch screen really adds to the experience, with minigames that let you take a more hands-on approach to tasks that otherwise wouldn't be interactive at all. For example, when you attempt to steal a parked car, there's a good chance that you'll have to complete one of three minigames to get it started: rotating a screwdriver in the ignition, entering an immobilizer PIN, or unscrewing a panel on the steering column and hot-wiring. More imaginative touch-screen minigames include making your own Molotov cocktails at the gas station, tattooing gang recruits, searching Dumpsters for weapons and discarded food, and using a salvage boat's sonar to search for drug shipments lost at sea, to name but a few. What all of these minigames have in common is that they're quick, fun, rarely challenging enough to halt your progress, and are mandatory only once.

Need for Speed: Nitro For DS

Need for Speed: Nitro is EA's attempt to transform their popular racing franchise into something more immediate and accessible for less experienced driving fans. Built exclusively for the Wii and DS, the game has a heavy arcade focus mixed with plenty of customisation options and a quirky design concept. The DS version packs in plenty of races, a relaxed control system and character-filled tracks, but the lack of variety in the game modes stops this from being a winner. 

You begin Career mode by racing in six cities: San Diego, Dubai, Rio de Janeiro, Cairo, Singapore, and Madrid. As is common in racing games, you'll have to keep playing to unlock cars, starting out with street racers like Dodges, Fords, Nissans, and Renaults and moving on to slicker wheels like Porsches and Lamborghinis. There are four events in each city, which you unlock gradually by earning points in a number of different ways while you race. For example, you get points for coming first in a race, but you also get points if you race a little more creatively, such as drifting wherever possible and picking up tagging items along the track. There's also the Heroic Driving System--a quick-time event that lets you earn more points for pulling off spectacular moves in order to avoid cops, push past other opponents, or drift in style. You're given an onscreen prompt to press X three or four times in a race, but you have to keep your eyes on a small meter on the bottom left-hand corner of the screen that slides quickly between a green zone and a yellow zone. If you press X while the bar is in the green zone, you'll earn the maximum number of points for pulling off a particular move. This adds a little spice to the races and gives you an incentive to go back to a particular racing event more than once, trying to earn points for different things.

Earning points quickly is easy to do thanks to the game's controls, which are responsive and straightforward. Like in some previous Need for Speed games on the DS, the steering control is assigned to the D pad. It will take a little while to get the hang of turning correctly, since the D pad is pretty sensitive and some corners require only a slight tap. Once you master this, the rest is a breeze. The remaining controls are intuitive enough: A to accelerate, B to brake, L to drift, and R to activate nitro boost. There's a great sense of speed when the nitro kicks in, and sometimes you'll find yourself zooming happily around the tracks without paying attention to earning points or coming first simply because it's a lot of fun. 

There's no shortage of races in which to do this: after you've completed the four events in each of the six cities, you'll start all over again in the Silver Cup, Gold Cup, and Nitro Cup. This is great if you play the game in short bursts, but it can get monotonous if you keep at it in long sessions. There are only a handful of race modes in the game, which get repeated over and over: standard circuit races, which get a few different makeovers in the style of knockout races, sprint races, and race-against-the-clock races; race events that have you destroying certain obstacles in a set amount of time; and tagging races, where the aim is to pick up as many tagging items along the track as possible.

The latter two race modes are not particularly exciting, because they lack opponents, which can take some of the challenge out of the whole experience. For example, the race events where you have to knock down obstacles are set in an enclosed area like a field or a park, not on a proper track, so you drive around in circles trying to run into garden gnomes or boxes, which can get a bit tiring. If you play the game for more than an hour the repetition can really get on your nerves, particularly because there's no way out if you want to keep unlocking new cars and customization tools.

Sands of Destruction For DS

Sands of Destruction is a new role-playing game for the DS that unabashedly models itself after the console RPGs of yesteryear. While more recent games in the genre typically eschew certain once-common elements, like random encounters and turn-based combat, Sands of Destruction embraces them. Unfortunately, this effort at recreating the magic of many classic console RPGs is not very successful. While it tells an interesting tale, glaring problems with the combat, along with dungeons and puzzles that are more frequently frustrating than satisfying, prevent Sands of Destruction from replicating the captivating gameplay of its most fondly remembered forebears. 

The central figure of the game is a young man named Kyrie. He's born into a world in which humans are second-class citizens beneath the dominant ferals, which are humanoids with animal characteristics. Like so many RPG heroes before him, Kyrie's modest upbringing gives him no clue as to the lofty destiny that awaits him. However, whereas most heroes in his position are destined to save the world, Kyrie's fate seems quite different. After discovering that he carries within him a powerfully destructive force he can't seem to control, he falls in with a group called the World Annihilation Front that is dedicated not to saving the world but to destroying it. Morte, the front's feisty female representative, believes that the world is too corrupt to be saved and that the only hope for humanity lies in its destruction. Kyrie has his misgivings about this, but he is swept along on a journey that reveals much about the world and about Kyrie himself. The cast of characters is memorable, particularly Taupy, a tough-talking bounty hunter whose gruff demeanor contrasts humorously with his adorable teddy-bear appearance. And the tale puts a fun twist on the age-old save-the-world concept, sprinkling enough surprises throughout to keep it interesting to the end.

Unfortunately, the gameplay makes it difficult to maintain that interest. As you make your way through the game's many forests, towers and other hostile environments, you'll be interrupted after every few steps by an encounter with monsters. In the early part of the game, the turn-based battle system just seems a bit baffling. There's a morale system at work, which influences how many battle points each character has, and those battle points determine how many actions a character can take each time his or her turn rolls around. The problem is that neither the game nor the accompanying manual make it terribly clear what influences a character's morale, so you may find yourself with fewer battle points than you should normally have and no clue as to what to do about it. It also will take some experimentation to get familiar with the flow of battle, the types of attacks at each character's disposal, and how your choice of attack leads to a specific follow-up attack. A quick tutorial early on could have done wonders to clear up any confusion.

Dementium II For DS

It's not very often that you'll come across a DS game that isn't afraid to splash the screen with gore and dismemberment. While buckets of blood alone aren't guaranteed to result in a great and creepy game, 2007's Dementium: The Ward made a strong case for taking a trip to the dark side on the handheld. Venturing through the grim, oppressive hallways of an atrocity-infested mental institution with a cheap flashlight and an arsenal of deadly implements was an eerie and entertaining experience. The original was an ambitious first-person survival horror game done mostly right, but a few design issues--chief among them a poorly implemented save system and repetitive level structure--bogged down the short, grisly adventure. Dementium II tightens up the gameplay, fixes a lot of the frustrating elements that hampered the first game, and brings the horror-infused action to some interesting new locations. 

Though it directly picks up the storyline from the first game, Dementium II is designed to work well as a stand-alone adventure. As a mental patient named William Redmoor who's just awakened from brain surgery, you're transferred to the dubiously named Bright Dawn Treatment Center for phase two of your mysterious and unorthodox "treatment." The center is actually a high-security prison for the criminally insane, and the good doctor there seems to have sampled some of the crazy sauce himself. Your treatment prognosis doesn't look so good, especially when you start warping in and out of a hellish alternate dimension filled with bodies hanging on meat hooks. With your insanity still intact, you just go with the flow, grab whatever you can, and start slaughtering the freaky demonic creatures that pop up out of nowhere while trying to escape to freedom. The story progresses through sporadic cutscenes and miscellaneous documents you find littered around. Aside from a few weird twists about resurrecting some dark demon god, as well as various references to the events and characters in the previous game, it's mostly straightforward. Suffice to say that there are lots of nasty undead beasts around that need a good killing.

The gameplay picks up with moderately paced exploration in some cool new settings, lots of combat with creepy crawlies, and a little light puzzle work. Dementium II runs as smooth as butter, making the task of sending evil minions back to their graves in itty-bitty pieces a pleasure. The mouse-look style controls are fast and responsive. You use the D pad for movement, the stylus to look/aim in 360 degrees, and the L trigger to use weapons. Crouching and jumping features have also been added this time around. Double tapping the D pad in any direction to run is still a little awkward during a few frantic boss battles where you really need the extra speed in a hurry, but everything else works fluidly. The most useful tweak to the interface is the addition of a constant area map located on the touch screen, which fills in as you explore different rooms and areas. It shows locked or unlocked doors and nearby save points, and generally provides a handy quick reference guide to your location. Speaking of which, the new save system is also much more functional. You can log your progress at key points located at regular intervals, allowing you to immediately continue where you last saved rather than start over at the beginning of the chapter when you die.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis For DS

Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis is more of a spin-off than a straight on sequel or continuation of the original Game Boy Advance title. Sure, the Nintendo DS game's been developed by the same team, and it lifts ideas, characters, and its art style established in the original title. But for this game, the designers weren't rooted down to an existing concept from the Game Boy Donkey Kong design of 1994 -- they took the loosened leash and ran, creating a very original touch-screen exclusive design that has more in common with Lemmings than it does with Donkey Kong. As clever as it is, and as much effort that has been poured into this DS puzzler, it doesn't click as a truly awesome game. Even if it didn't have to live up to the legacy of the two great games of handheld past, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 stands alone as merely a pretty good puzzler.

The game design revolves around an element established in the Game Boy Advance original: the Mini-Marios. These wind-up toy plumbers were a simple mechanic in Mario vs. Donkey Kong, but in this Nintendo DS sequel they drive the gameplay entirely. Gone is the platform hopping puzzle designs; now players must indirectly and directly control the Marios and the surrounding environment in order to get as many of these toys into the exit. This is all done through touch screen control: tap the individual Marios to make them move or stop, or swipe the stylus to make them reverse direction or jump depending on the touch-screen flow. Tapping on specific platform blocks will remove them from play and put them in the player's queue to use them elsewhere to fill gaps and make barriers, a mechanic that's played out in a majority of the level designs.

It's easy to see the Lemmings influence on Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2. The mini-mario toys have a mind of their own, or rather, lack thereof -- unassisted, they'll just move in a straight left-to-right or right-to-left direction until something obstructs their paths. Unlike Lemmings, though, these Marios will collide with one another and clutter things up some. If a Mario bumps into a stationary Mario, not only will it "activate" the stationary toy to start moving, the culprit will bounce and go the other way. It's an integral part of the design, but it's also the most unlikable element of the gameplay and clutters things up a bit much. There's too much juggling as one bounces into the next into the next, causing a feeling of panic as you try and stop them in their tracks as quickly as you can before they domino-effect into each other again and again. It'll take practice resetting the Marios in the proper order, but even when you get good at the controls, trying to wrangle a mob of toys together is a little sloppy.

Mega Man ZX Advent For DS

Mega Man ZX Advent appears, on the outside, to be a yet another Capcom rehash. After all, it's a sequel to a game released not too long ago, built on an identical engine, with like gameplay mechanics and objectives. But after playing the title for only a few minutes, it quickly becomes clear that there's something special about this game. Coming off of the heels of Mega Man ZX, an old-school inspired action/RPG hybrid, Mega Man ZX Advent not only improves on the formula that made the first game a success, but finds a nook for itself amongst hardcore followers and casual gamers alike. Ultimately, Mega Man ZX Advent is a fun, stylized game that's both accessible and challenging.

For those who haven't played the original game in the series, Mega Man ZX, the premise is somewhat similar to what you'll find in Advent. While in the original ZX, you had the choice between playing the game as one of two characters (named Vent and Aile), in ZX Advent, your two choices are between a male protagonist named Grey, and a female protagonist named Ashe. The differences between the two characters are actually fairly significant, since Grey's attacks are weaker, but faster-flowing, while Ashe can attack with more powerful bursts that are slower out of her blaster. Choosing either character will only change the beginning sequence of the game, as well as some other in-game dialogue and details, but the quests remain relatively identical. Gamers who take to ZX Advent will find plenty of reasons to play through with both characters, however. While the differences can be at times rather miniscule, there are inherent differences when you're dealing with a stronger, slower shooting character rather than a weaker, faster shooting character, and vice-versa.

The storyline is also similar -- if not identical -- to the previous game's, though story-driven gameplay isn't exactly at the heart of what Mega Man ZX Advent is trying to accomplish. Essentially, as humanoids, Grey and Ashe are thrust into the world of super-powerful Mega Men, who actively resist the aggressions of the out-of-control Reploids and Mavericks. Your character will become a "Hunter" at the beginning of the game, as well as a Mega Man in his or her own right, and with the power of objects known as Biometals, you'll be able to take various forms and assimilate fallen enemy powers. When you defeat a boss enemy, you don't only get his powers, but you have the option of turning into that character. This is something fairly new in any Mega Man games, since various spinoffs have always been about assimilating enemy abilities. But now, you'll turn directly into that enemy. This is pretty nifty, since each enemy has a different feel. None of them control like Ashe or Grey in their humanoid or Mega Men forms, and learning how to handle each character is actually a lot of fun. 

Advent is laid out in one gigantic, open environment, though the vastness and openness of the environment can be sadly deceiving. This is simply because until you've unlocked a variety of boss abilities, which will grant you access to various parts of the gigantic map, the more linear nature of the game is downplayed by a facade of open-endedness. In the beginning, and for a great deal of the game, things simply must be done in a certain order. There's no getting around that. However, it's the mixture of action and RPG elements that give this game its hybrid feel.

Monster Jam: Path Of Destruction For DS

Monster Jam 2011 is all about authenticity, personality, and fun, with 30 officially licensed Monster Jam trucks, including fan-favorites Grave Digger, Maximum Destruction, and Grinder. Players can also create and customize their own trucks with thousands of options, unlocking new parts and upgrades as they progress through the game.

Eight real life stadiums from the Monster Jam circuit help bring the live atmosphere to the living room, with explosive truck introductions, pyrotechnics and lighting, and a roaring crowd. 

Source:http://ds.ign.com

The Smurfs For DS

When the evil wizard Gargamel chases the tiny blue Smurfs out of their village, they tumble from their magical world and into ours, and must find a way back home. The Smurfs game is based off of the 3D feature film of the same name.

Source:http://ds.ign.com

Chronicles of Mystery: The Tree of Life For DS

For centuries people have risked their lives and committed unspeakable crimes to discover the secrets of The Tree of Life. Times have changed, but not human nature. As Sylvie Leroux -- a young archaeologist and adventurer, working to solve the mystery that surrounds the legend, finds herself tempted by the same promises like so many others before her.

What is linking the mystery of the missing crew from the Mary Celeste with a trunk dating back to the conquistadors? Who is the enigmatic Count of St. Germain? In order to get answers to these and many more questions, Sylvie will set on an epic journey which will lead her across the channels of Venice to the dark alleys of Cairo, rocky coasts of Gibraltar and into the unknown.

Source:http://ds.ign.com

Challenge Me: Brain Puzzles 2

Challenge Me: Brain Puzzles 2 brings more brain boggling number puzzles with seven great games, including Sudoku, Towers, Number Soup and Squares. With most puzzles generated from new each time you start a game, there are limitless possibilities!

Source:http://ds.ign.com

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation:For DS

Specifically designed with Nintendo DS users in mind, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Unsolved! makes the most of the Nintendo DS Touch Screen for an improved pick-up-and-play experience. Players get to join forces with their favorite CSI characters from the hit CBS show and solve five original murder mysteries, such as the death of a young pop star on stage or the discovery of a mummified body in the desert.

Source:http://ds.ign.com

Band Hero Review For DS

At first glance, I might not be the guy you'd expect to find reviewing Band Hero. I'm not Craig Harris, which means I didn't review the last three DS Guitar Hero games, and I'm not Erik Brudvig or Chris Roper, which means I'm not some amazing plastic guitar shredder. I'm Greg Miller; I review wrestling games and karaoke games.

However, I do have one trait that no one in this office can match: I love terrible pop music. You know, the kind of junk Ryan Seacrest hawks to the unwashed Midwest masses. If you're like me and have fond memories of the Presidents of the United States of America, don't hate Weezer's Red Album, can remember every word to Sum-41's "In Too Deep," and have nothing against Blink-182, Band Hero might be right up your alley.

Just don't expect to have your socks rocked.
At first glance, it's easy to think that Band Hero is an updated and expanded version of Guitar Hero On Tour; and in a way, it is. This cartridge can really only be played with a DS or DS Lite because you'll need to plug the Guitar Grip featuring the traditional green, red, yellow and blue fret buttons into the GBA slot if you have any intention of jamming out while mashing the colored buttons and strumming your touch screen with the included pick.

Thing is, Band Hero adds the band to the guitar format. This time, you can be the lead or bass/rhythm guitar, but you can also sing into your DS microphone for the first portable karaoke simulator as well as slide on a DS Lite skin that turns the DS into a drum kit for your thumbs.

Now, it's 2009, so I'm not going to sit here and explain the drums and vocals to you like you've never seen a music game before. For vocals, the words appear on the top screen along with some pitch/timing bars that you fill by singing in the correct way and matching with the on-screen ball. With the drums/guitars, colored notes fall down onscreen highways, and you hit the corresponding colored button or pad as the note crosses the line on the screen. Do these actions well, and you'll back points, get a score multiplayer, and probably hit Star Power to rack up the big points.

The four-button guitar playing is as solid as ever – yes, your hand may cramp up if you play hour-after-hour -- but as awesome as it is to have the band experience in your pocket, the singing and drumming could work a bit better. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome that I can finally sing on the go; I'm thrilled this is starting to be embraced. The trouble is that for your voice to be picked up as accurately as possible, you have to hold the DS pretty close to your face – at least in my experience. When I knew a song word for word, this wasn't an issue; however, when I would need to read the lyrics on the screen, I could feel myself going cross-eyed as I tried to read from two centimeters away. Other than that, singing was fine although it was nowhere near as responsive as a real microphone would be and lacked any kind of visual flair – it's just a little yellow bar going over some fat pitch/timing indicators.
In a similar vein, the drum design just doesn't do it for me. For starters, this is another peripheral you have to carry around to actually play this game and that kind of kills the whole "portable" vibe for me – especially because Rock Band Unplugged nailed the drum concept with four buttons that made sense. See, outside of having to carry the skin around, my main complaint with drumming in Band Hero is how the pad is laid out. Rather than assign the colors to left and up on the D-Pad as well as X and A so that the pads matched the onscreen layout, Vicarious Visions stacked the pads on top of each other. On the left side, it's green with red underneath it and on the right it's blue on top of yellow.

Plants vs. Zombies: For DS

You would be forgiven for saying you've had your fill of tower defense games. The past few years have seen a flood of these strategy clones filling every system available. But, whether they're a fan of the genre or not, pretty much everyone agrees that Plants vs. Zombies is awesome. PopCap, one of the best developers around, now brings its excellent tower defense game to the Nintendo DS. While it uses the basic mechanics of all efforts in the genre, Plants vs. Zombies stands out for its charm, personality, and loads of gameplay variety. The result is another addictive experience from PopCap -- but it unfortunately doesn't run as well here on the DS.

Zombies are creeping on your lawn, and your garden is the last line of defense against these brain-crazy cannibals. You have some pretty peculiar (but useful) plants at your disposal, including pea shooters that spit at the undead, hot tamales that burn everything in their path, and Venus zombie traps that will devour an enemy in one gulp. By planting various seeds in strategic locations around your lawn you may be able to hold off the onslaught and keep them from entering your house and eating your brain. It's a very simple design and, while it does eventually become challenging, this is one of the easier tower defense games I've played -- and also one of the most enjoyable.
The real draw here is the incredible variety of plants (towers) and zombies. There are 48 kinds of plants with numerous offensive, defensive, and production capabilities, and 26 different zombies. Completing each level in the game will unlock a new plant or item to add to your arsenal. The array of choices means you can customize your strategy and confront the undead on your own terms. These constant rewards really keep you involved and will have you defending your lawn for much longer than you may have expected.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

Providing yet another new direction in the Ghost Recon series of military games, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier promises to go beyond the core Ghost Recon franchise and deliver a fresh gameplay experience. The game features cutting-edge technology, prototype high-tech weaponry, and state-of-the-art single-player and multiplayer modes.

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions For DS

While the handheld versions of multiplatform games all too often feel like the crappy versions of their console counterparts, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions proves that there's hope yet. Instead of forcing some visually downgraded version of the console game into the DS, the developers have created a unique 2D experience that draws inspiration from great side-scrolling adventure games like Metroid and Castlevania, crafting a game that is blast to play for the most part but also ends just when it starts being great.
Shattered Dimensions is an all new story crafted by Marvel and features exclusive characters just for the DS. The story revolves around infamous Spider-Man nemesis Mysterio, who has obtained a tablet that can mess with multiple dimensions. This tablet inevitably gets broken and scattered throughout multiple worlds, which then forces multiple Spider-Men from the Noir, 2099 and Amazing universes to work together to reunite the fragments. Awesome, right? OK, maybe not, but the story does conveniently provides an excuse for the developers to let you play as several different heroes -- even if they're all some form of Spider-Man.

The basic game is a blast, playing like a 2D adventure game akin to Metroid, wherein you take whatever Spider-Man you're in control of for that level and guide them to a boss. Along the way you'll gain new powers for each version of Spidey, allowing them to access new portions of their respective worlds. For example, Noir Spider-Man can't wall crawl initially, but after obtaining this power via the other Spider-Men, he then can crawl up to new areas and reach new portions of the tablet. All the Spider-Men gain powers as you progress as well, giving them abilities like the power to smash walls or use their spider-sense to see invisible objects. Think of these powers the way you might think of a bomb or rocket in Metroid; all of these serve to give the player a reason to backtrack and explore the world again and again.
Only the powers aren't enough to make the backtracking as fun as it could be. The various Spider-Men are given good tools to explore the world with, I just wish the game had done a better job in presenting levels that were more exciting to explore. On the default difficulty, the map shows you the areas where the boss and collectibles are located, meaning that all the guess work was taken out of where to go. Still, even playing on a harder difficulty -- which obscures the location of objects and objectives -- makes exploration only slightly better, as generally the environments are repetitive enough that they don't really require all that much of your wits to figure out. Only once, towards the end of the game, did I encounter an inventive portion of the level that required smart use of my powers to get past; the rest I just generally swung, glided, or crawled through as fast as I could to progress.

Pokemon Black Version For DS

This time Pokémon is going to change forever. This time there are major changes coming to the franchise.

It's the same old line we hear about Pokémon year in and year out, and it's the line we've been hearing over the past 15 years. But despite the fact that significant alterations have collectively occurred over the past decade, most of us are under the impression that not much changes year-to-year. That changes with Pokemon Black & White, the first installment of the "fifth generation." Honestly and truly, there are some big shifts coming to the franchise Pikachu built. Consider this your guide to the key details you need to know about the game, which hits the States on March 6. 

What is Pokemon Black & White?
You're kidding, right? The latest entry in Nintendo's juggernaut franchise, Black & White marks the start of the fifth generation of the series, meaning we're looking at new creatures, new characters and a new world.

What's New?
- Upgraded graphics and animation
- Upgraded, expanded battle system
- More dynamic camera system
- Over 150 new Pokémon
- Seasonal cycle (in addition to day/night cycle)
- Enhanced global/infrared/WiFi interaction

The Story
You're a new, nameless character in the land of Unova, facing off against a new enemy, Team Plasma. Plasma operates a bit differently than your opposition of old, this time basically operating as PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) gone wild. Despite these changes you'll still be collecting badges from trainers, seeking out legendary Pokémon and fighting your rivals.  

About Those New Pokémon
Yup, there are plenty of those. In fact at first the game will feature no classic creatures, only 150 or so new creations for this generation. Miss your old Pokémon? Once you beat the game, a Pokémon outbreak will populate the world with most of the 500+ Pokémon you saw in previous games. Locations and rarity will still vary by whether you're playing Black or White, and some creatures are not available at all. Oh, and all of the legacy Pokémon will feature the upgraded graphics and animation.

To be honest, as someone who has a fierce, fierce loyalty to the Original 151, these new creations aren't as appealing to me… but I haven't seen them all. The two new legendary Pokémon (as seen on the covers of the two versions) are fairly impressive. FYI, the black creature is in the White edition and the white creature is in the Black edition. Place your pre-order accordingly.

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation

Once Dragon Quest VI launches in February, Americans will at last have the ability to play every core title in the long-running Dragon Quest series in English, legitimately. Rejoice! But is DQVI worth the wait? Well, by many fan's reckoning, it's one of the best chapters in the entire series. Its core elements -- the job system and the dual-world structure that allows players to travel into the dream realm to advance the story -- are reminiscent of Dragon Warrior VII, but without the padding. Plus, it has a slime curling minigame. In other words, it's pretty much a guaranteed sale.

Source: 1up.com

A.H.C Games

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