If you’ve played Unsolved Crimes for DS, then Crime Scene will instantly feel familiar. So familiar, in fact, that at first I thought they were developed by the same team. Basically, you play as a rookie investigator and must use your evidence collecting and analytical skills to help solve various cases from murders to terrorist attacks.

The gameplay is a point-and-click at heart, but the spin here is a huge focus on evidence-based mini games, for lack of a better term. In other words, you must dust for fingerprints, swab for blood and compare ballistics information to identify what gun shot which bullet, and so on. Although some of these games can be a little silly (you use a laser to destroy unwanted cells in your microscope, for example), overall the entire process is engaging and fun. That is, when the controls work.

And as Hamlet says, “Aye, there’s the rub,” The first major problem Crime Scene has is the fact that there really isn’t a tutorial level to get you used to the controls. For example, the menu system isn’t completely intuitive, and you may find yourself fumbling a bit. But that could be forgiven. The real issue is that you aren’t given any chance to practice with the various evidence collection mini games before you’re thrust into the real world, so to speak. You’re shoved into the deep end and you have to figure things out as you go along. This would be fine, except for the fact that you are penalized very severely every time you get something wrong. This is made worse by the fact that the only instructions you’re given for the various steps of say, taking a blood swab, are given during the timed interval when you’re supposed to be doing those steps. Meaning 1) you can’t possibly read all the instructions in the given time and 2) you will “fail” because you’re spending time trying to see what you have to do in order to succeed. Add to the fact that the controls aren’t as responsive as they could be and you may find yourself with a Game Over before you’ve even begun (I know I did). Certainly, this is not the most encouraging way to introduce the player to the game.

Once you’ve managed to figure out what you need to do, you would think that things would move more smoothly. Sadly, this isn’t true. Try as you may, the game won’t always read your stylus gestures correctly, so you will often find yourself failing the swab test, for example, because you “aren’t swabbing in the right area” even when you’ve been rubbing your stylus right over the blood spot. Each time you make a mistake, you lose credibility (a blue thermometer-like meter). When it drops all the way, your game is over, and you have to start over from your last save. Thankfully, the game does auto save at key points, but you still want to make sure you save often, otherwise you’ll have to re-do a lot of (what then becomes) tedious data collection and analysis, not to mention tons of dialogue to weed through (there’s no “skip” option).

By far the most vicious offender is the tweezers, which command you to follow a certain path with your stylus a certain number of times in order successfully pick up the item. The problem is, these gestures are only recognized about 10% of the time, and if the game thinks you’ve picked up your stylus, you drop the tweezers and have to start again. Add to the fact that you might have to repeat the same pattern 9 or 10 times before the meter expires, and you’ll often find yourself ready to throw your DS across the room and give up. No, I’ve decided the scalpel is actually worse since whenever you try to use it to cut something, following the prompt, it either tells you the area can’t be cut or for some reason takes the scalpel away from you and you have to start over in a never ending cycle.

Magnifying the problem is the control design: rather than sticking to a primarily stylus-only control system, you have to use the L and/or R buttons while using your stylus to perform various maneuvers. In principle, this seems fine, but in practice, it’s awful. It’s very uncomfortable to hold the DS that way, especially for long-stretches and for extended periods. I know my hands were really hurting after only the first case.

When everything is working smoothly, however, the game is enjoyable. It’s an interesting take on the genre, especially since the mini-games don’t feel tacked on the way they did in Unsolved Crimes, and it’s exciting to see the pieces of the puzzle reveal themselves. You really do feel like you’re the one solving the case, instead of being lead through it step by step the way you are in many other games of this nature. I also like that you will occasionally find dead ends such as clues that you can’t identify in the database, or clues that end up being a false lead, which force you to rethink the situation. You’ll also often have to revisit the scenes to look at things in a new light and discover new clues that may help crack the case. I also liked that you must build your case in order to apply for a warrant by selecting the best evidence to include in your file. This was just another way the game made you feel like you were really the one solving this case rather than just hanging along for the ride.

Crime Scene does have other flaws, but these seem minor in comparison to the huge control issue. For example, the translation isn’t always the best (I believe this was a Spanish-language game originally), and sometimes you might struggle to figure out how the game wants you to respond. Also, you aren’t able to fully explore the scenes the way you can in other games of this genre, and you can only zoom in to look at something more closely when the game allows you to. Still, these are negligible and don’t harm the gameplay in the same way that the unforgiving controls do.

The pattern of the gameplay is basically as such: you’ll be briefed on a case, comb the scenes, collect evidence, analyze the evidence, and then build your case. You’ll often have to revisit the scene and may get new suspects to interview, but that is generally the way the game goes. Your evidence collection tools are basically a swab for blood and other fluids, a duster and tape for fingerprints and footprints, a scalpel, as well as a reagent spray and UV light to discover hidden blood and fluids, plus tweezers to collect small evidence or bullets. Back at the station, you analyze this info using a scanner, camera, microscope and computer database. So you may scan in the fingerprint you collected at the scene and then compare it to the various fingerprints in the system to try and find a match. Many of the tests do mimic real life evidence analysis and this is where the game is truly in its element, especially since the analysis tools work much better than the collection ones do, control-wise.

The sad thing about Crime Scene is it may have earned as high as a 7/10 if the controls weren’t so brutally unforgiving. I honestly don’t know how the game got past testing, as broken as the controls can be most times. And the reality is the fix could have been as simple as removing the “fail” state from the data collection process and making it so you only lose credibility for misinterpreting the evidence. As it is, however, I can’t recommend this game, because the controls really do break it. You will undoubtedly find sections that you cannot get past because the game will not read your tweezer’s movements, or unfairly think you’re rubbing the swab in the wrong area. Save yourself the aggravation and look elsewhere for your CSI needs.

Doin It RIGHT: - CSI aspect is different and can be great fun when controls are working well. - The game makes you feel like you’re truly the one in control of the investigation.	Doin It RONG: - Penalties for failing (often due to poor controls) are severe, even in your first case. - Frustrating controls make the game unplayable too much of the time.
FINAL SCORE: 4 / 10

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Ragnarok DS is what you could consider the portable version of the MMO Ragnarok Online, of which, I can confess I am not very familiar with.  However, I think that may be one of the reasons this baby brother was released for the DS: to introduce potential new players into the Ragnarok universe.

The game is basically a dungeon-crawling action RPG, and follows the story of Ales, a young man whose dream is to be an adventurer and eventually start his own guild.  He immediately finds an amnesiac young girl named Sierra, who he agrees to bring along with him on his adventures.  Naturally, as the story progresses, more people join his party in the constant search for adventure: pretty typical RPG-faire here.

Although some buttons are mapped (i.e. You can use the D-pad to move your character and the face buttons to pull up menus), you’ll find yourself using the stylus almost exclusively, since the button integration isn’t complete.  For example, you can’t press a button to continue in dialogue or go back in a menu, which can be a bit annoying.  So expect a very Zelda DS experience here, control-wise.

Dragging your stylus will move your character around, and tapping on a monster will initiate his attack.  Unless you change the settings, your character will keep attacking that enemy until it’s defeated.  You also have access to a shortcut bar at the top of the touch screen, where you can set frequently used skills and items for easy access.  To use a skill, you must click on it and then perform the action indicated on the top screen, like drawing a swift line through an enemy or a circle through a group of them.  You also have limited control of your party members.  You can set their tactics, such as telling them to act freely, or commanding them to heal, and you can click on their picture in the taskbar to direct them to attack a particular enemy.  However, you can’t directly tell them what skills or spells to use, which is a little frustrating at times.

Exploration is interesting.  Towns remind me a bit of Suikoden Tierkreis in which you are presented with a menu (shops, save, etc.), but when you pick an option (i.e. Tavern), you can walk around and interact with people in that location.  Towns are the only place you can make a permanent save (with two save slots available), although you can make a temporary save any time.  The biggest gripe I had with this system is with no quick travel (more on that later), you may find your quests dragging out for long periods of time, and if you choose to do a temporary save (so you don’t risk losing all your progress), the game will automatically return you to the title screen instead of asking if you want to continue.  It’s not a big deal, but it is irksome.

The game does have an interesting dual-leveling system.  You have your base level, or what you would be most familiar with in every RPG, and then you have your “job level.”  Each time your base level goes up, you’re given points you can use to improve your character’s attributes, such as dexterity, luck, intelligence, etc.  The higher that attribute is the more points it will take to increase it, giving a bit of strategy in how you distribute your points.  When your job level goes up, you’re given skill points to spend on learning and improving skills based on what job you are.

Everyone starts the game as a novice job class with two basic skills, but once your job level reaches 10, you can go to the job guild and apply for a more advanced job, such as a swordsman.  Each job has its own equipment and skills, and whenever you change jobs you must “start over”: all your equipment is removed (but not lost), and your job level goes back to zero.  You also must start from scratch with your new skills.  As you level up, you can also try for an even higher level job (such as a knight), which has its own requirements and skills, but which will enable you to use equipment you otherwise could not.  In some ways, this is the most interesting aspect of the game, as there are even higher “secret” jobs you can acquire if your character becomes powerful enough.

Although there is a story and plenty of (very. slow. moving.) dialogue, the heart of the game is fetch quest dungeon crawling.  Generally, you are told to find some random object, you go on your trek, fight your way through to the very end of a dungeon, kill the boss monster, collect the item, and then trudge all the way back.  That’s right. There’s no quick travel, even after you complete a dungeon.  It’s a little ironic, considering you use warp gates (instead of doors) for everything, yet you can’t just warp to places (i.e. from a town) that you’ve already visited.  It also means you will have to go through the dungeon to the exit every time, plus passing through all the forest or whatnot you had to travel through to get there in the first place.  Even though dungeons aren’t very big (no more than a few floors or sections), this gets old pretty fast, as it is completely unnecessary. This is made worse by the fact that there is usually only one laborious path from point A to point B, which would be fine one or two times, but certainly not more than that. Add to the fact that you must find the map for the area whenever you enter a new locale (think the original Zelda dungeons), and it all can get old pretty fast. Later in the game, you’re able to purchase some items that give you limited quick travel abilities, but the fact that this is done so late and doesn’t solve all the repetition is still disappointing.

Don’t get me wrong, Ragnarok can be fun at times, but overall, I found the frustration usually outweighed any levity.  For example, you can only take on one tavern quest at a time, and I found it could take many hours of battling the same monsters before you ever got them to drop what you needed for your quest.  Also, quests are only partially recorded in your menu.  Let me explain… Only the main quests and tavern quests will be listed, but often details won’t be, and some sub-quests of the main quests will not be included at all.  This often means you have to trek back to whomever it was that gave you the quest to find out the details (i.e., what items did they want you to collect for them again?), which is completely poor design.

Muliplayer. For a game that’s based off of an MMO, you would expect the multiplayer experience to be a high priority to be developed well, but this doesn’t seem to be the case.  For instance, you can’t jump into multiplayer directly from the main menu the way you can in most DS RPGs that offer it.  Instead, you have to travel the long distance through the game world until you get to the Mirage Tower, a tower filled with various floors and enemies that you can tackle as either a single player or with others in multiplayer.  The game never tells you this at any point.  It isn’t mentioned in the otherwise very thorough manual, either.  So it’s very possible someone could play through the game and never even realize that multiplayer exists, or at least never figure out how to access it.  This is the first flaw.  The second is that you can only play with others in this tower.  That’s it.  You would expect that you could have friends join you once you finish the main story to help you fulfill the thousands of side quests available (which make up most of the gameplay), but you’d be wrong.  Although I dabbled in the multiplayer for the sake of this review, I think in general you would find the tower more fulfilling as a single player experience.

Basically, once you arrive at the tower you have the option to make a save and customize your character’s look along with a few messages you can trigger with the face buttons.  Then you can enter the tower as either a single player, or choose multiplayer.  The game will then ask if you want to do this locally or over WiFi, and if you choose WiFi, then you have the option of entering (or choosing, if you already registered them) your friends.  Otherwise, it will randomly search for “Allys” (yes, that’s how it’s spelled in the game) to join you.  You have no customization in this at all, which is a little disappointing, as you could very easily end up with a rather unbalanced party.

The first few times I tried to get matched up, my allies decided to jump right into the very top of the tower, as they were obviously more experienced than me.  Luckily for me (or my character, perhaps), my connection got broken almost immediately as we arrived in the tower, and I was sent back to the matchmaking screen.  When I finally was able to enter the tower (on floor 1), I had only one other ally with me.  This was fine for these early floors, but I could see this system being problematic for higher levels.

Basically the tower is just a series of rooms per floor that (thankfully) are pre-mapped.  You must defeat a certain number of monsters per floor to either A) make the warp appear that will take you to the next level or B) make the special monster appear that you must defeat to make that warp appear.  Just do this over and over and there you have the tower.  After you pass a certain number of floors (i.e., five), you will fight a boss monster.  Then you will go to a screen that lets you and your allies “bid” on various items, such as weapons, potions, and cards.  You can pass or bid, although I found the system a bit confusing.  After the time limit passes, you win whatever items you had the highest bid on.  Then you have the option to continue in the tower or end your session.

I would imagine that playing locally with friends might have some potential for fun, but as it stands, I feel like the multiplayer was a “tacked-on” experience and doesn’t really add much to the game as a whole.

I was hopeful that the game simply got off to a slow/poor start, but even once you successfully open your own guild, the gameplay remains basically the same: flawed, repetitive, and with a low challenge level. However, if you like dungeon-crawling action-RPGs, you may want to give this one a try anyway. It can have a very Diabolo-esque feel to it at times (you will be picking up a lot of loot, which you much decide to keep or sell to maintain your limited inventory).  The card system (which I haven’t mentioned) allows you to customize certain weapons and gear to improve their stats (think of them as the runes or gems you might have experienced in other RPGs), which does add a bit of strategy.  Once you finish the story, which is pretty short by RPG standards, about 20 hours, with only about 10 of that being actual content and the rest filler, you have hours and hours of gameplay if you choose to complete all the side quests available or take on the tower (either alone or in multiplayer). Still, there are better DS RPGs on the market, so you may be better off spending your money elsewhere.  Or, if you’re really interested, you may want to try the more robust MMO experience that Raganarok Online offers on the PC.

Doin It RIGHT: - Simple gameplay makes it fun for those new to RPGs or looking for a less-complicated affair. - Hours of questing gameplay. - Leveling and job system adds interest and depth.	Doin It RONG: - Design flaws (such as no quick travel) can make the game tedious. - Story is shallow and moves too slowly. - Multiplayer feels like it’s “tacked on” and doesn’t really add to the game.
FINAL SCORE: 5 / 10

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If you’re a Mega Man fan, you have a reason to be happy.  Not only is Mega Man 10 just a few weeks from release (via PSN, XBLA, and WiiWare), but Capcom has also revealed they are releasing all four Mega Man Zero games (originally released for Game Boy Advance) on one DS cartridge.

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If you enjoyed Hotel Dusk, then you have two reasons to be happy. One, because CING, the developer behind that great game, has a new mystery title releasing in only a few weeks: Again comes to DS on March 30, 2010. Second, because a new mystery starring detective Kyle Hyde from Hotel Dusk has been announced, although details are sketchy (no pun intended).

Still, Again, although it has a far more realistic look than its cousin, with real actors “scanned in” and using full-motion video segments, promises to be intriguing. You play as FBI investigator Jonathan Weaver, who has the ability to view a crime scene both in the present state and at a time in the past. Holding the DS like a book, you will have access to both versions of the crime scene, and thus must carefully study each to help gleam clues in order to solve the crime.

Check out this new story and gameplay video for more insight into this chilling mystery.

[Source: Tecmo]

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I’ll start off by confessing that I’ve been playing this game off and on for nearly a year.  It’s just one of those games that’s great to pick up and play for a little while, set it down, and come back to it later.  It’s also one of my all-time favorite games for the DS (it’s also available on nearly every other platform), even though it’s far from perfect.  But a game doesn’t have to be “perfect” to be fun, does it?  Even though I’ve finished the story mode, I know I’ll keep playing whenever the “match 3″ bug strikes me, and I’m very eagerly awaiting the true sequel, which promises to do nothing but improve over the first game.

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Capcom announced yesterday that they would be bringing over the nearly classic Mega Man Zero Collection to our favorite little clam shell. Said collection includes Mega Man Zero 1-4, originally released as Game Boy Advance games back in the early 00’s. It was a simpler time, a time of PlayStation 2’s and this weird little thing they called an Xbox. But these games were far from simple. For one, they did not star series hero Mega Man but in fact featured a swanky fella that we first saw back in Mega Man X called Zero. He had flair, a killer haircut, and a sword-type thing. Apparently he proved popular enough in the vanilla series to get himself his own spin-off, and it worked because the Mega Man Zero games were actually quite highly regarded in each of their renditions.

As a quick background, the Mega Man Zero games featured Zero freshly awoken some 100 years after his last appearance to find a world of innocent reploids under unfair attack by an organization darkly known as Neo Arcadia. They’re certainly no Dr. Wily, but they prove a menacing enough foe. The second game is basically more of the same. As is 3, and 4. I mean, it’s always a little different, but whenever you enter into this type of world you know pretty much what to expect. The action is all classic 2D Mega Man side-scrolling action, with power ups and boss battles galore. There won’t be anything new to this package, but shoving four games into one box and selling it for a quarter of the price than it probably originally cost fans is a boon indeed. And for those wondering if these Mega Mans pack the punch of the newest versions of classic Mega Man hitting WiiWare, XBLA, and PSN, let me assure you, they aren’t easy. No word yet on use of the touch or dual screens.

Fans of the series unfamiliar with the Mega Man Zero games should definitely check this out. I personally think these games play great on a handheld, much like the slew of Castlevanias do.  The only real question will be how dated this particular port of Mega Man-ness will feel, but given the popularity of the downloadable games I’d say it’ll do just fine.

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If you’ve had trouble getting your creative juices flowing when it comes to entering our Dementium II contest, these new screens may help.  They may also help shelter you from a bit of bad news: the game has been delayed and will now be releasing on April 20, 2010 in North America and April 9 in Europe.
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I know what you’re probably thinking: Dear, God!  Not another Transformers game! But still your heart: unlike the other recently released Transformers titles, this one is not based on a movie, and the developer, High Moon Studios, is doing what they can to do the fans the service they’ve been waiting for.  The goal is to be like Batman: Arkham Aslyum was in 2009, only doing for the Transformers franchise what that game did for Batman (and all comic book games, by extension).  We’ll have to wait until June 22 to find out for sure, but for now, check out the new trailer to whet your appetite.

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The wait is over, and that which you are hungering for has arrived (on DS at least): Fast Food Panic is now available for Nintendo’s handheld, with the Wii version to follow on January 19.

While similar, the two games are not identical.  Each will feature its own set of recipes, mini games, and tasks.  While the handheld version is obviously more of a solo experience, the Wii game is aimed at bringing the whole family together with a variety of fun, competitive mini games.  In addition to competitive mini games (such as racing to fill orders fastest), the Wii game also offers the ability to play the entire story mode in co-op.

Fast Food Panic is available now for the DS and ships January 19, 2010 for Wii, both versions are selling for $29.99.

12►

[Source: SouthPeak Games]

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Mario & Luigi.  It truly seems like they’ve been through everything together.  They’ve saved princesses, raced in go-karts, competed at the summer and winter olympics, and even battled the denizens of many Nintendo universes.  If you can name a video game genre, chances are swell that Mario & Luigi will have their names somewhere within its history.  They are certainly no stranger to role-playing games.  We saw their induction into that genre when the aptly named Super Mario RPG was released for the Super Nintendo.  To the surprise of many, it was a fantastic game.  It provided innovation, comedy, and a fun experience.  Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story continues that tradition, sending it in new and funky directions, and at its core providing a quirky and fun handheld experience.
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The difficulty with reviewing Zelda games is that very few people have never played one.  People who write for gaming websites of any type are particularly likely to have donned the green tights at some time in the past, and more than likely multiple times.  This means that to review a Zelda game is to have preconceptions about the series before one has even begun the game.  From my experience, there are generally three types of Zelda users:  the lovers, the haters, and the lovers turned haters.  Some didn’t appreciate the change to a cartoony Link.  Others can’t stand the adult Link from Twilight Princess.  A few weird malcontents can’t stand either.  Nevertheless, every voice cries out when a new Zelda game is announced, and fortunately for the fans, they usually shout the loudest.

When Spirit Tracks was shown at E3 earlier this year, it was met with many cries of derision.  “Link on a train?  Preposterous!  This is completely out of line with Zelda lore!” said obviously with a posh British accent.  And groans of “No more toon Link!”  I even read forum posts, much to my chagrin, of people musing on the future of Hyrulian technology, as though spiritual trains somehow herald the end of magic and the beginning of Industrial Hyrule.

I suppose the point of all this meandering is simply to point out that this is another Zelda game.  It follows many standards, introduces some fantastic new additions, and rings true to the series as a whole.  It has much in common with Phantom Hourglass, as it should because this is the DS line of Zelda games and the entire toon aesthetic just works on the platform, but also mixes things up in ways that will feel great to the opened minded.  Personally, I am an unabashed Zelda fan, and this review will make that quite obvious.  For me, the series can do no wrong.  But even were I not, the mere technical precision, the wide open world full of depth and humor, and a top-notch presentation that only Nintendo seems capable of delivering at times would make Spirit Tracks a year’s best, and certainly one of the best of the handheld games of 2009.

Link’s means of travel in Spirit Tracks is a Spirit Train.  The game opens with our young hero taking his engineering exam.  He travels to Castle Hyrule, resplendent with green gardens and quaint stone buildings as always, where everything proceeds to go terribly wrong, a grand evil looms its ugly head, and things happen much as players would expect.  If it happened any other way, I think fans might revolt.  The beauty of the Zelda formula is that its charm never loses its luster (to most of us).  Somewhere along the line it transformed from an eye-rolling acceptance to a nostalgic necessity.  Someone messes with Zelda, the dude in green tights gets mad, and the quest begins.

Central to the land, which is divided up into four elemental sectors, is the Spirit Tower.  Early in the game the Spirit Tower is broken up into four floating pieces and Link is required to chug-chug along to each of the world’s sectors to find ways to put it all back together.  The overworld is replete with places to explore, monsters to shoot cannonballs at, and rabbits to hunt (more on that later).  The train aspect does make exploration a slightly more linear affair, but in reality it isn’t as oddball as people might want to believe.  The rails are preset, and while at first I thought it would have been much more interesting to draw one’s own rails around the map, after some thought I realized the impracticality of this.  For one, preset rails cut down on exploration time immensely.  Link has the opportunity to discover new lines for completing side quests in the game.  These new lines often have new stations to venture to.  The rails act as arrows pointing directly where he needs to travel.  Players certainly don’t have to wander over to the new dungeon or cave, but are rewarded for doing so.  Preset rails are also necessary due to the nature of the map.  The advantage that Phantom Hourglass had in its overworld exploration was that everything was on water.  When travelling on water, one could pretty much expect nothing hidden under the waves unless there were a treasure map to go along with it.  If there were an island, Link could sail over and check it out.  He didn’t need to explore lots of unknown territory just to spot the land mass.  If Spirit Tracks had a “draw your own rail” mechanic, players would waste hours and hours traversing these rather large maps in an effort to stumble across the things they needed to find.  It would also make the bunny hunting mini-game insanely more difficult and quite simply not worth doing.

My point is, while the train tracks aspect of the game did feel limiting at times, it was really the only way to play it.  My only critique with that in mind is the warp gates, which were completely inadequate to fast travel.  There are three gates per sector on the overworld map.  Each gate leads to one of the other realms, but Link needs to drive to a gate from wherever he is in order to teleport.  Unfortunately, unless he happens to be right there, driving to a gate is generally not that much quicker than just driving to a destination.  The ability to travel from anywhere on the map, ala Phantom Hourglass, would have been loads more convenient.  I didn’t mind having to find all the gates, I’m always down for such discoveries, but making me travel to each one every time was just a chore.

Link’s quest takes him to five standard dungeons and the Spirit Tower itself which serves as a massive, multi-tiered dungeon (with no frustrating and unnecessary time limitations).  The dungeons are fantastic in a way that both innovates and adheres to tradition.  Many of them do bear the tired old puzzles from every other Zelda game (when will they stop forcing me to push blocks along icy paths?), but there are also new toys to play with that more than make up for old tricks.  The whip in particular is surprisingly fun both in combat and in puzzles, and I found myself enjoying a minigame for the first time in Zelda history as I swung my way around a mountain in a whip-race to the top.  The other new gadget is a whirlwind making fan that requires one to blow in the mic.  This can be slightly wearing after a time, particularly in the first few hours of play, but its novel at first and players aren’t required to use it for most of the game anyway.  My favorite addition to Spirit Tracks is the Spirit Flute.  In true Ocarina of Time tradition, Link is given an instrument to play, and this one takes the shape of six pipes that require players to blow into the DS.  The stylus is used to maneuver which pipe Link is presently blowing into, and it’s truly the most entertaining instrument to play in the series.  It feels like playing an electronic pan flute, if one can imagine that.  My only complaint was the scarcity with which it’s used.  Then again, maybe it was just right and any more would have wore on me.

It certainly would not be a Zelda game without epic boss fights, and several times while playing this game I remember thinking to myself, “these might be the best bosses in Zelda history.”  The boss of the fire temple in particular I found to be immensely fun, and the only one not completely fresh is the first in the game, which oddly enough was the one showcased at E3.  It’s fairly standard Zelda fare itself, but the others are a blast.

The other giant addition that Spirit Tracks introduces is Zelda’s constant companionship and assistance.  Anyone who has seen the trailer knows that Zelda loses her body.  She doesn’t lose her soul, which consequently finds Link and follows him around.  This is the Zelda I’ve always wanted.  After I played 2008’s Prince of Persia, I remember thinking how cool it would be if the Zelda series followed this formula of Link running around together with Zelda in a similar fashion to the Prince and Elika.  Somewhere across the ocean someone must have thought something similar because Spirit Tracks is very reminiscent of that mechanic.  In regular dungeons and on the overworld she is just a “spiritual” guide, talking to Link, giving him advice, et cetera.  However, when in the Spirit Tower she has the ability to jump into these giant suits of armor, who are invincible to all but rats and sand, and help Link mess some bad guys up.  She carries him across lava, assists him with puzzles, and cuts enemies to shreds.  Working in tandem with Zelda has a learning curve, but once mastered is one of the most satisfying aspects of the entire game.  One boss in particular requires a cooperation between the two nothing short of symbiotic.  The Zelda interaction as a whole is easily my favorite part of Spirit Tracks.  It makes Link’s quest less lonely, adds a whole batch of personality to an otherwise mute character, and the cut scenes between the two are hilarious and adorable.

Critics will scoff at a train-riding Link, and fans will play it regardless.  It’s often pointless to review a game like this because opinions are so likely to be formed before touching the thing.  But as a lifelong Zelda nut who both looked forward to Spirit Tracks and feared it would repeat some of the frustrating aspects of Phantom Hourglass, I found myself in love with everything about it.

Doin It RIGHT: - Link and Zelda together at last! - Fantastic dungeons and epic boss fights. - Great mixture of innovation and classic gameplay.	Doin It RONG: - Poor fast travel option. - Side quests can get a little tedious. - No Triforce.
FINAL SCORE: 9.5 / 10

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I’ve used the term “video game crack” to describe three games in my life: Peggle, Oblivion, and Nintendo’s Animal Crossing. In 2006, I picked up Animal Crossing: Wild World on a whim, partially intrigued by my brother’s obsession with it and also desperately wanting a game to show my wife that the cash dropped on a new handheld was worth it. By the end of the summer in 2006, my family had three DS Lites, three copies of Animal Crossing: WW, and an enormous debt to a entrepreneurial raccoon. Yes, it was SO worth it.

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Some of you may find February 14 to be frightening.  After all, if the idea of a scary little angel-esque creature flying around and shooting people with arrows of… love isn’t frightening enough, then the possibility of having to buy something for your significant other for another materialistic holiday probably might do the trick.  If you can survive that date this year, there’s another just around the corner: Dementium II releases on February 16, 2010 for Nintendo DS.  Europeans, you have a bit longer to prepare yourself, as the game releases March 5 in PAL territories.

Dementium II continues to push the horror experience by melding FPS action and puzzles with a story and ambience that will have players on the edge of their seats. New wrinkles to gameplay, all new weapons, dual wielding items, improved interface and save system, and mind-boggling environments promise to engage gamers and spawn fear the likes of which some never thought possible.

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[Source: SouthPeak Games]

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Are you going crazy over the wait for Dementium II, the sequel to the cult DS horror game set in an insane asylum?  If so, you may want to take advantage of this great pre-order offer: the first 1000 people to email a copy of their pre-order receipt to DementiumII@southpeakgames.com will win a signed poster by creators Jools Watsham and Gregg Hargrove at Renegade Kid featuring the game’s awesome box art.

Some rules:  you have to order from an authorized retailer (Sorry, kids, I don’t think ebay counts here), and you must not have participated in the Halloween poster event.  You must be a resident of the US or Canada, and even if you want to show your immense love for the franchise and buy a dozen games, you can only get one poster per household.  However, even if you pre-ordered Dementium II months ago, you can still participate, as long as you have your receipt and fall under the previous rules.

While you wait for your snazzy new poster to arrive, you can check out the new teaser site over at http://www.dementium.com, which will be updated regularly over the next days and weeks.  The game hits store shelves in February for Nintendo DS.

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[Source: SouthPeak Games]

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Today, Tecmo announced two new games for Nintendo DS. Again, from Cing, the makers of Hotel Dusk, and Monster Rancher DS.  As of right now, no assets are available, however, these are definitely two titles to look forward to.We’ve bundled information about both upcoming games into one handy dandy post here for your convenience, so read on for a little back story and things to get hyped about.

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