Advance Wars: Dual Strike

       Think "turn-based strategy" and if you're not one of the Games Workshop crowd, you're probably thinking of beardy man pushing lead models of Napoleon around a felt-carpeted, historically accurate battlefield. But "Advance Wars" is about as far from the fussy world of real wargaminh as it's possible to get. After successful version for Famicom and GameBoy in Japan, plus two sleep deprivingly brilliant GBA sequeals over here, the world's most playable strategy game has arrived on what feels like its natural home.

     Not only is "Advance Wars:Dual Strike" arguably the best thing currently available for Nintendo DS, it's also one of the finest handheld games I've ever play.If computers were around back when the first cavemen were inventing board ga,es, this is what chess would be like. Probably.

     For the benefit of anyone with this game series, the gamneplay is incredibly simple to pick up. You play on a small map, against one or more enemy armies using a selection of land, sea, and air units. Each one can beat certain other units with ease but will take a pounding in a mismtached battle, so the aim is to outwit your foes by luring them into fights they can't win. You deploy all of your units as you see fit, then sit back and watch what happens as the computer or other players make their moves. Plant it correctly, working your army as a well-oiled machine with each unit covering another one's back and you'll make steady progress towards the enemy base. Get it wring and you'd better have a Plan B up your sleeve.

This the default combination

      I could fill an entire magazine talking about the game's tactical nuances and subtle strategies, but you'll soon develop your own based on your personla style of play.On DS, there are mroe possibilites than ever before.

     The upper screen sometimes shows a second, simpler battlefield, which you can play yourself or leave to a computer ally. Reinforcements can be sent whenever they are needed, at the expense of leaving yuor main army short of firepower. And if you win the other battle then you get the benefit of game-winning tag team attack that lets you move twice in one turn. If it sounds complicated in theory, playing the game is a breeze. The difficulty level is beautifully turned, via series of tutorial levels, and by the time you finally get a full army and two battlefields to control, you'll most likely to have no need to refer to the instructional menus again.

   Throw in eight player wireless support, using just one cartridge, and an all new arcade style Combat mode, and you've got something that's ging to ruin your sleep and possibly wreck family relationships for the foreseeable future. Absolutely unmissable.

Earn each ranking points for each CO

Doom 3

My favorite baddie - the Hell Knight!

        Doom 3 is as "Back to Basics" a first person shooter as it's possible to imagine. It's a claustrophobically linear corridor shooter packed to the rafters with more devilish, gore, demonic imagery than Clive Barker flick.

      Sinister mega-corporation UAC is tinkering away on some radical new teleportation technology. Headed up by the obligatory psychopath, the experiment goes to Hell and a wormhole to Hades pops up on their creepy Mars outpost.


      As crazed, bloodthirsty demons swarm into the universe, one heroic marine is only mankind's only hope. If you want to know what happens next, just think of something along the lines of Aliens, Evil Dead and Resident Evil and you're halfway there. Doom 3's level of polish is unparalleled, making it the video gaming equivalent of Titanic. No other Xbox game comes close to touching it from a graphical point of view. Forget Halo, Oddworld or Riddick - Doom 3 craps on them all from a very great height. Models, particle effects, lighting - you name it, this beast does it best.

     Critics have bemoaned the fact that, cutting edge visuals aside, Doom 3's by the numbers gameplay is painfully dated. And they be right. Well, kind of. It's true that you can't peek around corners, while the physics system is basic at best and enemies tend to be even thicker than most game show hosts.

     So, it's nothing more than a corridor crawler, but what a corridor crawler! The whole Doom 3 experience feels far more comfortable on console than it ever was on the PC. Its linearity can surely be excused when the weapons, levels and enemies are all this mind-blowingly fantastic. Chuck in some bombastic boss battles and Hollywood-esque production level and you have an instant classic.

   

Doom 3 isn't perfect. The section in the Alpha Labs/Empro facility drags on for ages, while the potentially terrifying vent sections are woefully undeveloped. The inability to wield your flashlight and weapon at the same time is puzzling, but then isn't this game that's all about suspending your disbelief.
  

NBA Street V3

       Like the previous installments, NBA Street V3 slaps reality off the court like a weak lay-up and delivers an arcade-style basketball game overflowing with fun factor. Alley-oops and tricks moves are in abundance, as are the innovations that make V3 unique and hard to put down.

      Anyone who played the previous Street games knows it's all about style.It's not just scroing points, but busting trick moves to make defenders look like fools, then soaring to the basket. Or better yet, taking off for the dunk, then hooking up a teammate who's taken to the air for an alley-oop.

      Its a winning formula, taking basketball, exaggerating ot and removing the elements that slow the game down so that it's faster-paced and more action packed. And while the developers could have just updated the rosters and tacked on some new features, there's no much in V3 that makes it better than the already great Vol.2

     The first thing gamers will notice is the new look. Where the last game looked very cartoonish, V3 looks very sleek. It's almost like everything sparkles, like everything was meant to go "bling".

     There's also lot of detail given to player movements. This happens not only when you do a trick, but also with the reaction of the defender, who miht look up confused, or stumble over, or whatever else would be the appropriate reaction to the trick. Reactions look particularly funny when you do trick passes like Off the Heezay or Off the Bootay. A favorite details though is the way a player's accessories will move appropriately. For example, if you take to the air wearing some bling-bling around the neck, it will float up, swing around, then come back into place when you land.

     When the last game had a trick button, V3 gives us the Trick Stick. By tappng the right analog right stick you can perform various tricks, one assigned to each direction and the diagonals. You can tap in eight directions, and do trick variations by pressing different turbo buttons. This means that at any time, as long as your handling rating is high enough, you can perform any 32 different tricks.

    String tricks together and you build up towards the new and improved Gamebreaker. You still have the choice to throw up the ball for two points and deduct one from your opponents, just like in the last game. But now you can also take to the air and do mid-air tricks which fill up a meter. Fill up that meter and you can get 4 points. Since it's a risk, because if you pull it off, you could come away with four points, but if you don't , you wind up with your butt on the court.

What's Street game without the moon-like gravity?

     Dunk contest tricks are performed in the same was as Gamebreaker tricks. Get in the air and tap the right analog stick while mixing up turbo buttons.Despite that, there's more than enough good gameplay to keep you playing V3. And if the gameplay wasn't enough, there are the new customization features. Almost like an RPG-mode, gamers get to create their players in streetball challenge. With each win they earn Style Points to upgrade skills or buy new clothes or accessories. Aside from skills and pre-designed clothes, gamers can also create their own shoes. Adding to your player's character, gamers also get to create and upgrade their home court.

Do the dunks right and watch the points roll in.

   V3 is a great installment to the NBA Street series, with all fun elements of the previous version and tons of new features.

Bring mad game or get your ankles broken with this version of NBA Street.

Battle City

         One of the best "buddy" games for the Family Computer / NES, or maybe for any console for that matter. The premise was simple enough, you and your enemy had a base. The objective was to destroy each others base using tanks which you controlled. What doubled the fun was being able to play with a buddy using the other controller. If played strategically, you could go a very long way as long as you defend the vital positions among the obstructions and pathways. Too add more fun, the tanks can be upgraded through power-ups. Mayhem ensues when a trigger-happy player accumulates enough firepower to penetrate the games metal barriers, inadvertently killing his teammate or shooting down their own base.

  

"Protect the Eagle..."

Empire Earth II

       When a game is named Empire Earth, anything less than massive would fail to live up to its title. Thank God the game, when it came out in 2001, did prove to be an epic treat, spanning the entire gamut of human existence with a gameplay that brought to mind the now-classic Civilization and was even able to turn out an expansion a year after.
      
     The single player skirmish that I've tried out are German, American and Korean civilizations. Each civilization has a detailed set of characteristics that make each one special, and if that isn't enough, they also get their own unique units. This game certainly outdoes itself, boasting hundreds of various units and buildings, all scattered across 15 epochs of human history, which make for a game rife with possibilities.

Unlike other RTS game, Empire Earth II can be played at much slower pace. This means more time to make strategy on building placement and workers priority.

     The game took me to a semi-forested map, and while at start-up everything seemed like your typical RTS game, I soon found out that some things were a bit more complicated. For one, workers have to harvest seven kinds of resources, which range from food to iron turning to tin, then steel etc.

     As in the first game, technology plays a big part in Empire Earth II, Whether to assign workers to gather resources or to research tech points in crucial to one's strategy. Tech points can be used to advance your military, economic or imperial tech tree and more importantly, your civilization's epoch. So it's possible that while you're at an early epoch, busily amassing your barbarian horde, your technology-driven opponent might have already made a jump to modern times and now planning his nuclear strike on you.

Gunpowder-based units release a lot of smoke during combat, sometimes making fights hard to follow.

    Also worth of noticing is the use of the weather and how it affects the game in a big way.  Able to see heavy rains pour down, making building construction take longer than usual. It also lessened unit visibility and movement significantly, as is in the case of snow, which limited the players visibility as well, almost reducing the computer screen to a sheet of white.

    Overall, Empire Earth II was a wholly satisfying one. Even without a tutorial, you can able to grasp the concepts of this seemingly complex RTS.

Heavy Cavalry are some of the strongest earlier units. Some formations, like the phalanx, can improve their effectivity.

Wario Ware Touched!

       Wario Ware must be feeling like a lump slab of meat by now. Since its fantastic debut on the GBA in 2003, it has been sliced up into quarters like a mortuary corpse for its multiplayer GameCube debut, before being throttled like a naughty test tube in GBA. With Touched! Nintendo wants you to jab Wario Ware like some pickled brain in a jar. The series has always been so brilliant that you could throw it into a wood chipper and you'd be left with beautiful confetti.

TOUCH LOVE
      You'll know the structure by now: it's your job to complete a series a quick-fire mini games, each one taking about 2 seconds, and requiring some simple but swift reactions. Except this time you're using the stylus to doodle your way frantically around each game. Some classic scence return- the lady with the massive drip of snot, for example. But there's just some plain bewilderingly inventive new stuff: chopping vegetables as they fly past, tickling someone's nostril, using a stream of pee to put out a fire. Just when we thought the franchise had began to chug out of fuel, it kicks in with nitro. It's the Olympics meets Dr. Seuss meets speed dating.

     It's stylus over substance, sure, but it's a game that's been toucheed by some very special brains. In terms of sheer imaginative fun and endless personality, it's a game that's been touched by some very special special brains. In terms of sheer imaginative fun and endless personality, it's as good as any other Wario Ware, and the first true killer app for the DS. Be sure to get your hands on it.

     
    

Tekken 5

         Tekken in the late 90's was one of the main reason s for owning a Playstation. Back then, it slam-banged the StreetFighter machines as the undisputed aracde champion. After a while, gamers demanded more grit, more action - a game that went beyond plain kicking and fighting. And while everyone was looking for a new fighting game, Mortal Kombt and Soul Calibur took it as a cue and developed imaginative characters and environments with addition of flashy effects.

        In 2005 (Wow, that was 8 yrs. ago), Tekken 5 seems to be dead-set on showing once again who's boss in the arcades and on PS2 (before). The game starts out with Heichachi Mishima's assassination. The whole two minutes or so is breathtakingly beautiful. After all, this has happened before: a wonderful intro followed by lousy in-game graphics.

         Thankfully, you'll find the same pretty graphics in the game. The characters roster in Tekken 5 contains a great hodge-podge of all the unforgettable characters of the series. Mainstays like Kazuya, Paul, Law, Yoshimitsu, King, Nina, Bryan, Lei, Hwoarang, Bruce, Baek, Lee, Anna and Xiaoyu are all present. Three new characters are also introduced: Raven, a Blade dead ringer who can occasionally teleport; Asuka, the japanese schoolgirl who is Jin's cousin; and Feng, the typical evil guy. While the new characters fit into the game and are not completely out of place, the old characters are given fresh moves so they can keep up with the competition. Handling nina for instance, feels different as she has "learned"several new combos.
      
       The story mode takes you through a series of fights. You can now also customize your character in Tekken 5. As you win fights, you'll earn currency to purchase stuff for your character. Some of the outits can be customized and sometimes you have the option to entirely change them altogether.You can buy accessories such as shades, boots, necklaces, or even a frying pan.

    
         What's so great about this game is that Namco took the time to polish the fighting system and graphics form Tekken 4 and retained what was good about it. Steve, Marduk and Christie. The seemingly-claustrophobic walls are now gone, and awkward moves are replaced with smooth and natural fight choreography. All of a sudden, Tekken 5 looks tougher because getting hit seems to be more painful. Everyone moves like they're out to kill. even the most basic jab looks like it can send you into a coma. When you hit the floor, ground fragments fly off, and cracks form on the surface. The characters movements are fluid and extremely smooth. Even if you've already seen these moves before, they look so much more graceful this time. The graphics are outstanding and at some point will make you think twice if you are really playing on the PS2 (way way back before PS3) and not watchin some pre-renderred CG Flick. The backgrounds are wildly imaginative and small details such as onlookers, cotton wisps, and temple on fire are perfectly rendered.

        An extended bonus is a trip down memory lane which gives you full access to the earlier aracde versions of the game such as Tekken, Tekken 2, Tekken 3.

  
          

Contra

Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, B, A, Select, Start.

That was the sequence every games at taht time had to know. It was the secret code to get 30 lives instead of the usual 3 at the beginning of the game. Another buddy game, Contra has the gamer in the role of commandos fighting an alien monster that has crash landed on earth. You can choose from either a Rambo or a Schwarzeneger look alike.

Forget the hammy plot. The pint of this game are the guns, and of course, the endless wave of bad guys. Your arsenal consist of the regular machine gun, flame gun, the split shot and the laser. They're not all available at the same time of course since you discover them as you go along. Contra features a screen that constantly scrolls and super tough bosses. your partner better not lag behind or he'll die. Even though you can get 30 lives, you'll end up using them pretty fast especially during boss battle.

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex

          Every time we see it, Universal Interactive's Crash Bandicoot game maganes to suprise us. We got to check out some of the latest levels added to the Ps2 platformer long time ago, such as the Wild West, an underwater zone, and - gasp - even a mine cart run.

        Each level really has its own unique feel and effects and everything we've seen so far has been stunning. There's even great looking a "x-ray" segment, so you can see Crash's skleton as he runs and jumps.

       Gameplay variety is also highlight of this Crash title , as it just keeps adding on new mini-games. Crash riding a giant mosquito and his sister coco taking to the slopes on a snowboard. this is one game that would appear to have something for everyone back then.

Silent Hill 2

         Silent Hill 2 surprised most of us with an intriguing story, frightening and horrifying events and monsters, and solid gameplay. mechanics, which only helped fuel the fire of expectation for the sequel. Unfortunately, Silent Hill 2 burns in this unfair flame, due to a few serious problems.

        Silent Hill 2 foremost dault is the convulated and confusing storyline. Throughout SH2, players will enconter a number of mysteries involving James (Lead character) background, the evil town itself, the monsters, and the supporting cast. However, very few of these enigmas ever get an explanation which always left me anticipating a suspenseful answer. Even after I completed the game, I still couldn't definitely determine what the hell was going on in Silent Hill; it's like reading a poorly novel.

       The gameplay fails to impress, also. While the play mechanics are solid, the control manageable, and the puzzles thought provoking , there's nothing that elevates the series or genre to that next level.

       I still gladly give SH2 credit for its presentation.I enjoyed the manner in which the story was conveyed; full of creepy and calculated events and sounds meant to instill as much fear as possible. The dark and disgusting graphics, and slow techno-like music also help to intensify this atmosphere.

       As as it cools as it looks and sounds, SH2 problems keep it from being an absolute purchase. It's good, but fails to live up to my high expectations.

Spy Hunter

       Unlike a lot of movie re-makes, Midway's re-tooling of the classic coin-op Spy Hunter doesn't mess with what made the original so great - it just improves on the concept with some great new ideas.

       For starters, its newly updated interceptor spy-mobile now sports guided missiles, a turbo boost, EMP blasts, and other exotic armaments. Controlling the cars (and sometimes  boat) feels great  -  the developer obviously put a lot of effort into striking a good balance between sim-like physics and arcade style, pick-up and play mechanics.

      All of the classic elements of the 80's game are here as well: the weapon van, armored car, and kamikaze motorcyclist plus lots of new enemies too. The visual style is faithful to the original, while still decidedly next-generation, with great looking vehicles models, detailed textures, and a rock solid frame rate. Its sense of speed is really good as well.

      Each mission features its share of action movie style thrills, and is so uniquely designed that you're always excited to see what's next. Plus, they all make ample use of the Interceptor's land and water models - the latter segments playing a lot like Midway's own Hydro Thunder.

     Despite the several secondary objectives in each mission, though the game is over before you know it. Thankfully, it's much sweeter that it is short, but you'll definitely be left wanting more - and it's hopefully on the way.

Syphon Filter 3

             Remember 2001? I found myself more excited that this game was on the works for PS2 game set in Syphon Filter universe than in release of the third in PSOne series (That was a decade ago). But after once again immersing myself in its quality gameplay and intriguing story of international espionage, it was easy to realize why this series aas one of the hallmarks in latter half of the PSOne classics.

            Those familiar with the series will find much to rejoice in: the continuation of the convulated story, traditionally solid graphics, three targeting modes, a large arsenal and the same moves. Gabe and Lian (and a few new playable characters) all still run with that peculiar bowlegged swagger. As we've come to know the control over the years, its still sluggish, but good overall. Features include several new mini-games with random enemy regeneration for replayability; these include timed, steatlh, assassination, and cover fire missions. But in the meat of the game is the 18 levels truly spanning the globe, each with multiple checkpoints and mission objectives that should make for at least 20-30 hours gameplay.

As the story goes, Gabe and Lian exiled from the Agency, on trial in a private. Senate hearing for crimes they didn't commit. As they testify, you play the missions as flashbacks, until Gabe and Lian must stop the spread of Syphon Filter by secret arms dealing group in present day.