Handheld Reviews

If you own a PSP, you need to buy LocoRoco. This is exactly the type of title that could be done on any other platform, but is a perfect fit for Sony’s handheld. It is a little quirky, has fun with itself, and has enough difficulty to allow both “hardcore” and casual gamers to enjoy it. LocoRoco is a platformer that doesn’t know it. I’ve never been a fan of platform games (I am the only one of my peers in this industry that doesn’t look forward to the next Mario game) so it takes something very original to pique my interest.

I jumped at the chance to review Bubble Bobble Revolution for the Nintendo DS because the arcade game was fun (I remember it from “back in the day) and understood that it would be included in the DS game along with a new updated sequel of sorts. I wound up playing for a while on the Classic version of the game where players control a (… well, I’m not sure if it’s a lizard or a dinosaur or what) creature that spits bubbles out of its mouth in order to trap enemies. The playing field is littered with platforms onto which the player can jump, or drop through the opening at the bottom of the screen to come out at the top of the screen.

Namco has always delivered with its Ace Combat series. Seen before on a variety of consoles, Ace Combat finally arrives on the powerful PlayStation Portable. While the game is not quite as visually appealing as its PlayStation 2 counterpart, Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception looks and plays beautifully and doesn’t sacrifice much in the transition to the handheld format.

After the launch of the PlayStation Portable, Sony’s handheld went through several software droughts. When a game was released, it was largely unpopular and lacked anything that made people want to purchase a PSP. The original Mercury was one title that proved to be different from this though. Offering a unique take on the puzzle genre, players were given a difficult game that proved to be very satisfying. While it was not without its faults, if there was a title that deserved a sequel, it was Mercury. Now these wishes have been answered.

With all of the issues Sony has had developing a good NBA game on the PSP, one would think they might quit trying. However, never content to give up, Sony delivered the third incarnation of the NBA series to the PlayStation portable. And while it is an improvement over the other two titles, the game still lacks some of the features of its PlayStation 2 brother.

Despite all the films to be released this summer year, Cars has been the fan favorite. Tying in with the movie, THQ has put out a Game Boy Advance version. However, for everything that THQ did right with Cars for the PS2, Xbox, PC, and GameCube, they did the exact opposite in Cars for the Game Boy Advance. That isn't to say Cars is a terrible game... I just was left wanting more.

Nintendo's series of productivity/educational software for the DS has really taken off in Japan; it was only a matter of time before NOA would bring some of those titles stateside. Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day is the first entry to come to the US. The concept behind Brain Age is simple. If you don't use your brain enough, atrophy occurs and mental skills decrease. Brain Age helps you exercise your brain with activities you might not normally have a chance to do in your day-to-day experiences.

One of the longest standing franchises that seem to achieve success wherever it ends up, appearing on practically every videogame console and computer operating system, is Tetris. Since its first mainstream introduction on the Game Boy in 1989, Tetris and its many variant copy-cats are one of the few videogame experiences that can be enjoyed by anyone, gamer or grandma. If you must know, Tetris in its basic form is a puzzle game where the objective is to create a horizontal line (without gaps) using seven separate randomly generated tetrominoes. These tetrominoes fall from the sky (picking up speed the more lines you clear) with the goal to clear as many lines as possible before you become overwhelmed and the pile of blocks reach the top ending your run.

I can still remember my excitement the first time I saw a video of Metroid Prime Hunters. It was at Nintendo's Pre-E3 Press Conference in 2004. Nintendo had only just recently confirmed the rumors that they were indeed making a dual screen handheld in late January. No one had yet seen what the system looked like or really knew anything significant about it including its most important feature: the Touch Screen. That's why the crowd was so excited during that press conference. Eschewing their previous behavior, Nintendo went from being completely tight-lipped on the subject, to full revealing all details about the DS and promising a retail launch only six months later. That's just not the way Nintendo usually operates, especially concerning new hardware.

We're used to seeing Mario spin-offs, but you can understand why Nintendo fans were concerned when Metroid Prime Pinball was announced. Metroid Pinball was developed by the same studio that brought us Mario Pinball Land, a game which was not well received. Fortunately, it turns out that Samus fits into pinball form much better than Mario does, and the game is much more than a cash grabbing spin-off.