Handheld Reviews

The Nintendo DS and PSP have both seen a huge drought in software titles since their handheld consoles released to the market. Most of the PSP titles have been ports of PS2 titles while the DS has seen its share of N64 remakes and “touch screenâ€? updates to GBA titles. Sony still has yet to release a first party title that can be called a killer app for the PSP but the same cannot be said for Nintendo now that Kirby: Canvas Curse has been released. The first in what appears to be several AAA titles for 2005, the Nintendo DS may just have what it takes to beat the gorgeous and powerful PSP.

Leave it to Atlus to deliver a relatively unknown title to the US shores and amaze us with the incredibly smooth and undeniably fun Riviera: The Promised Land only on the Game Boy Advance. While the Game Boy Advance is still one of the best selling consoles of all time, it is nearing the end of its life. Fewer and fewer titles are coming out that are worth purchase. Riviera is the late life exception to that rule adding to the lengthy list of Role Playing Games that makes Nintendo's little handheld worth playing.

Do not buy this game if you respect yourself and the game of baseball. Assuming you have played MVP Baseball 2004 for consoles and PC, the PSP version of MVP is an exact port of MVP 2004 with the first patch that came out for the PC and PS2 console. It has outdated rosters (The same rosters 2005 for consoles and PC SHIPPED with) and cannot be updated via infrastructure mode.

What is it about sports that turn people into whooping animals who suddenly get the urge to yell things like "Oh snap!" and "He just juked you out of your socks!"? Well whatever it is the popular line of EA Big sports games have definitely bottled it and smothered it onto a game disc with their ever popular NBA Street series. Never heard of it? Here's the lowdown:

Back when Nintendo was the dominate player in the game industry, several big name Role Playing Games were not released in the US market. Did you know that the NES missed out on two Final Fantasy titles? The biggest crime was when the SNES was not given several big titles. Two of these titles were Fire Emblem and Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. We covered Nintendo's re-release of Fire Emblem shortly after it came out and awarded it a high score. Does the follow-up deserve the same praise?

When Sony announced the PSP, many skeptics were fearful that the console would simply be used for quick PlayStation 2 ports that offered little or no original gaming. While some of the PSP titles can be called PS2 ports, there are a great number of titles for the platform that can't be found on any other system. Archer MacLean's Mercury is one title that falls into this category. While there are some issues with the game, it is overall a great experience.

Klonoa is one of the franchises Namco first started on the PlayStation. They continued it on the PS2 several years later before moving the series to the Game Boy Advance. Klonoa 2: Dream Champ looks and plays just like the first one. In fact, the game has been out for a long time in Japan. For some unknown reason Namco has been sitting on this title just waiting for the right opportunity to release it. Apparently the time is right now and GBA owners can finally play this magnificent puzzle title.

Solid Snake isn't new to portable systems. Snake first appeared on the Game Boy many years ago with a title that played surprisingly well. Excitingly, for the first time on any handheld system, Konami has brought Snake to a handheld in full 3D. This isn't just a standard port of Metal Gear Solid 3 or another title from the past. Instead, the latest installment of Metal Gear is a Card Strategy game. Just the mention of hearing that this game doesn't play like a standard Metal Gear title may quickly turn some of you away. However, if you are a fan of Strategy games and take the time to play Metal Gear Acid, you will find that this is arguably the best game on Sony's new PSP.

Tetsuya Mizuguchi is one of the great game developers we have, and has been making some of the best puzzle games for sometime now. His games link music and gameplay to an extent that they almost seem fused together. Just look to REZ and Space Channel five as his past achievement to understand where I'm coming from.

When Balloon Trip appeared at E3 as a "tech demo," I thought it was pretty fun. It became the full game Yoshi Touch & Go, and as Nintendo started to release information about it, I was starting to get excited for what would be Nintendo's first original game on the DS. Yoshi Touch & Go features very unique gameplay that really makes use of the Touch Screen.