Handheld Reviews

One of the most loved franchises at Activision is Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. After several successful versions of the game across many different consoles, Activision moved the series in a direction with Tony Hawk's Underground. This PSP version of Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix is almost identical to the game released last fall on all the big-screened consoles. However, the Developer, Shaba Games, has given players four new levels in this PSP version to help provide some new gaming experiences in the story mode. These include Kyoto, Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Santa Cruz.

989 Sports has had some bad luck with their basketball titles on the PS2 lately. In fact, they even took the 2005 game off their schedule in order to regroup and figure out how to improve the quality of their NBA Shootout title. Unfortunately, even though the latest offering on the PSP may be much better than their last NBA game, it still needs some major work.

So you find yourself with a brand new PSP and need a soccer game. What do you do? You may be surprised but you actually have a choice of games. Sony delivers with one of their most consistent sports franchises, World Tour Soccer, and EA brings us FIFA Soccer. Now you may be thinking to yourself... "Two soccer games for a brand new system?Ķ are these guys nuts?" True, having more RPG's on the system would have been nice but at least there is some choice when it comes to the soccer game we choose to play.

It seems that Spider-Man is popping up all over the place. After two incredible movies and two fun console games based on the movies, the world has once again caught "Spidey Fever." Spider-Man has popped up on the PS2, Xbox, GameCube, mobile phones, the Game Boy Advance, and even the N-Gage. Being a huge fan of Spider-Man, that is not a bad thing. However, after a sub par outing as a Nintendo DS launch title, I was a bit worried when I heard that Activision was delivering an original Spider-Man 2 title for the PSP.

Sony, it seems, is really going retro, using some familiar old franchises to jump-start the popularity of the PSP. So, it is no surprise that they are beginning this trend by bringing one of the most loved PlayStation and PlayStation 2 franchises to the new PSP. Twisted Metal: Head-On once again delivers, just as it did on the predecessors to the PSP, in showcasing what a new Sony hardware platform can do by shrinking the fun and excitement of Twisted Metal into your hands.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is, at first glance, exactly what many of us hated about Wind Waker: a progression to a more cartoonish, less fun Zelda. When I picked up and played the game for a couple hours, though, I found that not only did the newest Zelda in the series have all the classic elements that made 2D Zelda great, it enhanced and polished some of the best aspects of the game and did away with the ones fans like me reacted negatively to (if I have to sail another boat ever again in a Zelda game, I'm pulling out my razor blade item and end Link's misery right there).

With the absence of Wario Ware Inc on the Nintendo DS at launch, Sega stepped in and released arguably the best title available for the Nintendo DS to date. Feel the Magic: XY/XX may be a strange name for a game title but it will give you a glimpse to the fun you can have on Nintendo's new handheld console.

Nintendo has always been known for making great First Party titles. However, Nintendo learned a valuable lesson with the release of the GameCube. For the first time in the history of the company, they released a console without a Mario title. So it was only fitting that Nintendo re-release one of the greatest 3D platformers of all time on the Nintendo DS. Mario 64 is a title that not only showed the world how to make a 3D platformer but is also one of the best Mario titles in recent memories. However, not all things are perfect in this Nintendo DS flagship title.

It is no secret that I am a very big fan of the 2D Castlevania titles since Symphony of the Night. To this day, I still consider SOTN to be the greatest 2D game ever made. In fact, I consider it a crime against the gaming gods if you have not played it. Available at under twenty bucks as a PSone classic title, it is one game you should take the time to play through. After the great Symphony of the Night, Konami made several other great Game Boy Advance titles. These were much more exciting and enjoyable than any of the 3D versions and helped solidify the GBA as having some of the best games on any console ever made. Now that Konami has moved the series to the Nintendo DS, does the streak of enjoyable and fun 2D titles continue? In a word, yes.

Spider-Man has been pretty busy lately. After his huge success at the box office for the two big feature Spider-Man films, Spidey has been popping up on just about every single device possible. The first Spider-Man game, based on the movie, was pretty good and the second one, while not perfect, was even better. Our hero has found his way on the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, and even the N-Gage. However, now the time has come for Spider-Man to spin his web on the Nintendo DS.