Star Fox 64

An exceptional shooter that's only improved since its original 16-bit inception, StarFox 64 is deep with gameplay, strategy, and calculated level progression mechanics. Much like StarFox on Super NES, Slippy the frog, Peppy the hare, and Falco the falcon join Fox McCloud as they fly through space in their patented 'Arwing' fighters in forward-scrolling fashion. Players will also pilot a rather clunky submarine and a unique tank (with hovering capabilities), depending on the various mission they encounter. But what differentiates StarFox 64 from its past version is that gamers will play in both forward-scrolling levels, found in latter-day shooters like Sega Saturn's Panzer Dragoon, while newer missions enable full 3D movement, usually couched in a closed spherical environment. In each, the Arwings are capable of relatively quick acceleration, quick hard braking, Immelmans, loops, barrel rolls, and a wonderful control system that's as responsive, and as smooth as silk.
As many as 15 interconnected levels are playable in the single-player mode, each with the most amazing looking bosses seen in a long time. Ranging from a humungous clam in Aquas, to a lavish molten lava-monster in Solar, to an amazingly animated monkey head and hands in the easy ending, these bosses are fantastic in design and graphic execution. A clever set of paths are opened when players kill a specified amount of enemies, follow an unusual path, shoot subtle objects and enemies, fly through special constructs, or beat certain bosses. (In one level, if players fly through a set of blue rings they'll enter into a psychedelic bonus level that's the closest nod to Galaga we've seen in quite some time.) There are also a handful of paths in each level. This branch system, unlike the chooseable paths of the 16-bit StarFox, makes this often formulaic game a bit more challenging.
Multiplayer Modes The four-player, split-screen action deepens the game's overall value, with chooseable variations, like team-play, or all-out 'death-matches.' And it's a blast. Plus, after meeting certain requirements, you can play on foot, with laser cannons on your shoulders. For beginners, a practice mode is also available in one-player mode. And let's not forget that the Rumble Pak, bundled with the game, adds an unusual burst of arcade ecstasy to the game.
There are a few disappointments, however, and these start with gameplay. With gameplay nods to Wing Commander (and cinematic references to a few recent sci-fi movies), the play is great, but not terribly innovative, nor altogether new, and with a few exceptions, it's a just a good update from the original StarFox. Second, this game, like all shooters by their very nature, is extremely repetitive. Almost all of the little details have been sorted out throughout the game, except the incredibly muddled and dark submarine level (Aquas). The music could also have been improved as well, and may have suffered due to the abundant sound samples.

Timesplitters 2

Base on the first easy-to-play, bubblegum blaster, Free Radical's second first-person shooter, like all good sequels, takes the core concept and expands upon it. The central themes for TimeSplitters were speed, beauty and multiplayer goodness. TimeSplitters 2 does everything in its power to present these qualities, while simultaneously offering a game that's also a fun single-player title loaded with rewards, cheats, extra characters and modes of play. It's still blazingly fast and pretty, running constantly at 60 frames per second, with no noticeable slowdown, and packed with a Story mode organized by difficulty levels, enabling players to amuse themselves with entirely new objectives, sectors of play, and more difficult AI. And the load times are all speedy short. Though sadly missing the much-anticipated online function Eidos once promised, TimeSplitters 2 is still an electrifying first-person shooter, crafted with care, humor and intelligence. Offering a healthy set of modes, TimeSplitters 2 also gives gamers a wealth of options. Under Options players can tweak their controls, audio and video options, view cutscenes, see cheats, trailers and credits. The most robust of these is Player options. Players can tweak six different controller setups, including Custom, alter "Preferences," including items such as turning on or off auto aim, inverse look, vibration, and view statistics, which is a funny little jaunt in itself. These guys were always sticklers for statistics, and TimeSplitters 2 is no exception. Players can check the statistics of standard things such as the time they have played, distance traveled, total games, total kills, accuracy, etc. The more eccentric items are what we were after, and these little stats pleased me sinfully. You can check "Insomnia" (the longest stretch of time played in one sitting), "Average speed," melons burst, animal cruelty, limbs detached, head knocked off, UFOs spotted, and for a touch of Grand Theft Auto, Longest Killing Spree. Also worth noting are the Arcade Awards, given for players of the Challenge mode, and Gallery, which shows how many of the 126 characters are playable in the game. These include standard AI dummies, bosses, lead characters, and dozens of others, giving this game a slew of incentives for replaying it again and again. Single-Player ModeWhat the first TimeSplitters sorely missed was a single-player mode worth playing. The game featured one, but it was essentially capture the flag, and it was substantially more difficult than it was worth. TimeSplitters 2, on the other hand, delivers on the promise of a meaty single-player experience by bringing 10 levels to the table. What? Only 10 levels? True, that isn't generous. But these 10 levels are structured much in the same way Goldeneye 007 was -- with new objectives added for each new difficulty level, more locations opened up and challenges to meet. Beat the game on the relatively easy "Easy" level, and then play through on medium, and all of a sudden the map you knew has grown, the passages you take altered, and the enemies not only harder to kill, but smarter, too. By finishing the game on "Easy" you have essentially missed 30-40% of the game. It's not like beating Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racconus and missing a few bottles. Here, you simply miss out on huge sections of addictive gameplay. The new difficulty levels add substantially fulfilling challenges that had this gamer swearing, cussing, and prophesizing the end of his gaming career if he didn't beat the Atom Smasher level over the weekend. Unlike Red Faction 2, THQ's story-driven first-person shooter, TimeSplitters 2 is not story-driven. It's an objective-based game. The story does indeed exist, but it's little more than say, the story provided for Doom, which is to say, the story is not where it's at. You follow the plot of an elite squad of military personnel bent on chasing the evil TimeSplitters through time, capturing crystals key to controlling time, and at the same time, history. In the 10 basic levels, spread out over history, players fight their way to the time crystal, beat up bosses, sometimes more than one in a level, and then find the warp hole back to the ship in which your two lead characters, Sgt. Cortez and Corp Hart, are harbored. In each time level, you take on the roles of select characters, into which Sgt. Cortez or Corp Hart take form. I found little depth in the characters, little reason to like them -- other than that they are apparently saving the world from some abstract disaster -- and felt no real compassion for them. Why do I care about them? Who are they really? How do they fit into the big picture of the world? These are not issues addressed in TimeSplitters 2 because the story is essentially irrelevant. But honestly, when I look back at Rare's blockbuster spy game on Nintendo 64, was that game really story driven? Nah. It was just like this game, objective-driven. So, TimeSplitters 2 does what it sets out to do with this story, and for the most part it succeeds. The Story mode offers 10 levels, all based in different time periods, and while some are better than others, they're all relatively medium in length (longer, obviously, when you play the medium and hard level). The levels include 1990 Siberia, 1932 Chicago, 1895 Notre Dame, 2280 Return to Planet X, NeoTokyo, 1858 Wild West, 1972 Atom Smasher, 1920 Aztec Ruins, 2315 Robot Factory, 2401 Space Station. Each of the 10 levels offers something different. The first level, 1990 Siberia, is clearly a parody to the first level of Goldeneye, an "answer" to those fiendish Bond fans who tried so desperately to reach that little island on the other side of the dam in that game's first level. It's also probably the largest and best level of the game, unifying careful sniping, stealth and straight-out action elements into one nearly perfect level. Chicago is also superb in its combination of stealth and sniping. I also loved the third level Notre Dame, thanks to the appearance of (minor SPOILERS ahead) the hunchback of Notre Dame and two bosses. Both Atom Smasher and Aztec Ruins were also handled superbly. But some levels didn¿t satisfy at all. At the same time Atom Smasher is a classic parody of any late '60s/early '70s Bond film, it's a devil of a level to beat, creating great frustration and annoyance to this gamer -- mostly because the AI makes a substantial jump in toughness at this level. Then there are levels such as Return to Planet X, which are simply dull and uninspired, providing little of what Free Radical does best. And while Wild West was a "hoot" to play for a few minutes, it was surprisingly short, unimaginative and lacking in the fun department. And call it what you will, but NeoTokyo is such a brazen rip-off/parody of a Perfect Dark level, fans of that game are sure to split over either loving or hating it. Other modes of play include Arcade (League, Custom, and Network), Challenge (skill and time based challenges), and the formidable Mapmaker mode (which I'll talk about in a bit). Also, and this has become a much more popular concept over the years, the Story mode is playable with two players in Co-op mode, another bonus. Challenge is fun and entertaining; it's great for people to gather around and compete over, offering time and skill based challenges. One level (Glass Smash: Pane in the Neck) requires you to knock out all of the windows from the Siberia level using a grenade launcher: Beat it in less than 18 seconds and win a gold metal. Beat it in less than 30, and win a silver, and less than 1 minute for a bronze. These modes mix single and multiplayer values together to create an imaginative party atmosphere, but they can be played entirely alone, too.

Smugglers Run

Smuggler's Run is the kind of game that Rockstar seems to have been waiting to create for the longest time; it's a new, high-powered arcade-action game that features illegal activities. Players take on the role of a rogue driver whose job is to steal loads, pick them up and run from the cops, intersect with other illegal smugglers and swipe their goods, and race across treacherous terrain while avoiding getting caught. The game is, essentially, all about accumulating the most illegal booty for your nefarious boss, by being a better driver and a deft team manager than the other guys -- oh yeah, and being a bad mother f#&^cker.
One of the big reasons this game is so fun is the aggressive level of the cops, CIA, military personnel, and whoever else is on the other side, and their ability to hound you and destroy your vehicle. You see, your car isn't indestructible. It takes damage when it hits giant trees, rocks, or tumbles. Or, when the cops come and smash into you. So, while one or even two cops could do some serious damage to you, try five or six! These guys swarm, and are willing to give up their lives to destroy your car, and usually their cars are a little faster than yours.
Coupled with the feisty AI cop cars, which swerve into your side panels, ram straight into your front end, or t-bone into you at any chance, is the cleverly designed set of courses. With three major terrain, Forest, Desert, and Snow, players' can race over enormous landscapes. Cars race straight up steep hills, plow through rivers, bust through small villages and towns, smash through border patrols and road blocks, and all at high speeds. So, while you're being chased by five hell-bent cops, and jumping over ravines, traveling at 110 mph, you're also trying to stay on all four wheels. It's not always that easy.
In case I haven't explained myself well, you spend a lot of time on two wheels and flying though the air, and it's a lot of fun. Players use the analog or digital buttons steer or accelerate, and have regular brakes and an E-brake for sharp turns. The physics model is forgiving to a point; you see, Angel Studios has found the perfect balance of craziness, but it doesn't let players get away with everything. Cars can flip, spin, tumble, perform a little of each, and with a little push and pull of the steering wheel, they can roll right back on their wheels again. It's like Speedy Gonzales got a hold of the Spider-mobile in the desert, and drank a bunch of tequila -- It's crazy, crazy fun.
The game is split into three major play modes: Smuggler's Run, a 20-plus mission campaign in which you play through a story against the computer; Turf Wars, made up three kinds of smuggling style racing games with teams for one or two players; and Joyriding, an open, timeless romp through all three of the physically punishing terrains.
With all of the excitement of finally acquiring your fabulous all-in-one toaster over/missile launcher/DVD player/PS2, you'll probably just want to sit all alone for a while. If so, go ahead and power through the story mode, Smuggler's Run, which should take about seven-plus hours is you have any skill at all. Players are set up with several single goals levels before the stakes are raised, and the enemies get meaner. The game is broken down into about three kinds of missions, pick up and retrieve, pick up and retrieve against the clock, off-road races, Capture the Flag against a team of enemies, and straight time-based races. The actual story behind each of these always sounds like a good setting but essentially each one is fluff and filler. They don't have any real effect on the gameplay.
Turf Wars simply breaks down the aforementioned levels into single games, and enables you to play against a real human, or team up with him against the bad guys. Even though the single player levels are a lot of fun, they eventually become redundant, which makes Turf Wars the preferred mode, and the one with the most replay value. With the strong set of vehicles (more than six), plus phenomenally huge maps to get accustomed to, you and your buddies are going to play for hours just exploring and determining who is the biggest and baddest of them all.
Joyriding doesn't take too much to explain. It's probably the most useful mode for simply enjoying the exemplary physics engine and for simply exploring the acres and acres of driving space. There is no time limit and there are no goals. Just drive. This map is quite useful for learning all of the different terrains, and how to use each of the half dozen vehicles.
The vehicles include a buggy, which is the car on the box cover, an SUV, which is a little slower than the buggy, but has more strength and power, the Trophy Truck, which has more speed and acceleration than the SUV, but not as much power or strength, the Rally Car, which is the fastest of the them all, but lacks strength and endurance, the Massive Tuck, and the Military vehicle (which is, make no bones about it, a Hummer), and it's the best overall vehicle in the game.

House of the dead 3

Grab your light gun and get ready for some action. House of the Dead III takes place twenty years after the events of II, with Lisa Rogan and Agent G looking into the disappearance of Thomas Rogan, Lisa's father. The story, though, doesn't really matter. Yes, you're looking for the elder Rogan and yeah there's some back story flashbacks strewn in between each level (six total), but all that really matters is that you're in a house of the dead and there are beasties everywhere looking to take a bite out of crimefighters. You've got to blast your way through a horde of ungodly creatures and rescue Thomas Rogan.
Taking the role of either Lisa or Agent G (the only difference being one stands on the left and the other on the right), you'll enter the House of the Dead, which is actually a corporate office. Well, I guess if these zombies work late enough hours they can call it a "home". Anyone familiar with past Houses or, for that matter, almost any other light game, will get the grasp of things rather quickly. There's one or two player mode and each player aims a crosshair and fires at everything and anything in sight. But don't expect your standard House this time around, because WOW has shaken things up a bit.
In House of the Dead II, there were lots of innocents getting in the way. If you killed one, which was easy (and fun) to do, you lost a life. But in III, there are no innocents to worry about. Instead, you've only got to sweat saving your partner from some hairy jams. Occasionally your partner will be trapped and under duress from a few zombies. The game pauses a moment, highlights the offending zombies in red, and then lets you at them. Kill them all quickly and you'll keep Agent G from some nasty rashes. And for a reward you'll snag a bonus life. Move too slow, and G will take a hit, but you won't be penalized. But saving innocents didn't just keep you from losing lives in HOTD II, it also changed the path of the game. A saved innocent might give you a key or point you in a different direction. But there are no innocents here, so that type of path divergence isn't possible.
That's a subtle change, something that can be easily overlooked. But that wasn't enough for WOW, who took a huge gamble and stripped HOTD III of a shooter staple. You won't hear anyone shouting "Reload!" as you play HOTD III, because this time you were smart enough to bring an auto-loading shotgun with you. The shotgun has limited bullets, and when all shots are fired it will automatically reload, but this still takes time. So if you are reloading and are still under attack, you could get screwed over. But generally, that's not gonna be the case. And though it seems like this would kill the game, because reloading was a key part of the originals, it's actually a boon.

Resident Evil 5

You'll start out the game as Chris Redfield, who fans will remember as one of the co-stars of the original Resident Evil. But Chris is no lone wolf. Joining him on his mission is Sheva Alomar, an African national and bioweapons expert. Both Chris and Sheva are members of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance, a global outfit tasked with preventing the proliferation of "biological organic weapons."

And to date, the group has done a pretty poor job of it. From the incident at the Arklay Mansion (RE1) to the outbreak in Raccoon City (RE2) and the Las Plagas infestation in Spain (RE4), the B.S.A.A. and its predecessors such as the S.T.A.R.S. team have been one step behind the Umbrella Corporation and its mysterious backers. When we last left the story of Chris Redfield in Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, he and fellow former S.T.A.R.S. member Jill Valentine were battling through Umbrella's Russian base. So why isn't Jill at Chris's side in RE5? It's a good question, and one you'll have to play the game to answer.

This time around, it's Sheva who has Chris's back, and she'll be with you every step of the way, whether you go it alone or recruit a friend to play along. On your first playthrough you're stuck with the beefy Chris, whose bulging biceps and gigantic torso make Street Fighter IV's Ken look like a stick figure. Once you complete the game, you unlock the ability to play single-player as the more compact Sheva, who can handle herself and just about everything else.
There are several scenes in RE5 where the more acrobatic Sheva will need to part ways with Chris to reach hard-to-access areas. It's a cool nod to the co-op nature of the game, but I felt Capcom could have gone farther with the concept. There are no moments when you truly feel separated from your partner, which could have upped the fear factor significantly. Part of the horror of past RE games lay in the cramped isolation of knowing you were all alone in a dark corridor. But here, you're never truly on your own, as Sheva is always at your side.

When Sheva is controlled by the game, she does a pretty fair job of staying out of your line of fire, watching your back for enemies and healing or reviving you when you take damage. But just like any partner, she does have her annoyances. In RE5, as in other games in the series, each character is limited to a set number of inventory slots, and making the best use of that space is one of the keys to doing well in the game. In single-player mode, you have access to both characters' inventories, and you can swap items back and forth between them as you see fit.


But Sheva likely doesn't have quite the same fanatical approach to ammo and health conservation that you do. She's a bit trigger happy, even when her targets aren't perfectly presented, and she tends to heal herself and Chris at the slightest sign of a flesh wound. But beyond that, I found her to be at the same time both refreshingly unobtrusive and surprisingly intelligent, as A.I. partners go. Some players will hand her a few weapons and let her loose on Kijuju, while others will likely restrict her inventory and use her as more of a pack mule.

Jax X: Combat Racing

The plot develops throughout the game's sizeable four-cup singleplayer adventure (with cups that include dozens of challenges of varying difficulty). Between many races players will be treated to wonderfully animated, expressive cutscenes that further advance the story. These are all superb, as has been the case from Jak's early days, and they do a great job of providing incentive. The storyline's slickly presented segments act as rewards for completing missions -- rewards that are better than the usual assortment of perfunctory unlockable content most games offer. But even that Jak has in spades.
In keeping with the series, Jak X features an uncanny amount of bonus content to unlock, as well as new cars, upgradeable components and performance modifications. Many of the extras add to the game, though some only aesthetically. But the addition of so much stuff to find and do and see builds off the already impressive storyline to at least establish Jak as a product worth playing through. Of course, there are still a great deal of modes to enjoy, so getting to the goods is never a chore. Circuit Race, Turbo Dash, Death Race, Time Trial, Deathmatch, Sport Hunt, Capture, Artifact Race, Assassin, Freeze Rally and Rush Hour are all here.
You'll play them all in the singleplayer game. And often the modes will highlight courses you've already enjoyed. Each track is impressive, visually, but a few suffer from being too plainly decorated, which creates an overwhelming sense of obstruction free tunnel racing. The later courses are far more challenging, but a greater amount of interactivity and life could have really benefited Jak's many swooping banks and wide straight-aways. Then again, the tracks are at least designed in such a way to play well across all applicable modes.
Each mode offers a distinct sort of gameplay, and most can be played in a multiplayer environment. Some of the modes are pretty self descriptive, but the vaguer ones might include Sport Hunt, which requires a player collect the most points by destroying targets (as other cars attempt to do the same). Then there's the Artifact Race, which drops a few randomly generated objects racers need to get to first. Freeze Rally requires gamers to hit time stopping power-ups and survive for as long as possible. Rush Hour is like Burnout's Traffic Attack. Death Race fills circuit tracks with hundreds of drones to shoot. And finally there's the Turbo Dash...

Sonic Riders

The SEGA hardcore will be pleased to know that Sonic Team has not skimped on the license. In addition to a story mode, the title boasts a massive selection of old and new mascots, including everyone from Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose, Jet the Hawk, Storm the Albatross, and Wave the Swallow to Dr. Eggman, Shadow the Hedgehog, Rogue the Bat, Cream the Rabbit, Robo 1 and Robo 2. Gamers can also use collected rings to shop for new snowboarding gear for their favorite characters, extending replay value.
Really, though, Riders is all about the fast and unpredictable races and Sonic Team has done a solid job of delivering on speed and anarchy. As in any racer, the main objective is to finish ahead of any competitor, but Riders serves up a few twists, some of them literal. The mascots hop onto hovering boards and blaze through courses, spitting out the occasional trick, grinding the rare rail, and catching air when the opportunity arises. There is a shallow, but enjoyable trick system in place. Gamers need only press in a given direction to execute in-air moves and then land for more points. Players looking for any extra depth in the setup, however, will find themselves very disappointed. Sonic and friends can execute speed bursts to catch opponents and for added air time, which adds welcomed flexibility in matches. The downside is that using too much boost causes the characters to run out of energy and they'll need to stop for a recharge, a tedious, unnecessary process that slows the racing experience.
The game introduces a unique turbulence system, which enables riders to literally surf the wind trails of their competitors. It's a refreshing idea and it's made more enjoyable by the fact that tricks can be executed and linked into combos between different turbulence systems. Some level of skill is additionally required to identify the turbulences, ride and link them. If there's a drawback to this element, it's that the wind trails tend to play the racer for gamers. Once inside a turbulence system, participants could set their controllers down and advance anyway.
Sonic Team has done respectable work of mixing up the levels. Riders will race through everything from a futuristic Metal City and Splash Canyon to Dr. Eggman's Factory, a lush jungle known as Green Cave, and even some Sand Ruins. The variety is commendable. That noted, we think the studio missed an opportunity with the design of the courses, which as a whole lack the twisting corkscrews and loop-de-loops that have rocketed Sonic the Hedgehog to stardom. There are also occasional camera issues to contend with despite the fact that the action is mostly forward moving. We have to also note that we kept wondering why SEGA didn't simply contract Amusement Vision, which made the spectacular F-Zero GX, to design this racer? The F-Zero engine - everything from sense of speed to control and graphics - is well beyond the code serving Riders.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi

Best described as a mix of Virtual On and Budokai 2, Tenkaichi has lost a lot of Budokai 3's flashier special techniques like the Dragon Rush and Hyper Mode, but retained the much more important Teleport counter to avoid your opponent's power strikes. The kick command has been removed from the control scheme too, and your assault types are now modified by the other buttons in conjunction with the generic attack button. Since "Kick" was taken off the control map, it has been replaced with a "Dash" command that plays a much more significant role in the gameplay than in past iterations.

The reason that the Dash is so important this time is because of how one-on-one fights are structured. The traditional side-plane fighting game view with occasional alternate camera angles has been axed in favor of a fixed view that looks similar to Katamari Damacy or Armored Core. The big difference compared to those two, though, is that the camera can't be adjusted by the user and rotates on its own dependant on the action. Because of this factor (in conjunction with the larger size of each free-roaming stage) the dash button becomes a terrific offensive and defensive tool. Offensively, rushing forward not only allows you to get closer to your opponent, but it also lets you perform Dragon Dash special attacks which take off more damage. On the defensive side, the dash command makes escaping from your foe and hiding behind obstacles much easier to do (be careful, though -- just about anything in the environment can be destroyed).
This setup alone changes the feel of head-to-head battles compared to the last games pretty noticeably... especially since players can actually fly and descend on their own without the need to be launched (finally!). That flying technique is particularly useful when competing in tournament mode with "Ring Outs" turned on since one technique you can use to avoid the cheese tactic is to sail up into the air. Despite this new perspective and true ability to fly, however, fans that liked the multitude of attacks found in the last version may be a bit disappointed in this more simplistic setup. Even so, I have to admit that the action plays out a lot more faithfully to the anime under the current schematic.

Another positive aspect to Budokai Tenkaichi is the ramped-up AI. Even when playing on the medium difficulty, the CPU is a brutal and merciless bastard. It can't be bargained with, it can't be reasoned with, it doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear -- and it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you're dead. Despite that, the lower challenge settings are a bit more tolerable (with the easiest level being less of a pushover than your average fighter) and the number of moves that the computer will use to mix it up against you is pretty respectable. Nothing beats playing against another human being, though. Tenkaichi is an impressively fun two-player contest that has plenty of options to choose from.

Ape Escape Million Monkeys

Your goal in each stage is to capture monkeys while taking out whatever targets lie in the way. You have the expected arsenal of weapons at your disposal. Your default arsenal includes a sword, a net, a laser gun and a pair of roller blades, but you can also select other weapons, including a remote control car and rocket launchers. During the heat of battle, you may also find yourself boarding tanks and mechs to wage extra fire power. In addition, each character has individual special attacks that can be performed by pressing two face buttons simultaneously.

The control is classic Ape Escape, for better or worse. The face buttons are used to switch between weapons, with the right analogue stick used to attack. This is actually true only for some weapons, like the sword and net. The laser gun and roller blades are controlled exclusively with the face buttons, making for a somewhat confusing mix. Combine this inconsistency with the total lack of camera control, and combat can be sloppy.

If you don't take the game too seriously, though, Ape Escape packs some laughs. The game has all the humor you've come to expect from the series, with the zany monkey antics made all the more fun due to a real setting. That's right, Kakeru, Natsumi, Hakase and the like fight in real locations throughout Tokyo. If you've been to Tokyo, you'll recognize the hot spots in Akihabara and Shinjuku.

The game can be played in coliseum, versus and story modes. Like the main story mode, versus mode is played from the traditional 3rd person Ape Escape perspective, and offers a split screen battle to the death for up to four players. You can also face off against three computer controlled opponents. Coliseum mode, also for four players, switches the battle to an overhead view, with all players on the same screen.
All modes of play allow you to chose from a large cast of characters. You'll recognize Kakeru, Natsumi, Hakase, Haruka, Specter, Saru Team, Pipo Team, but if these aren't enough, you can also create your own character. The character you create is based around one of the default characters, but can be equipped with costumes and extra weapons that you earn by playing through the story mode.

Million Monkeys is a bit sloppy overall, with rushed presentation and bland visuals making it seems like a throw-away title that was forced out in time for the cartoon. It's no Ape Escape 3, but if you want to catch monkeys, where else can you go?

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus

Since it's my job to analyze and pick apart games, as well as to simply enjoy them, I had to try with all my might to separate my strong, immediate like of Sly Cooper the character from my like of Sly Cooper the game. The point being two-fold, really. Sly Cooper is an enormously charming platform character that I have liked from the first time I saw him. It's important to like a platform character; in fact, it's quite significant. You will spend an enormous amount of time with him or her while playing the game, and if you think he or she is cheesy, stupid, unoriginal or whatever, it will color your feeling for the rest of the game. Sly is cool in many ways: He's stealthy, talented and always up for dangerous missions. There is an unspoken cool about his character that's hard not to like. See? I like Sly a lot. For the most part, I like playing the game too, though it's not without some eye-raising issues. A third-person perspective 3D platformer, Sly Cooper delivers a single-player jump-and-smack experience that skillfully blends old-school timing elements with skill-based techniques in a multiplicity of ways. First, Sly Cooper the character not only looks good when he's moving -- thanks to superb animation and the greatest tail ever -- but he also controls well. Sly is incredibly responsive, and though his size seems a little large at times due to his long arms and legs and the cane he carries, skillfully jumping and hitting enemies with precision is a quick study. Having gone back to play Super Mario 64 over the last few weeks, Sly Cooper in comparison is a much less complicated character to control. His list of basic moves is straightforward, including attacks, jumps, double jumps, walking, running and climbing. Sly learns more basic moves in the first world. There he learns stealth moves when the area is lit with a blue mystical wave; like MGS's Solid Snake, the stealth move is wall sneak. Sly can also use his cane to swing from hanging rings, which shows off Sucker Punch's excellent physics model, and he can climb ladders and poles, using the Circle button. After beating missions Sly learns special moves, usable by toggling through with the L2 button and selecting Triangle. Slow motion, fast motion, dive attack, hat mine, decoy image and more are earned. Sadly, few of these are required to complete the game, which makes one wonder if it's really needed to open them up in the first place. By beating bosses, however, players earn very necessary moves. These include the Ninja Spire Jump, the Rail Walk and Rail Slide, an Invisibility Technique and technically superior ways to use guns, like for instance modifying the team van with a powerful turret. Using these latter moves adds a great deal of depth and enjoyment to the game. What I like most about Sly Cooper's level design is that collecting is part of the bigger picture, but it's not the only reason to be there. The worlds are rife with mini-games (about one to two per world) and the platform areas feature a masterful blend of jumping, fighting and stealth areas. I loved Back Alley Heist since it enables players to use awnings to bounce along fire escapes and sneak past searchlights. On the other hand, there's The Lair of the Beast, a swamp filled with slides, rails, and a massive serpent that comes chasing after you near the end. Fire in the Sky is a beautiful Chinese-designed level filled with pagodas and high mountain passes that are just plain pretty. And the last world, The Cold Heart of Hate, is surely my favorite because its packs in everything. It's riddled with tough stealthy areas, shooting levels, run-and-chase sectors, and lead-and-snipe missions. Plus, it's the hardest level of the five. For the record, there are five bosses, one for each world, and they start off easy. There's Raleigh the frog, Muggshot the burly, mustachioed gambler-gangster, Mz. Ruby the alligator-voodoo queen, The Panda King, a demolition/fireworks artist gone bad, and Clockwerk, the brilliant, giant robotic hawk that lives on a health diet of hate and jealousy. Mz. Ruby provides an excellent ToeJam and Earl/Parappa the Rapper fight that's most enjoyable. She and the Panda King present moderately hard fights, but the last boss is definitely going to require some time, since it's a three-part fight. Just a note: For those who like collecting, it's there for you. While the world is lush looking, more importantly, it's bustling with animated enemies and treasure troves of breakable objects. As you go about beating the level, swinging at seemingly unimportant objects more often than not provides players with coins. Collect 100 coins and earn another life. Bottles can be collected to open up safes, each one providing special moves and/or vital Cooper history. And horseshoes give you an extra life.Comprising five large worlds, each containing seven levels, Sly Cooper appears to be a large, long game. But it's a little deceptive. While many of the gameplay techniques are derived from Mario-style gameplay, the game design in part follows a more Crash Bandicoot style. Meaning that unlike Super Mario 64, which practically required players to attain every last star to see the ending, Sly Cooper is designed more like Crash Bandicoot, so players can beat the game, see the ending, and can then, if they like, return to the game to collect the rest. I beat the game in less than 12 hours this way, missing about four bottles, and I played through numerous levels two or three times in that period. For the record, once beaten, the game offers very tough Time Challenges, which potentially add numerous hours. But in my mind Sly Cooper is a short game. Compared to any Mario game, it's short; compared to Jak and Daxter, which took about 13-20 hours to beat, it's short; and in contrast with say, Donkey Kong Country or Banjo-Kazooie, it's short. Did I like the game? Oh yes. Did I want to play lots more? Oh yes. Is there any issue? It all depends on how long you take to play a game, but for me, Sly Cooper could have easily used at least one or more worlds as tough as the final one. I guess the other thing that adds to this feeling of shortness, is its relative easiness. For the first three worlds I wasn't heavily challenged at all. The last two were harder, but not hard. The last two are somewhat challenging, but still only the last world required major restarting.Sly Cooper is also rife with slowdown problems. The larger levels aren't as large as those in Jak and Daxter and in some cases less is going on, but there is significant lulling in various areas of the game. Strangely, few of the slowdown areas occur when multiple enemies are on screen. They happen in large, hub areas and they happen quite frequently. Truth be told, it's more of an eyesore than a gameplay problem. Rarely did the slowdown hamper the gameplay directly, but with such a pretty, well-animated and luscious looking game, it's a real shame to see such blatant slowdown so often. Added to that, some minor problems include occasionally fishy camera angles and buggy sections. For instance, the camera gets stuck inside a building that Sly has left, leaving him open for attack by an enemy. And sometimes it just gets stuck inside an area. In the last level of the last world where Sly is racing against time to beat the lava from killing him, the camera got stuck inside the final construct, and it took me about a minute to figure out how to unstick it. With regard to buggy sections, in Vicious Voodoo, Sly fell onto a log on the outskirts of watery bog. He could not jump or double jump to get back to land, and every time he hit the water, he has automatically brought back to the log. Essentially he was stuck and so I had to restart the level. Are these huge problems? Nah, but there are noticeable enough to mention.

ATV offroad fury 4

The ATVs are a fair bit more manageable in turns than the MX bikes, though due to their weight and size, you don't have as much airborne control over them. So while the ATVs are easier to handle and respond a bit more consistently, the MX bikes will allow to you really bite into the course and do some damage.

The buggies and trucks are quite similar in handling and feel, though the buggies are looser around corners. This gives them something of a rally racing feel, and they're much more fun to drive in the end. Being that you're always given the option of choosing between the two, there really isn't a reason to pick the trucks as the buggies are much more satisfying to drive.

The buggies are tied to an issue that's present both here and in the PSP game. After each race, you'll earn credits based not only on placement but a bonus on your trick total as well. Being as you can't perform tricks per se in a buggy or truck, you rack up trick points by catching air or sliding through turns. Since you'll automatically do these things a lot, you rack up bonus credits left and right. And unlike performing tricks on an ATV or bike, there really isn't any risk of crashing here. You can easily rack up many multiple times as many points in a buggy as you can on a bike. We ran about half-a-dozen races and were able to completely max out more than one of our vehicles.
However, maxing out your ride doesn't mean you'll kill the competition. There's a whole lot of AI assistance going on here, so no matter how fast you go you'll always be tailed by the opposition. It doesn't exactly make it seem fair, though it does keep the races interesting, and in that way it works. We just wish there was a tangible benefit to spending a bunch of cash on upgrades.

Beyond the assistance, the computer AI is pretty decent (and even vengeful), but it isn't perfect. At times, probably due to the assist features, it'll sometimes seem to take jumps better than it should be able to or accelerate quicker out of a turn than you can, even if you can burn it at other points. We've also seen a race or two where the lead opponent quickly burned ahead to a good 30 second lead as we raced perfectly fine, and yet in the other races in the championship everything was quite close. Curious indeed.
One of the new additions to ATV Offroad Fury 4 is Story Mode. You play the part of, you guessed it, an up-and-coming rider who came close to winning it all once, and is trying to do it again. The story isn't anything that'll win an Oscar, but it sort of works. Unfortunately, it really only acts as cutscenes between the game's numerous races, but at least it makes things a bit more interesting and puts characters behind some of the names.
One questionable item with this story mode is that for each race in a championship, you need to finish in third place or better to move on. The computer, of course, will finish fifth through eighth and come back again and again, but you have to finish on the podium in order to move to the next race. This doesn't really make a whole lot of sense as that means it's impossible for you to place any lower than third for an overall championship series. Of course, this may be necessary for the story, but it's kind of stupid that you need to retry a race for finishing fourth or something along those lines. It almost makes the point totals pointless.

While the story mode could be fleshed out a little better and the AI has a couple questionable elements, the game is pure fun to play. As mentioned, most all of the vehicles feel great, and the track design plays perfectly to the control physics. Plenty of turns and jumps await that'll test your ability to properly pre-load a launch and skit around a corner.

There's a whole lot of variety to the tracks here, enough that they're easy to recognize after a single race. Many of them are challenging to start as you need to learn their layout so that you don't over-commit to certain jumps, but they're unique enough that you'll pick this up quickly and play to each track's design. Good stuff here.

There are now multiple paths to some of the courses, some intended for ATVs and bikes and others for the larger vehicles. This gives you options as to how much gain or loss you want to risk here, adding another dimension to the competition.

SWAT global strike team

You play Mathias Kincaid the leader of a team of SWAT operatives with special global jurisdiction. Unrealistic? Sure, we're videogamers and we're not supposed to challenge the political validity of things like global elite police organizations. Anyway, as a police unit arresting enemies and protecting the public are central to your gameplay experience with a compliance system compels you to try to get a suspect --like a terrorist or bank robber-- to give up without getting shot so you can then handcuff them and move on. Hitting the compliance button or shouting "SWAT: Drop your weapon" into your headset will start a compliance meter going under your targeting reticule as long as you have the suspect targeted. You will see enemies drop their weapons, at which point you can either have one of your teammates cuff the baddies or you can move close enough and hit your action button to do it yourself. This in and of itself is pretty engaging and adds another layer of strategy to the standard "kill everything that moves" motivation that drives every other FPS. The downside is that this feature, like many of the others in the game, goes underutilized throughout the game.
Commanding your teammates is done using the D-pad where commands will pop up contextually when you're targeting an object that you can interact with. Looking at a door will bring up commands like breech, enter etc. You can select what you want your teammates to do by pressing the appropriate direction on the D-pad or simply say the command you want to issue if you have a headset. Teammates can 'cuff and stuff suspects once they've surrendered, disarm bombs and crack codes in computerized security locks with the press of a button. However, the game doesn't stay hectic enough, consistently enough where you'll have to master all of your command skills in the heat of battle. Too often a sequence will unfold where the gunfight will happen first and then whatever objectives in that particular area will be handled first. But your AI teammates are on their own and deadly accurate when it comes to engaging enemies, so firefights tend to be over quickly.

Also you don't have to do much thinking when it comes to deploying your mates. For example, your demolition expert is the only one who can hack and disarm stuff so all you have to do is find the bomb or computer interface, hit the button and you're done. The only challenge here may be protecting him while he does his work. They always stick close to your side so there's not much threat of them getting smoked around the corner ahead or anything like that. Your teammates can be hurt but there's nothing stopping you from always being at the front of a firefight to protect them or anything. Your ability to manage them just doesn't affect the gameplay as much as it should.

You get bonuses and even medals for following the proper rules of engagement which means not killing innocents and not automatically blasting bad guys who aren't threatening you. That is, just because a terrorist is ready to blast doesn't mean you can shoot him without first giving him a chance to surrender. Shooting armed suspects in the back is also a good way to get bad pub for your global SWAT team. Some enemies have no intentions of ever surrendering so when you target them you'll see there's no compliance meter under your reticule.

Dogs life

The world of a dog is pretty simple and the only things that the main dog, Jake, cares about are: bones, food, and his favorite girl dog, Daisy. Everything was copasetic in Jake's world until Daisy gets dognapped and Jake is off on an adventure to get her back. This takes him through farms, towns, and ski slopes as he follows the clues and gets plenty of bones along the way.

In every area of the game there are a few different quests to complete, each providing a bone as a reward. If dog's love anything in the world, it's a good bone and Jake is willing to do anything to get one. To find most of these bones, it's necessary to enter into Smellovision where the camera goes into first-person perspective and odors in the world are represented by colorful clouds. All of the humans leave a scent trail and buried bones are shown by a glowing orange cloud. The real challenge, though, is in collecting a set number of one color scent to initiate a challenge.

One of the colors in each area will reward a bone to the nearest doggy bowl immediately, but the other colors will start a challenge with a local dog. These can be simple racing challenges or, our favorite, a pissing contest where each dog tries to claim the largest amount of area by peeing everywhere. Other contests include tug-of-war, a digging contest, and a Simon Says challenge, but it was definitely the peeing that caught our hearts and minds, so to speak.

Once a challenge is completed, Jake can then take control of the defeated dog for a limited time and explore the environment in a different way. This can be done just for the fun of it or even to help recover a bone that Jake couldn't get on his own. For example, in one of the early levels Jake couldn't fit through a tiny doggy door that another one could. By swapping dogs, the little dog could get the bone and bring it back. While we loved collecting all the bones this way, it was just fun to run around with a different pooch and see the world a little differently. Either way, it's a fun way to play with different dogs.

All in all, the basic gameplay of controlling the different dogs and completing different quests is simple and well-executed. There can be some difficulty in tracking down all of the different scents in order to get the bones sometimes, but this is just a matter of persistence and roaming around as much as possible to discover everything. While this can be a bit of a hunt, we rarely felt that the developers put anything in impossible to find spots and that the design did make sense.

The only downsides to Dog's Life are the graphics and the sound. The visuals look like the game was ripped from a PSone title and the audio is all over the place. Countrified electric guitar gives way to thumping techno and the voices are some completely accidental comedy in their own right. It's a bit of a rough treatment overall, but with the goofy gameplay intact, kids shouldn't have too much of a problem with it.

The only big complaint that we have about the game is that the presentation is pretty horrible. The pause menu shows the current status in the pages of the book and shrinks down the information into complete and total squinting territory. Flip the page to the set of moves for the dog and it gets even worse. A couple of the moves were a process of trial and error. It was a hassle, but since we only rarely had to deal with it this problem is pretty bearable.

Closing Comments

Make no bones about it, Dog's Life is for kids and shouldn't be considered by any hardcore gamers. This is a title that you could recommend to a younger sibling or any other adolescent who hasn't already acquired a bloodlust for some of the gorier games. This game keeps it clean and keeps it fun and is something that we can recommend for kids and not feel all weird about it. So go out and be a dog.