The infamous StarCraft. A Sci-Fi themed Real Time Strategy game, from the one and only Blizzard. Three races, dozens of units, infinite maps, one goal: conquer. StarCraft puts you in command of a force of one of three different races: the human Terrans, a balanced force with the ability to bounce back; the Protoss, an incredibly advanced race with sheer power on its side; or the Zerg, a horde of mutating creatures with strength in numbers.

Like many Blizzard games, the story has a nice duality; it's incredibly deep in writing, but in gameplay, is simplistic and doesn't get in the way. The ancient Xel'Naga race created both the Zerg and Protoss, and the game begins when the domineering Zerg make their way to Terran space, and the Protoss try to stop them. Through misunderstandings, convoluted power struggles, failed plans and unforeseen twists, the story develops intriguingly in the campaign mode. The original game has 30 campaign missions, and Brood War adds 26 more.

While all three StarCraft races rely on the basic principle of attacking the enemy and defending your own base, the differences in gameplay between them are astounding. Each race differs in such fundamental areas as how workers build things, where structures must be placed, and unit creation, and each race has several unique abilities all its own (most Zerg units, for instance, can burrow underground, and Terran buildings can lift off and fly around). Every single unit is balanced excellently, between power, speed, defense, and price. Some units have special techniques, like cloaking or casting a psionic storm, which can really make battle very interesting. StarCraft has dozens of unique buildings and units, and Brood War brings in a few more for each race.

StarCraft's graphics are very clean and polished. Units and environments look good, as do effects. Sound effects are very fitting, and very well done; the music is barely noticeable most of the time, but is also a good production.

Though the single player campaign and multiplayer settings are well thought out, there are two things that really keep the game alive today: Battle.net, and StarEdit. StarCraft can be played online via Battle.net for free, with up to eight players (human or computer controlled) in a single game. And StarEdit, Blizzard's accompanying map editing utility, can be used not only to create new terrains on which to battle, but also for unique Use Map Settings maps, which can take the trigger systematics of the campaign missions to all new levels (with UMS, it's possible to transform a map into an RPG, a puzzle game, or almost anything else you can imagine).

The replay is endless. The game is well thought out and fun. Between massive armies clashing on an alien landscape, and twisting the game's mechanics in UMS games, StarCraft and its expansion Brood War are classic games that keep on kicking.

Progress: Gave Up -- Haven't finished single-player campaign

The Lunar Silver Star story has been told and retold a number of times. Lunar Legend carries it to handheld territory, and as should be expected, changes the game's play and story in the process. Unfortunately, most of the changes aren't for the better.

As one of the relatively long-standing RPGs today, Lunar has relied on its humorous storytelling and basic, enjoyable gameplay to prosper. Lunar Legend denigrates both of these, with little to show in recompense. Some changes are understandable in the conversion to a portable platform, but others are really a mystery.

Lunar Legend's story is at once interesting and not. In the small town of Burg, Alex, the main character, has always wished to go on adventures like his hero, the legendary Dragonmaster Dyne. When a magic apprentice from a far-off city comes to Burg looking for the White Dragon, just such an adventure begins for Alex and his friends, and through some hardships and kidnappings, they travel the world in the quest to save it (and for Alex to become a Dragonmaster). The plot has some twists in it, and the storytelling sometimes presents these well; but most of the time it lazily proclaims, in so many words, "just go to the next area."

As a two-dimensional, random-encounter, turn-based RPG, Lunar Legend holds few surprises. Your party can hold up to five characters at peak times (these characters are selected based on story progression - there's no party member switching available), and each character has pre-set abilities he or she learns at certain levels. There's a healer, an offensive magic user, a physical attacker, and so on. Each character has a bar below their stats, which gradually fills up as that character attacks; when it's full, he can execute a special ability for no MP, at which point the bar re-drains. There are a few special actions available in battle, namely, Auto (the AI automatically chooses a physical attack for all your characters, with a random enemy target) and Tactic (similar to auto with random targets, but the actions can be pre-planned on another screen outside battle).

It's nice and basic. Unfortunately, there are some gameplay facets and features which make the game excruciatingly easy to play in all but the rarest circumstances. A magic dragon-cat-thing, Nall, follows Alex on his adventure; if someone in your party dies in battle, Nall has a random chance of reviving them at no cost. Saving the game saves your precise location, and loading it will bring you back to exactly where you were before; which wouldn't be so bad, if not used in tandem with the fact that loading a game completely restores the HP and MP of every party member. Enemies themselves are almost always a cinch (both weak and stupid), to the point where a large portion of the game can be passed with ease by simply letting Auto, as dumb as it is, do the job. Later in the game, this strategy may also involve healing occasionally. And Lunar Legend's idea of a dungeon puzzle (of which there are roughly two in the entire game) is walking over/through a few switches/doors in the proper sequence.

The graphics are nice and clean for a handheld, and some effects look pretty good. Single-frame cutscenes for specific story moments look alright, but are always presented in the same cheesy fade-to-white manner. Sound effects are mediocre. The game's music is best when muted - the quality is horrendous, equitable to perhaps a Game Boy Color game.

In addition to a basic game of around 15-20 hours' length, there are a few side quests, and some special items to go along with them. There are also unlockable pictures in the gallery - most come free with playing the game, a few are special and must be found. But playing the game is so tedious in itself that there's little motive to keep going with what replay there is. And an unlockable Sound Test is more of a punishment than a reward.

With gameplay easier than easy, an awful soundtrack, and some mistranslations to boot, Lunar Legend is a far cry from legendary. If you want a passable GBA RPG to whittle away your time, Lunar Legend might be worth a look - but otherwise, and especially if you want to get a glimpse of Lunar itself, stay far, far away. There are other, more successful iterations than this.

Progress: Complete

"In a world of deception, believe in nothing... except yourself." So says Beyond Good & Evil's case, promising a game full of drama and conspiratorial twists. This tagline should be taken with a rather large grain of salt, though, as the game's plot - about which the rest of its success relies - is more hype than depth.

BG&E is a perfect example of a game idea developed too soon. As plot writing typically goes, the premise is rich (if not delved into much), and all but the final portion of the game is missing vital gameplay motivation. But, proving that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the title has also garnered considerable sleeper-hit praise.

You play as Jade, a young freelance reporter on the planet Hillys. Jade and Pey'j, a humanoid pig (more human than pig), live in a lighthouse and protect a number of orphaned children, their parents taken by invading aliens. The invaders - the DomZ - abduct Hillyans on a regular basis, despite being countered by the Alpha Section, a foreign military force dedicated (by its own accord) to fight the DomZ off. But as more people are being abducted, some begin to question the effectiveness, or even motives, of the Alphas. Through a roundabout turn of events, Jade is hired to investigate and expose the conspiracy in a series of journalistic missions into the deepest parts of the Alphas' high-security facilities. There are some twists along the way, and the ending redefines "surprise," but by and large the plot development (especially character development) is slow and scant.

Beyond Good & Evil is a 3D adventurer along the (unfortunate) lines of Star Fox Adventures. The gameplay can be boiled down into five basic aspects: moving/wandering around, combat, items, sidekicks, and photography. You must run through factories, cities, and other foot traffic areas reached by your trusty hovercraft, and later, a spaceship. The game's four dungeon areas are navigated primarily by way of item puzzles, sneaking around enemies (with stealthy wall-hugging and crouching), and simply finding your way through the area. There are occasional fights, and many stealth rooms have the additional option of battle; but in most cases, fighting is a surefire way to get yourself killed. The combat itself is rather dull, with a sum total of four combat moves in the whole game: twirling Jade's staff, a more powerful staff move (which can be upgraded to shoot small homing blasts), stationary first-person shooting via a 'Gyrodisc' launcher, and telling your sidekick to attack. Altogether, fighting is usually very unexciting.

Items are barely worth mentioning. You'll collect and buy them in a variety of locations: some are keys of sorts (items found in a dungeon which must be used elsewhere to progress), some are capacity upgrades (more health), most are replenishment for lost HP. You can also give items to your sidekick, though they're almost always more useful to you than to him. There are two different sidekicks, and you get the second shortly after losing the first; sidekicks can be used as an advancing device vis a vis their special abilities, destroying barriers, helping defeat enemies, or simply holding a switch while you move forward. Photography, whether in taking pictures of critical mission data in dungeons or simply shooting different animals for money from an environmental study, is one of the simpler and more entertaining parts of the game: with the help of the game's map and radar, finding picture targets becomes a quest of exploration and observation.

While the game is well-rendered and sometimes even picturesque - faces in particular are commendably done - most of the environments are drab, boring, uninspiring, even demotivating. The soundtrack is barely even present, with a good track or two, and another handful of mediocre tunes. Sound effects aren't bad, at least, and most of the voice acting is actually pretty good.

At its longest (including collecting everything in the game), BG&E easily clocks in at under 15 hours. What is there to offer in replay value? Well, collecting a few dozen optional items, taking pictures of all the planet's animals, and completing a few extra scattered puzzles and challenges. In an interesting twist on replay, every save file comes with a custom-generated Internet code which can be entered on an Ubi Soft website for an extra challenge and the in-game reward of a new minigame.

Though in some ways a noble effort in innovation, and despite an exciting end sequence, Beyond Good & Evil simply wasn't conceptually developed enough to be a solid title. If the story was fleshed out more, if there was more to it, and if parts of the game went a bit faster, BG&E would be fantastic; but at least in this reviewer's opinion, it falls significantly short of a masterpiece.

Progress: Finished, all photos

It can't be said that Sonic Team isn't creative. Though they do stick to their franchises, new ideas are paramount for them. Both Sonic Adventure titles demonstrated this spirit of innovation excellently, and Sonic Heroes follows suit.

The developers of Sonic Heroes were very ambitious - perhaps too ambitious. SH contains a lot of new material, but somehow, much of it doesn't come off quite right. It took a few steps forward, but a few steps back as well, providing a mixed bag of results.

The basic concept behind most of Sonic's recent titles has been that of different characters following separate but intertwining stories around the same storyline. Team Sonic - Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles - receives a note from Dr. Eggman, telling them he's on track to take over the world. Team Dark - Shadow, Rouge, and E-123 Omega (a new character) - stumble across one another in a chance meeting; Shadow seeks answers about his past from the doctor, Rouge is after treasure, and Omega wants revenge against Eggman for deactivating him. Team Rose - Amy, Cream, and Big - are looking for Sonic, Chocola (Cheese the chao's brother), and Froggy, respectively. And team Chaotix - Espio, Charmy, and Vector, a freelance detective agency - are hired by a mysterious client to track down and dispatch Eggman. These four paths intersect in a number of places, and through a few twists, eventually come to a mutual conclusion. It's somewhat disappointing, though, that Team Sonic's story is by far the least interesting, while the other three at least offer some insight into the plot of the game.

SH's basic gimmick is that each team of three characters plays as one. Every character type has a signature use: the speed character in each team can move the fastest; the flying character can lift the team into the air; and the power character can break obstacles and dish out damage like nobody's business. In addition to each type also having other useful abilities (speed characters can perform homing jumps, power characters can float in midair, et cetera), there are also a number of unique character traits (Espio, for instance, can become invisible and/or throw shurikens). While one character leads, the other two follow along, and the leader can be switched on the fly with the press of a button to adapt to new circumstances. It's impossible to go through any of Sonic Heroes's 14 stages with a single character type, so switching to the right character at the right time is a necessary skill to learn (though sometimes, the game helps out with signs indicating which type is best for the upcoming area). Unfortunately, whereas control over choosing the lead character is relatively easy, controlling them afterward is a different matter - cornering is tough no matter what character's leading, turning around is next to impossible, and steep edges seek to foil your team at every chance.

Each team's story has its own difficulty curve - Sonic is of moderate difficulty, Dark is the hardest, Rose is the game at its easiest, and Chaotix has unique goals that make it a challenge all its own. Basic level navigation is supplemented not only by the three-character dynamic, but also by level-ups, bonus stages, and bosses. Power cores (blue for speed, yellow for flying, red for power) are earned from defeating certain enemies, finding an out-of-the-way capsule, or crossing a checkpoint, and increase their corresponding character's level. Higher-leveled characters are faster, stronger, and more powerful, sometimes even learning new moves, up to a maximum level of three (levels reset to 0 in new stages and after losing a life). Bonus stages are entered by keeping a magic key (found in the level) until the end, and entail racing along a tube (which unfortunately emphasizes the game's already awkward controls) and collecting spheres to either reach the end in time, or catch up to a chaos emerald. To reach the game's fifth, final story separation, you must collect the seven emeralds in addition to completing all four stories. There are eight boss stages as well; however, two of them are battles against other teams, two are all-out melees against swarms of robots, and two of the remaining four are basically the same easily-destroyed boss.

The gameplay graphics of Sonic Heroes aren't incredibly sophisticated, but have a lot of bells and whistles in detailed environments. CG cutscenes scattered throughout the game are wonderfully animated. The soundtrack is good, with a lot of addictive arcadey tunes and some good dramatic tracks. A lot of the old cartoony sound effects have returned again, and are complemented by voice acting (some awful, some really good).

The basic game could easily take upwards of ten hours to play through, and there are two missions for each stage on each team. All in all, there are 120 emblems to collect, and certain emblem milestones unlock multiplayer modes (there are seven of them altogether, including races, battles, and ring collecting competitions). However, as regards replay value, there's something missing that kept the previous Sonic Adventures afloat long after the story was over: chao raising is completely absent from SH.

Conceptually, Sonic Heroes is very impressive, and it was a highly ambitious project, but along the way a few things went wrong. The controls are awkward, some level design points are hard to work around, and the camera is more irritating than before. There's a lot of good in Sonic Heroes, but it's lying behind a mask of poor refinement and polish that could easily ruin the experience. If you can get used to it, though, Sonic Heroes is about as good as 3D Sonic gets (less chao replay and bosses).

Progress: Complete

The Prince of Persia began solving puzzles and cutting down enemies 15 years ago. However, with only a handful of titles to his name (the last one received bitterly), the Prince was getting old, and by all appearances was a victim of the ceaseless march of time. But maybe time isn't as straightforward as it looks.

With the idea of making a new game for Prince, and changing him from mere royalty to an Arabian ninja, there came into being Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Development of SoT was built around the concept of making a good game independent of the Prince license, and this is evident in the power of the title as more than just a sequel.

Take a seat, and the Prince shall tell you his tale. It begins with an invasion by him and his father of the Maharajah's palace. In their pillaging and plundering, they find the mystical Hourglass of Time, and the Dagger of Time, which the Prince takes for his own. The Maharajah's Vizier (who betrayed him to let the invaders into the palace) suggests that the Prince plunge the dagger into the hourglass, and after doing so, the palace is swept by the Sands of Time, turning everyone into sandy monsters - save the Prince because of the Dagger, the Vizier because of his staff, and Farah, the Maharajah's daughter, because of her magic pendant. Faced with the guilt of destroying everyone, even his own father, with the Sands of Time, the Prince must (with Farah's help) forge his way through the palace to find the Hourglass and somehow right his horrible wrong. While the plot is simple, there are more than a few twists along the way to keep it interesting, and one of the best endings in all of gaming. The entire game is voice-over narrated by the Prince, which not only explains the game better, but makes the story that much more engrossing.

Part puzzle, part adventure, and part melee action, SoT has a feast of mind- and thumb-testing gameplay. The Prince's ultimate goal is to navigate the palace (with most routes blocked off by the destruction from the invasion or the Sands) and find the Hourglass of Time - but don't worry about getting lost, since there's only one way to go. While the adventure is linear, there's still plenty of room for trial and error; when you enter any given room (of which there are dozens, in a few different sections of the palace, each with a distinct theme), you're challenged to jump, swing and climb your way though the room's obstacles to the next, to defeat the enemies within, or to do both. It's all about level design, and the design is genius, each room a puzzle ready to solve.

Of course, the rooms would just be pretty decoration without the Prince leaping and bounding through them. His acrobatic abilities are second to none (he can even run across sheer walls), and with the power of time control granted to him by the Dagger of Time, he can rewind his mistakes and work all kinds of chronological magic on the evil mindless sand beasts. Don't think he's invincible, though - the Dagger is powered by sand, which is (usually) gathered by felling sand monsters and collecting the sand from within them (also the only way to permanently kill them). Generally speaking, the game isn't terribly difficult, but still challenging enough in puzzle and in battle to keep a player plenty interested.

Sands of Time is graphically impressive and aurally amazing. Environments and characters, while not the most refined, are richly detailed and immersive. The effects of time control and other gameplay wizardry are almost as fun to watch as they are to do. Sound effects are crisp and clear, and the music is a unique blend of medieval Persian ambient tunes and more modern rock to characterize the excitement of the game's fighting portions. The soundtrack fits and enhances the game perfectly.

An unfortunate side-effect of SoT's linear story and play is that there's not a whole lot of replay value, with the exception of collecting all the status-enhancing items (such as extra sand tanks to power the Dagger and magic fountains for a longer health bar) and unlocking the original Prince of Persia game. Aside, of course, from replaying the game just to enjoy it again, and potentially notice some story foibles that you may have missed the first time around.

Beyond a lack of replay, there are just a few other problems with PoP:SoT - occasional awkward camera angles, though they can be avoided in most situations, and some glitches which, while rare, can foil the Prince's quest for good. However, these problems are only small flies in the beautiful ointment that is Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. With huge puzzle rooms that hearken back to the simpler days of games, swordfighting against legions of mindless enemies, versatile and impressive time control, and wall-running that puts the Matrix to shame, it looks like the Prince is back to stay.

Progress: Complete

In the golden days of the NES and Super NES, Square and Nintendo were inseparable - producing such memorable titles as Final Fantasy 1-6, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Super Mario RPG, and countless others. Unfortunately, it seemed those days would not last; upon the emergence of the Playstation, Square joined Sony's team, and for years there was a wide gulf between the former allies.

But to everyone's astonishment, in 2003 Square and Nintendo announced they'd be coming back together with projects for the GBA and Gamecube. Thus, with a little help from funds Hiroshi Yamauchi had been squirreling away, the Game Designers Studio was born. Their plans: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Sword of Mana, and Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, a revolution in Nintendo's connectivity campaign.

Since time before memory, the world has been covered by a poisonous fog known as miasma, in which monsters thrive and people perish. Towns have grown around magical crystals which keep the miasma at bay - but these crystals don't last forever, and must be recharged yearly with three drops of myrrh, a holy liquid that grows on trees. The trouble is that myrrh trees are guarded by exceptionally powerful monsters, and so the Crystal Caravans must annually fight these monsters and their minions to provide their towns with the myrrh they need. All four races - the earth-tilling Clavats, the shrewd Selkies, the warrior Lilties, and the mystic Yukes - have settled into this near-constant struggle for survival.

Though this premise seems at first simple, beyond it lies a deeper story. Throughout the game are pseudo-random cutscenes and interesting dialogue sessions revealing the history of the land and many of its mysteries. You'll learn about the former dynasty of the Lilties, the arcane power of the Yukes, wandering characters (like a priest and a Black Knight) with their own tales to tell, and long-forgotten secrets of the world. Though Crystal Chronicles begins with a bland plot about simply saving your village, it later develops into a well-crafted epic of strife and heroism, more like the ones the Final Fantasy name is known for.

A crystal caravan has two powers at its disposal: a crystal chalice (which holds myrrh and keeps miasma away within a small radius), and the caravanners themselves. The game begins with naming your town and creating your caravanner(s) by choosing a name, a race (Clavat, Selkie, Lilty, or Yuke as mentioned above), a gender, an appearance (four different appearances for each race/gender combination), and a family occupation (your folks send you letters and can help you if you keep them happy). A single town (how the game's save file is represented) can hold up to eight individual characters, one for each family trade. You can also import characters from another memory card (ala visiting another town in Animal Crossing), but their families become useless until the character 'returns' to its original save file.

The caravan's quest is to gather three drops of myrrh from the various stages in the world of Crystal Chronicles. Some stages are long, some are short, some filled with puzzles, some flat-out enemy killfests, and each is concluded by a powerful boss creature guarding the stage's myrrh tree. The game has a total of 15 stages, and each one has three 'cycles.' The first time a stage is played, it's in cycle 1; two years later, the stage's myrrh tree is again harvestable, and cycle 2 (with more and more powerful monsters, more difficult bosses, even new paths) comes into play; another two years after cycle 2 is done comes cycle 3 with the same pattern. In some cases, the cycle changes can be rather drastic. Any way you cut it, after getting a third drop of myrrh, everyone goes back to town for a party, and another year of the caravan comes to an end.

The meat of the game bears resemblance to a Gauntlet title, wherein characters fight enemies with physical attacks and magic in real-time. However, rather than character growth by experience points and levels, CC's characters become more powerful with artifacts and equipment. Throughout a stage, both within treasure chests and from vanquished enemies, are numerous items - food (for replenishing health), magicite (for casting spells - permanent for the duration of the stage, but gone afterward), raw materials and plans (for creating equipment), treasures, gil, and a few other miscellany. At the end of a stage, a number of treasures (depending on how well you did in the stage) become up for grabs as artifacts, and you're free to pick one to stay with you for the rest of the game. These artifacts can be stat bonuses like +2 strength, more health, more command slots, and a number of other helpful things. In towns, smithies can take your materials, plans, and gil to create equipment in the form of a weapon, suit of armor, piece of secondary armor, or accessory. So while there are no levels or experience points, it is in equipment and artifacts that FF:CC characters become more potent.

FF:CC has two modes of play: single player, and multiplayer. Multiplayer is played using GBAs connected to the Gamecube as controllers, and each player (one to four - you can, if you want to, play multiplayer on your own with some difficulty) uses the GBA screen as a radar. Each player has a different type of radar: one shows the stage's map, one shows the relative location of nearby enemies, one the location of treasure chests, and the last displays enemy health and other stats. The GBA screens are also used for all a player's necessary menus, from selecting actions to purchasing items in a shop, so as not to interfere with other players. One player must carry the chalice around, although it can be set down if necessary. Though each player can fight independently, their power can be combined by coordinating their actions - for instance, if one player casts Fire on a location as another player focus attacks the same location, the second player can perform an elemental Firestrike attack. Multiple magic spells can also be combined to create more powerful wizardry. Through different radar, the chalice, and action combinations, teamwork is key in multiplayer.

Single player is simpler. It is played with a Gamecube controller, and optionally, a GBA can be plugged into the second controller slot for a map radar. A friendly moogle follows the player around and carries the chalice for him (though running long distances can tire the little bugger out and make him more sluggish until he rests up). Spells can be fused within the player's command list menu quickly and easily (although some of the more powerful spells can't be attained in single player), and at the end of the stage, there's no contest for first dibs on spoils. While playing the game alone lacks the excitement of the game's teamwork aspect, it'll work in a pinch if you just mean to play the game; and characters in any given town can be created or played in either mode on the fly, so if your friends aren't around and you want to continue your own character (or if you've already started and new people want to join up), there's nothing stopping you.

Graphically, Crystal Chronicles is a marvel to see. Everything looks great and moves fluidly, from the chalice's beautiful radius of healing to the smooth and detailed character models. Sound effects (GBA aside) work well with the game, and while the soundtrack is at first uniformly unimpressive, there are several greatly-composed tracks lying in wait.

Asking if FF:CC has replay value is somewhat of a joke; the game is filled to the brim with it. Full character building is an ambitious quest, as though you can only keep a single copy of any given artifact, there are dozens of them to collect, in addition to powerful equipment requiring plans and raw materials that can be difficult to obtain. While there are only (hah!) three cycles for each stage, the trees still regenerate every two years ad infinitum, and so with no practical limit to the game's years, the game can really go on as long as one's heart desires.

It would be wrong to say that Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles is perfect. There are a few flaws in the game, including the inconvenience of burdening a player with the chalice, character (and plot) development that may seem a bit slow, and a high price for multiplayer's necessity of a Game Boy Advance and GBA-GC link cable for each player. And of course, sometimes particular stages or enemies can drone on and sour the experience somewhat, as seems to be typical in action RPGs. However, past these issues lie a surprisingly interesting and engaging plot, and gameplay that's usually just plain fun. Even a solo player can fall in love with the game and its single-player accommodations. All in all though, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles is worth it.

Progress: Beat final boss in single-player

Enjoyable at times, but overwhelmingly mediocre. The driving and rail-shooting levels had the capacity to be very exciting, but they were overshadowed by the more-prevalent standard Bond missions, which themselves were populated by objectives ranging from confusing to dull. Getting lost in a level is never a fun thing to do.

If you liked Agent Under Fire, Nightfire is up the same alley, but otherwise it's worth little more than a casual play, if that.

Progress: Gave Up -- 6/12 missions complete

Originally conceived by Rare as a new franchise called Dinosaur Planet, and originally planned for the Nintendo 64, the premise of this game was given a facelift and a few years of delays when Nintendo and Rare agreed it would be a good idea to make a new StarFox game. The previously-faceless lupine hero of Dinosaur Planet became Fox McCloud, and with a pinch of Arwing and a dash of Slippy, StarFox Adventures was born.

However, as time went on, Rare began to develop more unrest than games. Gamers were expecting a sequel to Perfect Dark, among other great things, and Rare wasn't delivering - showing little product and violently shoving release dates further away. Internal politics were becoming dubious; many wondered if the company would be sold, or had already been sold. Mere days before the release of SFA, word became public and official that Microsoft had purchased Rare. So with all this tumult and turmoil, it's really no wonder StarFox Adventures turned out as lackluster as it did.

It all begins in a decidedly non-StarFox prologue. A foxy fox lady named Krystal is responding to a distress call down on Dinosaur Planet, and is waylaid by the malignant General Scales, who means to (and pretty much already does) command the entire planet. Krystal escapes, however, and makes her way to the Krazoa Palace, a shrine celebrating the planet's ancient benefactors, the Chozo-like Krazoa. However, in the Palace she is once again taken by surprise, and captured in a magic crystal with no hope for escape. Only after this does Fox McCloud come into play; the StarFox team has a big payment coming for their deeds, but General Pepper wants them to save Dinosaur Planet first - as it turns out, the planet is being sundered apart by magical forces, and now has four impromptu moons (land masses magically raised from the surface of the planet). Fox's mission is to investigate, and do what he can to save the planet. Along the way, mostly towards the end, there are a few (mostly dopey) plot twists, to the end result that the entire story more or less mocks itself.

StarFox Adventures, in theory, has two main gameplay facets: the StarFox, and the Adventures. Classic StarFox action resurrects itself in the form of a sum total of five (possibly six depending on how one counts) Arwing flying stages, where Fox must pass through gold rings to progress. Laser upgrades, bombs, enemies, hazardous obstacles, meteors, and other mainstays of flying in these stages do little more than briefly interrupt the rest of the game. These sections, inspired by the very bread and butter of StarFox, are so short, so sketchy, and so shabbily designed that they may as well have never existed.

Unfortunately, the flying sections are some of the best parts of the game. In a way, it could be said that SFA took a page from the N64 Zeldas in its Adventuring, but in the process it also rended and destroyed that page beyond most recognition, in a cruel, twisted bastardization of all that it stands for. Most of the game centers around either running from one place to another, or collecting items, with an occasional puzzle or 'minigame' thrown in for kicks. Most adventure games also have a healthy dose of action to keep them going; SFA does not. There are stages where Fox races a jetbike against other jetbikes, but it's not at all fast, or challenging, or exciting. Fox has a staff for fighting enemies, but combat in SFA is a cruel parody of the very concept, being only an exercise in pressing the A button, sometimes requiring timing (waiting for an enemy to put its shield down), and only incorporating holding the control stick in some direction or futilely jumping around if a player really feels like it.

Said fighting staff also has a number of magic powers, which Fox finds in magic underground caves over the course of his adventure. It can shoot fireballs, shake the ground, freeze things, and do other miscellaneous duties when necessary. The staff is more a skeleton key than anything else; almost anything can be solved with it, when the right power is used at the right time. Think of it as a fancier, longer version of Link's ocarina. If staff powers are the first tier of Fox's abilities, his inventory is his second; this inventory encompasses both story items found along the way and other items purchased at the one and only Dinosaur Planet shop in the game's main hub area. The shop is somewhat of a mystery in itself, as the shopkeeper "likes to haggle" and allows Fox to do so, but will rarely accept a price of more than two scarabs (the planet's currency) below the marked price, even when that price is a cool 130 scarabs. Wallet sizes also come into play, with an initial capacity of 10 scarabs, and larger wallets earned along the story's progression as a means of 'helping' Fox buy the right things at the right time.

The third and final tier of Fox's abilities are his sidekick, Tricky. Tricky is the prince of the EarthWalker tribe, and, full of energy, wants to help out however he can. A handful of his abilities are instrumental in solving puzzles, namely digging up items in secret spots, lighting things on fire with his flamethrower breath, and standing in place to hold a pressure plate down. However, outside of these situations, Tricky is often more harm than help - every time Fox turns around, the little guy is standing right there, directly in his way. And though he might be small, getting around him isn't always an easy task. SFA is full of little annoyances like these, especially objects that Fox should be able to easily move around but can't. On that subject, another notable annoyance is respawning; in many areas, enemies respawn within seconds. Though this makes killing them sound like a useless chore, the game contradicts itself by making them fairly irritating hindrances.

If there's one thing Rare did right, it's the way the game looks, and possibly how it sounds as an addendum. SFA's graphics are a marvel to behold, with dynamic lighting and shadows, water effects, and smooth textured surfaces that have to be seen to be believed. The sound effects are often great (many of them are ripped directly, without modification, from Perfect Dark), with the possible exception of the new item jingle, which a player will hear so many times during the course of the game that it loses all meaning except unadulterated rage, and the voice acting, which has few highs (Fox) and many lows (everything else). The soundtrack is pleasing, its tracks usually ranging from ambient to ear-catching.

There are a few tasks in the game which aren't necessary for its completion, many (if not most) of which are thoroughly unrewarding. There are, specifically, certain wells from which Fox can earn and use decidedly useless Cheat Tokens. So, really, the only replay value SFA could have in any practical sense is playing it through again, although it's a good 10-15 hours on its own (most of which moves agonizingly slow).

To its credit, StarFox Adventures is by no means the worst game ever made, nor is it a complete failure - it is a nice showcase for graphical prowess. However, in terms of gameplay, in terms of the StarFox franchise, and in terms of Rare's reputation, it's a long way from success. Not exactly a fitting finalé for what was once one of gaming's greatest development relationships.

Progress: Complete

These days, the video game market is stagnant with unoriginality, even most of the best games simply being sequels of each other. New franchises are about as common as street crime in Singapore - and in many cases, treated similarly. Enter Capcom, with several still-running game series to its name, and a radical new idea: Viewtiful Joe.

It's not just a game, but not really a movie - it's both, wrapped and twisted around each other, and something else entirely. Viewtiful Joe is an experience like no other, combining flawless play with a cinematic feel altogether different from the norm. VJ oozes style from every pore, emanates it from its very being. It's a grand unification of almost every facet of video games as a whole.

In typical Capcom fashion, the story of Viewtiful Joe is introduced early on, then put on the back-burner until near the end of the game. It begins in a movie theatre; Joe and his girlfriend Silvia are watching the finalé of Captain Blue, defender of justice, enemy of evil. Silvia distracts Joe from a pivotal moment where Blue is defeated, and before they know what's happened, both Silvia and Joe are pulled into the movie. Joe's mission is to rescue Silvia and stop the evil Jadow forces from taking over the world (with a few big twists before it's over).

At heart, Joe is an old-fashioned brawler, ala River City Ransom. This means that Joe will be seeing no small amount of action, and kicking no small amount of ass at nearly any given time. In addition to a slew of enemies to face, from the lowliest flunkie to an agile ninja to a fairly intimidating tank, each of the game's seven 'episodes' (each in itself possessing a well-crafted movie-like theme and clever design) is concluded with a boss fight against a creature with unique characteristics and behavior. It's not all about knocking enemies around, though; there are also a bunch of puzzles scattered about, largely relying on Joe's main claim to fame - special effects. With Joe's V-watch, and some training from Captain Blue, he can pull off three different 'VFX' powers: Slow, which slows down time and makes your hits more capable and powerful; Mach Speed, which speeds Joe up but keeps enemies at about their normal pace; and Zoom, which zooms the camera in on Joe, allowing him to pull off more viewtiful moves and scaring some enemies out of attacking him. These are used in puzzles in many ways; for instance, a commonly-used level element is a small platform on top of spinning fan blades - using Slow slows the blades down and causes the platform to drop, while using Mach Speed speeds the blades up and causes the platform to rise. Sometimes, Joe will have to ignite things by using Mach Speed until his suit becomes coated in fire.

These powers are also of great use in battle - Slow, for example, can allow you to see a gunslinger's bullet and punch it back at him to stun and damage the cowboy. Joe will have to learn the intricacies of every one of his moves in order to succeed in his quest to stop the Jadow (luckily, a series of tutorials early in the game fills Joe in on just how this can be done). Many involve stunning an enemy first, such as above with the gunslinger, or with simpler enemies, dodging their blow; during their brief daze, Joe can Slow down and trash them with kicks and punches, and get a chain reaction going with other enemies on the screen, racking up viewtiful combos and earning V points for use in the item shop.

Inbetween scenes, Joe will have the opportunity of doing some shopping. Points earned from dispatching enemies and doing other viewtiful tricks can be used to purchase new moves, health, greater health capacity, extra lives, and other useful trinkets. While they aren't strictly necessary, they are certainly very, very useful, as the game has a fairly steep difficulty curve. Though, if you want to take it easy on yourself, you can play Kids (easy) mode; Adult (hard) mode is more rewarding in the end, giving you access to more difficulties and even more characters to play as.

Graphically, VJ is quite viewtiful. Characters are rendered in 3D, but many background and foreground elements are in 2D, and the game plays as a 2D sidescroller. The style used in drawing the characters, especially Joe, and the effects used in showing off Joe's VFX powers are quite impressive. The game's soundtrack is composed brilliantly, a variety of action tunes perfectly fitting the pace, and sound effects are also an integral and well-executed part (often, audio clues are used to assist Joe in saving his skin and defeating his enemies). Joe, Silvia, Captain Blue, and every other important character in the game also has expertly-acted voice overs, which make the game that much more immersive.

After beating Adults mode, V-Rated difficulty is unlocked, and Ultra V-Rated following that. Every difficulty, though the base structure of the game is the same, modifies things to make it just a bit different, just a bit trickier. Each completed difficulty (aside from Kids) also unlocks a new character to play as, and every character plays differently, be it in response to damage, running speed, or even other drastic gameplay differences (and each one also has slight storyline adjustments to make it more interesting). So, there's plenty of reason to play through Joe more than once.

The gameplay at first appears simple, but in many ways this is its genius. By taking a basic set of mechanics, and mixing them around into a deep and stylish brawler-combat system, Viewtiful Joe is truly a remarkable package of a game. Perhaps the only failing of the system is in its shortness. Though the difficulty can be at first imposing, anyone can learn to play it, and by the end you'll be amazed how much skill you've picked up along the way. It's a great adventure, and really worth playing.

Progress: Adults mode complete

There have been many imitators - but there's only one Mario Kart. It's been done on Super NES, on Nintendo 64, on Game Boy Advance, and now on Gamecube, each iteration bringing with it new locales, new racers, new weapons, and new features. Though elements have been added and changed along the way, the basic formula remains the same: outrace and pummel your opponents to claim victory.

Of course, despite the joy of the simple concept of Mario Kart, variety is the spice of life, and Double Dash pays homage to this concept. Option for option, Double Dash is larger than all that came before it.

As can be expected, there's no story. Can't a bunch of Nintendo's all-stars just get together for a little competition every now and then?

The traditional Mario Kart player/kart system relied on lightweights with high acceleration and low top speeds, middleweights with medium acceleration and speed, and heavyweights with low acceleration but high top speeds. Double Dash mixes that up with not one, but two racers (one to pilot and one to dole out weaponry, though the two can be switched on the fly while racing), followed by a kart depending on the weight classes of the characters you've picked. There are 16 (plus four unlockable) characters and eight (plus 13 unlockable) karts to choose from, each kart having different configurations of weight availability (what characters can race in it), effective kart weight (how it handles in the turns), acceleration and top speed. Additionally, each thematic pair of characters (Mario and Luigi, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, etc.) has a different special weapon.

The game also has a number of play modes. Grand Prix tours can be played alone or with two karts (up to four players if played cooperatively), and encompass four tracks in a point-oriented grand prix competition with AI-controlled opponents (you'll be glad to know that Mario Kart 64's notorious AI-cheating is gone). There are initially three Grand Prix tours in each of the three difficulties (50cc, 100cc, 150cc), but there's a fourth unlockable tour, an unlockable tour option to race on all 16 tracks, and an unlockable difficulty (Mirror mode). Versus races can be played multiplayer cooperatively (as long as there's more than one kart) or competitively, and take place on a single track with only human-controlled karts. Time Trials are only for a single player, where you can challenge your own best times (or the best times of the game's staff). Battle mode has also received a facelift, now separated into three competitions: old-school three-hits-and-you're-done Balloon Battle, a chase to capture and hold a shine in Shine Thief, or the explosive melee that is Bob-omb Blast. There are four initial battle stages and two more unlockable.

Double Dash's visuals are impeccable, from the wonderfully-rendered karts and characters to the beautiful tracks and landscapes, and well-polished items (being hit by a blue shell never looked so good). The soundtrack is wonderfully diverse, custom-fit to each track for a great ambient sound, and sound effects never fail to let you know what's been dropped and who just got blown up.

A single player has a full plate, as there are 20 Grand Prix tours to play, and nearly all of them unlock something new. Multiple players have enough options and choices that racing won't get old for some time to come. The battle modes are a blast. And though there aren't a whole lot of shortcuts, each track's design is wonderfully deep. Plus, Mario Kart: Double Dash!! is LAN-compatible, meaning multiple Gamecubes equipped with broadband adapters can allow a much bigger party. All in all, Double Dash has plenty of fun to offer.

Progress: Won all Grand Prix tours