by norm stovall norm@904skate.com
If you aren’t familiar with the series, Yoshi’s Island was originally released as a sequel to the original Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo. In this game, while playing the part of Mario’s dino friend Yoshi, you were presented with the task of beating the bad guys with Baby Mario riding on your back. It was simple and addictive, with bright visuals and fun gameplay. Well, Yoshi’s Island DS expands upon its predecessor, including everything that made the original fun. With cartoon-like graphics accented with crayon colors, the game looks really great ported to the Nintendo DS. In this version, Yoshi and baby Mario are given the task of rescuing the babies of the world from the clutches of the evil Kamek. As in most Mario-themed games, you can take your time to finish every level to completion, or you can rush through and fight the bad guys and save the searching for later, which is another thing that makes this game great. If you liked the Super NES version of Yoshi’s Island, Yoshi’s Island DS won’t disappoint.
For fans of the Metal Gear franchise, this game is absolutely a must. With a storyline following up the events that happened in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, You follow Snake- AKA Big Boss, on a mission to a Soviet Base in South America. As the storyline unfolds, Snake’s story makes many twists and turns, with a focus on loyalty and morality. As far as gameplay is concerned, Portable Ops features all the action you have come to expect in the series, and the controls fit just fine on the PSP. Though at times the graphics seem a bit too good to really appreciate on a small screen, playing the game is never difficult due to the visuals. Although the game’s environments are basic, the characters and their voice actors, along with the other audio elements, really do bring you into the action. Along with the standard story mode, there are decent multiplayer modes such as death match, team death match, and capture the flag, although these don’t really feel quite as polished as the single player mode. Nonetheless, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops is a must have for PSP owners that enjoy tactical espionage action games.
Run really fast. Run really fast away from this game. Sure, I love Sonic the Hedgehog as much as any video game fan, but this game really falls apart in the design department. And in the gameplay department. In fact, even the visuals are glitchy at times. Okay, a lot of the time. For the most part, Sonic looks good on the PS3, though I can’t seem to find anything that would make this version look any better than the Xbox 360 version, which was just as annoying to play. Basically the premise of the game is the same as always--when you are playing as Sonic. Run really fast through a level and try not to die. Along the way, you can collect rings and power ups and bounce on enemies. This aspect of the game is great. However, there are 2 other characters in the game you must play as, in addition to supporting characters that are for the most part no fun to play as. For what it is worth, I think gamers would be better off finding an older version of the game to get attached to, as the next-gen iterations of Sonic the Hedgehog just don’t live up the originals.
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