Blue Dragon

Platform: Xbox 360.
Verdict: Deep but dated adventure.
Rating: 3½/5
Cracking the Japanese games market has so far been difficult for Microsoft’s console division - with the 360 faring little better in the land of the rising sun than the original and far uglier Xbox, all hope is pinned on the Japanese love of RPGs and releases such as Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey and Eternal Sonata.
Blue Dragon tells the epic, 3 disc long tale of Shu, Kluke and Jiro, on a mission to save the world from evil. Advised to swallow glowing blue orbs (just say no kids!), the hapless trio find their shadows transformed into mighty creatures that fight on their behalf.
Full of turn based battles, levelling-up and light hearted adventuring, Blue Dragon is as traditional as it gets and with a team made up of Japan’s RPG glitterati it’s hardly surprising. Notable Final Fantasy stalwarts Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu accompany Akira Toriyama (of Dragon Ball Z fame) for an RPG dream team line up, bringing iconic design, music and character art with them.
Beside the traditional gameplay, Blue Dragon attempts to be unique through its distinct CG style graphics and subtle variations on genre mechanics. Shadows are key to these variations and are the gameplay and visual hook to differentiate it from its peers.
Assigned classes such as Black Mage or Assassin, they can swap and change to different ones, learn class specific abilities then change back, cannily retaining the newly gained powers and allowing you to design a team of your own choosing.
Random battles are also thankfully missing, allowing you to pick and choose what you fight but beyond that little is new.
On paper Blue Dragon ticks the right boxes and with such a stellar line up it’s easy to see why so much was expected of it but at its heart lies a game so traditional it’s beyond cliche and, as solid as it is, has been far superseded by its peers - in both Japan and the West.

King of Fighters XI

Platform: PS2.
Verdict: Fighting the 2D fight.
Rating: 4/5
Despite technological advancements and Sony's PS1 era attempt to remove them from existence, 2D games still continue to eke out an existence on home consoles. Of the few modern 2D games released, you can hedge a safe bet that they're beat-em-ups or shoot-em-ups, those bastions of 90's arcade gaming and home to pixel perfect gaming.
King of Fighters XI is the latest in a long line of the revered 2D fighting series and as top contender for Street Fighter's crown has an obsessive fan base while being well known for its trademark looks and hardcore combat.
KOF XI takes the traditional gameplay and kicks fresh life into it with new characters, mechanics and moves. The 3 on 3 battles have been changed from their staid relay nature by introducing a dynamic tag-team option - reminiscent of the Marvel Vs Capcom games, it allows you to swap between players when you want and if executed correctly, a mid-combo swap can lead to devastating results.
You can also cancel special moves into super moves now (like recent Street Fighter titles) and the Dream Cancel ability has been added, which lets your lead character string together an apocalyptic series of attacks. Any worries of imbalance can be laid to rest as a mastery of timing, practice and patience is required to achieve such seamless fighting skills – take note button bashers.
With a roster of about 47 characters, KOFXI has all of the fan favourites and includes cameos from other SNK games such as the cult classic Garou: Mark of the Wolves and of course Fatal Fury.
There are a few other features like the punishing challenge mode and training options but as always, nothing compares to a bout between friends and that's where KOFXI excels as the tag-team system allows for plenty of frantic, split second improvisation while the satisfaction of pulling off complicated combos is great for post game gloating, if you're so inclined.

Bomberman Live

For Xbox 360
Verdict: It's the bomb.
800 MS Points
Rating: 4½/5
The Bomberman name has for years been synonymous with madcap multiplayer action - with over 60 iterations of the franchise it's no surprise to see it turn up on Xbox Live Arcade and despite the recent dirge that was Bomberman Act Zero, it seems to have finally found its true home.
Bomberman is legendary in getting groups of friends to crowd round and shout at a TV and the 360 allows you to do this online with your long distance mates as well.
Combining simple but addictive strategy and action in a format that anyone can pick up, the Bomberman formula has rarely changed over the years - particularly so this time round as it goes back to it's 16 bit roots for a simplified re-introduction to the series.
Transposing HD 3D visuals onto the iconic 2D action, Bomberman Live offers a multitude of levels and game types to keep the action interesting while customisation options allow you to create your own game rules and design your own unique Bomberman so at least you look good blowing up.
The usual single player puzzle levels from previous outings have been ditched, streamlining it as a purely multiplayer game with the defining feature of course being online play. Supporting up to eight player games online you can duke it out with strangers and friends while Live Camera support means you get to see snapshots of your opponents pained expressions upon their demise.
The only disappointment is the lack of 16 player support like the classic Sega Saturn version but it's a bargain for the price and eight players still proves more than enough for frenetic and fun action.
For the truly competitive out there, world tournaments and leader boards exist to prove your skill with Acme style explosives but like all great multiplayer games, they're no match against four friends sat hollering round the telly and thankfully that's one feature that'll never be removed.

Sim City

Platform: Nintendo DS.
Verdict: The most fun you’ll have with taxes.
Rating: 4/5
Back in the day I used to play the original Sim City for hours, attempting to create a pixelated urban nirvana (and probably listening to Nevermind at the same time too) but I never managed to attain the perfect balance or design for a happy city. The natural disasters or input from a younger sister never helped either. Sim City on the DS has thankfully given me a second chance to create utopia - this time Alphaville shall flourish!
Based on later versions of the series, Sim City is the first and last game from EA’s Japanese studio. Porting a PC game to a small screened handheld can’t be an easy task but they’ve done it successfully, injecting their own style and charm along the way while using the DS’ features in a logical and intuitive way.
As mayor you’re tasked with building a city from scratch, turning empty countryside into a teeming megalopolis. It won’t happen overnight though as your city starts out from nothing but the careful juggling of your budget and balance of residential, commercial and industrial zones should hopefully lead rise to a flourishing high-rise paradise.
There are however many pitfalls along the way, where disregard for crime rates, pollution and transport can stultify your city’s growth, not to mention the UFO attacks, earthquakes and great fires (possibly caused by an under funding of the fire department to afford that seaport expansion). Thankfully, help is on hand with a friendly guide offering advice at any stage (or just looking on in despair in my case).
Touch screen controls are perfect for this kind of game and Sim City sits at ease on the DS. The only downside is the size of the screen (compared to a PC monitor) and the need for a steady hand when plotting out sections of road and land (but that may just be my awful drawing skills).
Coincidentally, taking a test to determine my guide allocated me a ramshackle robot - that’s just one step away from a belching computer, film fans.

Hour of Victory

Platform: Xbox 360.
Verdict: War is fugly.
Rating: 1/5
It’s a little expected bugbear that Hi-Def visuals can actually make a game look worse by accentuating problems that standard TVs might mask over with their relative fuzziness. In the case of Hour of Victory, no cheap TV can save it from itself – this has to be one of the ugliest games I’ve played in a long time and that unfortunately has nothing to do the nature of war.
Blatantly and understandably attempting to mimic the fine Call of Duty series, Hour of Victory is yet another WWII game but at least it attempts to add to the formula by allowing you to play through each level as a commando, ranger or covert operative. Each soldier has different weapons and different abilities - the gunner has extra resilience and can move objects out of his path, the sniper has a deadly long range weapon and uses a grappling hook to reach high ground while the covert op has stealth on his side and can pick locks.
On paper this increases the replay value of the game and allows the player to choose a preferred style of combat. In reality it boils down to annoyingly constricted and unbalanced level design with frequent and intrusive messages informing you you’re the wrong person for the job. The different abilities rarely add anything to the gameplay with awkward stealth sections shoehorned in and shakily animated lock picking sequences opening up pointless new areas to explore.
Alongside the poorly realised diversity, Hour of Victory’s other problems are plain to see – ropey frame rates, jerky animation, useless AI and glitch ridden, painfully generic and derivative gameplay all help dig its shallow grave of mediocrity into a plague pit of a mess. The graphics are just the final nail in the coffin with its bland, sterile art direction, placeholder textures and plastecene sheens all contributing towards your Hi-Def TV going on strike until you apologise with flowers.
Luckily my TV has no such delusions of grandeur but for those with cash, this is one of the few 360 games that displays in 1080p – why you’d want it to is beyond reason though.