I decided to create this journal because I needed a place to share impressions about games that I'm yet to finish and I know I'll never review. I'll start with Tom Clancy's EndWar (DS) since this is a game I can't review without playing the consoles version – which I won't do for sure. Also, because Gamespot won't do that review either and I think some extra info can be useful.

EndWar for the DS is a Turn-Based Strategy war game that somewhat tries to emulate the Real-Time Strategy found in its consoles counterparts by splitting the gameplay into two distinct phases: moving and action. Although it can't win a fight against any game in the Advance Wars series it can provide some entertainment for those into TBS.

So, let us go straight to the core - this is not a review anyway.

What's good

Real distinction between light and heavy artillery. AW series also has different units for this (Artillery and Rockets, for example) but here it was taken to another level of gameplay since you can use light artillery in the same turn you move it. Interesting, and opens new strategy paths.

Neat auto-difficulty system. If you're trapped into a map you won't solve there's the option for surrender; and doing this lowers the difficulty bar in that specific map because the next time you try it you'll have a new setup of units with so-called "reinforcements (some)". Surrender again and you got "reinforcements (all)". Good way to give inexperienced gamers more chances to play through.

Touch-screen friendly. OK, this is a winner against AW. The tiles are bigger and easier to touch with the Stylus.

Jamming/Blocking mechanics. 'Jamming' gives you a power boost when you manage to surround enemy units - the more they're surrounded the greater the boost; blocking allows you to close a path without the need to make a complete blockage – units can't pass through a one-tile gap. Both great additions to the strategy system.

Long-lasting. You can fight the same war 3 times (one for each faction) and every campaign has 3 fronts. Besides unlocking medals, awards, new maps, editing and sharing content...

What's bad

Waiting for enemy AI. Splitting the action in two phases has brought a cost: accumulating all units' movement at once. That means you'll have to wait for the enemy to move their entire army after your action turn. The process can be hastened but can't be skipped.

Overpowered air units. Even two of your AA units jamming an enemy combat helicopter can't bring it down in one turn. What?!

Uninspired maps. There's too much maps with a bunch of blue units here and another bunch of red units there. Just like a boxing ring.

D-pad sucks... Because the tiles are honeycombs. The cursor will swing here and there while moving vertically.

Weak story. Russians are terrorists. Again.

Lame dialogue. Take a look at the first dialogue you'll read in the game:

Gen. Havelock: "Ah, welcome! You must be the new operator. Take my seat! The command center is yours!"

You: "... ?!"

Gen. Havelock: "I was joking!"

Characters talk as if they were at a pub raising their beer mugs. And as if there was no hierarchy.

That's it for now. Impressions shared, job done, see you next time!

Last weekend I went to a big comics fair in São Paulo (I live in a smaller city 80kms away) with the excuse to help my wife to get some experience as a student of photography. Despite the fact I don't read comics for years it was a funny experience with the cosplayers and everything else, and I ended buying something – games included:

Loki (2005)

My very first super-hero comics was a Thor one. It impressed me a lot at the time, seeing him fighting against Jormungand and breaking Loki's – his brother – arm. This picked my interest for that.

The C|assic Felix The Cat (2005)

I always loved the simple and strong design of Felix the Cat – not to mention that amazing wallet. It will be good to take a look at his early years.

It's a Magical World (1996)

'Calvin and Hobbes' is among the best 'cute and touchy' comics ever - aside 'Peanuts', of course. And I didn't get any before this, so here it goes.

Ghostbusters (2009)

They seem to be reviving. And I like it. Let us see how this Manga stands.

Harvest Moon DS – Island of Happiness

My wife really loves the series and she's always trying to make me play it. So I bought it for her and for me to have a try... And I can say I'm completely addicted to it now. People complain about the touch screen controls in this installment but they work fine to me – maybe because I never tried any other controls in the series before...

Tom Clancy's Endwar

I bought this because of 1) I'm tired of seeing Tom Clancy's name everywhere without playing any of his games 2) it's a TBS, my favorite genre nowadays and 3) it was unbelievably cheap – US$10,00 while we're used to pay around US$40,00 for any DS game here in Brazil because of the high taxes and shipping.

That's it. Just wanted to share some pics and thoughts.

Pikachu: "I love Gears of War 2!"

Sonic dazzled by a shinier star (just kidding)

Goomba running away from a bag!

mangamangamanga...

A crowd around Mario Kart Wii

Deadpool and Wolverine doing the YMCA

(More pics at lrlopes)

I've been playing Endless Ocean for some time now and it reminded something I always loved in games of any genre: maps. No matter if they're useful or useless; there are some of them I would like to hang on a wall as if they were real.

Manoa Lai's (the place where Endless Ocean's play occurs) map starts a little shy, but as you go to new places it "sheds its scales" and show us some life. It's simple but I like it.

Here I go with some of my favorite maps of all the time:

World 2 (Super Mario Bros. 3, NES)

The piece of map hidden behind that rock at the top-right corner of the screen amazed me when I found it. A huge 'III' lake, an extra Toad House and Hammer Brothers shooting fireballs! How could I ask for more?

Onett (Earthbound, SNES) and every other map in the game

The entire game is a pixelated masterpiece and the maps are just the icing on the cake. I love the cities' names based on the order they appear in the game (Onett, Twoson...)

Manhattan (TMNT – Tournament Fighters, NES)

I'm not sure if Manhattan citizens would be proud of their place after seeing this brief look at the city: Water Front, Down Town, Pirate Ship, and Sewer. That's all.

Castlevania (Castlevania III, NES) and every other map in the series

Castlevania has been an impressive place since the very first game. I always loved the maps in the series – both useful and useless – but I can't forgive Konami for not giving us a map in Castlevania II as the game (and players) screamed for one.

Koholint Island (Zelda – Link's Awakening, Game Boy) and every other modular map in the series

I think that modular maps in portable Zeldas (exception made to Phantom Hourglass) are the more functional in the series. And they look neat too.

'Behind Enemy Lines' (Jackal, NES) and every other vertical map

There's nothing special about it. I just like to unfold maps heading up.

Metro City (Final Fight, SNES, Arcade)

It's interesting how this one is placed 'over' the screen as if it was a transparent gif - way before transparent gifs existed.

Marahna (ActRaiser, SNES) and every other map that used Mode 7 effect

The only thing that Sega fans would allow you to brag about the SNES was the Mode 7 feature - it was a particular way of zooming images that looked really good when well used. Some good examples were the maps in ActRaiser series and in Illusion of Gaia, where you "dive" into.

Plan A (Battletoads, NES) and every other blue print map

Blueprints are super-cool; the game is super-hard; that together make a big pleasure when you manage to get into the next blueprint...

World Map (Wacky Races, NES)

This one is somewhat unique. Europe appearing before America, square lands, whales sailing over a beautiful blue sea and the Amazon River flowing into São Paulo... WHAT?! Never mind.

Every now and then I run into some old game here at Gamespot that nobody has reviewed before. And if it's a game I know well I feel almost as my duty to make something about it - it happened with Gargoyle's Quest - Ghosts'n Goblins (GB), Hatris (NES) and Yie Ar Kung Fu (NES).

Now here's my newest contribution: RoboCop 2 (NES). Check it out if you have some interest in it.

(Thanks Dualmask for reminding me of this)

'To skip animation scenes in Okami

A heartless dark soul one must be'

- Ozuka the Shamisen Player

OK maybe I'm exceeding myself here; but yes, Okami is gorgeous. I could watch the feeding scenes for hours. And what about entire rivers being purified?

P.S.: you may notice that the two lines of my poem have the same amount of characters. Still not a haiku but it deserves some respect!

After spending some time playing Wii Sports and creating dozens of Miis in my brand new Wii I decided to expand my 'Wiiniverse' by borrowing a few games. Here they are:

. .. .

And I got new impressions to share.
First of all, we can easily conclude that Wii is not a graphical powerhouse. You can state it's obvious - and it is - but playing other games put that to another level of evidence. Wii Sports can be quite simple, but it's somehow elegant - it is not only a game, it conceals a whole concept of gaming that works fine.
I'm saying that because I couldn't help paying attention to graphical issues in all games. As for Mario Party 8, it looks just a little better than Nintendo 64 parties looked before (aside the horrible, unreadable fonts for the screens titles, as if they were made with that old Microsoft Word Art); as for The Force Unleashed, the empty (and sometimes out-of-the-socket) eyes and the robotic mouth movement of the characters keep bugging me; and last, as for Wario Land, the movies are ugly.
Among these three games Wario Land is the one which makes the best use of the Wii's graphical processing power. Its cartoony sty|e runs smooth and beautifully, aside being convenient too.

All that said I must reckon that these problems scratch only the surface of the games, since a gaming experience is made not only of graphics. And I can say I'm enjoying them!
MP8 is a so-so game. It uses the everlasting formula of the series, but the mini-games take advantage of the new control system. Nothing that would surprise me - it deserves the around-6.0 scores it's been receiving.
Wario Land is a great 2D plat that put the motion sensing controls to use too. Despite some of these features feel like gimmicks, there are other pretty good ones. The overall experience is rewarding, and I'm sure I'll keep coming back for the extras of each stage.
The Force Unleashed was surprisingly good for me. I thought I would have grown tired quickly of shaking controls, but that didn't happen. The way you use the controls to finish the bosses and to fight someone strong with the Force is cool (it reminds me of Dragon's Lair for Sega-CD), and it's awesome to see what the Force can do. Physics work great when you move objects around the environment and send shockwaves to knock down enemies.

That's it for now. Soon I'll come up with the promised Miis screenshots.

OK, I know I'm a tad late ("I'm so two-thousand-late"), but here I am! My own Wii has arrived!

I've been playing my father's (!) Wii with him for some time, and now I got myself one. Me and my wife just started spending some time in it, and our Mii plaza is getting crowded already (snapshots anytime soon). We're enjoying Wii Sports too, and my unexpected favourite sport is... Golf? Never considered playing that before, but it gets me relaxed and it feels good. I thought I would stick to Tennis (since I already played it before in the real world), but Mii's akward-auto-positioning bugs me a little. Baseball is fine, and so is Bowling (despite the fact my wrist always twist the ball to the left). Boxing is funny, but not precise - I can't stop hitting my coach's face while training.

For now I'll play some games borrowed from my father, and I think I will put more effort into WiiWare games because it would be cheaper for me here - no taxes, and no shipping. We'll see what comes next.

A few days ago I was watching a trailer of the new installment in the King of Fighters series and that reminded me of something weird (though funny) that started to happen when all these fighting games came to home consoles: the 'pausing contests'.

Take a whole generation of (teen) gamers being mesmerized by the graphics revolution started with the 16-bit consoles and mix it with some beauties starring fighting games and you'll get a pausing contest: just press 'start' during a match looking for the hottest pose!

I know it's shameful; but it really happened. I was 12 when Street Fighter II was released for SNES and I can even remember some guys falling in love for Chun-Li! How innocent... That's hard to explain to today's boys well acquainted to 3D models.

Along this post you can see sprites of some games that were frequently used for this 'purpose' and you can evaluate how silly it was. God bless us all...

That was an unpredictably nonsensical scene: Wolverine wearing my soccer team's shirt! While visiting Brazil Mr. Jackman went to Corinthians training center to meet Ronaldo, who gave him this unique 'X' shirt. They had a good time and 'Logan' said that 'Ronaldo is the real indestructible one'.
It really seems so since Ronaldo started playing again after three serious injuries and consequent surgeries in his knees. And he's doing well - he has scored 10 goals in 14 matches so far as a Corinthians forward.
Take a look:

Still waiting for the DS' 'Origins' review.

OK, now that's simple: I voted in the GameSpot's 'Best of 2008' awards, as I did in 2007. I imagined I should have received a new emblem for that, so I decided to check it out at the Technical Support Forum. And I found things like 'we were aware of the voting problems you encountered and plan to give everyone three days to report in this thread' (three days?) and 'if the admins think you sound suspiciously like you just want a freebie emblem, you'll be contacted with numerous questions'.

I just can't get why I must PROVE them I voted. If they don't know it anymore is because they messed it up. That's it. After that they've extended the deadline to ask for the emblem, but it was too late for me because I don't live for GS.

I don't want to stress myself out talking to some spiky admin, so here is my emblem. No need to worry guys.

P. S.: That's why Bush was re-elected...

I used to be a great fan of F1 races in the past, but since Senna's death in 1994 I've lost most of my interest about it. Not only because he was some kind of Brazilian hero, but also because I disliked Schumacher from the first moment (I remember seeing him throwing his car into Damon Hill's to win a championship and I couldn't forget Damon punching the wall in frustration). So Schumacher came to be the real deal and I've quit watching.
But now they came out with this KERS thing (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), which is a device that is supposed to give cars a 'turbo' boost of almost 7 seconds per lap by storing formerly-wasted kinetic energy. And I've said 'OK, keep talking': I jumped out of my bed by 3:00 am to see the first race in the season (Melbourne, Australia) and I must confess I liked what I saw.

During the race they showed a few times Hamilton's car being monitored with all that ordinary stuff like speed, throttle, brake, RPM, aside of an additional battery icon representing KERS. It was like an old gamer wish coming true, a perfect mix of 'Super Monaco GP' (Genesis) and 'Top Gear' (SNES) - Hamilton hitting the 'turbo-whatever' button and taking a rival's position. Cool.

Some teams didn't develop KERS for their cars (since it's an optional device) and now they must literally run for the wasted time, making me look forward to watch the next chapter of the history in Malaysia.
Congrats guys, you've got my attention.

For the records: my favorite F1 game at those old times was 'Nigel Mansel's World Championship Racing' (SNES). Its controls are still impressive, the cars' weight and inertia are both well represented and the same goes for aerofoil, tires and gear ratio as well. But car crashes are nothing more than bumps - while in 'Super Monaco GP' you may see you tires flying if you hit something hard - and that keeps it from being perfect. It's definitely worth a try anyway.

Here is a FF's video clip I've cut with my own soundtrack. I teach guitar in a music school and I usually sit at the piano between one class time or another. I've made this theme in one of those 'loafing arounds' (I'm not a pianist, though)...

More here: http://www.myspace.com/ozukathemes

It's been a month or so since I started playing our holiday gifts: Castlevania – Order of Ecclesia and Ninja Gaiden – Dragon Sword (my wife's and mine, respectively) and I can easily say that they're both great DS's games. But aside being good they also brought me back good memories from their 20-years-older predecessors in the series: Castlevania II - Simon's Quest (1988.) and Ninja Gaiden - Episode II - The Dark Sword of Chaos (1990), both for NES.

References in 'Dragon Sword' aren't that big, but its story is tied to the appearance of the Dark Sword in 'Episode II'. It's interesting to see Nicchae's face and start wandering if she could be a daughter of Ashtar - the Greater Fiend of the 2nd game in the series – since they're kind of a match with those horns pointing down and all; and is good to recognize the 'Sea Swallow', which was a codename used by Irene Lew in the very first Ninja Gaiden game.

But things get even better in 'Ecclesia'. The game is full of references to older games in the series, but the ones I like most were taken from 'Simon's Quest'. 'Vol Ignis' glyph works just like the 'Sacred Flame' and 'Globus' is an improved version of the old 'Diamond'; the whole village concept comes from the towns in 'Simon's Quest' (but in there the villagers turn into monsters at night); and it all makes sense when Shanoa says 'I'm the morning sun, come to vanquish this horrible night' just like in the message that always appear when the morning comes in the old game.

At last, these games are great as said and can be enjoyed by new players for sure. But they can be really pleasant to those with good old gaming memories...

Well, when Gamespot has liberated the Beta version of the new site I walked into it just to see how it would be. I thought it was beautiful, despite being a little bit confusing; but I understand the need for the changes and after all the confusion is just a matter of getting used to it. I've noticed that the column for the blog has been 'wided' a little (5 pixels as said in the 'preferences' screen) and I did another blog's header for the time the site would change.

But now that it's wide for sure things started to get really annoying. Starting with this blog's header thing: there's no use in fitting the image to the width of the column, since it stretches when you click in the 'see all posts' link. It will look fine in the profile screen, but it will not in the blog screen. Anyway I've tried in every way to change my header image, without being successful.

And there's much more. The 'tracked blogs' window is smaller (I dislike it, I would like to see more blogs at a glance), I can't download videos anymore (the window that expands there is empty), I've entered a link in my 'updates' screen to read a review, but in only led me to the text without the score and merits (I had to go to the 'summary' screen of the game, and then click 'reviews' to see the 'real' review) and the tags in my posts has disappeared. The only thing I can totally agree is the main banner of the user that now can be clearly seen without those 'profile' or 'contributions' buttons above it.

So, I'll quit posting my 'game of the month' article for some time until I can make the things work properly and look better.

Sorry for bothering, we'll see again anytime soon.

Back in the 'Old-Is-Cool' game of March I talked about Sunset Riders, the Old-West-Contra released by Konami for the SNES. Now I'll talk about a real Contra game that for some reason didn't become the official 3rd episode in the series (but it should): Operation C for the Game Boy.

. .

Operation C is a great game simply because it runs smooth.

I say that because there was a known problem on GB: the system couldn't handle big sprites very well. So the games that run faster have tiny, hard-to-see sprites (look at older games, like Super Mario Land or Batman); but games with big sprites run slower (look at one of my favorite GB games, Gargoyle's Quest or the first two games in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series).

Konami has realized that and started looking for balance in the sprites' size. The problem is perfectly solved in TMNT III (1993), but Operation C (1991) works pretty fine already.

The game itself is a little bit easier than other installments of the series especially because of the "H" Gun's advent, which bullets seek the enemies - you'll stay alive the much you can survive with this weapon in your hands. And fights with whole-screen-bosses are still there and kicking.

. .

Operation C is a game that remains a little bit obscure maybe because people can't associate its name to the Contra series. Some may say that it isn't even called Contra to be counted in; but it follows Super C for the NES, that is considered the 2nd episode. Aside that all that alien stuff we saw later in Contra III - Alien Wars for the SNES starts here. So I really don't get why this is not the 3rd episode in the series.

GAME OF THE MONTH: OPERATION C (GAME BOY, 1991)

As a musician I was always influenced by game music. Mario, Zelda, Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden, Megaman, ActRaiser, and many other series made me learn a lot and I felt from the beginning that real music was there, not only beep-beep-beeps (the games used to sound this way at the time).

Now I'm working a little with soundtracks composition, and I started wandering 'why not to make some game music'. And I did a little piece in tribute to James Banana (Kinuyo Y. for real), who was the composer of the astounding first Castlevania's soundtrack, back in 1986. And I sent it to her at Japan. And she liked it! And she gave me some encouragement.

Maybe I'll try to get at job at Ubisoft since they just opened an office in Sao Paulo...

Listen to the pieces here.

Licensed soundtracks are a common feature in the modern games and even Gamespot's annual "Best of" gives a technical prize for good selections. But 15 years ago it was really, really rare since the games couldn't handle voices' recordings very well.

Because of this I've picked on a game for this month that was the first one I've played with a licensed soundtrack on it; and it did really well avoiding the technical problems at that time.

It was Rock 'N Roll Racing, for the SNES.

The game sends you into an interplanetary racing competition where you must not only run fast but also destroy your enemies with missiles, mines or even by hammering them against the circuits' borders. The environments get harsher as you move from planet to planet in each season, but you'll be able to buy tougher cars with tougher equipment as you advance.

Interplay (a former PC game producer) has developed RRR based upon theirs 2-year-older RPM Racing (a terrible game IMO) by using its biased camera angle, and it brought a good amount of personality to it; and is funny to see some traces left by that old experience they had in PC games, as the secret playable character Olaf (from the old-school PC's The Lost Vikings) or in the use of a screensaver in the game - never saw it before in consoles.

But talking about the most important thing here - the soundtrack - I can say it's amazing. The selection is short, but well made: Paranoid (Black Sabbath) Bad to the Bone (George Thorogood), Born to be Wild (Steppenwolf), the astounding Highway Star (Deep Purple) and another 70's I can't remember the name now (sorry).

It's interesting that the solution found was to make instrumental versions of the songs (but with guitars and drums really sounding as they should) and to fulfill the void with the excellent voice of Larry, the speaker.

In the end the entire thing works pretty fine and the game is a must-play for rock 'n roll fans and for those who like to see explosions in the screen.

GAME OF THE MONTH: ROCK 'N ROLL RACING (SNES, 1993)

The DS is the first handheld gaming system I own (I used to play my Game Boy games in the SNES with the SGB adapter), and after a tough time climbing Mt. Coronet in Pokemon Pearl I started to think about the irresponsibility of making frustrating games to a portable system, since it's a lot easier to throw the entire thing through the window in a moment of fury.

After that I decided to post a new topic in the DS's forums page asking people if they ever wanted to smash theirs DSs in the wall as I wanted to. And it was surprising to see how much people managed not only to get really angry, but also to bust theirs DSs for real!

To pay a tribute to those who lost many buckets because of these unbearably frustrating games here goes the Top-10 list of the most dangerous games for you to put in your DS's top slot.

Akane Tendo Trophy!

10th~7th: Super Mario 64 DS, Sonic Rush, Metroid Prime: Hunters, Mario Kart DS

Votes (out of almost 200): 3% each

OK, here we start with a common complain when talking about online games (Mario Kart and Metroid can go Wi-Fi): cheating. But I'll put this in the gamers, not games account.

Aside that, people get crazy when they get "a generous amount of red shells coupled with 1-2 blue shells and then fall on the flippers and get electrified" in MKDS as Georgemen have said well; or "having to beat the boss, other hunters and then some retarded guardian things in a pointless time limit" in MPH (killking quoted). Luckily I've got only the free demo version of the game...

Add to that the well-hidden Chaos Emeralds in Sonic Rush and the tiny cloudy platforms in SM64 and you'll get a good start in your way through the patience path. But I must aware you that just here in these last 4 positions we already got 3 busted DSs! Including one that got broken just like a chocolate bar...

6th: Advance Wars: Dual Strike

Votes: 3.6%

This AW is one of my favorite games in the DS; but I must agree it can be quite annoying sometimes.

People talk about the disproportional strength of the enemy's troops, especially in the later levels. As for me, I can say I've had a REALLY annoying time trying to beat the Combat Mode in that "brutal" level. I did it, but I'll never do it again.

5th: Pokemon Diamond/Pearl

Votes: 4%

Pearl is the most frustrating game in my DS collection. I can't stand seeing a pokemon missing four tackles in a row (since tackle has an accuracy of 95%), or "getting confused and hitting itself 5 times in a row" as dark_hero_riku have said. And someone knows someone that has busted TWO Lites playing Diamond. I do believe him.

4th: Contra 4

Votes: 6.66% (the number of the beast? Nooooo...)

Arclight_Blue wrote: "that game crushed my soul". This is Contra.

3rd: Elite Beat Agents

Votes: 7.2%

Now we're getting hot! The 3rd place stamp goes for... The Rolling Stones! Jumpin' Jack Flash is a gas that managed to drive a player to his flashpoint and one DS ended... Bitten! How appropriate!

2nd: Trauma Center: Under the Knife

Votes: 8.2%

Trauma Center is the name of the place to where people go after playing this game. Just keep an eye on your electrocardiogram and you'll be fine.

1st: Final Fantasy III

Votes: 11.8%

A tough boss wiped your entire party out with a final smash? You've walked half an hour and died without finding a save point? Tired of raising levels for hours and still being defeated? You're not alone in the world!

We all know this is how FF works. Why there are so much people who own the card? And why there are even more people (including me) INTENDING to buy the game? SE means "Sadistic Exchanges".

P.S.: Someone got hurt after being hit by the DS hobobski chucked. He lost his "carefully cared" DS and a little-less-important friend!

Dubious Honor

There are some games that couldn't make it to the Top-10 but are still worth of a mention, since they made DSs suffer all around the world. Here are some of them:

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
L00pey had a tough time drawing those seals (I like them, I must say), and in the end a stylus went THROUGH a touch screen. But we can say Nintendo dislikes this part of the game too, since they gave another DS in exchange for the dented one.

Mario Hoops: 3 on 3
This one has made goalring27 not only stab the touch screen but also BITE the DS! How does it taste?

Megaman ZX
It seems like the "Survival Road" doesn't have this name for nothing. darkspineslayer got a broken button because of this.

New Super Mario Bros.
This is an interesting case where a DS was broken not because of a burst of anger. The problem here is CHRONIC frustration. A hinge is now cracking because the player has shaken "violently" the DS every time he died in World 8. For those who think Mario games are kiddy, you got to try ANY World 8 in any Mario game...

Picross DS
hazbazz has slammed a DS to the floor. But anyone can do that when a game freezes.

Pokemon Ranger
Someone hurled an old DS to the wall and can't even say why. Better ask Creatures.

Star Fox Command
Last but not least here is a game that really made a DS fly against a wall. And it survived! Long life to the Phat!

Last word: other 47 games shared 44% of the votes. Players can never complain about some lack of hard games for the DS...

Back in 1989 some American politicians did believe that Tetris was a weapon launched by the Russians to brainwash western minds and win the Cold War. We don't need to go that far, but we can say Mr. Alexey Pajitnov (or Pazhitnov, as it's written in some games' credits) really started a small revolution in gamers' heads.

Anyway the gaming market has quickly assimilated that "redvolution" and pretty soon dozens of clones (or derivative games, to say the least) were popping up in the shelves. And I'm afraid to say that my game of the month is among them.

In Hatris (for the NES) you work in a hattery owned by two brothers (I believe they are the-already-mentioned Alexey and Vladimir Pokhilko, the programmers), and you must simply heap up hats of the same type in groups of five to make them disappear. The hats fall in pairs from above and grow in variety until the number of six (crowns, top hats, pointy hats and others) as you advance through the shops.

All right, I know this is just another game in the huge Tetris' spawn. But IMO there's a feature that keeps it from being ordinary: the brothers can enter the screen to help.

As you earn money and make hats disappear you can get some little-head-icons that worth a call for help of the respective brother. One of them (which icon is easier to get) can switch places of two columns; the other can throw some hats away. This feature brings some long-term strategy to the game and makes it funnier, since you can even sell the heads for more money at the risk of finding yourself helpless later.

Furthermore seeing the heads of Dracula, Chaplin and Lincoln with different hats is funny too, I can't deny.

GAME OF THE MONTH: HATRIS (NES, 1991)