Fragasnap

Demon's Souls is a soul crushing game. The dark world adds significantly to the stiff difficulty of the game and the unique online play never breaks the lonely atmosphere. It is seeped in old fashioned level design and being sent back to the start of a stage can be frustrating. The balance of your arsenal is off as magic can be too useful and armor is useless but the swordplay well made. This game is certainly not for everyone, but anyone willing to put up with its unforgiving nature will find an experience like no other.

Kirby Super Star Ultra takes what is widely considered the best Kirby game and gives it a face lift and even more modes to play than the original had. This is one Kirby game that will not disappoint any in terms of length. The partner system is unnecessary and makes the game even easier. Just the same, it is appreciated for its two player capability. With a wide variety of powers and multiple ways to use each, it is easy to forgive the game for erring on the easy side of things.

Final Fantasy Tactics has a battle system that is unsurpassed in variety. The job system is incredibly open and tragically easy to break without intent as characters can use abilities across classes. The story is difficult to follow, but the game allows you to review. The learning curve is steep and the difficulty plateaus for most of the game. The battle system alone is enough to carry the game, but unless the mechanics fascinates enough to pass the remorseless start, one will likely be disappointed.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock provides a slew wildly over-charted chords and general inconsistency in its charting of its decent set of songs. The only new feature of consequence is the guitar battle system which is more a luck-based affair than anything else due to the random attacks doled out to players. Still, it remains an entertaining challenge and good practice for plastic-guitarists, but others need not apply.

Rock Band 2 is an excellent improvement upon the rough systems of the previous title. The World Tour being made single player expanded its longevity ten-fold, but the tour remains as tediously repetitious as before, requiring players to play every song at least thrice if one doesn't export the original game's track list or opt for down-loadable content (which is wonderfully diverse, by the by). The tight engine and Harmonix's amazing support are the best features of this game, but the company no longer supports Rock Band 2.

Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land is an enhanced port of the classic Kirby's Adventure, the first game in which Kirby could gain copy abilities. Despite excellent presentation, tight controls, secrets, and mini-games, it struggles to fill two hours for a single play-through and the tacked on multiplayer options do nothing for the game. This is short, easy, and largely forgettable for experienced gamers, but for children it can be a high-quality introduction to platform games (or video games in general) with its cutes and charms.

Guitar Hero II is bounds better than Guitar Hero. Though the addition of encores is a superfluous addition that only wastes time in the long run, a larger set list, an improved practice mode, two-player simultaneous modes, a vastly improved hammer on system, and superior charting leave little to argue against the upgrade for fans of the original excepting preference of songs. Today, this game is outmoded by other rhythm games except for the guitarist who wishes to test his mettle against Jordan.

Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest is certainly one of the more unusual games one will encounter. The purpose is to become King of the Cubivores by assuming as many different mutations as possible by strategically eating the colored slabs of meat off of other Cubivores. Ultimately, this is an unfortunately linear, rather repetitious, but painfully quirky game. A gamer with a penchant for the unusual will be able to look past Cubivore's short comings, but passive curiosity won't carry through to the end.

Trauma Center: Second Opinion is mostly a port of its DS counterpart. The start dully teaches the basics and introduces the characters, but the pace picks up considerably as the operations move from the mundane to the impossible. Performing virtual surgery is a natural and effective use of the Wii's odd controller and the soap opera story adds a lot of charm to the game. This comes highly recommended to anyone looking for a unique, high-tension experience.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards can provide reasonable challenge to practiced gamers with its nearly mean-spirited hiding places for the titular crystal shards, but the levels themselves tend towards the easy side, perfect for younger gamers. Ultimately, Kirby's ability to combine his copy-powers and the puzzles to solve for crystal shards will only vaguely distract from the slow, floaty controls and the short playtime.

Paper Mario is a whimsical, number-light role-playing-game. Mario frequently receives partners who assist him in puzzles and combat, constantly refreshing the game, and the badge system (allowing Mario to use Badge Points to put on his equipment) is a brilliant way to add depth to an otherwise tired turn-based system. The story is unfortunately basic, particularly in that partners get shoved into the background after their chapter of the game. Though light on challenge and perhaps slightly too long for its simplicity, Paper Mario is not to be missed.

Super Smash Bros. is a wonderful four-player party game with a low barrier for entry, but plenty of depth to separate players. It's frantic pace makes it easily enjoyable for competitive, reflex-based gameplay that holds up to this day. Unfortunately, the game's single-player experience doesn't entertain nearly as well, being far too short and quite easy.