Red Steel is an exclusive Wii launch title that takes full advantage of the innovative Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers and puts players directly into the action-packed first-person experience with the weapon in their hand - literally. An engaging storyline unfolds as you learn that your fiancé has been kidnapped and her father - a Japanese mafia kingpin - murdered by a rival gang. The only way to save your loved one and defend your honor is to journey from Los Angeles to Japan and confront the Tokyo underworld. By learning the ancient art of Japanese fighting with your katana and the focused precision of modern firearms, you will progress and adapt yourself to this foreign environment, where skills alone may not guarantee you victory.

Ubisoft gives players unparalleled control in this innovative Wii title.

Can Scott defeat the powerful Yakuza? View larger.

Use the Wii Remote to execute delicate but deadly sword moves. View larger.

Your pistol is directly controlled by the Wii Remote while you aim on-screen. View larger.

Firearms rotate to match your particular aiming style. View larger.

An epic tale awaits
Red Steel is an action-packed first-person experience for the Nintendo Wii that will put the weapon in your hands like never before. The engaging storyline opens in Los Angeles, as Scott Monroe and his fiancé, miyu, arrive at a high-class restaurant. Scott is to meet Miyu's father, Isao Sato, an important business man from Tokyo. Suddenly, the restaurant erupts in a hail of gunfire as a group of Japanese mobsters (known as Yakuza) attack and try to kidnap Sato. Scott manages to save his future father-in-law. The Yakuza attackers run off, taking Miyu instead.

Scott soon learns that Isao Sato is the Oyabun, the Godfather of one of Tokyo's largest Yakuza families. The attack in the restaurant marks the end of a truce between rival clans that Sato had guaranteed. The Yakuza wanted to kill Sato and find his sword, the Katana Giri. The legendary sword was once used to punish dishonorable Godfathers, and has since become a symbol of peace. Sato was mortally wounded in the attack, but before he dies, he passes the sword to Scott in exchange for a promise to rescue and take care of his daughter. Scott has no chioce but to head to Japan and try to find Miyu.

Once in Japan, Scott seeks out Otori, a reformed Yakuza and an expert in the art of sword fighting. A friend to Sato and a man of honor and tradition, Otori reluctantly agrees to help. Otori trains Scott in the art of the sword. Meanwhile, another man named Harry Tanner teaches Scott all about the Japanese Underworld. Harry runs a night club popular with the Yakuza, and he uses his many connections to help Scott on his quest.

Eventually, Scott uncovers the man behind the attack of his father-in-law and the kidnapping of his fiance, a power-hungry young Oyabun named Tokai. With his mistress, Mama San (the head of the Geisha district and a female gang of Yakuza), Tokai seeks to take control of the entire Tokyo mafia. However, his real intentions are much darker and more mysterious.

With Otori's help, Scott must convince the Godfathers of all the remaining clans to join him in stopping Tokai. Kenzo, leader of the Financial Clan, Tetsuo, boss of the Game Fighting Clan, along with the heads of all the other clans - all powerful men, all harbor their own agendas and ambitions. Scott must convince them all to join him in stopping Tokai, but who can he really trust?

Control the action like never before
Red Steel uses the Nintendo Wii controller in ways not previously seen in a console action game. By turning the Wii Remote itself into your gun or blade, players can shoot and slice their way through Red Steels ample story mode. When first equipped with a firearm, the Wii Remote will automatically sense the location and direction of your hand and aim the on-screen weapon similarly. As you rotate your wrist to add flair and style while picking off enemies, the on-screen weapon will mimic your movements.

Equipping the sword is even more impressive. When Scott has the sword at his disposal, the Wii Remote becomes a sharp Kitana as players literally slash at their enemies and run them through. The play style is incredibly immersive, and lends a realistic element to action games that isn't often seen. As Scott becomes more comfortable with his weapons, so too does the player, and the moves they can pull off with the Katana improve in both accuracy and speed.

Multiplayer swordplay
As if an impressive story line and immersive control weren't enough, Red Steel also boasts a number of local multiplayer modes. In these modes, players can challenge friends to split screen battles in various locales to see who the real master is. Try a sword only battle royale without cover and the ability to heal. Or, set up a tactical battle with pistols and flanking schemes for you and 3 of your closest enemies. Whether teaming up or going "every man for himself," Red Steel multiplayer offers a fun diversion to the title's main story.

Red Steel is an impressive Wii launch title from one of the most innovative publishers making console games today. From its opening cinematic to its realistic and quick-paced swordplay, Red Steel is a riveting and engrossing title worthy of Wii owner's time and attention. After a few hours of mowing down enemies with your side-mounted pistol and whisper-quiet Katana slices, you'll wonder why action titles aren't all this simple and fun to play.

If you don't recognise the name, this is the sequel to Mario Smash Football on the GameCube (the name will likely change for the UK release). The original was one of the hidden gems on Nintendo's previous console, but this new game is not planning to be quite so coy. For a start it will be one of, if not the, first Wii games to be fully playable online, as Mario and his usual company of heroes and villains take to the pitch for some truly bizarre 5-a-side action. Although the basic rules of football are observed this is no serious simulation, with special moves galore and lots of Mario Kart style power-ups to pick up along the way.

The game uses the analogue stick on the nunchuck to move, with the Wii remote itself being used to tackle by gesturing in the appropriate direction. There's no such thing as a foul in this game so not only do you take possession via a range of painful looking barges but you can also try and push an opposing player off the side of the pitch and into an electrified fence. Other elements not usually featured in the beautiful game include the "mega strike", which is a special move unique to each captain and which creates an automatic shot on goal which the other player has to save with the Wii remote. With football games becoming ever more serious and complicated this should please both sports fans and those simply looking for the next big multiplayer hit.
HARRISON DENT

The epic story of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker continues as Link finds himself lost and alone in unknown seas in a new adventure. Featuring intuitive touch-screen controls and innovative puzzles, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass offers new challenges for fans of the series and an easy-to-grasp introduction for gamers new to The Legend of Zelda. But time grows short, and only the Phantom Hourglass can buy Link the minutes he?ll need to survive. Many months have passed since the events of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and Link, Tetra and Tetra?s band of pirates have set sail in search of new lands. They come across a patch of ocean covered in a dense fog, in which they discover an abandoned ship. Tetra falls into danger when she explores the ship alone, and Link falls into the ocean when he attempts to rescue her. When he washes up unconscious on the shores of a mysterious island, he is awakened by the sound of a fairy?s voice. With the aid of this fairy, he sets off to find Tetra ? and his way back to the seas he once knew. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is controlled almost entirely by the stylus. Using the touch screen, players direct Link?s movements and attacks: A sweeping motion triggers Link?s spin attack and tapping characters makes Link speak with them. The stylus controls offer a more intuitive means of playing the game and open up new possibilities for puzzle solving. The game action takes place primarily on the touch screen, with a map on the top screen. However, the player can inspect the map on the touch screen and make notes using the stylus. The notes on these maps are saved for review on the top screen during game play. Players use the map to chart courses for their ships, too. Using the stylus to draw a path through the islands, players set their ships? courses. Then, as the ships automatically follow the paths drawn, players can control their ships? cannons to target oncoming enemies. In dun

You might not see the supporting merchandise so much nowadays but Pokemon is still the most successful games franchise in history. Diamond and Pearl sold 5 million copies in Japan in under three months and 1 million in America in just one month, breaking all records for the year and the series. At first sight though this looks disappointingly similar to the existing games, with only a subtle 3D effect for the game world and largely static 2D battles. However the gameplay has undergone a complete overhaul, adding numerous new features and reintroducing others from Gold/Silver/Crystal, that had previously been removed.

The basics are still the same though, as you venture out into the world (called Sinnoh this time) in an attempt to catalogue each and every pokemon and battle the evil Team Galactic. Catching and training a pokemon for combat also works the same as before, although beauty and talent contests have been greatly expanded for those that prefer as little violence as possible. The game includes a day and night cycle, which severely impacts the appearance of pokemon, and you are given a new gadget called a poketch which starts as a simple watch but can be upgraded to everything from a scanner to a map. Secret bases are back and considerably more sophisticated than before but the most important new feature by far is the online mode. You can now trade, chat and battle with fans from around the world - proving that progress is not always just a case of better graphics.
Harrison Dent

In a nutshell:
The greatest strategy game in portable history maneuvers onto the DS with new units, new COs (commanding officers), new game modes and the most addictive gameplay this side of Tetris. It may not have much in the looks department but in gameplay terms this is the supermodel of turn-based combat.

The lowdown:
Mixing chess-like complexities with an anime plotline, Advance Wars is one of gaming's most unlikely heroes. This marks the most significant overhaul of the series yet with six new units and dozens of new features, including a real-time mode. The stylus control and dual screen display are really just gimmicks though, and it's the new dual strike attacks that are the most interesting idea, with COs double teaming for some battle turning super moves. COs can also gain "experience", as in a role-playing game, allowing you to fine tune your army's abilities like never before.

Most exciting moment:
A tense four way battle against friends that ends in a double whammy duel strike from hell.

Since you ask:
The Advance Wars series has been going since 1988 in Japan, where it's known as Famicom Wars. The first to make it to the UK was Advance Wars 1 on the GBA in 2002. Advanced or not, war has historically been viewed as a bad thing.

The bottom line:
The best DS game yet and probably the best Advance Wars ever.
Harrison Dent

For anyone buying a Nintendo DS, Mario 64 is the most obvious first purchase. The main single player mode is essentially the same as the original Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64, albeit with 30 more stars to collect from the game's myriad levels. Back in 1997 it was the first truly successful 3D platform game and today its superlative level design still puts most new games to shame.

The most obvious difference with this new DS version is that you can now control Wario, Yoshi and Luigi in the game, as well as just Mario. There are also new and more powerful power-ups, such as the ability to turn Mario into an inflatable balloon, which make some of the hardest sections a little easier.

The most controversial change to the game though is the control system. With no analogue controller you have the choice to use just the D-pad or the stylus. The latter works best, but still seems an obvious compromise over the original version. A far more convincing showcase of the DS's touch screen can be seen with 36 different mini-games, many of which are surprisingly addictive. There's a multiplayer mode for four people to play wirelessly, which although a little simplistic is impressive for the fact that only one person needs a copy of the game to play it.

Although it does at times seem a little obvious that this was not a game originally designed with the DS in mind, it's still an enormous amount of fun and manages to showcase just about everything the new console is capable of. —David Jenkins

There's always a huge ranges of games from Japan that are never released in the West, but usually there's a very good reason for that: either they're not very good or the concepts and references just get lost in translation. One of the few exceptions is Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. The original name translates as Go! Fight! Cheer Squad and involves a trio of male cheerleaders trying to help ordinary citizens in a variety of bizarre situations. Although many loved the soundtrack it didn't really translate for a global audience so this is the Westernised remake.

Each of the game's missions are portrayed on the top screen via some gorgeously drawn comic book sequences involving such calls for help as a shipwrecked Paris Hilton lookalike and a weatherwoman trying to make it sunny. At this point the EBA (now part of a secret government agency) burst onto the bottom screen and you have to help them dance sufficiently well to then encourage their charge to victory.

This is essentially a rhythm action game where you tap sequenced markers in time with the music on the touch screen or occasionally follow a slider along on its path or spin a wheel. You have a steadily decreasing power bar, which is only kept at bay by successful hitting your marks. The way this integrates with the music, the agents dancing and the comic strip is wonderful and assuming you like enough of the songs (everything from Sk8er Boi to YMCA) this is the best music game on any system.
Harrison Dent