Pokemon is a hell of a drug. This may sound silly, but if you boil anything down to its simplest form so that it amounts to little more than advanced rock-scissors-paper, a thinly veiled plot, and the collection and training of mythical creatures, you’d have the very addictive Pokemon, which has carved a very profitable niche for itself. It’s no surprise, then, that while the formula has been tweaked and perfected over the years, other would-be contenders want to cash in on the success and get a share of the dollars. Enter Monster Racers.

I choose you winged lion!

While developer Koei is probably best known for its action-orientated Dynasty Warriors series, the upcoming game, Monster Racers, uses many of the mechanics found in collection and training role-playing games. The game is split into a couple of distinctive parts, and when you’re not hunting or putting your monsters through their paces doing star jumps, you’ll pit them against each other in a supersimple 2D side-scrolling racer.

As is explained in the game’s text-driven introduction, you’re interested in becoming the world’s best monster racer. Naturally, it’s no easy feat, and you’ll need to first qualify for your monster license. It’s here we meet the archetypal sidekicks; the scared first-timer; the cocky young upstart; and the professional monster wrangler, Santos, the Silver Seven Racer team member who everyone admires and is roadblocking your rise to glory. Even without taking on Santos, we can hazard a guess at how it pans out, and you’ll soon be off and racing.

Luckily for us, the monsters we’re going to death race are willing participants with little desire other than to be trained, leveled up, and put into competition against each other. Like other similar games, the monsters you’ll find and catch are based on several real-world element types, each with its own distinct advantage on certain course surfaces and against other foes. Your job is to find the right beast for the job and use it accordingly.

While we had a quick run with the RPG, the meat and potatoes of Monster Racers is in, funnily enough, racing. Controls are about as basic as they come, ditching the DS’s touch screen in favor of using the D pad to control your directional movement, while the face buttons toggle your jump, turbo boost, and special attack. These special attacks work by picking up power-up objects scattered around tracks. Platforms can be scaled with a jump to avoid attacks from behind or gain a tactical advantage. Higher platforms appeared to contain better items like offensive bonuses, such as fireballs, invincibility stars, and larger amounts of turbo boost, though you’ll risk forfeiting your lead by chasing them. Turbo boosts freeze the action on your screen briefly, surrounding your character in a glowing outline while moving at a significantly faster clip for a few seconds. Turbo is a great way to catch up to faster monsters and can be used in midair to avoid hazards, such as pits and walls. During our play, we saw sandy deserts, green grassy rainforest environments, and a snowy zone that caused our pace to slow as we collected frost.

Multiplayer racing is available and supports up to four players locally, while online play through Nintendo’s Wi-Fi connection service will also be present when the game launches sometime this year.

If your idea of a good time is capturing native wildlife and jumping through hoops, but you’re craving a little more side-scrolling action in your RPGs, Monster Racers might be right up your alley.

Check out the source at GameSpot

In Ubisoft’s upcoming third-person action game, C.O.P The Recruit, you play as a Dan Miles, a former street racer turned crime fighter in the Criminal Overturn Program, or C.O.P. for short. That might be the worst code-name for a fictional law enforcement division in the history of the world, but C.O.P. The Recruit has plenty to be excited about, including a big city to explore, some interesting controls, and some of the best 3D graphics we’ve seen on the handheld to date. We recently had a chance to play a limited demo of the game, which is due for release late this year.

Shoot first, ask questions later in Ubisoft’s upcoming third-person action game, C.O.P. The Recruit for DS.

The two-mission demo started off with an introductory cutscene showing a bit of Dan’s illegal street racing past and his recruitment into the C.O.P. After that, the gameplay kicked in as we first guided Dan around the world with the D pad and had him enter his squad car with a press of the X button. The car controls were easy enough to get a handle on, with the B button used to accelerate, the A button for brakes, and the Y button for the hand brake.

After a bit of driving–and taking in some of the huge city and busy traffic that’s rendered with impressive detail in the game–we got our first mission. Our informant, Crimp, tipped us off to the presence of a known criminal named Willis hanging out at a local illegal casino uptown. After making our way up to the spot–the spot was marked on the minimap showed in the DS’s lower screen–we snuck in the back door of the building and immediately found ourselves in a firefight.

The shooting controls differ considerably from the standard movement, but they are easy to learn. To ready your weapon, you simply tap on the weapon icon located in the upper-right corner of the touch screen. This shifts the perspective slightly to an over-the-shoulder view and brings up a targeting icon onscreen. You still use the D pad to walk forward or backward and strafe left or right. To aim your weapon, you can move the stylus around the touch screen, which also turns out to be a handy way to steer Dan as he maneuvers his way around the level. Finally, to fire your weapon, you can either double-tap the screen or pull the left or right trigger. Reloading is handled automatically, and you can switch among the nine weapons available to you (provided you have ammo of course) by simply bringing up a menu and tapping on the weapon you wish to use.

After clearing out the first room with the help of some always-handy exploding barrels, we made our way to the security room and used the casino’s security cameras to spot Willis hanging out in the casino. We then guided Dan into the casino and had him approach Willis. We’d like to tell you that Willis came to his senses, turned his life around at that moment, and lived on the straight and narrow for the rest of his natural-born days. But, you know that didn’t happen. Instead, Willis decided to turn the casino into a war zone, and, as a result, Willis had to die.

After dispatching Willis and his cronies, Dan made his way out of the casino and got another tip to check out Willis’ safe house to find a clue to some sort of puzzle (presumably this mystery will be better explained in the full version of the game). The only problem was this: Someone has set the safe house on fire and Dan had minutes before the whole place and the (all-important) clue was burnt to a crisp. After zipping uptown and entering the building, Dan used a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze, only to find the portion of the clue he was looking for: some sort of schematic drawing.

With those missions complete, the demo of C.O.P. The Recruit was done, so we’re still left with more questions than answers regarding the game’s plot. What we can say is that the controls are fun, the city is huge, and the game is a graphical treat so far. Here’s hoping C.O.P. lives up to this promising start when it’s released later this year; expect more from us on the game in the coming months.

Check out the source at GameSpot

Harvest Moon is no stranger to handheld platforms, and Sunshine Island represents the latest step for the series on the Nintendo DS. The core is the same as always: try to run a farm while balancing an active social life. However, Natsume has tweaked some things and added a few new features that should appeal to fans of the series.

Right off the bat, we noticed that the map displayed on the top screen revealed that the world was divided into a series of islands. Each island is home to a unique feature that enables you to perform special activities, such as mining ore, encountering unique animals, or putting the local harvest sprites to work on your farm. However, not every island is available from the get-go; instead, some serve as a reward for finding something called sun stones, which are awarded for helping the local villagers with their daily tasks. The game also features competitions, such as a Frisbee-catching contest, that you can enter your pets in to earn special prizes, such as upgraded tools to improve your farming efficiency.

Perhaps most importantly, Natsume has listened to the touch-screen-based complaints of the last DS game and enabled the main character to be controlled with the control pad as well, though touch-screen controls remain for those who prefer them.

It’s difficult to gauge how much the added features will enhance the experience, but we’re curious to find out when the final version hits the Nintendo DS this July.

Check out the source at GameSpot

The minifigs are busy at E3 this year. Lego Rock Band is bringing the iconic figures to the music scene, but that isn’t their only new game. Lego Battles is a Nintendo DS-exclusive real-time strategy game, and though it’s geared toward younger players who may not have grown up on Dune II and Command and Conquer, it has the same insatiable charm that makes the Lego-themed games so consistently fun.

Three of the most popular Lego themes are present in Lego Battles, and there are separate campaigns associated with each one. The three themes are castle, pirate, and space, and each has its own unique characters and buildings to make it distinct. For instance, the castle theme has a king, and you can build farms to feed your troops. There are also cutscenes that have the same silent-joke style from the Lego Star Wars and Indiana Jones games. It’s a nice atmosphere and easily recognizable for anyone who grew up with the building blocks.

The gameplay is very similar to other games in the genre. You can select your troops on the touch screen, either individually or in a group if you draw a box around them, and you can point them to various places on the map. Each minifig has its own specialty. A builder erects new buildings, whereas a soldier will use his sword to settle problems. The maps are initially covered in a fog of war, but as you walk into each new area, it opens up, so you can find abandoned buildings or waiting ambushes as you spread your reach.

The combat is very simple. Just point at the enemy you want to target and watch your troops swarm around it. Each theme has its own hero class, which gives you unique abilities to play around with. The king is the hero of the castle theme, and he can give his troops more speed or health, among other things, to make battles more interesting. In addition to pure conquest, there is mild exploration. Blue Lego blocks are hidden across the battlefield, and you can use your collected goodies to unlock more characters and building types. There is also a multiplayer mode so you can test your real-time strategizing against a friend.

The intuitive controls and funny cutscenes give Lego Battles a lot of potential. We were told about naval and sea battles as well, but they were not available in the demo. But the idea of taking to the skies atop a dragon is hard to resist. Lego Battles is scheduled for release later this year, so we’ll have to stay tuned to see how it shapes up.

Check out the source at GameSpot

New York Times bestselling author James Patterson has his finger in a lot of pies. With 52 novels under his belt, he has dedicated a lot of time to various adaptations for film, TV, and video games. The upcoming Women’s Murder Club: Crimes of Passion, announced for the DS and DSi at Nintendo’s Tuesday press conference, is based on Patterson’s highly successful series of books about four women who dedicate their time to solving crimes. We tried our hand at being a detective at THQ’s booth during E3 2009.

Who’s Making This Game:

Women’s Murder Club: Crimes of Passion was developed by Seattle-based Griptonite Games and is being published by THQ. The game’s producer, Adam Affruniti, told us Patterson was involved in all aspects of the game’s eight-month development, including the decision to exclude the fourth member of the Women’s Murder Club from the game’s story. The game is targeted at women between 18 and 49 years, but THQ is not hiding the fact that they think everyone who is a fan of Patterson’s work will play this.

What The Game Looks Like:

This is an action mystery game in the same manner as Hotel Dusk and is heavily story-driven. The game’s environments range from crime scene exteriors to restaurants and cafe interiors, and its visual style is realistic, with a lot of attention to detail on objects and faces. For example, players will be required to medically examine a human body, which is visually impressive up close.

What There Is To Do:

There are three stories in the game, each played from the perspective of one of the three main characters: Lindsay (detective), Claire (medical examiner), and Cindy (news reporter). Each story has its own mystery, but we are told they are all connected in some way. The game is broken up between dialogue-driven story sequences and gameplay that involves analyzing crime scenes and evidence, finding clues, solving puzzles, and conducting witness interviews. There are also minigames that help to unlock clues throughout the game. In the demo we played, we had to analyze a crime scene under a bridge with a variety of different objects to examine, including a car, a basketball, a handbag, and a hedge. We were then transported back to the lab where we had to examine a body, discovering clues that could help us understand why the victim was murdered. Throughout the game, you will have to report back to your boss in between looking for clues, as well as regroup with the other members of the Women’s Murder Club, who will help with unsolved clues. The gameplay lasts roughly four hours.

How The Game Is Played:

The game is played with the DS and DSi stylus by simply touching the area of the screen that you want to examine or activate (for example, during the dialogue). The game is played mainly holding the console on its side, with the bottom screen serving as the action screen and the top screen as the information screen. However, sometimes this will change. In the demo we played, the top screen held a list of items that we had to find at the crime scene displayed in the bottom screen. To find items, we simply touched the screen to move and zoom and then touched a particular item when we located it.

The game also has DSi functionality, which includes eight mini-stories that use the console’s many features. For example, one of the stories requires players to use the DSi camera to take photos of various faces, which are then included in the story. DSi players will start out with just two of these mini-stories, and must unlock the other six as they play the game’s main story.

What We Didn’t See:

We played a very short demo that included analyzing a crime scene, examining a body, and having a short conversation with our character’s boss. We didn’t get to see the game from the perspective of the other two characters, nor did we see more environments or anything more substantial relating to the main storyline.

What They Say:

This game will appeal to all gamers, and there are plans to make more in the series.

What We Say:

We couldn’t deduce much from our short hands-on demo other than the fact that the game looks good, and it sounds promising in terms of delivering a captivating story and challenging puzzles. We were also keen to check out some of the minigames mentioned. There is no doubt that this game will appeal to those who are fans of the portable mystery genre, but just how exciting the gameplay will get we can’t tell.