Zelda games are consistently traditional, and that's okay. Nintendo hasn't really changed much about the series since Zelda II, and that was one of the least-popular games in the franchise. Then they went back to the roots and produced Link to the Past, Link's Awakening (my very first video game), Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Oracle of Ages / Seasons, Wind Waker, Four Swords, Minish Cap, Phantom Hourglass, and Twilight Princess. I figure that we can give them a break for Zelda II.

Nintendo's focus on tradition is why I find it so particularly satisfying that Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is such a departure from the usual flow of Zelda games. It's different, but by no means is it a lesser game – in fact, it's great. The story seems to take a back seat to the stylus-based action and the general excitement of uncovering the new region of Hyrule. To be completely honest with you, I think that it works out pretty well that way. It's not as engaging as Ocarina of Time, but do you really expect that out of a handheld version of any video game franchise?

(Okay, God of War: Chains of Olympus was pretty awesome, even compared to the first God of War...but this is frickin' Zelda. Zelda demands perfection.)

Hit the jump and read our full review to find out just exactly why Spirit Tracks provides the Zelda series with some much-needed steam.

If I were to say I had been casually looking forward to the release of Scribblenauts, I'd be delivering an extremely transparent lie. The premise behind this game led to inordinate amounts of fascination and intrigue, and the time I spent with the game earlier this year simply helped to further my excitement.

But ultimately, that's the problem with high expectations. If you set them too high, disappointment is practically an inevitability.

But before I go all gloom-and-doom, it's important to note that my time with Scribblenauts has been a roller coaster ride of enjoyment. Sure, there have been plenty of low points with the title, but I've also had more fun than I can recall with any other handheld game. Moments of frustration have been quickly replaced by hours of elation, and in the end, the promising premise of the game proved fruitful.

Hit the jump for all the juicy, juicy details.

I think mini-games are to video games as french fries are to cheeseburgers. They often compliment a game's core experience with a delicious, crispy break from the main course. Eventually, the minds behind video games thought that these little distractions could be more than just a break from the game. Nintendo made that clear with their charming WarioWare series, a franchise that gave the limelight to these quick time-wasters. With that franchise, the “mini-game compilation” became popular, particularly on handhelds like the Nintendo DS. With its unique features like stylus and touch screen control, the DS made a lot of mini-games more innovative and interesting than they had ever been before. With that in mind, Atlus – a publisher whose focus is usually centered on delivering strategy and role-playing games to the DS – took a shot at this “compilation genre” with their very own title, called 101-in-1: Explosive Megamix.

Believe it or not, there really are 101 different mini-games to play in this title. Some of them are simply Flash games that were rebuilt with the stylus and touch screen mechanics in mind, and others are more unique and fresh. With that in mind, do these 101 distractions deserve your attention? Has Atlus put together a mix that can outdo Nintendo's four-year-old WarioWare: Touched, or do these mini-games give you 101 reasons not to spend your cash on Explosive Megamix?

At twenty cents per game, is the Megamix really Explosive? Hit the jump to find out.

Say what you will about the Japanese (go ahead, I won’t stop you), but they love their storytelling. They enjoy a big long complicated elaborate plotline that you need a flowchart to trace, and they enjoy putting it in any media they can. And if everyone happens to have ridiculous haircuts, inhuman body shapes, and an unheard of amount of baggage…all the better. LuxPain, an adventure game for the DS from Killaware, follows these proud cultural traditions.

What is doesn’t do is provide us with much in terms of playability or quality, a confusing array of mismanaged localization and confounding believability, which muddies what might have been a fine story. It gets points for originality, but otherwise it ends up being pretty pointless.

More after the jump.

When I first heard of Grand Theft Auto:Chinatown Wars, I really wasn't sure what to think of it. While the developers claimed that Chinatown Wars would possess the same heart and soul of the big console brother that I called 2008's Game of the Year, I wasn't sold on many things. Factors like the return to a top-down perspective, a lack of voice acting, and some of the DS-specific touch screen mechanics kept me from being completely faithful to the idea of a successful transition. How could they manage to cram the essence of such a mature, presentation-focused title onto a DS cartridge?

Even with my doubts, I kept my eye out for the little Chinese brother of Grand Theft Auto IV, checking out videos and screenshots as they emerged on the Internet. I thought that the game looked interesting, and had some good ideas in mind. For example; Rockstar decided to port Liberty City from GTAIV and subtly remodeled it to work on the DS. The game's protagonist, Huang Lee, would have to eliminate police cars in order to escape being busted. He would also have to deal drugs to people throughout the city to earn money. Now that Chinatown Wars has launched, how did Rockstar perform in their delivery of the handheld sandbox game? Does Chinatown Wars capture the violent, sarcastic, and satirical essence of the Grand Theft Auto series?

Hit the jump for the low-down on Rockstar's foul-mouthed DS game.

Just as I started to think that the Nintendo DS's library of racing games needed some more Italian dressing, System 3 came around with Ferrari Challenge: Trofeo Pirelli. Basically a port of the PS3 and Wii Ferrari Challenge games, the DS version is a racing game with no real major flaws, but also no real notable features to set it apart from the rest of the genre. It only offers a couple of different modes, and because you are only racing against other Ferraris, the lacking variety becomes noticeable very quickly.

But here's the catch – I found myself enjoying Ferrari Challenge, just a little bit. It was a good friend of mine for several boring nights, when I was too afraid and paranoid to continue playing Dead Space all alone in the dark. It might be nothing but mindless racing, but how great are racing games these days, anyway? To me, they're like politicians. You always hope for their very few mechanics to be unique and interesting, perhaps to inspire a little much-needed change – but usually, they're all the same old thing deep down inside. So when I realized that I was “still playing” Ferrari Challenge in a month like this October has been so far, I gave it a chip of credit.

Vroom vroom. Jump jump.

LOL is just the game for a casual audience just trying to get a use out of their Nintendo DS. Although this wire frame of a game is actually not much of a game, it offers a fun little distraction that will definitely gather together a group of friends, similar to any board game. LOL is all about using your creativity and imagination with the stylus and a canvas to draw whatever it is that the game leader wants you to.

There really isn’t much to LOL. In fact, it is so simple, retailers do not even carry the game – Agetec only sells LOL off of its official website, agetec.com. So sit back and have a laugh with one of the DS’s simplest titles, LOL.

GTG to the next page after the jump.

The problem was, the game was not the greatest in the world because it focused heavily on people playing together. That was difficult when everyone coming to the Crystal Party had to bring their Game Boy Advance and the trusty, oft-used Game Boy Advance – Gamecube Link Cable.

Now that half the world owns a Nintendo DS, all they have to do is buy Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates to enjoy cooperative multiplayer dungeon-crawling action. I would suggest anyone interested in the game at all does so; Ring of Fates is a fantastic game that gets sweeter as you invest more into it. It is also one of the best ways to play DS with friends.

It’s all crystal after the jump.

I was a big fan of Ninja Gaiden. As a result, I was happy to hear Itagaki was testing the series on the Nintendo DS with Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (huh; look at that, another DS game with "DS" in its acronym). Dragon Sword is a game that mixes a lot of Ninja Gaiden with a lot of Nintendo DS. Fundamentally, it is a smooth transition. Ninja Gaiden was taken from its original succes on the Xbox and made to a cohesive DS version.

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword is one of the few games to use the stylus control mechanics effectively, at least for the most part. Ryu Hayabusa is controlled almost completely with the stylus, and this results in some interesting gameplay situations. Although the feeling is a little different, it is clear that you are playing Ninja Gaiden when you turn your DS sideways to play Dragon Sword.

Beware, however: Dragon Sword can be an awkward game, and its stylus-only/sideways-DS design should be a clear indicator of that. Not all Ninja Gaiden fans are going to enjoy playing this game, but some of its mechanics are definitely solid attempts at bringing the series to the DS, and that counts for a lot.

Learn the ways of a handheld ninja after the jump.

We need to talk.  I just finished Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, the newly released fourth game of the vaunted Ace Attorney series, and I don’t know what to say.  Your first Ace Attorney game, Phoenix Wright, was a fantastic, novel game with a great plot.  Justice for All, the second in the series, was a bit worse, with most of the cases being merely decent.  However, the game’s final case was amazing, easily one of the top three cases ever.  That case kept the game from being a letdown, with JFA overall being worse than the first but not by much.  Finally came Trials and Tribulations, a triumph on par with the first in the series.  With the Ace Attorney series sporting such a fantastic track record, I was more excited about Apollo Justice than any of the Ace Attorney games before.  After all, this was to be a brand new chapter in the franchise, right?  The Phoenix Wright plot arc was complete, you had a killer concept, and this was your first AA game not made on the GBA.  It looked like all the elements were there with nothing to hold you back from making the greatest Ace Attorney game ever.  So how did Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney end up such a disappointment?

 I think much of the reason this pains me so is because your general story concept for this game was so great.  The player is Apollo Justice, rookie attorney and fan of the great lawyer god Phoenix Wright – except that seven years ago Phoenix was stripped of his attorney’s badge, now forced to play the piano at a Russian restaurant to pay the bills.  What happened to our favorite character?  What event could have happened to turn the man we came to know and love into bitter exile?  Also, since when did he have a daughter?  How could any fan of the Ace Attorney series not salivate when imagining the possibilities inherent in such a premise?  Yet somehow you guys turned what could have been the greatest Ace Attorney plot ever into an anticlimactic letdown.  When I said “anticlimactic,” I meant that literally.  Your climactic case, where there is a great surprising unexpected twist and an extremely satisfying end, is at the beginning of the game!  Everything afterwards feels flat compared to the excitement that defending Phoenix Wright against a murder charge.

 Keep reading, Capcom.  There's plenty more after the jump.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a very difficult game to pin down in any way.  It’s hard to categorize.  It’s hard to describe.  Most of all, it’s hard to really understand just why this game is so much fun.  A puzzle and adventure tag-team equal in greatness to duos like peanut butter and chocolate or chips and salsa, Professor Layton is a truly wonderful intellectual duet of fun.

Just what is Professor Layton and the Curious Village?  Developed by RPG uber-studio Level 5, Layton is a mediocre adventure game combined with brain-twisters, some of which are hundreds of years old.  While this most likely sounds like a recipe for monotony, rest assured such is not the case.  Though both aspects of Layton would be undesirable individually, together you get a mesh of gameplay that will grip you and leave you opening up your DS during red lights and other short pauses, hoping to complete another of Layton’s challenging puzzles.

Hit the jump for more brain-bending fun.

The Advance Wars series is well known for two things: well-balanced, fun, turn-based tactical gameplay and a cast of characters who seem to be completely oblivious to the horrors of war.  Developer Intelligent Systems set out to change that perception with their new installment, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, and for the most part their effort was a success.  They managed to keep most of the fun gameplay, while completely overhauling the look and feel of the game. 

However, it wasn’t a complete victory; while excising the series’ absurd views of death and destruction, they also removed many of the best features found in the previous installments.  The end result is a game that while actually playing better than previous iterations, somehow manages to be an inferior product.

The full review's after the jump.