More Brain Training For The DS

Dr.Kawashima has been immensely popular throughout Japan, America and Europe with the first outing permanently being in the UK top 10. The sequel to the first one was well recieved in Japan and has now finally been released in Europe.

The game features the same simple interface and graphics as its predecessor but every single game is brand new, featuring many different ways of training your brain which you wouldent have thought would help out your brain. My personal favourites is Memory Calculation and Masterpiece recital. Memory calculation will show you a number then scrub it out and you have to times it or add it to another number. When you do it the second number will be scrubbed out and you have to remember that one. Masterpiece recital is very different, It has virtual piano and it will go through a piece of music and you need to press the key's in time to the notes. You can also unlock a hard mode which is verry hard.

Sudoku is still avalible in this one and is exactly the same as the first game, just different squares. Basically more brain training is more classic brain training and will still keep you entertained .. for a while.


Score Breakdown
Graphics: 1/10 - No real graphics apart from his floating head. Its no Big Brain Academy.
Sound: 6/10 - Classic soundtrack and normal sounds but Masterpiece recital has an amazing score.
Gameplay: 7/10 - Good puzzles and tests but you'll find a lot of them too hard to bother with.
Lastability: 7/10 - After you unlocked everything you'll only pick it up once in a while to check your brain. It'll only last if you like rigorous puzzles

Overall: 7/10 - Classic Kawashima but most of the new games are too hard and complicated so you'll be left going "Whats the point" and putting the original on again.


Quick Fact: The old "Hold select and press Brain Age Test to choose what games to do" cheat still works ..

Ace Combat X For The PSP

The PSP version of the Ace Combat series looked like it would be like all the others - an exciting flight sim that lets you shoot down planes and shoot boats in the sea. But looks can be deceptive.

There seems to be no storyline whatsoever and the echoey plain voice we're all used to on the mission objective screen sounds more bored than any other outing from the series. The controls get some getting used to because they dont always work how you think they will so you'll have to mess around with them to work them out and get used to them.

You see the action from a first person view as normal but everything looks very jaggady. The actioncamera when you finish a mission or die looks good, not great but good. To be quiet honest if you use custom firmware then you are much better off not buying this at all and just ripping the PS1 Ace Combats and playing them via the official PS1 emulator because they will look the same and you wont need to spend any money on getting it if you own them allready.


Score Breakdown
Graphics: 4/10 - PS1 Graphics at the least
Sound: 6.5/10 - Good soundtrack but its not as enjoyable as others
Gameplay: 8/10 - Classic gameplay, only hindered by bad controls
Lastability: 7/10 - Some hard missions and new planes to unlock give you some urge to play it

Overall: 7/10 - A rental if you like plane sims, only buy it if you are a fan of the series.


Quick Fact: To make my PS1 games into PBP eboots I use the popstation GUI software PSX2PSP

Burnout Dominator For The PSP

Racing games on the PSP are very common place now and each tries to bring something new to the genre. After several home console editions of Burnout it took the leap to the PSP.

Firstly I want to get the bad out of the game before I tell you about the good. There is no online play. After playing Burnout Online on the PS2 I thought it would definitely be online seeing how it would be simple to implement. Instead of infrastructure play there is LAN / adhoc play. Im not sure if there is game sharing but if there isnt then its a disappointment indeed.

There is an online feature though. You can upload your scores to the Burnout website and new tracks will be avalible via the game. They are also a decent size [around 15mb each] so wont clog up your memory stick.

The gameplay and graphics make the experience enjoyable

The gameplay is the same as the other modern Burnout games, You do different tracks around drifting or takeouts [as shown above] to unlock new series' and cars. Its a perfect combination for any game.

The soundtrack uses the classic EA TRAX system where EA uses actual music that they've purchased the rights for. Most of the songs are enjoyable and fun to ride to. The only problems ive had is playing at 1am and for the spanish version of Avril Lavigne's girlfriend to start blaring out.


Score Breakdown
Graphics: 8/10 - For a PSP game it handles amazingly with so many buildings and traffic on the roads at the same time with no visible slowdown.
Sound: 8/10 - Normal car sounds and an enjoyable soundtrack that will keep you entertained
Gameplay: 9/10 - So many tracks and ways of playing will make you want to play it for a long time and will keep you entertained
Lastability: 6.5/10 - After you've unlocked all the cars and tracks theres no online play left and you can only play against other people that you know. But racing games do have a good lastability as you can always try getting a bigger score to upload.

Overall: 8.5/10 - It will keep you very entertained and is one of those games every racing fan and PSP owner should give a try


Quick Fact: The screenshot that is above was created by me using the capture plugin for Dark Alex's custom firmware