Luxor: Pharaoh's Challenge for the PSP

Sometimes it's the simplicity of the game that makes it popular. Yahoo! Games, for example, has a lot of shoot 'em ups, typing, and matching games that are so easy and yet so addictive. I should know; I have seen some officemates who immediately switch to these games after the office hours are done.

Luxor follows along the lines of simplistic yet addictive gameplay. The rules are really quite simple: shoot colored balls into a moving caravan of these and try to match at least three like-colored balls to eliminate these. Exterminate the line being pushed by a scarab before it can enter the cavern at the end of the path.

The scarabs are a dead giveaway in the game's theme: Egyptian of the ancient kind. If you choose the Adventure mode, the game spins a story about a lady who died and whose soul was about to be weighed against a feather. Actually, I'm not sure how the game correlates with the story at all, so I skipped most of the narration (tee-hee!). The animation is great, the sound effects and music match the game nicely. Along the way, you get blessings that aid you in conquering the levels. However, you can only activate three blessings at a time.

The PC version is a lot cooler graphics-wise but the portability of the PSP version is a winner. Luxor saved me from a lot of boredom during times when I am in a queue in the bank or having my papers processed.

Diner Dash for the PSP

Sometimes gamers want something to while away their time while falling in line for the ATM or at the supermarket, and it just doesn't feel right to be starting out with a campaign that will outlast the queue. Well, here's a game that can fulfill that requirement.

Diner Dash for the PSP involves making customers happy as you, the waiter (well, ok, waitress... wish we can change the character gender), ummm, waits on them. You can finish a segment of your shift in under 5 minutes.

The game is rather simple, actually. Just serve customers and make them happy. But is it that simple when the peak times arrive? It becomes a challenge when you have to seat the power lunch crowd who likes their peace and quiet with the celfone-yapping dudes and families with brawling kids. And then there's the food critic who would love to write about your service, be it a praise or a splash of cold reality.

Gaming is supposed to be a relaxing pasttime, but you will soon find yourself engrossed with Diner Dash, and hoping that the next round will have better tips.

Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions

My first foray into Strategy Role Playing Game (SRPG) was Vandal Hearts for the Playstation console. I loved how the characters can move about a 3D terrain, making skill, strategy, and strength work together to win the battle an exciting challenge. After Vandal Hearts, I tried Final Fantasy Tactics. It was one deep and engaging game, one that I truly loved. Why, even my nieces played Tactics. I think they even played it twice! Ummm... I did too, actually.

So why play it again on the PSP? Well, actually I had been delaying playing this game because aside from the gorgeous animation that's new to this remake, what else is there? So I settled for Jean d' Arc. But that was over with too soon, and I was back to Tactics.

Man, this game still has it! And whereas I had relied before on leveling-up Monks, Mages, and Dragoons, I am now going for Samurais, Ninjas, and Bards. I have been playing this game for over 54 hours now and I still see a lot of satisfying gameplay ahead.

A colleague and I had been doing multiplayer melees and rendezvous battles as well and it's sweet! Works well. The cooperative mode is especially challenging with its leveled-up opponents. Final Fantasy Tactics is truly one of the best SRPG games around.

WipeOut Pulse

I have been a fan of WipeOut ever since it came out on the PlayStation console. The game is simple enough: ride in one of these hovercrafts and race against time over futuristic tracks. But there's more to it than racing; on the tracks are symbols which you can use to speed up, or arm your vehicle for defense or attack. The addition of this "battle" element and randomly getting these adds to the strategy of the game. And then you have to win the races in order to unlock additional tracks.

It has a nice line of background Techno music as well. I played the PlayStation version plugged into my 5-channel surround sound system and it was a thrill ride! I played by my lonesome, as it was essentially a single-player game.

The inclusion of the WipeOut series to the PSP games arsenal is a welcome addition. Indeed, the animation is fluid, the music is cool, and the weapons are just as deadly. And, it's multiplayer! I have been coaxing my friends to install WipeOut so we can try the multiplayer mode but we have yet to test it out.

If you are a fan of racing games, WipeOut will surely be a nice title to add to your list. Heck, I am not a racing game fan at all but I enjoy playing WipeOut. It's like Podracing in Tatooine!

related link and photo credit: WipeOut Pulse official website

Jeanne d'Arc (PSP)

I have always loved playing RPG games ever since Final Fantasy VII dominated the market in the 90s during the PS1 era. I fancied these turn-based games because it has an element of strategy to it. Shortly afterwards, I was able to play Final Fantasy Tactics. It was an even more engaging game as players are able to explore a 3-dimensional world through a checkered terrain similar to chess. Worth mentioning is Vandal Hearts as well, with its beautiful animation, engaging storyline, and character development.

I thought demand for these types of games have died down. But I was pleasantly surprised to discover the game Jeanne d'Arc (that's in French), also known as Joan of Arc or Maid of Orleans to most of us. Yes, the game is based on the national heroine of France, a simple, countryside lady who, by divine intervention, led the French to many successful battles against the English. To many who are familiar with the story of Joan, she was captured by the English and burned to the stake with heresy as the crime when she was just 19.

If this were so and the game was an adaptation of her life, then the ending would have been quite predictable, right? Well... the game "borrows" the real-life Jeanne's character but the story is loosely based on historical facts. It has some twists and turns that takes a jab at history while at the same time adding elements of fantasy (such as demons and armlets with mystical powers) and magic that are intrinsic elements of the gameplay.

The best part of this strategy RPG is that it is played out on battlefields reminiscent of Vandal Hearts. You control as many as 7 characters with various jobs, depending on the weapons they are able to muster. However, unlike other RPGs where only Mages and Wizards can work magic, in this game anyone can cast spells aside from their special abilities.

I have been playing the game for quite some time now and found it truly engaging. While the level of customization is limited to equipping weapons and skills, you can mix elements together with the help of the frog character Cuisse) which results in a new, more powerful element. And I am quite sure there are hidden items throughout the game but I am doing the no-cheats and no-walkthroughs strategy with this one.

If you are a fan of strategy RPGs, Jeanne d'Arc will not disappoint. Developed by Level-5 and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation Portable [PSP].