Strategy/Sim

Advance Wars is a meld of two differing strategy genres. First are the turn-based strategy games, like Civilization. Second are the real-time strategy (RTS) games like Warcraft. Like both genres, Advance Wars centers on the production of military units and battling your enemies. Unlike the god-games, there is nothing to manage aside from military units, and even their production is extremely simple. This is a straight-up military simulation, and it can be nice to concentrate on simply outsmarting your opponent rather than trying to figure out a research tree. Unlike Warcraft and other RTS games, Advance Wars moves along in a series of discrete turns, making for a more relaxing and contemplative experience than is possible when the main concern is scrambling to pump out troops and build up the base.

Tactics Ogre: The Knight Of Lodis is your standard strategy RPG, complete with the isometric battlefields, the labyrinthine plot (full of political intrigue, backstabbing, and more), and the slow paced game mechanics. However, it does have the distinction of being one of the first truly deep strategy RPGs to appear on a handheld—which is part of what makes it so impressive as a game.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Mild Language, Mild Violence

Lost Kingdoms is a really interesting hybrid of a game. Part Pokémon-inspired card collecting, part strategy game, and part action-RPG, it's diverse enough to please a wide range of gaming tastes.

Lost Kingdoms is a fairly unique third-person action game, with the twist being that the main character, Katia, uses magically summoned creatures as weapons. The GameCube's analog stick handles her free movement, and the yellow C-stick adjusts the camera.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Comic Mischief, Violence

According to ESRB, this game contains: Mild Violence

Pikmin may look cute and cartoon-y, but you'll be hard-pressed to find a game with gameplay as engaging.

I spent the last holiday season as a salesclerk in the electronics department of the toy store I currently work at. Early on, during that time, we received the much-anticipated GameCube demo station, allowing customers to experience some of the games soon to be made available. Even during the worst rushes imaginable, a distinctive tune would always catch my attention, forcing me to look at its point of origin: a television screen displaying a multitude of nervously active and brightly colored beings moving about frantically. Initially, the cheery music and preschool like characters led me to see it as another typical kiddy game cooked up by Nintendo. Not to say that this is a bad thing but in this case first impressions, which are always important, were not favorable to Pikmin. Of course, as the saying goes, never judge a book (Or in this case, a game) by its cover.