Charanjit Chana

Nintendo announced the next evolution of the DS earlier this week. At first I was unsure about my feelings towards it. I own a DS Lite that I got almost 10months ago. I've gotten plenty of use from it, especially when I was commuting by train.

At first, the addition of cameras was a big feature that was commented on by every tech news outlet around, but for me, the biggest pluses are the FREE browser that will be available for download from the store and a SD card slot.

Considering every other web enabled platform seems to have a free browser of some sort, the fact that Nintendo were charging for the Opera browser and then the fact that it needed an attachment, web browsing on the DS was never going to be a big selling point. The Wii's Opera browser should be pre-installed or at the very least, it should have remained a free download. Luckily, I downloaded it prior to the charge.

The addition of an SD card slot on the DS is going to make the camera an interesting proposition. The slot and a 12% slimmer profile, are available thanks to the absence of the GBA slot. No big deal to me as I was never a GBA owner, but it could be an issue for those that have been considering, but are yet to make the step up.

If I'm honest, I wouldn't have waited has I known about this new DS. Mainly because it will be something like 13 months between my purchase and the UK release of the DSi and my purchase was a semi-impulse buy. But SD card slot would have made the decision that little bit harder.

The DSi is certainly an improvement on the previous model, and just as when the DS became the DS Lite, the DSi looks to be very good value for money.

I've heard of this game, and seen a few stills from the Lego Indian Jones game, but not seen much of the new Lego Batman game. It looks awesome! A really fun game that will really be at home on the Wii.

It doesn't look like it will be too taxing, but an interesting take on the Batman franchise. It could even be my first purchase since, well, last year!

I used to be a huge fan of Championship Football Manager, having played from CM2 all the way up to FM2006.

FM2009 is due for release this November, but if I'm honest, I am finding it difficult to get excited about it.

I downloaded the FM2008 demo a few months back to see how things had changed since '06 and to my horror, there was so much more going on. The features were welcome, but the layout had become way to cramped for my liking.

I've seen the game available for pre-order at £17.99 over at the Hut, but I am still debating as to whether I should update my FM collection.

Just thinking of the game brings back a lot of memories but I don't think '09 will ever come any where near matching them. Admiteddly that could be because I'm getting older, but I'm 90% sure it's the overwhelming interface that was almost perfect in CM's 3 & 4 and FM 2006.

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There's no way I will get away with this for myself, but when I have a little boy, I am so doing his room up like this Super Mario Bros themed one!



Complete with a fully working NES!

I don't really care for console exclusives or for most console omissions. Games that matter to me usually make it on to my console of choice or don't interest me in the slightest.

Until now.

Street Fighter IV is soon to be released and is currently an XBox 360 and PS3 only title. This is sad for me because I'm a huge fan of the game and even downloaded Street Fighter II Turbo through the virtual console on the Wii. Had it been a NES game, I'd have it on that too!

Visit the website and checkout the awesome opening sequence featuring Ryu and Ken. The game looks like a very good and faithful progression for the game and if you have either of the supported consoles, pre-order your copy now!

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From a casual browse around the net, I found a game built in Flash which had been ported onto the iPhone. It was a simple puzzle game, but I have never been able to find it again.



From my searches to re-discover that gem, I came across Bubble, a game in a similar vein and probably more refined than the one I was looking for. what makes it even more impressive is the fact that it's all JavaScript based and seems to work flawlessly.

The game doesn't seem to be bloated with lots of code, and works great in FireFox. I haven't tested it in other browsers, but I don't imagine there being many, if any, issues.

The people behind Bubble have also introduced a log stacking game, which isn't too shabby itself! The presentation is lovely and the use of JavaScript is truly inspiring to me. I wouldn't mind taking a crack at re-producing the Bubble game, but I very much doubt I'd ever make it as elegant and easy to use!

One of the best things is the fact that it should work on a iPhone/iPod Touch because it doesn't require Flash, just a browser with JavaScript enabled. The size of the games, I'm guessing, should match the screen on these devices and would look pretty sweet.

When I first got a Wii, over a year ago, I spent a lot of time trying to get my Mac Mini to act as a wireless hub so that I could connect my Wii to the world wide web. After some stupidly complicated process, I got it working, but it meant my Mac Mini had to be on, whenever I wanted to play online. Very soon it became a feature I had but wasn't going to use.

Once again, my Airport Express base station has opened up my Wii to the wonders of playing someone somewhere else in the world.

I haven't had a chance to play Fifa '08 online yet, but Mario Strikers Charged is twice, if not three times, as good online as it is in normal tournament mode where it can get a little predictable.

I'm looking forward to getting back into the online play and maybe even picking up a few more games that will really make the most of the Wii.