The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

System: Nintendo DS
Publisher: Nintendo
Price: $34.99

As one of the few direct sequels in Nintendo's well-known Zelda franchise, Phantom Hourglass follows most of the tried-and-true mechanics of the other games. There are plenty of switches to hit with your boomerang, a princess to save, and loot to be gathered while your out adventuring. It maintains the more cartoonish style that debuted in The Wind Waker on the Gamecube. This is both a strength and a weakness for the game, depending on your style. (Personally, it love the bright colors and exaggerated facial expressions that Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass use.)

One aspect of the game that caught me a bit off-guard was the control scheme. Most games for the DS give you the option of using the face buttons or the stylus (or some combination of the two) to move your character, blow up those blocks, or dodge incoming attacks. With Phantom Hourglass, everything is mapped to the touch screen except for a few menu controls. (You do use the built-in microphone to solve a few puzzles and beat up an enemy or two, but it's otherwise left alone.) This was a little hard to get used to at first, but once I got the hang of it, it was an easy and intuitive way to play. Want to slash that chu? Tap it with the stylus. Want to clear the ground surrounding you? Draw a circle around Link to unleash a spin attack. Rolling didn't play much of a role in the game, and it's a good thing, too -- the gesture for initiating a roll was to draw circles at the very edge of the screen. It didn't work well in tight spaces.

The storyline follows Wind Waker's very well. Link is off with Tetra sailing the Great Sea and generally having a good time with the pirate gang while searching for a mysterious vessel known as the Ghost Ship. Well, you find it, and lo and behold! Tetra is kidnapped, and it's up to Link to rescue her. The story takes quite a few twists and turns after that, but it's an enjoyable ride.

All in all, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is a great game. It is, however, a little on the easy side. The puzzles aren't as devilish as they were in previous Zelda games, and the temples aren't as long. (This last point is actually in the game's favor somewhat; handhelds aren't designed to be hand-friendly after eight straight hours of play.) The worst, however, is the Temple of the Ocean King. You will be tasked with traversing this labyrinth several times. The journey becomes less (or more) tiresome as you get new items, but solving the same puzzles and evading the same enemies time after time sucks the fun out of this part of the game. But for the Nintendo DS owner who just might be a Zelda fan, this is still a worthy entry in one of Nintendo's longest-running series.

Score: 8.5
This is a fun romp of an action game, but there's nothing that makes it really stand out from the crowd.

Team Fortress 2

System: PC
Publisher: Valve
Price: $20 for standalone, $50 as part of the Orange Box

Considering my mediocre reflexes, relatively underpowered PC, and general aversion to graphic blood and gore, it's surprising that I enjoy Team Fortress 2 as much as I do. It's a great team-based, multiplayer shooter, and if you can get past the downfalls of TF2's online community, you'll be in for a great ride with this game.

While the controls are pretty much the same as any other PC shooter (WASD + mouse controls), the best feature of TF2 is the class-based gameplay. You have nine different classes to choose from (Scout, Soldier, and Pyro on offense; Demoman, Heavy, and Engineer on defense; and Medic, Sniper, and Spy on support), each with specialized abilities. For example, the Engineer can build gun turrets and teleporters and the Medic can heal other players and even become invulnerable for a short time. Even though the classes are split up into offensive, defensive, and support roles, you can use them in any capacity you want -- one of the most popular Engineer strategies is to toss up a turret in a forward location and let it get some quick kills for you before you drop back and set up another installation.

The different maps and game types offer up a great variety of content, and the fast-paced action will keep you glued to the game far longer than you even realize. TF2 is the poster child of all "just one more game" entertainment. Time just flies while you're trying to blow your opponents to tiny bits while keeping your own hide whole. And Valve continues to add more maps and game types. They've even started rolling out class-specific achievements and items. Getting an upgrade to your flamethrower or melee attack is a lot of fun, especially when you have to earn it by setting 50 Scouts on fire and pummeling other Heavies with your ham-shank fists.

Because TF2 is a multiplayer game, there is no single player aspect -- unless you want to set up your own server and play with stationary bots. This is one of its greatest strengths, but also its greatest weakness, in my view. Working with a team is generally fun, until you get some whiner who complains that your team is so much worse than everyone else he plays with and "What the [expletives deleted] do you think you're doing?!" Even the good-natured players will often let loose with profanity-laced language in text and voice chat (which are both provided in-game, no Teamspeak required). The worst things I've seen are the custom spraypaint graphics that some players use. I'll not mention the disgusting things in those.

Speaking of graphics, though, the game is drawn using a cartoony style very similar to the animation in Disney/Pixar's "The Incredibles." (The music, when it plays on menu screens and in orientation videos, also seems like it's derived from the movie.) The game is rated M for violence and blood, but it is very cartoonish. It may just be that I'm not running the game at the maxed out settings, but the worst I ever see when I get fragged is a spray of orangish blood (quite a lot of it) and some random, non-disfigured body parts. (The game even lets you take screenshots of your most memorable deaths and uses little signs to note which of your body parts you're looking at. "Your foot!") The game may be a little more disturbing on high-end machines, but dropping the graphics settings should cover up much of the more visceral deaths.

Even though the game can get frustrating (being on the receiving end of eighty-five headshots within a single ten minute game, for example) and the player community ranges from the most cordial and polite to the most vulgar and obscene, TF2 is a great game. If you can get a good group of friends to play with, you'll enjoy it all the more.

Score: 9.0
Great game, if you can handle all the other dorks who play.