Check out these high-quality games for unique challenges and content from Asian cultures.

“Fragile Dreams — Farewell Ruins of the Moon” (XSeed Games)

Intrigue, mood and a solid story make this highly involving one player Nintendo Wii exclusive game stand apart from other role-playing action games. As a survivor named Seto, players encounter a haunted world in some immense cinematic-style environments perfect for exploration. Help this 15-year-old link memories together to discover background subplots. Players have plenty of time to enjoy the amazing graphics, but the control interface needs some smoothing.

Screen brightness and control options are important as players cycle through a flashlight, weapon or proximity sensor with the remote and move with the nunchuk control stick. The controls can be challenging without referencing the helpful manual or memorizing schemes.

Backtracking missions can also frustrate unless players are prepared to progress to future missions, including a hide-and-go seek game.

The beginning dialogue might lead players to believe the game might be “lost in translation,” but it is easily overcome after discovering the context and background. Once players have the lay of the land, this post-apocalyptic world provide a great escape, enhanced by a strong musical score and different lighting scenarios where players must strategize their flashlight use. English, French and Japanese language and dialogue text speed options are available (***, rated T for animated blood, fantasy violence, suggestive themes and alcohol and tobacco reference).

“Sin and Punishment: Star Successor”

(Nintendo)

Players can visit another amazing post-apocalyptic world in this outstanding Nintendo Wii exclusive third-person shooter. The graphics impress (the game cover art alone is enough) and the two-player cooperative control option is even better.

The two hero characters, a young human soldier named Isa and human-looking recon alien Kachi, each have unique skills to battle endless enemies among the fight between two worlds — inner space and outer space.

Choose from four controller options including the Wii Zapper accessory — perfect for this non-stop shoot ‘em up, which has close-range and distance attacks with helpful color schemes so players can easily identify who is shooting who.

Concentrate on the weapons, combination attacks and multipliers for high scores while shooting everything in sight. The lock on option is handy while movement and terrain choices are also important. Footraces are fine, but the jetpack and hovering skateboard options add even more visual enhancement as players take to the sky for better attack angles or strategic evasion moves.

The numerous boss levels include bonuses for speed, remaining health and earned medals. This sci-fi action game, the long-awaited sequel to the Japanese Nintendo 64 cult classic, also features auto-save checkpoints and an online international leader board (****, rated T for fantasy violence).

Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce (KOEI)

The PlayStation 3 game expands the previously released PlayStation Portable (PSP) game of the same title. Players get exclusive content plus online play for up to four players as this action packed game series, set in Imperial China, offers a more customized format with more than 40 playable characters. Voice and text chat options enhance communication between friends (in cooperative mode) or foes (competitive mode). Quick play modes helps new players orient themselves in the special equipment/strategy mode before going into battle.

The extended campaign battle modes offer hundreds of missions with three AI-controlled officers to fight with you and special officer commands to help delegate actions. The new “fury” transformations enhance character abilities including the multiple melee “musou” attacks while players can lock-on from the ground or using the new aerial combat movements.

The downloadable content is free, so download the most recent packs to get all the previous extra missions and goodies (***, rated T for violence, also available on Xbox 360).

Tags: Nintendo, Video games, Wii

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 at 10:24 am and is filed under Star, Video games.
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