Crash Bandicoot Fusion
Game Boy Advance, £29.99 VU Games/Vicarious Visions
***
Crash Bandicoot games are becoming a frequent sight on the GBA ever since VU Games secured the rights from Sony. This latest adventure for the triangular-shaped one sees him entering the realm of VU's other cutesy franchise, Spyro the Dragon. The little purple reptile also gets his own GBA game (Spyro Fusion), in which he enters Crash's world.
It's a gimmicky concept, considering you don't get to play as both characters, although you can link the two and trade cards, allowing you to unlock secrets, cheats and characters.
The game consists of mini games loosely strung together, with platform elements to get you from one challenge to the next. Although the mini games are the best thing about Fusion, they are sometimes repetitive and not as much fun as the bigger "section" games in the last Crash GBA game, Crash 2: N Tranced. They are inspired by everything from Breakout to Mario, so it plays like a spot-the-retro-game exercise.
The ability to link up with friends to play in the Party Mode section, which includes all the mini games, will give this title longevity, along with the card-trading aspect. But look to the previous N Tranced if you want top-quality Crash action.
Rhianna Pratchett
Boktai
Game Boy Advance, £29.99 Konami,
****
While we wait for Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater, its creator, Hideo Kojima, has created a bizarre side project. Boktai is Kojima's first Game Boy Advance game, and he has said it was designed for his young son.
Kojima does not do things by halves, and Boktai can claim uniqueness. Its GBA cartridge includes a sunlight sensor - designed to distinguish between natural and artificial light. You take on the persona of a vampire-hunter aiming to save the world using a sunlight gun, which you can recharge only when you place the sensor in real sunshine.
Kojima, with his take on how to move the games industry forward, has tapped into the debate on obesity, for which the industry has taken a lot of flak. As it would be nigh-on impossible to play in the height of winter, if you managed to complete it indoors, in December, you could achieve legendary gamer status.
Boktai is good but not great, reminiscent of Castlevania, with extra stealth-based gameplay and its mix of shooting with puzzle-solving.
Steve Boxer
Red Dead Revolver
PlayStation 2, Xbox, £39.99 Rockstar Games,
**
As creator of the massively popular Grand Theft Auto series, Rockstar has a reputation for grown-up games. Its latest release, Red Dead Revolver, continues this trend, although it gets nowhere near the heights of GTA.
Set in the Wild West, Red Dead Revolver is a gunslinging shooter that keeps boredom at bay with its brevity and style. Like Max Payne, the beauty is in the killing, with numerous ways to dispatch bad guys. You can also target enemies in slow-motion.
Each section is similar, with hordes of sharpshooters standing between you and the next level. There is variety with the duels - RDR's finest moments - which capture the Wild West nicely, causing stressful moments as you strain to get a good hit in. As the game progresses, your skills increase, giving you the chance to cause more damage. With train levels and horseriding sections, this starts to look like a class act.
However, the cartoon violence gets tedious very quickly and you can't help wishing for something more stimulating. Blurry visuals and a flimsy plot don't help and the difficulty level seems to be set quite low.
While the western setting is welcome, Red Dead Revolver lacks variety and ambition, omissions not normally associated with Rockstar games.
Greg Howson
