That and any possible good DSiWare games if they ever release anything. The price is also surprisingly decent. I expected it to go for considerably more than the DSi but it’s actually not too bad, especially for someone who hasn’t upgraded yet.

The colour selection is a bit limited and I would have preferred a white one, but the dark brown looks quite cool.

Quick note: Only games that I’ve played / am excited to play soon will be eligible to win awards.

Best Action Game - GTA Chinatown Wars

GTA Chinatown Wars on DS is an impressive game. It fitted more action gameplay into a single cartridge than certainly I thought possible. I had fun Dealing drugs and escaping the cops among other things. It feels like a game that shouldn’t be able to fit on DS, but somehow defies that belief.

Best Puzzle Game - Scribblenauts

Scribblenauts is a game so huge in its concept that I can’t believe that it even works as a game. Making a game where you can summon almost anything and still make a working game is so impressive. The only real downside is the fiddly controls, namely not allowing you to move Maxwell with the D-pad rather than by the stylus. It’s still a game that a lot of DS owners will enjoy.

Best Visual Quality - GTA Chinatown Wars

GTA is technical marvel. Rockstar Leeds did a great job on not only fitting a full GTA experience on the handheld, but making it run well and look great as they have done.

Best Story - GTA Chinatown Wars

I’ve never been so engrossed in a DS game before that doesn’t have Pokemon in the name.

Best Multiplayer - GTA Chinatown Wars

I played some local multiplayer with my brother one time and we had fun. It’s a bit basic but they do have quite a few modes to choose from. It’s definitely worth trying out at least once if you can.

DS Game of the Year - GTA Chinatown Wars

For all the reasons stated above, GTA Chinatown Wars on DS is an exceptional game ad pushed the system seemingly to it’s limits. It’s a shame it hasn’t sold up to expectations so far but since Nintendo’s games tend to have a longer lifespan than most, there’s still time for that to change.

Also notable: Scribblenauts

Up next: PSP

One upside is that we do have mario strikers charged out a couple of months before the US but that’s going to be a small consolation for many gamers who are waiting for the big three titles for wii, not to mention zelda phantom hourglass for DS which has also been set for this year in the US.

I’m planning to pick up strikers soon and hopefully I can get my wii replaced so I can get online and play the game and download some old stuff and the web browser and maybe if we’re lucky we’ll be playing at least one of those big three games by the end of the year. I’m also hoping for pokemon battle revolution but even though that has been out in japan since launch, I still have my doubts. I guess we’ll see what happens.

Just touching on the other consoles briefly, I’m hoping for a very unlikely PS3 price decrease by the end of the year because I’d like to get the new NBA game and others because there’s just some games that don’t suit the wii remote and nunchuk and need better graphics to keep appealing to gamers. Plus it wouldn’t hurt to have a relatively cheap blu-ray player should blu-ray beat HD DVD which I would prefer at this point I think.

Mario party 8, metroid prime 3, mario galaxy etc all looked like they would be out in the first half of this year but now that’s out of the question. I think game.co.uk should change the release info on metroid and galaxy to be a little more realistic than Q1 2007. Nintendo have recently said that they are releasing pretty much all the games that we have been promiced in 2007. The problem is they don’t specify if that will be for Japan, the US or Europe and because of this, I’m taking it as meaning Japan only for all of them, some of them in the US and virtually none in Europe.

Recent examples of delays include pokemon diamond and pearl which are sheduled to come out sometime between june and july in this country I think, but it’s already out in the US as of April. I think worldwide releases should become the norm because really, how hard can it be to get the games out everywhere simultaniously?

Other prominent examples include Excite Truck which came out November 19th in the US and Feburary or March in the UK. The latest game I want to play but can’t is Super Paper Mario which is coming out sometime later this year I’m guessing, by which time i probably will have lost interest.

I think the problem is every time Nintendo bring out a console, it seems like there’s always a super smash bros and mario kart long in the distance and it’s pretty dissapointing when theres at least a year’s wait for it.