Strategy/Sim

The ESRB reports that this game contains: Mild Violence

Game Description: Don't let the cartoonlike graphics and easy-to-use controls deceive you—Advance Wars is a seriously addictive strategy game. Already a huge hit in Japan, the game ramps you up and then wages an all-out war. Even after playing several campaigns and deploying an impressive array of armaments, don't be surprised if the game's extremely shrewd AI sneaks up on you. The multiplayer mode links up to four players in a variety of riveting scenarios designed to stretch your strategy skills.

Tactics Ogre: The Knight Of Lodis is your standard strategy RPG, complete with the isometric battlefields, the labyrinthine plot (full of political intrigue, backstabbing, and more), and the slow paced game mechanics. However, it does have the distinction of being one of the first truly deep strategy RPGs to appear on a handheld—which is part of what makes it so impressive as a game.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Mild Language, Mild Violence

Lost Kingdoms is a really interesting hybrid of a game. Part Pokémon-inspired card collecting, part strategy game, and part action-RPG, it's diverse enough to please a wide range of gaming tastes.

Lost Kingdoms is a fairly unique third-person action game, with the twist being that the main character, Katia, uses magically summoned creatures as weapons. The GameCube's analog stick handles her free movement, and the yellow C-stick adjusts the camera.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Comic Mischief, Violence

According to ESRB, this game contains: Mild Violence

Pikmin may look cute and cartoon-y, but you'll be hard-pressed to find a game with gameplay as engaging.

I spent the last holiday season as a salesclerk in the electronics department of the toy store I currently work at. Early on, during that time, we received the much-anticipated GameCube demo station, allowing customers to experience some of the games soon to be made available. Even during the worst rushes imaginable, a distinctive tune would always catch my attention, forcing me to look at its point of origin: a television screen displaying a multitude of nervously active and brightly colored beings moving about frantically. Initially, the cheery music and preschool like characters led me to see it as another typical kiddy game cooked up by Nintendo. Not to say that this is a bad thing but in this case first impressions, which are always important, were not favorable to Pikmin. Of course, as the saying goes, never judge a book (Or in this case, a game) by its cover.