Nintendo Power summary - FFIV for NA, Trauma Center DS 2 info, and more

Lock Nation
-developed by 5th Cell
- real time strategy
- play as an archineer that builds weapons/forts to protect against an army of robots
- 2 minute time span. After 2 minutes, you battle the left-over enemies directly via touch-screen control

Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2
-Features Derek Stiles and Angie Thompson
-New operations, new story, new and old characters
-Plot focuses on GUILT aftermath and mysteries surrounding the virus
-Gameplay remains similar to the first game
-Some tools will have improved functionality (no word on any new tools)
-Easy difficulty setting for greater accessibility
-Summer 2008

We Ski
-Balance board compatible
-Remote + nunchuk used to gain momentum
-Turn remote/nunchuk left and right to steer if you’re not using the balance board
-Single player only with balance board, up to 4 players with controllers
-May 2008

We Cheer
Licensed music (Hilary Duff, Aly & AJ (who?), etc)
-Geared toward the tweens, also fun for adults (uh huh)
-Use two remotes like pom-poms, follow on-screen commands
-Supports up to four players with one remote each, two player co-op where each player controls one arm
-Choose one of 15 girls to participate in tournaments in single player mode
-Exercise mode has you wear the shoes of a personal trainer to earn money to buy outfits

Chocobo’s Dungeon
-Jobs like Knight and Black Mage
-Equippable items boost stats and change appearance
-Tur-based battles in randomly generated dungeons

King of Fighters Collection
-King of Fighters 94, 95, 96, 97, 98
-Challenge mode - each match has conditions to meet
-Four control schemes: remote, remote + nunchuk, classic controller, GameCube controller

Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles
-Three cases
-Observe suspects, investigate crime scenes, talk to witnesses, collect evidence
-Control with touch screen or control pad/buttons
-Text-based interface
-Menu-based fisticuffs and hidden passwords

Blast Works
-Grab defeated enemy vehicles and weapons and use them to build your ship
-Every vehicle you touch blocks projectiles and has a unique shot pattern
-Position you grab them determines angle of fire
-Four player co-op
-Level-editor
-Send custom stages to friends over WFC

Mario Kart Review
-9.0
-Bikes turn sharper and enable boosts at any time; only one-stage miniturbo while drifting (karts can power up two stages)
-Hold drift to charge miniturbo
-Miniturbos from performing tricks (flick wheel when you hit a jump)
-Wii Wheel better than expcted - best motion control in a racer so far
-New tracks have more detailed visuals, fresher ideas, and stuff going on than retro tracks
-32 tracks
-Not as revolutionary as Galaxy, not as content-packed as Brawl
-No detailed mention of Wi-Fi

The World Ends With You
-9.0
-Good learning curve for complex and creative battle system
-Great narrative
-Lots of dialogue, excellent writing
-Fittingly eclectic soundtrack

Okami
-7.5
-Beautiful aesthetics
-Lots to do
-Controls didn’t make the jump as well as they should have
-Pointing and drawing is faster and allows more freedom than analog stick
-Harder to be precise, resulting in recognition problems
-Awkward combat - slow, timed flicks of remote are required for consecutive hits; swing too fast and it’s not recognized
-No motion-based fishing
-Issues can be overcome with practice
-Play PS2 version instead (apocalypse now?)

Rondo of Swords
-Draw movement paths through allies and enemies
-Momentum system - enemies target those doing the most damage
-Side quest system for idle characters
-Mix of grueling difficulty and unclear objectives require you to restart most maps multiple times
-No optional battles to raise low-level characters or grind for exp
-Shopping is a pain: have to send a character on a shopping side quest, money spent randomly with possibly nothing in return
-Satisfying to beat difficult maps
-Have to outsmart opponents, you can overpower them

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