Mystery Detective (a.k.a. Touch Detective in the US) for the Nintendo DS has been around for quite some time, but, well, I just grabbed a copy and thought I’d let you know what my first impressions on the thing are. First of all, it quite apparently is a proper adventure game in the most traditional of senses. Secondly, it’s a quirky offering. Then, it sports an intuitive yet versatile point-and-click interface, brilliant cartoony graphics and some decent audio, though thankfully no voice-overs. Oh, and it’s as old-school as any adventurer could ever wish for. But, is Mystery Adventure a truly good game? Now, I haven’t made up my mind yet, but I have to admit the story (spanning 4 linear cases) isn’t that exciting really and the cutesy setting isn’t exactly to my liking. The puzzles are on the simple side of things too. On the other hand, Mystery Detective is indeed enjoyable, polished, taxing enough for something that will be played while waiting for the the bus, and -dare I say- quite addictive. Besides, it makes us all think about the possibilities of playing Monkey Island on the DS. Who knows, maybe Lucasarts might entertain the thought too… Mind you, newcomers to the genre will probably enjoy Mystery Detective more than I did.

So, dear (fraction of) readers… you still got your lumbering beast of an Xbox under the telly, have no intention of buying another overpriced console, have already enjoyed the best Xbox game there is and are looking for something new, aren’t you? Well, look no further, for what I might have to suggest may not be particularly new, but still is an amazingly enjoyable -if flawed- game based on a classic movie: The Thing. A sequel of sorts to Mr. Carpenter’s frozen horror thriller in video game form, that picks up the story roughly from where the movie had left it.

As you would expect, the game takes places in a mostly abandoned scientific base and its snowy environs, where the alien entity widely known as the Thing, well, does it’s thing. You, assuming you choose to play this game, get to fight the Thing and its impressive variety of sibling in all its/their manifestations, uncover an X-Files inspired conspiracy and manage your squad of civilians and soldiers, while making sure (preferably by testing them) none of your supposed comrades is infected by the Thing’s thinginess that would transform him or her into a deadly monstrosity. Making sure they trust you would be a nice idea.

Where The Thing truly shines though is in the atmosphere, which has to be experienced to be believed and even makes sure you wont be frustrated by the millions of fuse boxes you’ll have to mend and the badly placed save-points. Oh, and it’s a third person fighter in case you were wondering. One with good graphics and controls too.

Let’s be frank here and start off by admitting that id’s Doom 3 isn’t a brilliant game. It’s a decent game based on an excellent engine istead. Happily, it also is a game you can easily grab for a particularly modest price and a fantastic platform for some impressive, imaginative, smart, offbeat, at times retro and absolutely free mods. ButtonSmasher, celebrating its first freeware related post, has gone and selected some (well, six actually) of the best for your enjoyment:

- Doom Reborn is an attempt at reviving the original Doom of yore on a shiny new engine. Quite successfully too.

- Zombie Slayer might still be in a demo stage, but if brutalizing the (traditional) undead is your thing and have been waiting for the evolution of Dragon’s Lair style mechanincs, you’ll adore it.

- OpenCoop which actually does what it says on the tin.

- Mgib Gib’s Maze that totally transforms Doom 3 into a cartoony ultra cute nightmare. A rare offering sporting both monkeys and labyrinths.

- Ground Zero should probably turn out to be the best thing to ever happen using the D3 engine. Far for completion, but alredy a very promising post-apocalyptic RPG.

- Rotoscope Cartoon Shader. It will truly change the way the game looks and satisfy the more pretentious among us. Uhm, us that is…

Or, to be in line with the official language, Starcraft: The Board Game. Yes, it’s real and it’s a Fantasy Flight Games production that you can actually play without a computer. Or a mouse. With your hands and the help of 180 miniatures, quite a few board game pieces and a lot of cards. Really. It’s a proper impressive board game from the leaders in this field. You can actually grab it by following the previous link. Or this one. Apparently it’s been around for quite some time too and I simply cannot understand how I missed such an event. After all, I had been following news on its development pretty closely. Can’t believe I missed the launch… Oh, dear. I’m in shock. Have been even before I watched this pretty amazing (and quite explanatory) video/trailer of the game.

Ok. Better catch my breath here.

Ahh, yes, that’s better. Now, having just ordered the thing, I quite obviously don’t know how it plays, though I’m pretty sure it can’t be anything less than brilliant and ridiculously time consuming. Probably rules-heavy too, as it seems like an attempt at a full blown tabletop, turn-based, emulation of Blizzard’s original Starcraft. All three races have been included, as have a variety of popular tactics (Zergling rush anyone?), 50 or so pages of rules and quite a few victory conditions. Obviously 2-6 players multiplayer is a standard feature too. Joy!

Following the huge success of the Star Wars Lego based games, Lucasarts and UK developer Traveller’s Tales went on and did the only financial sensible thing there was: they released a Lego Indiana Jones game. It’s -unsurprisingly- a game roughly following the same arcade/adventure formula its Star Wars prequels did, thus a game focusing on simple yet enjoyable puzzles, lots of collecting stuff, lots of jumping around, lots of cartoon fighting and lots of hidden/unlockable content. Oh, and as you may have all ready guessed, it also happens to be a game taking players through the original three Indy films, though in a slightly censored, obviously kids-friendly fashion.

Each of the three movies is broken down in 6 stages, starting from an easier one and ending with a relatively tougher, and can be played through with an impressive variety variety of characters. Then again, as Indiana Jones is the only truly iconic one, well, I kind of fail to see the point. Nice touch nonetheless. As of course are the mini-levels, Lego city and score of other unlockables, despite the fact that the Star Wars games had more to offer in this area.

Now, as the graphics, sounds, cutscenes and controls are all great (no, really) and the game does indeed offer a proper Indy atmosphere, there’s no reason why you (especially if you are a kid, that is) wont enjoy Indy’s Wii adventures. Then again, you’re better off tracking down and playing the excellent adventure that was Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.