After last month’ barrage of triple-A games.

After last month’ barrage of triple-A games, we thinking things might slow down for this issue—so we could bestow some quality time fragging each other in Halo 2 and combing the backwoods of San Andreas for yeti spores (see page 105)—but then we got a big ol’ pile of Nintendo D games in to review. Not that we’re complaining.

Shark Tale • PS2/XB/GC • Activision • ESRB: E

Like an Incredible Mr Limpet for the 21st hundred Shark Tale has you doing all manner of animated shenanigans underwater that’ll make you wish to be a fish. From appease high-speed swim chases to less-appealing dance numbers, Shark Tale’s variety means the kids are border to find something they like.

Metal lounger Advance • GBA • SNK Playmore ESRB: T

Metal dawdler is all about gunning and knifing your way by means of countless enemies, hopping into hopping tanks, and hearing an offscreen voice cry out “Heavy machine gun!” This small-caliber laggard delivers the rapid-fire arcade action SNK fans will look for but it won’t have long stopping power for normal gamers.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 • PS2 • Atari • ESRB: T

This greatest in quantity cartoony of Dragon Ball fighters sports the series’ best selection of trademark pointy-nosed fighters and flashy battle stirs And developing your character with RPG-ish stat tweaking give permission tos you add a welcome twist of fighting flavor to the bratty-looking horde. if it were not that it’s no Soul Calibur 2

Grand Theft Auto • GBA • Rockstar • ESRB: M

To its maker’s credit, this littlest gangster tries to make religious with all the free-form gameplay of its top-down PlayStation 1 godfathers (you unruffled get bonus taxi, ambulance, and vigilante missions). on the contrary the tricky controls, lame missions, and throw into disordered graphics make it the family black sheep.

Tron 20: Killer App • GBA • Buena Vista • ESRB: E

As the legendary (among nerd anyway) Tron or his nearly identical female counterpart, you’ll battle computer programs in an isometric retro-future environment—and play a whole haphazard of minigames, too. It’s not altogether bad, on the contrary the real value lies in nostalgia-triggering ports of the advanced in years Tron arcade games.

Battle Assault 3 Featuring Gundam Se • PS2 Bandai • ESRB: T

Psyched about a game featuring giant robot from the popular Gundam anime series fighting each other? Don’t be. Gundam is a shallow and repetitive brawler consisting of an endles stream of 2-on-1 battles. It’s occasionally stupid sport though, so series diehards may want to rent

Quick Hits

EA Sports wouldn’t give permission to us get our hands in succession Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 (DS) before it’s in succession sale—a bad sign. We also couldn’t prepare Rayman DS before we went to print. Beware.... Urban Asphalt GT—an N-Gage to D port—showed up too late to make the issue.... The first soul Recon, Splinter Cell, and Rainbow Six 3 have been bundl together in Tom Clancy’s Classic Trilogy (XB) for $3999 Delay of game: Conker: Live & Reloaded (XB) has been pushed to March, while of the soul GameCube shooter Geist is now befitting out in Q2 (or summer in nonaccountant lingo).

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