If you're fat, pudgy, and your last name is Slime, you're supposed to be less than popular with any kind of crowd. Yet, the game Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime seems to be getting quite a lot of paramours. It's the latest game from Square Enix about the lovable and adorable Rocket Slime of the Dragon Quest series. It's his first adventure on his own and it's on the DS.

We give you the highlights of the IGN review. According to the writer, the game is a mixture of Zelda, Pokemon, and gigantic fortress tanks. Whoa, two excellent games in one? No wonder he scored it high (8.5). Let's take the report apart shall we?

The gameplay is simple but enjoyable. The game can be started and finished using only one button. Since Rocket can only do one thing (jump), he will have to get creative with the way he dispatches foes. He usually stretches like a rubber band and then slingshot himself to the enemy. Imagine if you were a big fella and then all of a sudden this little blue gooey knocks you out. Nobody gets over that kind of humiliation. Ever. He's cooler with friends and allies, he carries them around on his head as he goes through his little adventure. Simple, but is it too simple?

The simplicity of the controls and the almost non-existent use of the second half of the screen was what made this game get a bad rap as a "children's game only." However, it gets deeper as the game progresses. For instance, Rocket can summon gigantic mobile fortresses to do battle with, however only certain fellow townsmen can do the controls. The more rescued townsmen, the more abilities your tank can do. Suddenly it just got deep around here. It's going to get deeper still with the multiplayer option.

Multiplayer is good enough. Up to 4 players can link up and play this game. Each will control his or her own tank as they try to outwit, outlast, ans outdo each other on a battlefield. Unfortunately it's multi-cart and there is no online or Wi-Fi support.

The visuals and sounds are satisfying. If you've seen the cartoon and past games you know to expect quite a lot of physical and visual humor. You'll see over-exaggerated animations, several characters in the screen, and solid character, level, and interface looks. The audio and music is strong enough. The article says that it corresponds to the mood of the game, and the sound effects are funny. From what we've read, it seems this game is simply beautiful. Available in stores now.

Buy: [Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime]

The Tokyo Game Show is coming up and Bandai Namco has announced what titles they'll be showing at Japan's biggest gaming event! Many of their biggest franchises will be at the show so there's a bit of something for everybody. Bandai and Namco are merged, but we'll list their titles by which company is developing it.

PlayStation 3
Mobile Suit Gundam: Target in Sight (Bandai)
Ridge Racer 7 (Namco)

PlayStation 2
Battle Stadium D.O.N. (Bandai)
.hack//G.U. Vol.2 (Bandai)
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (Bandai)
Captain Tsubasa (Bandai)
JoJo's Bizzare Adventure: Phantom Blood (Bandai)
Naruto: Konoha Spirits (Bandai)
Digimon Savers: Another Mission (Bandai)
Rider Kabuto (Bandai)
Gundam Seed Destiny: Rengou vs Z.A.F.T. II Plus (Bandai)
Tales of Destiny 2 (Namco)

PlayStation Portable
Gundam: Battle Royale (Bandai)
Gunpey-R (Bandai)
Tales of Phantasia: Full Voice Edition (Namco)
Ridge Racer 2 (Namco)
Bounty Hounds (Namco)
Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception (Namco)
Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology (Namco)

Nintendo DS
Tamagotchi: Corner Shop 2 (Bandai)
Gintama DS: Yorozuya Daisoudou (Bandai)
Gunpey-R (Bandai)
Tales of the Tempest (Namco)

GameCube
Battle Stadium D.O.N. (Bandai)

Xbox 360
Culdcept Saga (Bandai)
Mobile Suit Gundam: Operation: Troy (Bandai)
The Idol Master (Namco)
Trusty Bell (Namco)

Took quite some time to get all that from Japanese into English! Bandai Namco is just churning out title after titles, especially titles with "Gundam" and "Tales of" in their names! According to this list, they aren't showing any of their Wii games. Weird considering the PS2 version of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi is being shown. Guess it won't make launch after all.

So, you're on your way to be a Monster Hunter right? But honestly, you've got quite a number of monsters in your list and you just don't know where to start! So, for budding Monster Hunters like you, Famitsu releases the different monster races that you will find in the Grand Pool archipelago.

There are 7 monster races in the archipelago of Grand Pool. These are the Slime race, Dragon race, Material race, Demonic race, Nature race, Zombie race, and Demon Animal race. Each one of these races have their own specific quality. Of course, they give us the dibs on what these qualities are.

The Slime race is the most popular among them, particularly because they are as good as mascots for Dragon Quest. They are highly bobbly creatures that can be easily found and defeated in the whole archipelago. The Dragon race is a strong creature whose breath can kill anyone. Most emit fire from their mouths, however, they are also known to cause snow storms by their breaths. The Material race are actually common things like kettles and pots that have been bewitched by demons.

On the other hand, the Nature race are demons who have transformed into trees or bugs and often uses the environment to hide themselves. The Zombie race are the immortal of the lot. You may not be able to kill them entirely because they are already dead to begin with, however, you could control them to your whim. The last two are the Demonic Animals and the the Demons who come from the nether world. A Demonic animal is a bewitched animal while the Demons come from the underworld to mess up the lives of people in Grand Pool.

The Famitsu update also gives us a Monster deity through Spedio (still unofficial name until the English release is out) however, they didn't say whether the monster god merits as another monster race.

Whenever a book-to-movie-to-game title comes out, there's bound to be mixed feelings about it. Now we have the game Eragon, based on the upcoming movie, which was based on the Christopher Paolini book. With that alone said, some of you (perhaps fans of the book, like me) might be whooping for joy at seeing this boy-meets-dragon story unfold as a game. And some of you might just be groaning your pants off, because when we posted Eragon's first trailer, ThisStinks (#7) commented that the game was "...based off of a crappy movie based off of a ripoff (and boring) book." We all have our biases, and we're all entitled to share them too.

But as for the game itself, no one can really judge until it's out, right? And maybe this new trailer will help people decide. Make sure you watch the video through to the end, to see Saphira!

The graphics are a bit iffy, considering it's for the 360. But do note that Eragon is being released across a lot of platforms! The game will also be released for the PSP, Nintendo DS, Xbox, ps2">PS2, and PC. Of course, all these platforms have different video output, so surely some versions will be suped up more on the graphics-side.

But graphics are graphics. What about the dragon? Honestly, I'm quite impressed when I saw Saphira flying through towards the end of the video. It seems like you can actually control her and fireblast, dragon-claw, and tail-whip your way through hordes of orcs and goblins... Now, that's what I call fun!

Download: [Eragon Official Movie - Gameplay Trailer]

We have already mentioned that Eragon is based on the worldwide literary phenomenon by Christopher Paolini about a boy named Eragon whose destiny is revealed with the help of a dragon. It also appeared as Fox 2006 film starring Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons and Academy Award nominee John Malkovich. This game immerses players into a world filled with dragons, destiny, adventure, magic, and power.

Eragon will be released this November for PC, ps2">ps2">PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, and PSP. Gameplay for the console and PC will be different from the handheld. The PC and console version focuses on intense battles with an unparalleled combo and magic-based combat system, including stunning finishing moves, multiple grapples, and degradable blocks with unique counter attacks. The adventure is heightened with breathless dragon flight-based combat and devastating dragon summon attacks and players can opt for a 2-player co-op, featuring team attack bonuses and dragon fight/flight combo gameplay. Eragon for Nintendo DS players offer an action-filled combat-RPG with touch screen spell casting and unique dual screen attack mode.

Without further ado, we deliver you the freshest trailer of Eragon. Enjoy!

Download: [Eragon Trailer]

Square Enix has revealed which games they will be showing at the upcoming Tokyo Games Show 2006 which is will be held from September 22 until September 24 in Makuhari Messe via Chiba, Japan. TGS 2006 is due to be a big hit for PS3 fans especially as Sony have promised to show much more flesh at this year's TGS compared to what we saw at E3 2006 earlier this year.

Square Enix's list does include Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest which you'll be glad to hear but some games are only being in video form. Here's the full list:

Playable Demos

• Chocobo no Mahou Ehon (DS)
  
• Dragon Quest Monsters (Mobile)
  
• Dragon Quest Monsters Joker (DS)
  
• Dragon Quest: Fushigi na Dungeon (Mobile)
  
• Final Fantasy III (DS)
  
• Final Fantasy XI (PS2, X360)
  
• Front Mission 2089 (Mobile)
  
• Pokemate (Mobile)
  
• Project Sylpheed (X360)
  
• Seiken Densetsu IV (PS2)
  
• Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden (Mobile)

Non-Playable (Video Only)

• Fabula Nova Crystallis - Final Fantasy Versus XIII (PS3)
  
• Fabula Nova Crystallis - Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)
  
• Final Fantasy V Advance (GBA)
  
• Final Fantasy VI Advance (GBA)
  
• Final Fantasy VIII: Crisis Core (PSP)

Wow! Doesn't this game look better every time we see it again? Visually undoubtedly on par with FFIII and Tales Of The Tempest, Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker looks like another solid installation in the series of Dragon Quest spin-offs, proving that good 3D environments are not too hard to do on the Nintendo DS.

While there hasn't been an announcement yet regarding a Joker release outside Japan, I'm pretty sure there'll be one sooner or later - with Rocket Slime and previous Dragon Quest Monsters finding their way to Western audiences, Joker should be no exception.

  

More screens await after the jump!

Karate Kid? Nah. Too 80s. Enter the Dragon? Too serious. Xiaolin Showdown? Just the right mix. You can be one of Master Fung's dragon-in-training as you play Konami's game for the DS of the same title. Take on the characters of Omi, Raimundo Pedrosa, Kimiko Tohomiko or Clay Bailey as they fight against the evil that is Jack Spicer. Release date is sometime in November.

Craig Harris of IGN describes this game being developed by Razorback as a "Double Dragon style brawler done in an isometric ¾ view." The demo has demonstrated some good and bad points. Characters were a bit slow in movement and collision detection was off, but, smashing, lifting and throwing objects at enemies or at switches are fine and comes a lot into the game's early stages.

You can also treat yourselves to a variety of mini-games like "Wind Hockey" which is a touch screen version of air hockey, a "Breakout" challenge, a four player top-down challenge and bowling, that shows the most potential among the others mentioned. All these games will be unlockable in the main game as well as being fully playable outside of the battle. It supports the DS' download play feature for a high kicking multiplayer showdown.

Now, whoever thought that a simple character such as a slime ball with eyes would live on for more than 20 years and become one of the most-seen and most-copied characters of this generation? Moreover, who would have thought that moving, talking balls of slime could ever be so darn cute??

Having come a long way from the first time it made an appearance as a baddie in the early Square game Dragon Quest in 1986, who would have thought that the little blob would re-emerge on the DS Lite as a hero in his own game 20 years later?

That's right. In the game Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime, you're Rocket, a blue slime ball who has been living happily in Slimenia. However, the peace is ruined after they were unexpectedly attacked by the dreaded Plob monsters. Now, it's up to Rocket Slime to find and recover his missing neighbors and friends and save his village as he goes running (or hopping... or jiggling... or rolling...) to the rescue. In the words of the IGN reviewer, it's "like a gooey version of Zelda".

This game is very simple, but that may be where its charm and addictiveness lies. For starters, you can control Rocket with the D-pad, and just press A to make him hop, or hold it down to stretch and fire Rocket across the screen, much like a rubber band. When colliding into objects, friend or foe will be sent flying into the air, and Rocket must successfully catch the items on his head.

Later on, as you go into the later stages of the game and rescue more villagers, not only will new shops be open for Rocket when he gets back to the village, but this time around, the citizens of Slimenia will talk up arms with you in case of an attack. And when things get bad... they bring out really big tanks to help you get rid of that boss.

Various side missions as well as mini-games can also be unlocked depending on what and who you rescue. On top of all of this, a four-player mode is also set up for insane 2-on-2 battles (especially if each and everyone of you has a tank with cannons and rockets and guns on each... on your DS screen...).

In the meantime, we'll have to wait until September 19th before we could get our hands on this gooey piece if goodness, so here's some screenshots until then.

EDGE magazine gave its annual Edge Award to Nintendo's Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old is Your Brain? for best exemplifying "the willingness to aim higher and try something new." Brain Training beat out many other unique games this year to take the prize.

• Fahrenheit - Atari: "Ambitious and full of fresh ideas."
• Killer 7 - Capcom: "A shift in the way audio dialog and gameplay work together."
• Ouendan - Nintendo: "An extraordinary blend of artistic traditions."
• Dragon Quest VIII - Square Enix: "Not exactly original, but excellent overall in that it does everything right."
• Electroplankton - Nintendo: "Playful, original."
• Amped 3 - Microsoft: "Exuberant and self-confident in its presentation."
• Guitar Hero - "A pure experience that took the world by storm."

David Yarnton represented Nintendo to take the award. "In the past, people said that Nintendo was staid and conservative, but we've shown that we're heading in a different direction from others in the industry with fresh and original ideas. Only Nintendo could make arithmetic fun."