Currently stocking popular lines from the Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Trading Card game series, Legends Awakened is the latest release and 6th expansion in the Diamond and Pearl series, with theme decks, blister packs and portfolio available.

We love Mario!  There is now a range of licensed Nintendo Super Mario products from figurines, cute kids shopping bags, featuring Mario, Peach, Yoshi and Donkey Kong, to Super Mario kite for summer.

Family Lego PC range of games - Lego Racers 2, Legoland, Lego Island 2 – the Brickster’s Revenge and Lego Stunt Rally came out this month with Vista compatibility.  PC Lego Star Wars and Lego Bionicle Australian release date has been put back until March 2009.

PS2 Dancing Stage SuperNOVA 2 previously due out this month in Australia has now been cancelled.

Hot Upcoming Games:

Fable II – Legendary game with the first version on Xbox, due for release on 23 October ‘08 on the Xbox 360, with standard and collector’s edition.

Star Wars Clone Wars – Following on from the movie release (first animated production), looking forward to the game release on Wii and NDS due on 19 November ‘08.

Games Played/Reviewed This Month:

Scarface – The World is Yours (Xbox Version), Rated MA15+

The best thing about this game is playing as Tony Montana… cool, tough and out for revenge as you take back his turf and rebuild his empire.

Contains well laid out maps with 4 turfs in tropical Miami.  Complete missions and destroy gangs etc, whilst trying to keep your cop and gang heat down.  There’s a good selection of weapons included, which you can purchase and upgrade throughout gameplay.  Build up your balls meter and you get to utilise Rage Mode.

There’s a huge amount of items (exotics) to purchase which unlock certain aspects of the game.  Cool cars – jeeps, convertibles, limo, high speed sports cars, old classics, armoured vehicles, to boats - floatplane (used to cross turfs), racing, sport, fishing, attack boats, yacht and more.  Purchase investments, varying henchman, furniture, or deck your mansion with a new look/style.

There’s plenty of driving involved, as well as on foot and at sea, with some excellent music to choose from whilst cruising, from Hip-Hop, Rock, Reggae, to 80’s pop.  The vehicles control well and the graphics on the game are good, with some helfpul cheats available.

Also released on PS2 and Wii.

Lara Croft – Tomb Raider Anniversary (Xbox 360), Rated M

Tomb Raider Anniversary is jam-packed with puzzles to keep you occupied as you search for the Scion of Atlantis.  Complete interesting levels, as you climb, swim, grapple, wall run and more, through Greece, Egypt, Peru and the Lost Island, collecting artifacts along the way.  On your travels you’ll come across dinosaurs, including a giant T-rex, gorillas (which surprised me on a few occasions), crocodiles, tigers and centaurs, with the added bonus of the new Adrenaline Dodge to avoid their rage attacks and inflict some heavier damage.

You’ll also get to climb to great heights on various levels, dive into waterfalls from a high distance, etc for a great gaming experience.  The standard dual pistols are included, plus pump shotgun, dual caliber pistols and dual mini SMG’s.  Checkpoints are frequent so you can save often and there are some excellent walkthroughs on the web.  We recommend visiting Tombraiders.net – they have a comprehensive walkthrough if you need help.

Next Lara Australian release date is with upcoming game Tomb Raider Underworld, scheduled for 27 November 2008 on Xbox 360 and PS3.