Holiday Gift Guide 2008

As what may be one of the most player-pandering titles ever, The World Ends With You is actually worthy of such ego-boosting. Maybe it's the angsty anime characters. Maybe it's the furious action that actually occurs on both screens. Maybe it's that you can gain experience when you're not even playing. And maybe it's the... oh, crap, I've only got three hou... sorry, man, maybe next time. 

Really, is there anything as nerdy-awesome-cool as being able to transmit user-created levels to another DS through sound? Yeah, that's right, beeps and boops. The only thing cooler is perhaps being in a deathmatch aboard an alien ship in a room filled with basketballs. Wait... no, that's in Bangai-O Spirits, too.

Post-apocalyptica seems to be the breeding grounds for modern games, especially the good ones, though the theme is pretty hit or miss. Just because it's all Mad Max doesn't mean that it'll be good. But Advance Wars: Days of Ruin mixes the Orwellian setting with all the goodness of strategic bomb-throwing and ass-kickery. Why does the ruin of mankind lea to so much fun?