PixlBit

This Japanese classic finally comes to America and just in time for holiday get-togethers!

Marooned in Japan for two decades, Nintendo and Square Enix finally have seen it fit to bring the Itadaki Street series to North America in the form of Fortune Street for the Wii. Despite the series piquing my interest after the strong reception of the DS version in Japan, it's largely been a mystery to me. Now that I've had a formal introduction to the series, I can say that it's been well worth the wait. Cozying up more closely to Monopoly than Mario Party, Fortune Street is the perfect game to play with a group of friends and/or family members, even if they're not fans of video games.

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Proof positive that you need longer than 18 months to make a follow up to a great RPG.

Fabled RPG developer BioWare has seen great success with their two original IPs during this console generation. These releases are on opposite ends of the spectrum: Mass Effect is a grand sci-fi space opera that melds role playing with action, while Dragon Age is an epic fantasy that feels more at home on the PC. This dichotomy was the most evident with 2010's release of Mass Effect 2, a game that many considered to be the best release of the year, and yet it did away with most of the role playing elements that put BioWare on the map. It was hard to tell where Dragon Age 2 would fall in the BioWare pantheon. Would it hold onto the deep RPG roots of Dragon Age: Origins, or would it be an action game with branching dialogue trees, like Mass Effect 2? The answer, as with most things, lies somewhere in the middle. But we'll come back to that in a moment.

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Never laugh at live dragons.

The Elder Scrolls series is rightly famous for defining what an open world game should be, and Skyrim can arguably be considered the most worthy in the lineage. As the title suggests, the game takes place in Tamriel’s northern most province, a rocky and inhospitable land that is home to the Viking-like Nords. The assassination of the High King of Skyrim has precipitated the next prophecy found in the Elder Scrolls foretelling the return of dragons and the destruction of the land unless a destined champion can fight them off. Guess who you play as?

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However, it'll have to fix its problems first.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released today for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. If you aren't sure which version to get, maybe this will help: Skyrim's first two DLC packs will be timed exclusives to the Xbox 360. Gamers will get them on the 360 a month before they're released on the PC and PS3.

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It's a SNES RPG through and through... now on the DS... in America.

After my five-year-old self was handily beaten down by Dragon Warrior on the NES, I swore off the series -- until recently that is. Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation marks my first true experience with the mega-popular Japanese RPG series. Thankfully my reintroduction has been a smooth one. While I wouldn't consider SNES RPGs a genre in and of itself, games in the genre that debuted on the system all have a similar style and presentation that promoted a far greater degree of accessibility. Being that I first got into the genre here, Dragon Quest VI made me feel right at home.

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