The characters are very well designed and the whole TSA world retains a feudal Japanese feel to it, even with some problems with the voice acting.

You can only grouse about a few things in TSA and here they are. The voice acting leaves much to be desired. Almost all the enemies sound the same and sometimes they just won't shut up. At one point I startled three enemies at once and -- lucky me -- they all were voiced by the same voice actor, so it sounded like the same three sound bites were repeating and overlapping each other for about two minutes. Also what I find kind of weird is that although this game was originally made in Japan, there is no option to hear the voices in Japanese instead of English. Last but not least, in Tenchu Z your character could roll very fast and very far, but in TSA you are given a dash instead of a roll, which doesn't travel nearly as far. On the lighter side, the dash lets you travel from shadow to shadow totally unnoticed. Wait, I got one more; the tutorial voice is annoying as hell.

I have to be real: Tenchu: Shadow Assassins is good. It's really good. It's also a hell of a challenge to go through. You can kill enemies from almost any hidden position and the items that help you accomplish that range from ninja stars and swords to jugs of water and a cat. Seriously. The story progresses nicely through a series of very well done cut-scenes and players have the option of going through the same levels again in a "shadow" mode, which makes the levels even harder by multiplying the enemies and putting them in difficult locations. This is a great Wii title and one that Nintendo should showcase to give them a break from all the "casual market" Wii games out there. Tenchu: Shadow Assassins is an all around great ninja game.

Phantasy Star Portable is an enjoyable action/RPG with just the right amount of complexity for a portable game. © SEGA.

Phantasy Star Portable for the Sony PSP; Publisher: SEGA; Developer: Alfa System; Release Date: March 3; ESRB Rating: T for teen; Genre: action / RPG; Players: 1; Support: 1-4 player wi-fi; Online: N/A

You have to get it right. You can't call Phantasy Star Online just Phantasy Star because they're actually two totally different game series. The Phantasy Star games are the more traditional RPGs, spanning all the way back to the original SEGA Master System, while the Phantasy Star Online games first started out on the SEGA Dreamcast and, of course, were online. SEGA has melded the two Phantasy games into Phantasy Star Portable for the PSP. The idea is to have a game that feels like the PS Online games, but portable.

Personally, I've been anticipating this title for a while now and here's what I got from it. The gameplay is typical PS Online; you start off by creating a custom male or female character with the choice of multiple races that all have their own unique strengths and weaknesses. PS Online fans will be happy to know that typical PS Online race expectations, like Beast transformations at level 20, are still present. Playing through missions has you switching from weapon to weapon as you fight off the various monsters of PS Portable -- which are called the SEED -- and making use of supportive items. As with any PS Online title, you can expect a range of laser weapons such as guns and melee attack weapons like laser swords and spears. Enemies will randomly drop items that can be used during quests as well as money that can be used for tasks such as buying new weapons and armor. There is a boss battle at the end of almost every level and winning the battle will reward you with money and items to help you along the way.

Downsides for the title include no online mode and no lobby as in previous iterations.

Graphically the game looks great on the PSP. Monsters retain their typical abstract designs that PS Online is known for; most of them look like futuristic cyborgs with organic bodies and a little bit of futuristic machinery added to them. The NPC characters -- as well as your own custom character -- all have an anime style to them. Familiar characters from previous Phantasy titles like Laia Martinez make a return as well as new characters such your CAST species partner Vivienne. CAST is the name for robotic characters manufactured by humans.

As you go into battle, you have the ability to invite characters that you meet in the main story to join you on your quests to help you fight through the hoards of SEED. SEGA has also included the ability for a friend to join you on your quests for some co-op multiplayer. The only real downsides to PSP are that there is no online multiplayer. You have to be next to a friend with a PSP to play together, which really isn't that bad because it's not exactly a PS Online title. It's just that it would have been really cool to include. The second downside is that there isn't a real lobby anymore. In previous PS Online titles, you were always able to walk around a lobby filled with NPCs in between quests to buy equipment, play mini-games and perform other tasks outside of the main adventure. Now, everything has been turned into menus; if you want to go to the GUARDIANS HQ you don't actually walk there, instead you just select it from your list and then, boom, you're there. It seems kind of shallow, but at least you're treated to some really good looking 2D renders in the background of the menus. Still, Phantasy Star Portable is just what the PSP needs to add a spark to the increasingly dimming library of PSP titles. It's an enjoyable action/RPG with just the right amount of complexity for a portable game even without the inclusion of an actual lobby... grumble... grumble... grumble...