Games to Watch in 2008

With 2008 under way, we look ahead to pick out some of the promising games due over the next 12 months.

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God of War: Chains of Olympus
(PSP)

For whatever reason, Sony sells a lot of PSPs but when it comes to software, there's a surprising lack of big sellers. That could change this spring when Kratos, the legendary God of War, brings his inimitable brand of unleashed fury to the shiny portable.

God of War: Chains of Olympus serves as a prequel to the main storyline that played out in the pair of well-reviewed PlayStation 2 games but sticks to the might-and-mythology make-up that made those games so successful, taking players to the Gates of Hades and back. The game has been designed from the start as a PSP exclusive that will push the portable to its limits, and developer Ready At Dawn, which previously worked on Daxter, is even tapping some of the recently unlocked potential that's been lurking inside the portable.

With Sony still quiet on when we can expect the PlayStation 3 debut of God of War, this is the closest that fans of the series will be able to get, but judging by what we've seen until now, putting more hands on this PSP instalment would be a very good thing indeed.

Ninja Gaiden II
(Xbox 360)

Ninja Gaiden has in the past few years built a reputation for being one of the bloodiest and most crushingly difficult series around. And that's just the sort of thing that the hardcore Xbox 360 owners lap up.

Set in the years predating Ryu Hayabusa's earlier adventures, Ninja Gaiden II is by some quirk of luck one of the highest profile exclusives coming to the Xbox 360 in 2008. Tomonobu Itagaki, the outspoken creator of the series, is back in the director's chair, heading work on a game that juxtaposes serene, traditional Japanese environments with lightning-fast action and buckets and buckets of blood.

The game looks to be every bit as challenging as previous instalments and thanks to the focus on the Xbox 360, Team Ninja will be able to focus to squeeze every corpuscle out of the system.

For more, see our Ninja Gaiden II interview with Team Ninja.

Metal Gear Solid 4
(PlayStation 3)

There is perhaps no game more important to the short-term success of the PlayStation 3 than Snake's return in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, which explains why there is so much attention given to whether the game is actually exclusive to Sony's console or not. As it stands now, it most certainly is. But what is it?

Guns of the Patriots is set well into the future and sees Snake, now grizzled and grey, tapped for a last mission to assassinate longtime rival Liquid Ocelot. He has new gadgets and moves to get comfortable with but most jarring will be the new battlefield scenarios. Snake must perform his mission while staying alive on live battlefields raging with combat between foes he has no affiliation with.

Creator Hideo Kojima, who swears that this is the last Metal Gear Solid game he'll be involved with, says that the story will offer players something totally new. Which makes it all the more painful that the game still seems to be months from release.

Mario Kart Wii
(Wii)

In contrast to Super Smash Bros Brawl, which has been supported by a drip-feed of information over the past few months, there's not much we know about Mario's first kart game for the Wii other than it too will be used to develop new gameplay ideas on the system.

Just like Mario Kart DS, Mario Kart Wii will feature full online play. Nintendo hasn't yet said how many players will be able to race together but company president Reggie Fils-Aime said during the game's unveiling last year that more players is better. Also unveiled at the same time was a new steering wheel peripheral that, like the Wii Zapper, will house the Wii remote to make it easier for newcomers to get up to speed. That's in keeping with Nintendo's goal of making the Wii accessible to all. The game itself looks like a prettier version of Mario Kart Double Dash!! on the GameCube but with cars each carrying one racer only.

While Nintendo has clearly started to pay more attention to the wider population, the focus paid to its traditional franchises as they make their way to the Wii gives us confidence that for Nintendo fans, Mario Kart Wii will be a must-play.

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