There's gonna be a whole lot of fairies floating around in November. Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH has just announced three new Winx Club titles: Winx Club: Join the Club for the PSP and Winx Club: The Quest for the Codex for the Nintendo DS and the GBA. This will be the first time that Winx Club will make an appearance on the PSP and DS.

Winx Club: Join the Club for the PSP lets players take full control of the Winx Club as they continue their fight against the evil Lord Darkar. Players can embark on the story-based adventure or choose to play mini-games based on obstacle courses, spell casting, and skiing. Players can also trade items via local wireless connection.

In the DS version, Winx Club: The Quest for the Codex, players will experience the game's story through a series of side-scrolling flying segments, using their magical powers to blast stuff all the way to oblivion. The DS touch screen will be used to switch between characters mid-game, allowing players to use each character's unique abilities to solve puzzles and defeat opponents.

If you have a little sister (named Michael, Mark, or Viktor perhaps?) who's into the whole Winx Club franchise, you might think about buying her these games. Release date is November, just in time to avoid the Christmas rush.

Atari released seven new screenshots for their upcoming game Arthur and the Minimoys. The game is based on the movie that will be released at about the same time (directed by Luc Bession) as the game's. The movie, in turn, is based on a book, which was also written by the director.

The game revolves around Arthur and his two friends, Selenia and Bétamèche. They enter the world of the Minimoys and are supposed to save the Minimoys from certain death (some evil guy is going to blow it up or something). Gameplay is about the three characters and their unique abilities. Both in the puzzles and the standard battles you'll have to figure out which of the three abilities you need to use. The game also features scenes from the movie, in which voices of celebrities like David Bowie, Madonna and Snoop Dogg can be heard.

The game will be released on November 24 this year, on PSP, DS, PS2, PC, GBA, and mobile phones.

  
  
 

So Kangaeru Exit is set to be released on the 7th of September, yet Gamewatch gives us more things to expect from the second installment for the famous puzzle game, Exit. For this game, there are two more helpers for Mr. ESC. The first one is the Dog. The Dog can go to places where Mr. ESC cannot enter. It is more agile and is able to jump to far places. The dog will be able to help Mr. ESC get to those hard to reach places. Another aide to Mr. ESC is Macho. Macho stands by his name. He's a strong guy who can push things that are too heavy for Mr. ESC. Having Macho around saves you a lot of trouble with those big boxes and those muscular and tough activities (like climbing the rope).

For this update, there are also five new tools to help you around in the game. There are already escalators in the game, as one of the new ways of going up or down. A Human Rope Way is another trick which lets you travel from one distance to another. It lets Mr. ESC, macho, and some of his aids to glide the ropeway and onto the next screen. Another tool is the double shutter which lets you switch from one floor to another. A barrel is another tool that you can use in solving puzzles. And lastly, a one-way change door allows you to operate or finish particular puzzles the moment you figure out how the one way change door operates.

In addition to the already impressive soundtrack and video line up of the upcoming Lumines II on PSP, Q producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his team collaborated on a special track called Heavenly Star. The music itself was described as "insanely catchy" while the "simply stunning" video features an alien singer, not from south of the border but outer space, looking for her soulmate on our planet. Good luck with that sister! The Heavenly Star video was designed by Glamoove, a renowned Japanese visual team. Mizuguchi says it was inspired by "Take On Me," one of the cutting edge videos of the mid-80s featuring A-ha.

About the game itself, Lumines II will retain its classic innovative puzzle/music gameplay but with new attractions all-new skins, over 100 new icons, new battle modes, additional 3D backgrounds, more brain-busting puzzles, plus a Skin Play edit feature, Play History, and a replay theater.

If you haven't tried out Lumines (which will be coming to mobile phones, Xbox 360, and PSP) here's how it plays: squares made of four smaller block pieces are dropped into the playing field one at a time to form same-color squares. As they succumb to the law of gravity, a vertical timeline sweeps across the screen from left to right and removes same-color squares from the playing field. Unmatched blocks pile up, and the game ends when the pile gets to the top of the playing screen.

Know more interesting tidbits about the game straight from the team (Katsumi Yokota, senior graphic designer and Ryuichi Hattori, game designer and director) that developed it by clicking 'Read' below.

Maybe it's my competitive nature that draws me to puzzles in general, but you'd have to admit the thought of being the only one able to solve a seemingly unsolvable puzzle would stroke your ego the right way. And seriously, who doesn't want to have the bragging rights on anything?

Puzzle games like mEo's Slider PSP, is a common element in computer games. They require some serious thought, strategy and above all, logic. All of that you'll need, if you want to go far in this game.

First off, I would like to commend mEo for a wonderfully written How-to in the Read Me file. I know most people hardly give that little text file a peep, and that's exactly why it's more impressive. He actually took time in writing it. It even comes with detailed diagrams, on not only how to move panels around, but as well as possible scenarios you might encounter within the game.

Honestly, I am quite in a fix whether it's much better to have levels for the puzzles, instead of you choosing how many rows and columns you want. I like the impending challenge a level-by-level gameplay brings on the table, but I also like the flexibility of being able to customize your puzzle.

And while on the topic of customization, I'd have to applaud the fact that, with the image generator included, you can give the game your own touch. And if that isn't enough, the source code for the game is also included.

But, just because the game is good as it is right now, it doesn't mean that there are no room left for improvements. Personally, in the future I would like to see a time trial mode for the game, just to have some variety. Also, I suggest putting in something that would count the number of moves the player made in order to complete the puzzle. Not only will this increase the intensity of the game, but a player can keep track of his progress in the game. This feature could also lead to a scoring system, in the future.

To close, I truly had a wonderful time with this game. If I had all day, I would sit down with the PSP and play this game the whole time. I'd keep an eye on this game's future developments. Kudos to mEo!

Download: [Slider PSP]

Q Entertainment and NAMCO Bandai announced that Gunpey-R for the PSP and DS (take note that its title for the DS is Oto wo Tsunagou!) is heading to retail shops in holiday 2006. The game features exciting and innovative challenging puzzles that can only be expected from the legendary Gameboy creator Gunpei Yokoi. It will test your reflexes and dazzle your senses with the combination of dynamic music and colorful graphics.

Based on the 1999 Wonderswan puzzle, the creative minds at Q Entertainment combine groundbreaking music integration that will purportedly excite both the hardcore and casual gamers.

In Gunpey-R, as lines of various angles climb up the screen, you have to flip the lines located in squares to connect them over five columns. If an incomplete line reaches the top of the screen, the game is over. The game features 40 varied backgrounds and stylized music - a known trademark of the game's executive producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi. It supports two-player multiplayer over wireless ad-hoc connectivity.

  

  

Sudoku's quite a popular game for the PSP - just try searching through the site and you'll see coverage of quite a few Sudoku games, written by different people to boot.

Now Bruce Perkins a.k.a. EvilDooinz has jumped on the PSP-Sudoku bandwagon by coming up with and releasing a beta release of a Sudoku game of his very own for both 1.5 and 2.6-firmware PSPs. As it stands right now, his includes only one puzzle and one theme.

Features of this Sudoku game include a clean GUI and easy controls. EvilDooinz has a 'todo' list for the game; future releases will feature more puzzles and themes; sounds, hints; time status; score system; and a high-score board as well.

Installation instructions are as follows:

--install 1.5
 copy the Sudoku and Sudoku% folders from 1.5 to PSP/GAME
--install 1.0 & 2.0+
 copy the Sudoku folder from v1.0 v2.0+ folder to PSP/GAME
 copy the folders Images and Sounds from the 1.5 folder to PSP/GAME/Sudoku

Download: [PSP Sudoku Beta]

Now, there's lots of heroes out there. We have the super alien who basically has to get out of the atmosphere to hear a world's cry for help. There's that anti-social human who enjoys lurking in his cave and use uber expensive tools to save his crime-ridden city. Then there is Mr. ESC, who seems to be trapped in a crumbling town and needs your help so that he can get out and save the world. Some super hero, right? But our beloved hero is definitely out to bring justice to all if you only make him escape in his new game, Kangaeru Exit, which translates to "Think Exit!". This is the second game for the Exit series for the PSP.

So what does the game teach us? It teaches us how to be crafty! This is a puzzle game which lets you push some boxes and work some brain muscle in order to get Mr. ESC out of the room. With the building crumbling, you have to think fast for you will only have a limited number of time in an area. Other than that, whenever you rescue a person in that room, you can also use that person (or animal, in some levels) to help you get out of that room. You can also use items to help you get out of the level.

The game is a classic puzzle game that many of us spend nights solving. And with 110 puzzles for us to solve, it might make insomniacs out of us. The game is set for release in Japan on September.