by Ken Gagne

There's nothing cooler than video games, especially in the face of summer heat. These ten computer and video games will keep you entertained, no matter the weather. They can be purchased or preordered at any software or electronics store, and will ship to consumers and retailers on the given dates, which are subject to change at the publisher's discretion.

Title	: WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgame$
Platform	: Game Boy Advance
ESRB Rating	: Everyone
Available	: Now

Nintendo dominates the handheld market with the Game Boy Advance, which is the perfect system for long journey or a passing moment. WarioWare is suited to shorter attention spans, containing over 200 mini-games that require more reflexes than brains. Though some challenges may seem simple or absurd, such as brushing one's teeth or shaking a dog's paw, others games are based on Nintendo classics, including Metroid and the boxing game Punch-Out! The frenetic activity will accommodate many anxious gamers

Title	: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Platform	: Xbox
ESRB Rating	: Teen
Available	: 6/17

Though nearly 60 games have been spun off from George Lucas' handful of movies, LucasArts continues to take new angles on the Star Wars universe. One of the latest offerings is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, a role-playing game (RPG) set 4,000 years before any of the films' events in an era when Jedi and Sith numbered hundreds, if not thousands, more than in Luke Skywalker's time. Technology hasn't changed, but worlds and people have, creating an almost blank slate in which players can play as humans, droids, Wookies, and more, as they strive to defeat the practitioners of the dark side of the Force. A PC version is due in the fall

Title	: Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness
Platform	: PlayStation 2, PC
ESRB Rating	: Teen
Available	: 6/18

Indiana Jones' female counterpart, Lara Croft, has been beset by innumerable delays in this game, originally due long ago. Subtitled "Angel of Darkness", the game will finally be released this summer alongside Angelina Jolie's "The Cradle of Life", the movie sequel to her 2001 film. The movie may prove the better of the two, as Angel of Darkness's development has been hampered by graphical issues and uninspired gameplay. Though this Tomb Raider may not be an improvement over its predecessors, fans of the series will nonetheless enjoy slinking through shadows of this dark adventure with Lara and new playable character Curtis

Title	: Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising
Platform	: Game Boy Advance
ESRB Rating	: Everyone
Available	: 6/24

Advance Wars 2 is a game of military strategy. Using a gridded map, players move units representing tanks, bombers, infantry, and batteries, while managing resources to produce new units in the fight against the imperialistic Black Hole army. Two Game Boys can be connected for players to battle against each other, or to swap terrain maps they've created for custom campaigns. The animated setting and lack of demonstrated violence make this game appropriate for any age of gamer willing to think through her moves

Title	: Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided
Platform	: PC
ESRB Rating	: Teen
Available	: 6/26

LucasArts' other summer title is Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, the first massively-multiplayer online RPG (MMORPG) in the tradition of EverQuest. That means almost every person you meet in this galaxy is controlled by another person, not the computer. You and everyone else can choose occupations and alliances for your avatars, such as a Rebel smuggler, Imperial bounty hunter, a merchant or bartender, or other resident. With several planets to explore, this galaxy will not seem so far away once you're living there. Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions are being considered

Title	: Dino Crisis 3
Platform	: Xbox
ESRB Rating	: Mature
Available	: 8/6

Capcom gives their Jurassic Park series a new spin its first incarnation on a modern game console. In the year 2548, a long-lost spaceship reappears, populated with voracious velociraptors and other ravenous reptiles. As part of a special ops team, players are equipped with laser guns and jet packs, allowing for 3D exploration of the ship. This series was originally tagged as "Resident Evil with dinosaurs" but is progressively differentiating itself, and with this leap forward, will be unique among other, similar games

Title	: Silent Hill 3
Platform	: PlayStation 2
ESRB Rating	: Mature
Available	: 8/6

Silent Hill 3's predecessors each warn players, "There are violent and disturbing images in this game." This sequel puts players in the role of Heather, a young woman caught in the psychological nightmare of Silent Hill, a town rent between reality and a darker world of grotesque monsters and impossible mysteries. New creatures and strangers will plague gamers as they unravel a plot which unveils both Heather's secret past and the town's. Adults may be unsettled; kids shouldn't be allowed near this perversity

Title	: F-Zero GX
Platform	: GameCube
ESRB Rating	: Everyone
Available	: 8/26

If Honda's Insight isn't futuristic enough for you, then skip ahead to the 30th century in F-Zero GX. This racer, developed by Sega, may not have any gimmicks or weapons to separate it from other sci-fi racing games, but brilliantly executes all the basic characteristics of a good game: tight control, extreme speed, fierce competition, and plenty of options, including a host of vehicles. The "GX" in the title distinguishes the GameCube game from its arcade counterpart, F-Zero AX; gamers can share and combine data between the two using a GameCube memory card

Title	: Soul Calibur II
Platform	: PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox
ESRB Rating	: Mature
Available	: 8/27

Though the fighting genre has been glutted since the success of Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat a decade ago, there is always room for exceptional quality. Namco's Soul Calibur has so far lived up to that distinction, and for the first time, all platforms will be able to enjoy the series with Soul Calibur II. Each version will have an exclusive, hidden character: the comic book character Spawn on Xbox; Link, the hero of Nintendo's "Legend of Zelda" series, on GameCube; and on PlayStation 2, Tekken's Heihachi. An arsenal of 200 historical weapons provides a deep one-on-one fighting game, be it against the computer or a friend

Title	: TRON 2.0
Platform	: PC
ESRB Rating	: Teen
Available	: 8/27

Yes, the Eighties are back — which means not only Transformers and G.I. Joe, but also TRON, Disney's magnum opus (ask any diehard geek) of computer animation. The 2.0 is for 20 years after the original story. Bruce Boxleitner reprises the role of programmer Alan Bradley, who has disappeared, leaving son Jet to go digital and enter a corrupt mainframe in search of his father. This first-person-perspective game should be more adventure- and less action-oriented than other first-person games like DOOM or Quake. And, of course, you can count on there being plenty of light cycles, discs, and Journey tunes.

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This article is copyright (c) 2003, 2007 by Ken Gagne. All rights reserved. Not to be distributed without permission.

Original publication: Worcester Magazine, 12-Jun-03