I'm surprised. One of the most quirky, yet awesome DS games ever comes along, and no one here is talking about it at all!


...For those of you who have no idea what "The World Ends With You" is, allow me to explain. It's an RPG (Battles play out in real time) that takes place in the modern day, and it's made by Square-Enix. No, don't let the name turn you off if you're not a final fantasy fan. This game is nothing like anything they've made before. It's a new style, and it kicks ass with it.

Story: (SPOILER FREE!). Neku (the dude as my avatar at the moment) is a seriously anti-social jerk who just can't stand other humans. And that's big problem, since he's trapped in downtown Shibuya, Japan. ...He wakes up in the middle of an intersection, with no idea how he got there. Suddenly, a text message comes in on his cell phone: "Get to the 105 building in 60 minutes, or face erasure". And if that wasn't enough motivation, then that pack of insane looking animals running at him sure are. Neku is a participant in a contest...a deadly contest with his life on the line...The Reaper's Game.

As to gameplay...it's quite different. You walk around Shibuya, clearing missions, and scanning people's thoughts. TO engage in battle, you simply scan the area, and tap the enemy icons that are floating around. Then, you'll be warped to a battle field where the combat takes place on BOTH screens at once. On the bottom screen, you have Neku, who fights using psychic pins that are used via touch screen (slash the screen, toss objects around, etc). On the top screen is his partner, who fights using combos done by either the control pad, or via the XABY buttons. IF it's too hard for you to handle both at once, you can set the top to auto, and take over if you feel it's needed.

Also, this game fixes the whole *grinding* issue. You see, you have a little slider in your menu. By sliding it, you can control your current level. SO, you could fight at level 5 instead of you max level, if you so choose. And the game rewards you for lowering your level by boosting the drop rate accordingly. So, if you need cash, just drop your level a bit, chain a few battles together, and voila, the pins (and from them, cash) just keep on coming.

SO...GET THIS FREAKING GAME NOW! It's got to be one of the most amazing DS games I've played in a long long time.