I was late at writing this blog and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and No More Heroes 2 have passed me by. Thankfully there's still a sackload of games to be buyin' this year....good lord, I've never been this excited for games since the DS launch year.

5. Pokemon Ranger: Tracks of Light

Couldn't find a boxshot for this, and I can't really copy any other pictures easily, so what the heck. Essentially this is Pokemon Ranger 3, and just like Ranger 2, it looks like it will fix another set of flaws in the Ranger series, making for an even more fun game. Ranger 2 introduced a less demanding/less impossible way to capture Pokemon by giving them a HP bar instead of a specific number of loops, and also added tons of sidequests and partner Pokemon(you're not just stuck to one). This one has much improved graphics(look at the shots on Serebii), looks like it has more varied gameplay, introduces a new mechanism to summon Pokemon by drawing a symbol on the screen(epic. This I like), and best of all, multiplayer modes. Its release date in Japan is March 6 this year, so, I'm hyped!

4. Metroid Other M

Not much has been revealed for Other M but the teasers show a lot of promise. Intense action-y games appeal to me a lot too. And it's Metroid! I've been waiting for another one since I finished Metroid Prime 3. Not much to say because...well, there just isn't much info on it at all, but it's still a Nintendo game most people would want on first sight.

3. Trauma Team

The Trauma Center series never did reach mega-popular status, but it's still one of the best cult clas.sics you can buy. This next game in the series takes a more real-world approach at the world of medicine, covering six different fields. Gone are the sci-fi like manmade viruses, the Healing Touch and the famed Dr. Derek Stiles(okay, maybe not, I'm not so sure). It's daunting, but this change could mean even more different ways of tackling diseases and injuries that the original games could never do with limited types of equipment. Also, if you've played Trauma Center: Second Opinion, Dr. Naomi Kimishima from that game makes an appearance, as the forensics doctor.

2. Ninokuni: The Another World

This Level-5 developed RPG is one of the most intriguing things to come by in a long time, mainly because of its partnership with the minds from Studio Ghibli (Totoro, anyone?). This should spell epic for a lot of people. The soundtrack, storyline and animation are almost guaranteed to be masterpieces by themselves, but to top it all off, Ninokuni is an already solid game with 3D graphics, a rarity on DS. It comes with a huge spellbook with touch-screen commands, so you refer to the book when you're casting spells in the game. That was enough to tide me over. Only thing left is a US release date.

1. Super Mario Galaxy 2

Needs no explanation here, as this is more of the same you've come to expect from the Wii's most imaginative, playful, and hands-down best game. I half-expected this to be made up of ideas that got the axe in the original Galaxy though. I had thoughts of Miyamoto and co. coming up with so many crazy ideas that they had to dump some of them along the way before releasing Galaxy 1. Expect even more new crazy areas and level mechanics than ever before, and Yoshi. This is going to be sweet...but as usual, Nintendo are cagey with their details.

Some games I didn't mention....where are Zelda Wii and Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver? For the former, there is too little information for anyone to get excited about. So what if it's Zelda. There still has to be at least some sort of game shots or footage to swoon over or something. The latter? I have the Japanese version already :P I'll get the US version eventually, but I've seen it all before.