Who doesn’t want to be a ninja?  Don’t sit there and tell me you’ve never dreamed of the day of being insane enough to throw stars at objects with utmost accuracy, or get the sneak-up on someone from behind to subdue them.  Well, very few games these days make you truly feel like a ninja, since the Tenchu series has fallen by the wayside.  To make up for this, Namco Bandai has brought in Acquire, Tenchu's development team, to produce Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen to the PlayStation Vita, giving gamers the opportunity to go all ninja-like with a vengeful assassin named, well, Zen.

Consoles and PC's have had a slow month interms of new AAA quality games arriving for your respected platform. While January got off to a slow start, it quickly recovered to bring us high quality tittles through digital distribution. Plenty of great downloadable arcade tittles were made available through XBLA, PSN and Steam, giving us many hidden gems on the digital marketplace. Let's look back at the games we reviewed over the past month.  

When SoulCalibur IV came out a few years ago for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, some players were disappointed by the series' jump to next-gen, even with the addition of nifty Star Wars characters.  (C'mon, Darth Vader versus Mitsurugi was pretty damn epic.)  But luckily, Namco realizes that some better balancing was needed, and SoulCalibur V brings it in spades, between some great new characters and the kind of multiplayer that will keep you addicted for some time.  It's just a shame that the single player content couldn't really keep up...

Lets face it, your have probably played at least one third person shooter this console generation. Minus the story, they have all similar game-styles with little differences in between. With the Gears of War franchise retiring last September, the third person shooter genre is looking for someone to take reins and lead the genre into the next generation. After spending two hours with the game, I came away relativity surprised on what Saber Interactive was bring and how Inversion could be one of the biggest surprise hits of 2012.  

The power of Tekken appears to be going strong into 2012, between the forthcoming Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Capcom's Street Fighter x Tekken, and now with Tekken 3D Prime Edition for Nintendo 3DS.  Namco has announced an official release date for the game, as well as some bonuses that'll be packed in with it.

When Namco Bandai released Ace Combat: Assault Horizon for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 back in October, I thought it was a great new direction for the series, one filled with plenty of adrenaline and excitement, even if the helicopter sequences aren't for everyone's tastes.  But if you prefer the Ace Combat of old, you should check out the recently released 3DS entry, Assault Horizon Legacy.  It does have some stuff in common with the other version, but it's heart is kept firmly in the realm of old-school.

Whenever you take a vacation, it’s something you roll on the dice on.  It could be that perfect getaway to Maui, or that nightmarish trip to your sister’s house in Hoboken.  But then there’s the sheer thought that you can’t afford a vacation at all, especially with the tough economy that’s going on these days.  With that, Namco Bandai has an affordable little alternative with Go Vacation, a game that, like Wii Sports Resort before it, tries to temporarily take you away to paradise, where numerous mini-games and unlockable goodies await.  Though this game isn’t as polished (or, oddly enough, as varied) as Resort, it’s worth punching a ticket for if you’re looking for local multiplayer fun.