Spirit Tracks is the fifteenth official Zelda title and the second to be released on the Nintendo DS. As is now tradition, we have a hero, a princess and a world in peril. This time around though, there are many twists in the traditional formula which only raises excitement levels for further changes for the next Wii adventure.

Before we tackle Spirit Tracks, lets take a quick look back at the previous DS Zelda adventure Phantom Hourglass. Phantom Hourglass was a game which offered a mix of new ideas with familiar gameplay elements and fused them together in one new, brightly coloured experience. Some bits clearly worked, other bits didn’t and then there were those which split people right down the middle – I am pretty sure I’m in the minority when I say I loved the timed, stealth-focused Temple of the Ocean King though.

Phantom Hourglass teased us with glimpses of brilliance. The touch-screen controls were precise and easy to grasp, the cel-shaded style, frowned upon by many for The WindWaker, had found its true home and the narrative was fresh and entertaining. Ultimately, however, it was a game with many flaws. Puzzles had been dumbed down for the new audience, bosses fell all too easily and though I loved the Temple of the Ocean King, I can understand why it frustrated many.

A hearty “Hallelujah” then for Spirit Tracks which steps onto our DSes boldly and corrects all of Phantom Hourglass’s faults and stands out as the best handheld Zelda title in recent years – and even pushes Link’s Awakening for the overall top spot!

Spirit Tracks takes place 100 years after Phantom Hourglass with the descendants of Link and Zelda now in the leading roles. And it is indeed both characters who take a lead part in this adventure as during the first expedition to the continent’s central Tower of Spirits, Princess Zelda becomes as important to the adventure as Link himself. With her spirit trapped outside its body and Link one of the few people who can see her, the once-damsel-in-distress must take control of Phantoms (mystical suits of armour) to help reunite her two halves.

The Phantom mechanic opens up a wealth of new puzzling possibilities as the player must work both Link and Zelda into the solutions of numerous challenges found in the Tower of Spirits. Link must go it alone in the game’s five other temples, but the Tower of Spirits is a 30-level labyrinth of truly epic proportions. Zelda is incredibly versatile thanks to a variety of Phantoms to possess, and it’s allowed the development team to crank the difficulty up a gear – a much welcomed improvement.

The Tower of Spirits takes on the central dungeon position held by the Temple of the Ocean King in Phantom Hourglass, but does away with the much-loathed time limit and repetition. You can power through as fast or as slow as you like, and it’s entirely up to you whether or not you return to earlier floors to find a few hidden treasures when you’ve built up your inventory.

The other major addition in Phantom Hourglass’s arsenal of gameplay mechanics is the Spirit Train. When originally unveiled to shocked gasps and cries of “What the hell?” at the start of the year, all fears should be laid to one side as the train is actually a sound addition to Link’s growing forms of transport. As well as getting Link from Point A to Point B, you will find that points C through Z are waiting for you, though many require extra sidequests be dealt with to unlock more tracks to those locations (and we’ll get back to those sidequests shortly).

Those tracks which the train runs on are also pivotal to the game’s storyline as they have been used for the past hundred years to lock away a powerful evil – the dark lord Malladus (that’s right, it isn’t Ganon, honest). Link must restore the power of the Spirit Tracks, open the portal to the dark world to confront Malladus and help return Zelda to her body. Easy peasy, you may think. You fought evil in Phantom Hourglass with no trouble at all.

But it isn’t easy. It’s by no means the most difficult Zelda you’ve played but Spirit Tracks does come with a difficulty curve that steadily builds as the game goes on and there is a good chance you will see the game over screen more than once. The first temple is unfortunately very short, very dull and very easy but it’s clearly there to ease the newcomers in, and as their experience builds over time so too does the difficulty until they’re tackling the last few levels of the Tower of Spirits and bouncing between multiple floors, hitting different switches with a combination of Phantom powers.

The main quest is roughly the same length as Phantom Hourglass – a seasoned Zelda player could rattle through this in around 20 hours. Spirit Tracks however offers a wealth of sidequests that have been badly missing from the series since Majora’s Mask almost a decade ago. There’s still work to be done on getting them back up to that exceedingly high standard, but a broad range of fetch quests, collect-em-ups, passenger and cargo transport quests and mini-games are on offer, far surpassing the slim pickings of its predecessor.

Spirit Tracks isn’t without it’s flaws (the frame rate occasionally drags on congested tracks and  enemies are going to have to start dealing out more damage than half a heart one day), but it is a significant step in the right direction for handheld Zelda games and the series as a whole. Aonuma and his team have talked about changing the structure of the Zelda series with the next Wii adventure and the DS games have both showed little hints of what could happen. Taking the title of DS Game of the Year, ladies and gentlemen a round of applause please for Spirit Tracks.

Zach Braff opens the ninth season of Scrubs with a not-too-subtle metaphor, as a picture of the Sacred Heart Hospital we knew is trashed and the new building is clear for all to see.

In May, Scrubs was given that rarest of things for television: A fitting conclusion. With the characters and stories still bringing a smile to the faces of fans, seeing JD leave Sacred Heart for the last time was bittersweet, but it somehow felt right.

Though many would have been happy to see things end there Bill Lawrence had other ideas, wishing to keep the show alive for the sake of his 100-strong production team. “Legacy shmegacy,” he said and so comes season nine.

More spin-off than continuation (as the tacked on [Med School] sub-title in the revamped title sequence would suggest), the blending of old and new brings mixed results.

First up, the old. JD, Turk, Cox and Kelso have returned to Sacred Heart to teach a host of newbies. All have kept their respective quirks. JD and Turk are still embracing their guy love (occasionally in slow-motion), Dr Cox continues to be an entertaining jerk and the (very) recently-widowed Kelso is delivering yet more cracking one-liners.

They’re joined by three new faces as well as the semi-new Eliza Coupe who I am more than happy to see bringing Denise into a more central role.

Set to take over narration duties is Lucy (Kerry Bishé). Socially inept and prone to crying, she’s basically Elliot from season one. It will take a few more episodes to see if Bishé can take the character beyond that first impression.

Standing out more and drifting through his classes thanks to some family ties is the smug, sleazy and completely unlikeable Cole (Dave Franco). It’s a good thing though. Scrubs has been in need of a character we love to hate for a long time and Franco is clearly lapping up the chance to be as pervy as humanly possible.

Last up is mature student Drew (Michael Mosley). Desperately hoping to slip under the radar and get through classes on his second attempt, he naturally fails and becomes Dr Cox’s number one student (complete with a “#1″ label that JD would kill for). An unlikely (or maybe all-too-likely) relationship with the emotionally-dead Denise provided one of the premiere’s high points.

While there were highs, there were also a few low points – with some laughs feeling a bit cheap and making you wonder if perhaps ignoring the show’s DNR order was a bad idea. The second episode (Our Drunk Friend) in particular is tarnished by the appearance of two bumbling security guards who would make even the writers of Paul Blart: Mall Cop blush. Hopefully they’re just the result of some bad coffee in the writers’ room and won’t hang around.

The first two episodes show how much this new format needs time to grow on the audience. But time is what it will get. The new characters need room to develop – something which is to a degree being held back by Braff’s presence. As much as I appreciate the need for familiarty, hopefully with his departure in four episodes’ time we’ll see Scrubs 2.0 really kick off.

Our First Day of School and Our Drunk Friend were by no means disastrous and that’s all that matters. If the rest of season nine should drive the series to a new low, however, I can always treat it like that fourth Indiana Jones movie.

What fourth Indiana Jones movie? Exactly.

Brit comedy Nativity! is out this week, but Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol has been out for almost a month now. Was it too soon? Almost certainly, though the supermarkets have been trying to force Elton John’s Step Into Christmas down our throats from the moment their last pumpkin was sold, so Disney can be forgiven.

A Christmas Carol is one of the classic stories that gets an airing on the big and small screens around the festive season. A quick search on Wikipedia will reveal 20 big-screen adaptations have been made over the last century alongside dozens more for television and radio. While Zemeckis’ version is the latest (and Disney’s third) take on the classic Dickens tale, it is by no means the best.

Jim Carrey takes on the roles of both Ebenezer Scrooge and the three spirits, thanks to the wonder of ImageMovers Digital’s performance capture technology – previously seen in The Polar Express and Beowulf, both produced by Zemeckis.

Carrey has a ball with all four parts – though, admittedly, it’s hard for an actor to fluff the role of the mute Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. His Scrooge is every bit the snarly, mean-spirited old codger you imagined when you first read Dickens’ story. There is no face better suited to the performance capture technique than Carrey’s and his body is just as animated when it comes to Scrooge’s redemption.

While Zemeckis would try and have you believe he has carefully adapted Dickens’ novel he has turned the gentle tale of Christmas redemption into a stomach-churning rollercoaster of a movie. The warm grin that springs across your face as 3-D snow falls gently over Dickensian London is undone by a number of motion-sickness inducing sequences purely there because the film is available in the third dimension. An absurd chase sequence involving the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come chews into the running time when more attention could have been paid to the film’s conclusion – Scrooge’s final acts of redemption are given all of three minutes.

It’s the curse of the computer-animated film that strikes all but Pixar’s best efforts. While visually impressive, the film is lacking any emotional depth. It’s packed with action sequences which will keep the ADHD generation watching, but it’s at the price of a truly satisfying experience. You’ll probably still have a smile on your face as the credits role – Tiny Tim’s final line has that effect on you – but on the whole, Zemeckis’ adaptation lacks heart. The Muppets’ Christmas Carol proved that Scrooge’s tale doesn’t need to be a non-stop thrill ride to be entertaining for kids. Or maybe that was just my generation…

Old man, signing off. Disney’s A Christmas Carol gets 3 out of 5.

Just over a year ago, they released another game in the Wii [Blank] arsenal with Wii Music. From a simple conductor’s demo at E3 2005, the project had grown into a product which featured more than 50 songs and 60 instruments yet it has gone down as the least successful entry in the series with 2.65m copies sold.

Nintendo were hit with broad condemnation at E3 2008 when Wii Music was unveiled as their big release for the Christmas season (alongside Animal Crossing). An utterly embarassing demonstration from Shigeru Miyamoto and some unfortunate souls from the Nintendo office did not help matters and gamers across the internet dismissed the game as little more than a poor child’s play thing.

To an extent, they’re right on the money. Wii Music is nothing like the music games which we’ve come to expect after  Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Unlike these games which rely on beefy plastic peripherals for precision music mastery, you simply have your Wii Remote and Nunchuk to play an instrument. Strum the remote up and down for the guitar, stroke it back and forth for a violin or shake it with the Nunchuk as it you’re striking keys on a piano.

The controls are as simplistic as they read and the game is happy to correct the notes for you. Some will see this as a joke, with all the point of playing an instrument for accuracy stripped away from you. Others will see this as a good thing, where the emphasis has now been placed on experimentation. These Jam Sessions are where you’ll be spending most of your game time.

You could play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to the exact tune you have known since you were a toddler, or you can throw in an extra note here, take one out there and make it your very own composition. If you’ve got the time and the imagination, you (and three friends if you’ve got them) can put together a pretty unique take on an old favourite.

Those “old favourites” however are somewhat limited. Plucked straight out of the public domain alongside Twinkle are O Christmas Tree, La Cucaracha and Happy Birthday To You. There are some pop classics and genuine, classical classics but you’re not going to get the same soundtrack as you would in the previously mentioned big-selling music games.

The MIDI sounds that come out of the instruments will be harsh on the ears of many, but they get the job done. Where the biggest flaw in the Jam Sessions lies is how you play. How many people are really going to put the Wiimote up to their mouths like a trumpet while tapping 1 and 2? How silly do they want to look amongst friends and relatives? That demonstration from E3 2008 put many people off, and for good reason. You do look silly. But if you can stop being self-concious for five minutes and just go with the flow, you may find yourself enjoying it.

The Jam Sessions are supported by three mini-game modes, which feel largely tacked on, and an in-depth drum mode which uses the Balance Board. The unco-ordinated need not apply for this as there’s a lot of button pressing in combination with Remote and Nunchuk shakes and taps on the Board.

As for the mini-games, they’re largely forgettable. The conductor demo from 2005 remains pretty much that, a demo, where you simply wave your arm to keep the orchestra going. Now we have Wii Motion Plus, we know we could get so much more out of this experience, so you’ll barely touch this after one, maybe two playthroughs.

Handbell Harmony is a more traditional rhythm action game, but is slightly hampered by the responsiveness of the Wii Remote in much the same way that a similar mini-game in Zack and Wiki left players pulling their hair out.

Pitch Perfect is the worst of the three. A series of pitch and tempo challenges are thrown at you in a near endless loop with little variety and depth. Snore.

Wii Music is tough to recommend at full retail price, but I picked it up for a tenner and for the occasional cheap laugh of seeing Hitler in a cheerleader’s outfit, yelling along to Daydream Believer, it’s worth it. Casual experimentation is the name of the game, so if you’re curious go for it. Younger siblings (really, much younger) will find it a fun gateway into music but this really is the weakest entry in the Wii series.

A second-half header by Nilmar saw an unfamiliar England line-up lose their friendly against Brazil 1-0 in the Qatari heat.

With an injury list which had been growing right up to the last minute with Michael Carrick picking up an ankle injury, Capello’s starting eleven of second (or even third) choices had done well to hold their own against the stylish Brazillians for the opening 45 minutes.

Two minutes after the restart, however, Matthew Upson and Wes Brown were caught out in defence by Nilmar who struck a convincing header past Ben Foster.

Brazil could have led by more, and Foster could have seen red after his Manchester United team mate Brown almost saw Nilmar through on goal again. The often under-fire keeper was lucky not to follow Rob Green on to the not-so-prestigious list of England keepers to be sent off and doubly lucky to see Luis Fabiano’s penalty sail high over the crossbar.

England had made a bright start with Shaun Wright-Phillips causing an early scare for the Brazilian defence in the first two minutes, making a convincing run down the right flank only to see his cross narrowly evade acting-captain Wayne Rooney.

Chances for England were few and far between, in the first half with Jermaine Jenas proving completely ineffective in midfield. Darren Bent will be left bitterly disappointed that he was unable to make an impact on Capello after a strong start to his Premier League campaign with Sunderland. A lack of service meant that he was never given the chance to prove himself a worthy partner to Rooney.

England tried hard for an equaliser, with wingers Wright-Phillips and Milner combining after 68 minutes, but Milner’s volley flew high and wide. A low shot from Rooney was easily stopped by Julio Cesar as the final whistle drew near, but though England kept pushing, in the end Brazil got the victory they deserved.

A 1-0 defeat against the best team in the world with your own second string side may look like a positive, but Capello will be hoping the rest of the Premier League season does not have such a dramatic effect on his team plans when he picks his final 23 for the trip to South Africa…

A new trailer last week revealed a whole host of secrets including the origins of the mysterious Phantoms that would help Link on his quest, why our usually green-garbed hero is sporting that natty little train driver’s outfit and, most importantly, the villain of the piece.

Now it looks like Link will have a brand new instrument to rival the legendary Ocarina of Time: The Spirit Pipes. Bearing a blindingly obvious resemblance to pan pipes, you will be using the DS microphone and stylus to play the different coloured notes and unlock new locations.

It looks as though Nintendo are going to make the most of the DS microphone, as this is the second mic-based item to be revealed, following the Whirlwind seen in the very first trailer some months back. Will we see more? You wouldn’t put it past the genius that is Shigeru Miyamoto, that’s for sure.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks will launch in the UK on December 11.

Though it took the title of the most successful horror franchise with its fifth entry last year, there’s no denying that fans were left disappointed by a generally sloppy production. The ingenuity of the traps had disappeared, John Kramer had died two movies back and taken most of the answers to the franchise’s questions with him and the normally brilliant Julie Benz was handed a script which had been ripped largely from the Hollywood Book of Horror Movie Clichés.

Saw VI sets out to tidy things up and get the Saw train back on track. Kevin Greutert has made the move from the editor’s suite – his home since the first movie back in 2004 – to the director’s chair and breathed new life into the goriest franchise in modern cinema. It won’t go winning any awards, but it will hopefully restore fan faith and boost slowly-dwindling audience figures.

VI comes with two core storylines. The first picks up where Saw V left off, with a victorious Detective Hoffman emerging from his protective perspex box and seeking to ensure that his crimes are attributed to Special Agent Strahm. Along the way, there’s more back story about Hoffman’s relationship with Kramer and fellow apprentice Amanda Young, but this time with history comes answers.

You may not be blown away by the contents of Amanda’s letter (first seen in Saw III), but at least you know what was said, who planted it, why it tipped her over the edge and the best part is it makes some degree of sense. We have closure. Mysteries including Hoffman’s motivation and the true involvement of Kramer’s girlfriend Jill Tuck are also handled well,  culminating in the traditional twist ending which – by the way – is one of the best since the series began.

The second part of the film is the now-traditional main game, where each of the traps come into play. This time around, the game focuses on William Easton, the chief executive of a health insurance company which uses a crude equation to decide who to cover and finds loopholes in existing policies just to avoid a pay out. How much of this is a clever nod to the current healthcare debate in the States and how much is coincidence is up to you.

William’s game takes him through a number of rooms, each featuring a member (or members) of his staff where he must choose who lives and dies – all based around the rules his company abides by. The games are well-paced in between the investigation into the late Agent Strahm’s apparent role as Jigsaw’s apprentice, and while there’s nothing quite as brutal to watch as last year’s lone high point, the hands-in-the-buzz-saw finale, there’s a marked improvement in the quality of traps on show.

There is one problem which now faces the Saw creative team, though. Where do they go from here? Opening audience numbers for Saw VI have been the worst the franchise has seen since it began, and those who go in – including myself – probably do so with very low expectations.

These expectations were totally surpassed, but how can we be kept interested as well as entertained this time next year? John Kramer’s endgame has been revealed, carried out and in theory we could all go home now. But two more movies have been confirmed, so this game is far from over. Fortunately, the ending to VI gives you high hopes for VII. May we not be disappointed.

But being a hero is what he does best, and alongside consistently impressive platformers Mario has a catalogue of equally entertaining RPGs. After the Square-developed Super Mario RPG on the SNES, a trilogy of Paper Mario games provided home console gamers with a lighter take on the traditionally stat and text-heavy genre. The handheld Mario and Luigi series started on the GameBoy Advance with Superstar Saga in 2003, with a DS sequel, Partners in Time, released in 2005. Though they came on smaller systems, they proved to be as deep and entertaining as their home system counterparts. Developers Alphadream did with their games what Square had done almost a decade earlier and Intelligent Systems had done with the Paper Mario series – they produced a deeply involving adventure, turn based battles and reams of dialogue – but they made it all fun.

The stats and dialogue were still there, but the games were far more approachable than the ever-so-serious Final Fantasy and its imitators had been. Mario’s universe was known for its brightly-coloured characters and was the perfect canvas for a fresh take on a genre almost as old as gaming itself. Bowser’s Inside Story is the third of Alphadream’s Bros-based RPGs and proves to be their best yet.

Bodies in the Koopa King

The game sees the return of fan-favourite and serial grammar-butcher Fawful, finally taking centre stage as the villain of the piece. When he feeds Bowser a not-so “Lucky Mushroom”, the turtle-like tyrant inhales everyone and everything in sight – including our very own Mario brothers. It’s a ridiculous story, but that’s the great thing about the Mario RPGs. They have never taken themselves too seriously and though it isn’t the most traditional narrative, it’s original, witty and progresses smoothly over the 20 or so hours you’ll be playing along.

Mario and Luigi are controlled via the A and B buttons – as they always have been – while Bowser takes on the X and Y buttons to power up his mighty punch and flame attacks. Though Bowser has what many would call the secondary buttons (previously held by the Baby Bros in Partners in Time), he is very much the leading player with the majority of the game being explored in his shoes – that’s if he ever wore shoes. But Bowser would be nothing without the brothers secretly working inside him. While Bowser thinks his might and gusto are all down to him being super-mega-awesome, it’s really the work of Mario and Luigi weaving through the Koopa King’s body and powering him up in an assortment of minigames when the time is right.

But there’s more. As with all RPGs, there’s plenty of turn-based battling to be found. Anyone familiar with the previous offerings will know what to expect – and for newcomers it’s not a case of just bashing A and watching a static animation as traditional RPGs have been so fond of for so long. With even the most basic attacks, a second, perfectly timed press of the action button will deal extra damage to your enemies with everything from a double-jump for the Bros to an extra long flaming blast from Bowser. And then there are the special attacks. Mario and Luigi’s rely on clever use of the A and B buttons for perfect timing of consecutive Koopa shell kicks, fireball throws or mega-obese Luigi tosses (yes, really) while Bowser relies on his minions to deal out the pain. These special attacks, however, come with a twist.

Unlike Partners in Time which used the touchscreen for all of five seconds, Bowser’s Inside Story takes far greater advantage of the DS’s abilities though there’s still room to grow. Bowser’s special attacks are the first innovation. All of them are controlled via the touchscreen in as many different ways of using the touchscreen for control as you can think of. You can tap Goombas to set them alight and torch the enemy, you can steer Bowser’s shell to ping back Koopa shells for as long as possible, or draw lines to connect Magikoopa wand blasts. Simple, entertaining and varied enough to not make you curse whipping out the stylus every so often.

There are also Mega Bowser battles. When seemingly killed off by one skyscraper-sized boss, Mario and Luigi give Bowser a significant enough shot of adrenaline that he becomes equally obscene in size. The DS is turned on its side and in this book-like form you tap and slide the stylus across the touchscreen to hopefully emerge victorious. There are varying challenges in each of these battles, but unfortunately, Mega Bowser is just the regular Bowser sprite beefed up which looks very untidy in what is an otherwise pixel-perfect world.

Full-bodied adventuring

You’ll be picking up new abilities for Bowser and the brothers right up to the final moments of the game. And even when the credits have rolled, there is still plenty to go back to. Did you pick up all 15 Blitties (block like kittens which need to be released in plush form ASAP)? Did you beat the Challenge Node buried inside Bowser’s belly? Has Broque Madame had her complete rubdown? Did you get your characters’ stats to Level 40 just to be told you’re awesome? There’s a good few extra hours there for the completists.

Are there a few problems with the game? Yes, and it’s up to you as to how big they may be. Inventory-wise, this is one of the weakest in the Mario RPG series. Badges have always played a major part in the way your battles can work out, but they’re barely noticeable here. There are a handful of badges which work alongside a power-meter in battle. Fill it up with Great, Good or Excellent hits (depending on Luigi’s badge) and you can activate an effect such as a healing power or more coins (based on Mario’s pin of choice).

The story is largely original and a step away from standard RPG fair, but eventually around the midway point it descends into another quest to find another ruddy star of infinite ruddy power which until now had been unheard of, yet had been kept in Princess Peach’s oversized dress pockets for centuries. And it surely has been centuries because yet again the Mushroom Kingdom has had a facelift. Bah. Anyone who complains about the Zelda timeline should have a go at constructing one around the Mario universe. That’ll give you a headache before you can say “Cranky Kong is Donkey Kong, but also Donkey Kong’s grandad?”

Lastly there’s Starlow, Mario and Luigi’s star sprite companion whose handholding negates the thought process behind some of the games best puzzles – as the majority of these ever-talky sidekicks tend to. They’re an irksome inclusion to modern Nintendo games that the majority of old hands just don’t need. Can they just introduce an option where at the start of the game you stumble upon this helpful-looking character and you can decide whether they follow you around or not? Some of us would appreciate it.

Those issues aside, this is another excellent Mario RPG that long-time Nintendo fans will enjoy and the casuals may consider as a gateway into the more traditional role-playing genre. The dialogue is as long-winded as any RPG, but it comes with plenty of laughs in a story that is well-paced and entertaining from start to finish. The presentation is top notch and while there are literally dozens of different gameplay elements here every piece comes together to form one very impressive whole. Many would try and have you believe that the DS is past its sell by date, but the five-year console lifespan theory is dead. Bowser’s Inside Story is just the latest game to prove that. Buy it, play it, enjoy it immensely.

Well, the times they are a-changing, and the DS has sold over 100 million units in it’s short life, with three different forms. Now, there’s a new one which goes against the previous two reinventions where everything was physically scaled back and slimmed down. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the DSi LL!

Rumoured online for the last few days and vehemently denied by Nintendo’s PR department, as most hardware updates are, the DSi LL weighs in 100g heavier than the standard DSi and even beats the original by a few extra grams. It is also considerably larger than the existing systems, measuring 161mm across and 91.4mm tall (when folded). All this extra plastic has to be there for something, right? That would be the 4.2 inch screens.

I’ll say it again. Four. Point. Two. Inches. It makes the 12 per cent expansion from original DS to current DSi screen size seem insignificant. It also sends a shot straight across Sony’s bows by beating the 3.8 inch screens on their new PSP Go.

But why an upgrade so soon? The DSi is barely a year old, Nintendo can’t be rolling down production on that already, can they? Word is that it’s all down to customer feedback, with 93 per cent requesting a bigger screen. I can understand that request, but I do have one question: Could they have made that request before I spent £150 on the current DSi?

It’s a mild irritation to me, but chances are a lot of Nintendo fans on the internet will be boiling with rage at this news. It’s a reaction which has already been seen with the Lite and DSi announcements. But the story remains the same as ever: No-one’s forcing the consumer to make the upgrade. I view this much more as the DSi for the older generation. The bigger screen and ma-hoo-sive stylus will provide those cataract-filled eyes and arthritic digits a much smoother ride through the pre-installed Brain Training games. Youngsters, consider it the large-print version of the DSi so your grandma stops pinching yours and go about your regular gaming experience.

For further number crunching, comparing the DSi models, check out this handy post from Kotaku.

I had a problem with all of these tributes. It’s not that they weren’t true. The problem I had was that I’d been using the past tense to describe Michael Jackson, the artist, for almost a decade. Alongside the torrid wave of media attention-grabbing scandals that were eagerly gobbled up at the time then gently brushed under the carpet upon his demise, there had been little sign of the strong, confident performer that had brought us hits like Bad, Dirty Diana, Billie Jean and the forever-memorable Thriller.

That crushingly poor performance of We Are the World at the 2006 World Music Awards had been the nail in Michael Jackson, the performer’s, coffin for me. So, when the This Is It concerts were announced, I had little confidence in the once great artist’s abilities to pull off even one more great show – let alone the 10, and later 50, that were announced.

I remained wholly cynical throughout the run-up to the gigs. The blind faith and near hysteria of his long-time fans was lost on me. I still loved his music, but that was all in the past. Any new shows would be a shameless cash-in, with no chance of the powerful performances from days gone by. Michael Jackson’s This Is It is a two-hour opportunity for Kenny “High School Musical” Ortega to show the man behind the headlines before his death and dispel all such thoughts.

The movie opens with a montage of tributes from excited dancers, almost exploding with delight at the potential for a moment in the spotlight with the King of Pop. It’s a little nauseating, but thankfully those moments are rare. Ortega has carefully edited together hours of Jacko’s “personal footage” (which in no way would ever have been released as a bonus feature on a DVD of the final shows had they happened – okay, I’m still a little cynical) to show the concerts that could have been. And that show could have been the greatest show on earth.

Yes, I’m rolling out the hyperbole like Paul Gambaccini would about one of The Wiggles, but even the rehearsal footage should be enough to silence the skeptics. It certainly caught this one out, even forming a little lump in the throat as he brought together a haunting performance of I Just Can’t Stop Loving You. While looking slimmer and more pale than ever before, Jackson bounced around the stage in a way which defied his 50 years and the media stories of ill health.

The documentary is not all about the late Mr Jackson though. Huge recognition has to be made to the supporting players in Jackson’s curtain call. Orianthi Panagaris – who many will have seen in earlier released footage of They Don’t Care About Us – is an astonishing guitarist who will go far, while the rest of the creative team put together electrifying video and stage pieces for what could have been a truly electrifying spectacle. Set pieces for Smooth Criminal and Earth Song are particularly powerful, while the redead are raised from their graves once again for an all-new take on Thriller.

How heavily edited the documentary is, how hard Ortega has worked to hide Jackson’s rumoured ever-dwindling health is neither here nor there. I went to This Is It to see if the pop legend I once respected still had the magic that so many had held on to unwaveringly for so many years. This would certainly have been one of the most incredible musical experiences of our generation.

20:20 hindsight is a powerful thing and now I do wish I’d kept the faith and believed in the man. But at the same time, I also know that this film has no happy ending. Though no reference to it is made, the King of Pop is dead. And only now has it truly hit. The fans who kept the faith will be left heartened to see their hero back at his best, but crushed knowing that his true final curtain call was never to happen. Meanwhile the cynics who thought the great artist had lost his touch will be forced to hold their tongues and everyone else in between should embrace what is a fitting tribute to a musical icon.