The original Zapper dates back to a simpler time, an NES time, when it didn’t matter if a nearly-flat shiny grey light gun was vaguely shaped, as its name suggests, like a G-U-N. Soon after, we would discover that it must be painted toxic orange to avoid confusion with the real thing. As more time passed, we learned that, in fact, toys shaped at all like guns, especially the ones used to play video games, are EVIL, and it’s just a matter of years before Junior wants to play Duck Hunt for real - using people.

Fast forward to present day and the Wii Zapper. As you can see, this is a Zapper in name only, more a chassis that casts a Wii Remote and a Nunchuk in a mildly weapon-like silhouette. It’s the clever type of workaround required to get anything into the market these days without protests as to potentially harmful angles and points.

For what a hollow piece of plastic is worth, it also gets the job done quite well in the pack-in game, Link’s Crossbow Training. The two-fisted approach makes holding and using the thing quite a riot. The price is right, too.

As someone who recognizes the significance of the right-aligned image, I can’t help but feel a little NES nostalgia… oh, and a lot old. Seems like every video game franchise worth knowing is celebrating its bidecennial lately, and in commemoration, Konami is giving some of its aging classics the next-generation treatment. Contra 4 arrived for Nintendo DS in time for the peak gifting hour, but could PSP owners expect to be left out of consumerism’s glow?

Well, not with Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles still fresh off its Hallowe’en release. The game takes Rondo of Blood, a TurboDuo, Japan-only release from 1993, into the age of crisp polygons, spatially-accurate backdrops, and digital music. But fret not - the biggest appeal of this game is, perhaps, that one can unlock the gorgeously hand-drawn and electrifyingly-scored original, as well as the 1997 PSX classic, Symphony of the Night. Hours of vampire-slaying via decidedly sacreligious use of bibles, crosses and holy water await.

Oh, just one more thing though, before you start getting your hopes up - it’s still hard as HELL. Konami, Konami… no matter how pretty games are getting on the outside, some things will never change.

Like most people, Christmas is a time I take stock of the passing years, but like fewer people, I take stock of them in video game anniversaries. For example, my Sega Genesis turns 15 this Christmas; my Saturn, around 9 1/2. The latter I got for my 13th birthday, primarily for one little game: NiGHTS into dreams. It wasn’t a Christmas gift, but for the sake of argument, we’ll say it was. (Also note I never owned the promotional spinoff Christmas NiGHTS, but I’ll freely make seasonal puns on it.)

Perhaps because of the silly technical claims made by its marketing campaign in a desperate bid to fish the Saturn out of the red, NiGHTS remained underappreciated in its time . But the flame sparked by the little purple jester and surreal Jungian dreamscapes burned hot in many hearts over the years and, luckily, Sega is taking the opportunity to cash in on nostalgia with titles that prey on the childlike mindset we seek out in this season.

So the time is ripe for NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, which released on the 19th and which I won’t have until the 25th. But what’s a few more days after 11 years? I can already tell you this game will be a splendid beauty, full of appeal for fans of the original and insatiable score-setters alike.There’s only one game I asked for this year, and this is it. Dream big!

Koei has added some prestigious fighting-robot lineage to its signature war-waging family in Dynasty Warriors Gundam, available since Summer for the Xbox360 and PS3 systems. This entry leaves feudal China and the Earth itself far below but keeps the hack ‘n slash-strategy model that has accrued the series’ rabid throngs of fans, appealing in the process to an even more rabid strain - anime fans.

Having bored of the original source material and admittedly, the killing-spree monotony of Dynasty Warriors games past, the Gundam edition successfully appeals to my innate luuuuv of video games through a few simple tweaks of the formula. Really, a majority of the perks come with the territory, like bright colors and outer space and shiny things, not to mention the ability to dash around like an oversized metal wasp and sting with a laser sword and beam cannon. The speed and mobility set this game apart from staid cavalry antics, not to mention the fan fodder from the many incarnations of Gundam. In any case, owners of either console should pick this game up that holiday season.