A video-game adaptation of Napoleon Dynamite, a mature-rated title being released for the Nintendo DS, and God of War and Silent Hill—two venerable franchises—making their debut on handheld gaming systems? The DS and the PlayStation Portable are growing up, and the games being released for them mean they’re not just for commuting anymore. Play them anywhere.

(Gamecock; DS; rated mature) Waking up in a hospital bed, the first thing you notice is that there’s blood everywhere. Rubbing your eyes, you peer into the deserted hallway, its lights flickering out, and see mayhem. Gurneys and cabinets are strewn everywhere, and horrific medical experiments attack you mercilessly. You’ll uncover the mystery of this place and the mystery of your own existence, all while trying to survive. Dementium requires you to navigate the ward’s hallways using the touchscreen. Even after a few hours of playing, I was still having trouble using my hands well enough to use the touchscreen and push the shoulder buttons at the same time, something you need to do in combat, but this may have been because the game was creeping me out so profoundly.

(Atari; PSP; rated everyone 10+) An arcade-style puzzler, Downstream Panic! presents you with an environmental challenge: thousands of fish have been swept from the ocean by a cyclone, and you have to help them return to the water. Using various tools, like bombs that make holes in the ground and seeds that grow into a plant that blocks the flow of water, you have to create a path for the stream of water bearing the little fishies. At the bottom of the screen is the ocean, and in it are sharp-toothed sharks, so the path you create has to get the fish into the water, and not into the mouths of the sharks. Lose too many along the way and you’ll have to start again. While the premise is simple, the game becomes complicated and even convoluted, and eventually becomes more frustrating than fun.

(Sony Computer Entertainment; PSP; rated mature) This game marks the first appearance on hand-held platforms of the vicious warrior Kratos, and he doesn’t miss a beat. Chains of Olympus provides a level of graphic sophistication we haven’t seen before in an action-fighter on handheld devices, and matches that slickness with a streamlined control scheme that lessens—somewhat—the amount of button-mashing you’ll engage in. The story, which takes place before the events of the first game, sets the stage for the rage that is so much a part of Kratos’s character, and involves him trying to restore a fallen Helios to the sky. It’s quick and stripped-down, and for those who have played the earlier games it will seem a bit easy, but this is an exhilarating game to play.

(Crave; DS, PSP; rated everyone 10+) Likely owing to my age, I was late to the Napoleon Dynamite party, discovering it through a second cousin once removed—a teenager, and one far more hip than I. Having seen the film, I became a fan of it, though not quite enough of a bandwagon jumper to own a Vote for Pedro T-shirt. The game sports a quirky presentation using cut-up animation, but amounts to nothing more than a collection of quick mini games in which you—as Napoleon, duh—feed Tina the llama and compete against Uncle Rico in throwing a football. The game is simply an exploitation of the film’s cult following. Napoleon would be disappointed, as will be fans who expected more.

(Sony Computer Entertainment; PSP; rated teen) This second game in the series gives us more of what made the first game great. Playing Pursuit Force is like participating in a hyperreal episode of Cops, in which you, the cop, must chase down the ultra-bad bad guys and bring them to justice. You’ll be driving cars, hovercrafts, and motorcycles—even hopping from one to another—all in an effort to curb the violence that has taken over the streets of Capital City. The controls have been tweaked, so the game is easier to play, and therefore more enjoyable, than its predecessor. It’s good, rambunctious fun.

(Konami; PSP; rated mature) A prequel to the original game, this installment of the survival-horror franchise set in the creepy seaside town of Silent Hill provides some interesting back story. The atmosphere—audio and visual—is what you’d expect: fog and shadows, echoes and whispers. The combat, too, is as frustrating as ever; the best approach is to avoid it and save the fighting for when you must battle the formidable bosses. Flipping back and forth from the real world to an eerie, alternate dimension populated by horrors, you’ll ask yourself why the protagonist, Travis the trucker, would have bothered chasing that mysterious girl into the deserted town in the first place. But when you’re playing a Silent Hill game, you know that’s just not a question you ask. <