NINTENDO DS, Price: £99, Family friendly? Definitely: IT'S going to be a vintage year if you are the kind of person who enjoys gaming on the go.

We've already had the excellent Tapwave Zodiac and the Tiger Gizmondo is waiting (sort of) in the wings, provided its promised software actually materialises.

Now it's the turn of the big two - Nintendo and Sony.

Nintendo has enjoyed remarkable dominance of the handheld gaming sector. Ever since the Sega Game Gear and the Atari Lynx bit the dust, the Game Boy has reigned supreme.

And the Nintendo DS looks set to extend that dominance still further. Provided, that is, you can get over the flimsy build quality and the Toy Town looks.

Kids will love the DS but I reckon many curious adults will shy away from it simply because of the tacky plastics used in its construction. Sony's forthcoming PlayStation Portable has the svelte looks of an iPod, the DS looks like something made by Tomy.

Which is a terrible shame because, as is so often the case with Nintendo products, if you look beyond the obvious, there's much to admire about the DS.

It has two screens (the DS stands for dual screens) and one of them has a PDA-style touch pad that opens up a world of possibilities.

For instance, when playing Super Mario DS, you steer the titular hero using your thumb (and the strange thimble-like attachment Nintendo provides to stop the screen getting covered in sticky finger marks).

You also use it to draw and your doodles directly to affect the things taking place on the main screen.

It also has built-in wireless so gamers can challenge each other without being physically linked. The DS is certain to be banned in schools across the country due to this feature alone.

The initial batch of games is variable. As you'd expect, Nintendo's in-house teams seem to have got to grips with the possibilities of two screens very quickly but third party publishers have generally played safe and used the read out for information rather than interaction.

It's inevitable that the DS will be another Nintendo success, especially given rumours that all may not be well with the PSP's button layout, but I'd put money on an early redesign to make the console more appealing to twenty-somethings.

FIRE CAPTAIN, Format: PC CD ROM, Publisher: Monte Cristo, Price: £29.99, Family friendly? Over 7s.

WHEN I was a boy (admittedly a long time ago) I went through a phase of wanting to be a fireman.

Sadly, I was neither strong enough nor brave enough to make the cut in adulthood - but thanks to Monte Cristo games and the power of the PC, I can still live out my childhood dreams with a game that re-ignites the real-time strategy game genre.

Delivering single player campaigns and multi-player modes, Fire Captain challenges players to command fire squads and vehicles in a variety of emergency scenarios based on real-life events.

Monte Cristo consulted real-life fire fighters to help recreate the most subtle characteristics of fire and smoke behaviour, the effects of flammable materials, ventilation, weather conditions, and structural engineering.

Set in and around a big city, players face the challenging perils of human-caused and natural disasters. Although this is a US game, you can customise your fire crew to make the game feel closer to home. English, American, French and German fire crews are at your disposal.

And you don't just trail out the hose and let rip with the water. Fire Captain places ladders, fireboats, dog handlers and technical specialists at your disposal. You also get to utilise special extinguishing agents and techniques to battle chemical fires in manufacturing plants and at a fireworks factory

Threats include brush fires that threaten a hillside of suburban homes and the forest, a runaway train and even an earthquake.

Published: 18/03/2005