The next eight days in handheld games

With game retailers in their usual gloomy summer mood – it's sunny, it's the World Cup, and everyone's taking exams – you'd think publishers would be winding down operations for a couple of months.

Oh no. The next week or so is one of the busiest periods of the year so far when it comes to handheld gaming.

It would be fair to say, however, that some of games being released are pretty odd.

The new outing for Nintendogs (Dalmatian & Friends Edition) is certain to sell, particularly as the long awaited DS Lite is set to make its UK appearance only a week later on Friday 23rd June.

Expect records to be broken, always assuming Nintendo can supply enough DS Lites to meet demand that is. Surprisingly though there's no big DS game to go with the launch; New Super Mario Bros isn't out until June 30th, and the only DS game actually released on the 23rd is movie tie-in Over The Hedge.

On PSP, meanwhile, plenty of strangeness will be on offer, with translation device Talkman and quirky RPG PoPoLoCrois arriving a week before the much-anticipated tilting-puzzler LocoRoco makes its debut. PSP RPG fans will also gain another 40 hour time-guzzler in the shape of Korean-developed Astonishia Story, while those of a more sneaky attitude can pretend to be ninjas in Tenchu: Time of the Assassins.

Before we dash off to watch you know what (Mona the Vampire, of course), there's just time to flag up Megaman Battle Network 6 for GBA. Available in Cybeast Falzar and Gregar flavours, it's proof GBA isn't quite dead yet.