Have you ever done one of those "guess the differences between two similar pictures" puzzles in a magazine or newspaper? You know, the boy in the top picture is wearing a shirt with a circle on it, while on the bottom picture his shirt has a star? Now picture all the fun of your childhood Highlights magazines and rainy day activity books as a kid and you've got the upcoming Nintendo DS title QuickSpot from Namco Bandai, due out March 13.

In QuickSpot, players see two similar pictures: one on the top DS screen and one on the bottom. It's up to the player to find differences in the bottom picture and quickly circle them with the stylus pen. Sometimes players must rub on the screen like a lottery ticket to reveal a picture before looking for differences, or breathe into the microphone to blow away picture-covering leaves.

QuickSpot contains three single player modes. In Rapid Play, gamers must quickly find a difference in ten pictures before moving on to a boss challenge. In Focus Play, find ten differences in only one picture. And in Today's Fortune, get your future told in categories like Health, Study, Romance, and Money. But don't worry, I've been told there are no bad fortunes to be found in QuickSpot. Even when you've beaten the game and the credits are rolling, you can try and find the misspelled credit names on the bottom DS screen!

QuickSpot also has some multiplayer modes, too. In Time Bomb, up to eight players pass around one DS like a hot potato, hoping that it won't explode on them while solving a puzzle. And in Scramble Mode, complete wirelessly against another with a DS as you try and mess up their screen by making things pixilated, foggy, or turning the screen into a black and white photo negative.

In Japan, where brain training games are the big thing on the DS right now, QuickSpot is known as "Unou no Tatsujin: Machigai Museum." Localization required Namco Bandai's US branch to change a few of the pictures for cultural differences. And to keep the game's E-10 ESRB rating, a picture of a woman in a bikini had to be taken out.

The sequel to Machigai Museum was just released in Japan, but it's a bit more heavy duty and advanced on the brain training side and Namco Bandai has no plans to release QuickSpot's sequel in the US. But QuickSpot still awards medals to players based on their "brain activity," which is based on Intuition, Concentration, Recognition, Stability, and Judgment. Casual gamers should get into QuickSpot's pick-up-and-play mechanics and lighthearted sense of humor, as well as parents and children. However,someof QuickSpot's pictures get more difficult later on, with tougher to spot differences and nuances, so it probably won't be a cakewalk either.

Namco has always had a knack for squeezing in classic Namco characters and references into their games, and QuickSpot is no exception. Amongst the dozens and dozens of pictures in QuickSpot, classic game fans may spot a few familiar faces and scenes from games such as Katamari Damacy, Taiko Drum Master, Ridge Racer, Mr. Driller, Pac-Man, and Klonoa to name a few.

It seems that the Nintendo DS and the new Nintendo Wii encourage developers to come up with new and creative gaming ideas. And these new systems, more than any other consoles, are getting more of these ideas brought overseas. While Namco Bandai can't say anything yet, they do have plans to bring more original titles and creative content like QuickSpot to these consoles. I, for one, can't wait!

Again, QuickSpot will be released on March 13 at suggested retail price of $19.99 and is rated E-10+ by the ESRB.

- Klonoa