Echochrome, developed and published by Sony Computer Entertainment

The staff of Level Up will resume its regular posting schedule next week. With the Consumer Electronics Show right around the corner, we're using the next several days to prepare a slew of videogame related posts so that we can turn our attention to the world of gadgets without feeling guilty about leaving our loyal readers high and dry. For those who didn't read our year end "Who's Next" double issue (the one with Houston Rockets center Yao Ming on the cover), you missed a near-record-setting three separate stories on videogames in our print edition, which included:

1. A brief profile of Harmonix co-founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy.

2. The five most important games of 2007.

3. Why Facebook could be the next great games service.

We did manage to sneak in some gaming over the holidays, consisting primarily of Rock Band (our West Coast supergroup, Manny Being Manny, was just inducted into the hall of fame) and the PSP side-scrolling-rhythm-real-time-strategy game Patapon. We'll have more on Patapon later this month, which we've just about completed, but for now all we'll say is that unique game should not be slept on, and that Sony should strongly consider releasing a downloadable demo of this addictive title so that PSP owners can experience it for themselves ahead of its February release.

As we consider 2008, the game we're most looking forward to playing is Echochrome, the puzzle game that could have been the love child of M.C. Escher (for its brain-tickling black and white visuals) and Stanley Kubrick (for its hypnotic classical music score) that Sony announced at last year's E3 for both PS3 and PSP. We played the first eight or so levels at a press event last month, and its spare design and mind-bending conversion of perspective-based puzzles into 3-D gameplay reminded us of none other than Valve's own Portal. Disturbingly, Sony is as yet undecided as to whether to bring the PSP version to North America; while it's unquestionably a riveting experience when played on a 40-inch HDTV, our 60-minute daily subway commute demands that the company rethink its reluctance and find a way to release Echochrome for both platforms this quarter.

That's our choice, but what's yours? Which already-announced game are you most looking forward to playing? Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii? Halo Wars for Xbox 360? Metal Gear Solid for Playstation 3? Professor Layton and the Curious Village for the Nintendo DS? God of War: Chains of Olympus for PSP? Spore for Windows PCs? Let us know in the comments below which game will make the fiercest demands on your hard-earned dollars over the next twelve months, and stay tuned for Level Up's proper 2008 debut next week.