Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word “addicted” as “to devote or surrender (oneself) to something habitually or obsessively.”

Here is a word of warning: you will become addicted to Atari’s N+.

You control a ninja, N, who travels through increasingly more difficult levels to gain as much gold as he can before he reaches the next level all the while managing to not be killed by enemies or heights in Atari’s newest platformer puzzle game.

Based on the Xbox arcade game (“N+”) which was based on the classic flash game (“N”), Atari has truly created something special and unique out of something that was similarly as great before.

With over 300 different levels, beating N+ sounds like it should be a daunting task, but watching your stick figure body splat across the screen of your Nintendo DS or PSP is surprisingly more gratifying than frustrating.

The control over your ninja was the most enticing part of the game because, for a stick figure, the little guy is agile. While you start out doing the simple run and jump to traverse around each level, soon it becomes apparent that those techniques won’t be enough. That’s when you start discovering the wall jumps, slope glides, climbing up walls, and most importantly, just how far you have to fall to not become multiple pieces of ninja.

Oh, and you have the option of adding blood to the gore that shoots out everywhere after you die. That is way more fun than it should be.

N+’s biggest attribute is that, for once, it is a game that doesn’t make you chuck your handheld system out the window when you die. Dying adds more to coming up with strategies than irritation, because as the levels get harder, the strategies for getting as much gold as possible before obtaining the next level.

Newer, harder levels are unlocked as you progress through the game. In addition, different colors for your ninja can be obtained the more levels that are unlocked.

N+’s level creator allows hours more fun, and with the DS’s and PSP’s wireless capabilities, players can compete against their friends to see who is the most skilled ninja.

Atari has created a gem of a game: N+ is flawless in its simplicity, and is a game all gamers will gain enjoyment from.

N+ was released Tuesday.

LOS ANGELES — Okay, so it wasn’t the most surprising, awe-inspiring E3 ever, but we had a great time and saw some amazing things.

We witnessed a revitalized Atari, a ballsy Electronic Arts and the peak of the music game fad.

Here’s what we took away from the conference:

BEST GAME
Fallout 3
Bethesda Softworks
Xbox 360/PlayStation 3
September

Bethesda built a winner from scratch with an amazing looking Fallout 3. Blast played this game, Blast loved this game. You won’t see a more visually and audibly appealing video game this year. This game is a massive project for any developer, but Bethesda, who saw huge success with "The Elder Scrolls" role playing game series, seems poised to release a game of the year candidate in the fall.

BEST ONLINE GAME
DC Universe Online
Sony Online Entertainment
PlayStation 3, PC
TBA

Comic book legend Jim Lee was the Executive Creative Director of the game and created the visual world DC Universe would be set in based on art from the entire history of DC comics. You get to team up with or fight against Superman and Batman. How cool is that?

BEST HANDHELD GAME
N+
Atari
Nintendo DS and Sony PSP
August 12

With 300 puzzling levels to explore, plus many hidden unlockable ones, N+, based on the hit Flash game, was the best handheld game at E3, and E3 agreed by giving it best in show in the DS and PSP categories. N+ led the charge for a revitalized Atari Inc.

GUARANTEED BEST SELLER/BEST PC GAME
Spore
Electronic Arts
PC
September 7

Within 18 days of the release of Spore Creature Creator, there were over 1.7 million "Spores" created. That’s more than the 1.589 million actual species known to exist on earth, Will Wright pointed out at the EA press conference Tuesday. And that says something about the anticipated impact "Spore" will have when it’s released in September.

BEST WII GAME
Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party
Ubisoft
November

First game you can play with your ass.

BEST MUSIC GAME
Rock Band 2
Harmonix/MTV Games
Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii
Fall

No real competition at E3. Guitar Hero: World Tour will be awesome too, but Activision wasn’t there this year.

GUTSIEST PROJECTS

Dead Space
Electronic Arts
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
October 21

Mirror’s Edge
Electronic Arts
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Holiday season

Good work, EA. You managed to stretch your legs and come up with both a bloody horror flick and a FPS where you don’t have ever fire a gun. Both games will either be home runs or total flops (leaning toward an extra base hit) but they’re ballsy! Nice!

M.A.G. Massive Action Game, 256 player online multiplayer
Zipper Interactive/Sony
PlayStation 3
TBA

Another crap shoot. If Zipper does this game right, and we mean JUST RIGHT, M.A.G. could be one of the good ones.

MOST IMPROVED: Atari

BIGGEST LETDOWN: Nintendo

LOS ANGELES — The biggest underdog story of E3 was by far Atari. As a company that’s been through every kind of trouble imaginable in the last few years; management changes, financial troubles, and struggling through complicated ownership situations with their French parent company, Infogrames, Atari managed to put out a well-rounded display of their game development potential.

Winning E3′s Best in Show for DS and PSP, N+ led the charge to highly acclaimed gaming. Based on the award winning flash-game N, N+ is a uniquely addictive platformer experience.

As a ninja trying to obtain as much gold as possible during your average one and a half minute lifespan, N+ has 300 puzzling levels to explore, plus some hidden unlockable ones. Each level of N+ has a door to the next level, gold coins to obtain, and various robotic bombs and missiles to explode a player as often as possible. Luckily for N the ninja, he has remarkable regenerative capabilities that allow the player to restart the same level where they most recently had a tragic death.

In addition to the faithful translation of the original online game, the DS and PSP versions also have a wide array of multiplayer capabilities. With 100 cooperative levels and 50 competitive levels, N+ also had the ability to download new maps from the N server as well as design new maps with the integrated level editor. The ability to share levels over the PSP and DS wireless connectivity services is new to the N universe.

N+ is coming to handheld systems worldwide on August 12.

Atari’s big PC title came in the form of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition; an updated version of the role-playing game released in October 2007. In addition to updated features like more than 5000 rerecorded lines of dialogue and a new character differentiation system for non-playable characters, the enhanced edition also includes a multilingual game disc which allows any language combination of voice-over and subtitles, the official soundtrack CD and a short story by The Witcher novelist Andrzej Sapkowski.

The Witcher, based on the novels by Sapkowski, has won more than 90 awards and has sold more than 800,000 copies worldwide since its release in 2007. The player takes on the role of the renowned monster slayer Geralt of Rivia in a world where moral ambiguity reigns. A unique feature of the game is the way that each decision made may not directly affect the game until hours later. The Enhanced Edition of The Witcher is set to be released in September.

On a different note, RACE Pro is an ultra-realistic simulation racing game coming from Atari in November for the Xbox 360.

RACE Pro’s new ‘Hot Seat’ feature gives a different meaning to multiplayer racing. Each player drives in the ‘hot seat’ for a short period of time before they have to pass off the controller to the next player. This unique feature accelerates the pace of the game and makes multiplayer a more communal experience.

Atari went out of their way to produce as realistic a racing game as they could. RACE Pro features more than 15 real life tracks that span all continents across the globe. Players can win official championship titles using a wide variety of realistic car models. Participants earn their skills as a true racer would in real-life; through intense training, scoring key wins and receiving big sponsorship deals.

Hailed by many as being better than 2K’s 2008 tennis title Top Spin 3, Smash Court Tennis 3 was Atari’s big sports game release. Coming out in August to the Xbox 360, Smash Court Tennis 3 allows players to compete against or alongside some of the biggest names in the industry such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Justine Henin.

Smash Court Tennis 3 allows the player the ability to compete in the tennis world on more than a dozen courts and championships in five different modes; Arcade, Tutorial, Exhibition, Pro Tour, and mini-games.

Players can play with their local or online friends via Xbox Live. Smash Court Tennis 3 has already been released on the PSP.

Coming this fall is the newest installment of the Deer Hunter franchise and, as the Atari producers said, the most addictive. Deer Hunter Tournament is to be released for the PC and, for the first time, the Xbox 360 later this year.