Thinking of gifting a game this season? Here are a few of our picks.
If you’ve got a young Ben 10 fan in your house, you can get a lot of bang for your buck out of the Ben 10 Triple Pack, a compilation title that includes the first three Ben 10 adventures for Nintendo DS. The three games follow the series’ story, feature different Ben 10 transformations, and get progressively slicker as they go on. The side-scrolling beat-em-up games are mildly violent, but no worse than the cartoon itself. Fans of Ben 10 and racing may want to check out Ben 10: Galactic Racing, but most youngsters will prefer the game it clearly imitates, Mario Kart. Recommended for children 10 and up.
D3Publisher. Available for Nintendo DS
Three words: Value, Action, Excitement
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Dance Central 2
Kinect, the hit motion-tracking camera for Xbox 360, has multiple dance games. Dance Central 2 is the only one you’ll need. Like the original game, it flawlessly transmits your dance moves to your in-game counterpart and does a great job teaching the moves you need to get down. Dance Central 2 introduces two-player simultaneous dancing, and this new feature alone will make it a smash hit. It also features a mix of classic and contemporary pop songs, some of which have mildly suggestive lyrics. But if your kids listen to Top 40 radio, there’s nothing they haven’t heard before. Recommended for children 12 and up.
Microsoft. Available for Xbox 360. Kinect required.
Three words: Dancing, Energy, Pop
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Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure is downright groundbreaking. It’s a video game and a collectible toy line all in one. Here’s how it works. A starter pack comes with the game, a “Portal of Power” base and three figures. Plop one of the figures onto the base, and it appears in the game. Each character earns points and grows more powerful as you play, and data is saved to a chip in the figure’s base. Players can then take their figures to a friend’s house and play in their version of the game—regardless of which console they own. Here’s the sneaky part: while most kids will be able to finish the action/adventure game with the starter pack figures, certain areas of the game world are only accessible by additional figures. Individual figures cost $8, with triple packs available for $20. There are 32 Skylanders figures in all, and while you don’t need them all to explore the game world, Skylanders has the potential to become expensive quickly. Recommended for children 10 and up.
Activision. Available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii,
Three words: Collectable, Innovative, Expensive
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Frogger 3D does a nice job translating the classic arcade game into a modern puzzle game. The player must help Frogger jump across busy streets toward a set of goals, but new obstacles and challenges make the stages more complex than hopping in a straight line. The Nintendo 3DS system gives the game a nice feeling of depth, but Nintendo recommends you turn it off for very young gamers. Frogger 3D is perfectly acceptable for gamers of all ages, but parents may actually enjoy it more than their kids. Recommended for children 8 and up.
Konami. Available for Nintendo 3DS
Three words: Classic, Puzzle, 3D!
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Karaoke Revolution: Glee Volume 3
For fans of the ultra-popular Glee, this game is a no-brainer. Sing along with some of the first season’s most memorable songs and even perform as characters from the show. Many songs support two-player duets, and the clever “Shooting Star” mode lets two players sing while four more shoot falling star targets. Like Dance Central 2, the only questionable content comes in the form of song lyrics (Like a Virgin, for example), but there’s nothing that eclipses the content of the show. The game can be purchased alone or with microphones but make sure you’ve got a Wii mic before you grab the game-only version, as it is required to play. Recommended for children 13 and up.
Konami. Available for Wii.
Three words: Glee, Music, Singing
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