MySims – Nintendo DS [$29.99]

MySims didn’t quite translate to the Wii — when you are sitting down in your living room to play a game, you want something more than a time killer. For a portable platform, however, the cutesy style and the oddly addicting gameplay of MySims is perfect. Sure, if you sit down and devote more than an hour to it, you may well start to wonder what the point of all this walking around, planting flowers, and decorating your house is, but for the purpose of bus rides, passenger day in the carpool, or even a fun way to kill ten minutes, it’s wonderful. For one, the mini-games are actually quite difficult to achieve gold medals in, and those who mean to master the game will have to be pretty nimble with the DS stylus. It’s easy to want to come back and give lei-making one more go for the sake of that gold medal. For two, kids seriously dig it. Buy enough stuff for your virtual house, and young children could spend hours decorating, and have a great time doing it. It sounds like a cliché, but it really is a fun little game that the whole family can enjoy.