If your little girl wants a pet-raising game, Nintendogs is still the best bet. If she likes horses and ponies better than dogs, I’d point her to Pony Friends. However, Horse Life is still an excellent addition to this genre, and well worth checking out if the resident pony lover is looking for something with a bit less pony interaction and a bit more actual game.

SOCOM: Tactical Strike isn’t the action-based affair most series fans are accustomed to, but the real-time strategy title is good at what it does. Graphically impressive on PSP, SOCOM: Tactical Strike is worth a look.

Call of Duty 4 is the whole package – both a spectacular single-player campaign and one of the best multiplayer modes I’ve ever encountered in a FPS. It’s got some of the best graphics ever to appear in a videogame, some of the best sound and voice acting, wonderful controls, and plenty of variety to keep the interest up and adrenaline flowing.

One of the better offerings in the genre and worth picking up.

Trivia isn't for everyone, but this game is well executed, and I would like to see them tackle some other genres.

Party Animals gets a little out of control with its shortcomings, but that doesn't keep it from being entertaining for the little ones. A great presentation and some quirky moments make it charming for children.

Jerry Seinfeld plus Xbox 360 platformer equals lots of gaming goodness.

It may not be my first pick for a puzzle game to play on the DS, but Super Collapse! 3 gives players a healthy variety of game modes and options to the point where the wealth of variety makes up for an otherwise mediocre core game.

Either version of the game is equally mediocre. The story holds some promise, but the action is so frustrating it's too much work to get to the meat of it.

Cars: Mater-National is a decent racing game that will probably satisfy fans of the film, but it’s also flawed in numerous ways that make it difficult to recommend over the countless better racers out there.

If you can have only one racing game on the DS, get Mario Kart DS. However, after that, you’d do well to check out Pixar’s Cars: Mater-National Championship.

You may be considering this game because you’re familiar with the film, but if you’re looking for a good “cooking” minigame collection, you’re much better off going for one of the Cooking Mama games. Sadly, Ratatouille: Food Frenzy is just (one more food pun, please!) half-baked.

Not having wires across the floor gives great freedom to the player and encourages stage antics, a great addition to any party.

Deep career mode with tons of challenges; fun online features; a decent song list with more available as add-ons. What more could the next Eddie Van Halen, Edge, Eric Clapton or Oz Fox ask for?

A fun, if limited, game. Escape from Paradise City offers up something interesting for the role-playing gamer looking for a title that is a little bit different.

It's a first step towards a great game, but it's not that game just yet.

Barely more than a clone of God of War, Conan manages to differentiate itself with an over-the-top style and mature themes. The action has its ticks, but a hardcore action aficionado will find a lot to like here.

Barely more than a clone of God of War, Conan manages to differentiate itself with an over-the-top style and mature themes. The action has its ticks, but a hardcore action aficionado will find a lot to like here.

This is a solid anime title, although this franchise is getting to be so repetitive that these games don't offer anything but fan service. The GC, and now Wii, line of the series was the strongest of the titles, but they need to bring more story into a title that relies so heavily on its characters.

There are so few games that get air combat right, but Ace Combat hits the nail on the head. From the huge scale air support missions to the vicious online dogfights, everything about this game is perfect. Its limited appeal is offset by the fact it serves that audience so well.

This is the kind of game we were promised when the Wii was in development, and it is nice to see someone other than Nintendo deliver on those promises. Capcom has a real gem here, but you have to play it to understand.

There have already been so many Naruto games, that this was bound to be bad. With too little focus on game construction, this ends up being more generic than Dollar Store toothpaste.

This isn’t an exceptionally bad game, but it is an extremely mediocre one. The movie is a must-see, but unless you’re a huge fan of the film, you should stay away from this one.

This is made for the hardcore set, there's no doubt. It is nice to see a game that doesn't phone it in for the late platform, and delivers a great title. Capcom has done a nice job, and delivered something that would have created quite a stir in the PS2's prime.

Front Mission makes for a somewhat mediocre SRPG when put up against other titles on the market. The battles don’t require too much thought, and as a result the game gets repetitious very quickly.

This game looks like it's got moves, but it can't handle itself in the ring. Stick with Wii Sports boxing - it's not great, but it's better than this, and if you have a Wii, you already own it.

If you've never played the first Tomb Raider, this is a great way to go about it. If you have, this is a great way to get reacquainted with it.

With some better minigames, and a structure that did more to encourage players to progress, this could have been a spectacular sim. But the minigames don’t tie in well with the rest of the game, and they’re so few in number that you’ll get bored far too quickly to appreciate the game’s many beautiful character models for the various animals.