UNO is certainly a classic card game and highly recommended, but this WiiWare version falls short of the mark by splitting its focus between unnecessary offline modes and an online mode that could have used some more polish.

Jambo! Safari could have been a pretty solid game if the animal-capture or animal-care sections were cut out and more time was spent polishing the remaining parts.

If you're absolutely dying for a game of skee-ball, this may tide you over until you're able to get to an arcade and play the real thing.

It's perfect for playing in short bursts, like while at the doctor's office, waiting for your flight at the airport or anytime you feel the need for a little bit of mental stimulation disguised as a robot game.

On the whole, UNO fares far better on DSi than the Wii - the interface works nicely, the online player is smooth and enjoyable and you have the added benefit of pick-up-and-play whenever you like.

Harvest Moon: My Little Shop is really good at what it does, and what it does is bring the tedium of working in the food service industry right into your home.

Not only is the game a virtual hodgepodge of platforming goodness that serves up influences from many of the other great 2D platformers that have come before it, it's also an extremely enjoyable video gaming experience to boot.

Although it'll seem like another pointless DSiWare application to most, myNotebook offers a very simple feature that should've been included on the DSi in the first place. And there's really no arguing with that, especially considering the fact it's only 200 DSi Points - the cheapest price possible.

If you're going to try an Electroplankton title at all, you may want to go for this one first.

While it's not a bad Electroplankton release to pick up, you'll either love it or you'll wish you'd bought a calculator or clock instead.

Considering that adding rhythm to your harmony is not really possible in Lumiloop, audiophiles or those in need of something to relax to may enjoy playing around with it, but others will want to steer clear.

In terms of making music with this one, the only obstacles are the constant switching around of plankton and the inability to reset them on the fly, but as the Electroplankton applications go, this is one of the better ones.

There is such a thing as "too simple".

It does a good job of bringing the popular "defense" game to DSiWare and is fun to play.

Considering the budget price being asked (£14.99/US$24.99 at launch) it's worth it just for the 8-bit classics alone, though good luck finding this one anywhere but an online retailer.

There's absolutely no denying that Christmas Clix is a fun and engaging puzzler that should appeal to many fans of the genre. Not only does the game sport a very easy control system, it has plenty of gameplay variety to keep things interesting.

Younger kids will likely enjoy this more than teens and adults, with the ability to customize their characters' faces and sounds however they please. It's a very smooth, well-packaged game with great level design and controls.

The real trick here is getting someone to fork over money for what really is a glorified demo. Don't bother.

Digital Leisure did all right in implementing written number recognition (aside from the aforementioned X problem), and Grand Sudoku was a rather ingenious idea, but the complete lack of an Undo feature makes Sudoku Challenge! nearly impossible, and as if that weren't bad enough, the bland graphics and blander sounds join together to kick you while you're already down.

Had Rayman not been so annoyingly cheap then it would be a highly recommended platformer. Unfortunately, it is annoyingly cheap and should only be traversed by those with either a masochistic streak or diehard Rayman fans.

Overall, Teyon made an excellent choice by porting Ball Fighter to the DSi. Behind the thrown-together theme, misplaced music and the name that sets the five-year-old in all of us giggling lies a solid, entertaining puzzle game that would be great no matter how it looks or sounds.

We fail to see what is so therapeutic about a game that is composed of nothing more than repetitive wrist movements and button memorization.

Having a minimum of creative expression and being almost completely worthless.

With only three different mini-games to play and no real challenge in taking care of your little pets, from an adult perspective this game gets old very quickly.

Miami Nights is not a terrible game as much as it is painfully average. Life sim fans can gleam some fun out of this, but it’s over before you know it and you likely won’t care to go back. It’s worth a shot if you’re looking for a quick dance, but just like its theme song it’ll wear thin fast.

Although we welcome the presence of new tricks on the DSiWare service, the two presented here aren't really up to scratch.

Stunt Cars feels like it's trying to do too many things at once and gives the game a very erratic feeling at times, making you wonder exactly what the developers were ultimately going for when they put the game together.

Diatomic is a game suffering from an ill-placed desire to stand apart from established popular shooters on the Wii. Whilst being a bit different is certainly admirable, choosing a rubbish control system is not the best way to do it.

There's almost nothing to recommend Hell's Kitchen VS as a good purchase - the gameplay is extremely basic, bears almost no resemblance to cooking and is about as pointless as one could imagine, with no leaderboards, career progression or anything to offer other than different difficulties. With a friend it becomes a little more bearable.

We hear life has some really cool photorealistic visuals and built-in voice chat too.

No matter how you load up the wagon, you'll be in for a fun ride.

If you truly enjoy challenging sudoku puzzles and thought Sudoku Master's "Hard" difficulty was a breeze, Sudoku Sensei is the game for you, but mere beginners and intermediate-level players will want to steer clear.

We pray to the stars that that will be the final release, because it's quite clear that, even at 200 DSi Points, these will never, ever be worth the price.

Arcade Hoops Basketball is not a terrible time-waster, but it never tries to be anything more than a very simple diversion. Only the most diehard basketball fans will care enough to keep firing it up after the first few times around.

Me and My Dogs is an enjoyable game and tries its best to live up to the standards set by Nintendogs and generally succeeds. It packs in a lot of charm and cuteness and the minigames are a lot of fun.

This surprisingly plain 'Adventure' rapidly becomes boring unless you're in it for the sheer intellectual challenge of solving each puzzle.

It’s a solid base on which to build future portable billiards games, but for right now it’s simply decent.

You'll need to be the kind of person who truly enjoys word-search puzzles in order to enjoy this game, because this is a very plain, no-frills release that will otherwise bore you to tears.

Every puzzle can be finished by anybody relatively clever in about an hour, after which there's practically nothing else to do. Add to this the very cheap feel of the game and it's probably not something you'd want to spend points on.

Assoria certainly have made good use of the DSi camera, although it's a bit of a shame that the camera isn't quite good enough to provide a quality gameplay experience wherever you go.

Taking cues from other gaming genres in an attempt to keep you hooked, The Amazing Brain Train! is a mildly interesting collection of minigames at best.

Each cunningly crafted level is packed full of pixelated goodness, and the layouts gradually become trickier as you near the end.

Despite the fact that you'll occasionally find it hard to see what you're doing the gameplay is very tight and addictive; though it would have been nice to have initials or Miis rather than generic names against high scores. If you're at all a fan of the genre you should definitely give it a go!

The game itself is easy and fun to play, the characters are charming and the graphics are adorable, and multiplayer would be great for bringing in the kids for some good old-fashioned family fun, but the headaches and eye strain are not worth it. Unless you've got an HDTV and perfect vision, don't bother looking for this one unless you've got the patience necessary for plenty of trial and error.

Graphically it looks good, the audio isn't bad either and it's hard to see where it puts a foot wrong. The removal of its big brother's multiplayer mode knocks it back, limiting this to a totally solo pursuit, but in DSiWare’s limited sporting library you'll struggle to find a more enjoyable game of golf.

As impressive as the overall gameplay system is, download play could have easily made this a must-have title for Texas Hold 'Em fans, but without it the game can really only be recommended for those looking for a challenging solo experience.

Tumblebugs 2 takes a very successful (and overcrowded) genre and adds some new power-ups and flashier graphics to the familiar formula. Other than those upgrades, there is nothing here that cannot be found in countless other similar games... on the PC.

Whilst the number of games implies a lot of bang for your buck, their limited duration and simplistic nature might limit long-term appeal and we think a "less is more" approach, featuring fewer games with deeper play mechanics and goals would have been a better development route.

There’s a decent core game here, but the graphical issues of the first game are still intact and frustrating, and the save system might drag things down depending on how and where you tend to play.

Even with the online components removed, Fieldrunners is still very fun and addictive tower defence game and a welcome addition to the DSiWare library. There’s hours of fun to be had here, and even if you’re reaching the genre saturation point it's worth a look.

There are better sudoku games in the DSi Shop at the moment, so unless you're an advanced player who doesn't like to fill in their own candidates and already knows what a "Swordfish" and an "X-wing" are, there's no need to kill yourself trying to wrap your head around this title.

Watching their antics is fun for a while, but gradually you'll find yourself paying more attention to the actual game at hand, which isn't bad - in fact, loading times aside, it's perfect for doctors' offices, car trips, or any other short periods of time where you don't want to get fully involved in a longer game.

We considered the possibility this game might be a gag with the kind of crappy 3D glitches you'd have seen on an old PlayStation or PC game, but if that's the case we didn't find it terribly amusing. Calaris were right not to attempt any promotion of this turd, but we would have preferred that they simply hadn't bothered releasing it and spared us having to review it.

Scrabble is an indisputable word game classic and those with a penchant for the genre will gobble this up. A few cuts on DSiWare make the 500-point App Store version the better choice for those who also own an Apple handheld, but this is an otherwise competent adaptation of Scrabble for when you just want to get some spelling on.

Real Football 2010 plays a great game of football and there’s stacks of content here for DSiWare footie first-timers. If you’ve already paid for last year’s entry there’s no point in shelling out for this one too, as there simply isn’t enough new content to justify the 800 Points, but footie newcomers should make this their next transfer target.

An exercise in frustration. Though it looks and sounds great, it suffers from shoddy hit detection, hard-to-read fonts, and moments of slowdown that make precision platforming nigh impossible.

Ultimately, though, Let's Golf has less content, for the same price - And for that, we have to give the edge to the game that was already available.

While it’s on the short side, a bit simplistic and isn’t the most impressive game on the block, GhostSlayer manages to fall on the right side of fun for 600 Points and is worth a spin if you don’t mind a few blemishes.

Mouse House isn't a bad puzzler and is certainly a nice-looking game. We feel younger players who like puzzling about with cute characters will enjoy it, but for most fans of the genre there simply isn't enough content or challenge here to occupy them for long.

We say if you spend your 500 points on this unplayable mess you will most definitely not get something worth what you paid.

Don't be fooled by its adorable exterior - Aura-Aura Climber offers an addictive arcade-style experience children and adults alike will enjoy. This surprisingly complex game features intuitive controls and fluid gameplay that will have you hooked as soon as you've finished the tutorial.

Flips: Terror in Cubicle Four isn't too interesting a story, but the way it's presented is likely to appeal to the younger ones. Obviously, buying the retail game is better value for your money, but if you'd like to try out one story to see if you'd like the rest of the package, then this isn't too bad of a deal for 500 DSi Points.

Dart Rage is miles better than its downloadable competition and worth a go if you're down with flinging fake metal spears.

If you're already a fan of tennis, you'll probably have some fun with this game, but newbies will want to give this one a pass.

If you're a simulation nut you'll get the most out of this game, but strategy fans and even minigame lovers should not walk away disappointed.

4 TRAVELLERS – Play Spanish is fun to mess around with at first but grows boring all too rapidly, and without something to keep you coming back, you won't be able to exercise what little knowledge you've gained.

As expected, Flips: The Bubonic Builders offers pretty much exactly the same as the first time around, but with a different story. It's a bit too childish for anyone but young kids to enjoy, but if you know any who liked the previous title then they will very likely also enjoy this one.

If you're a die-hard fan of Olympic shooting you can give it a try, but we'd suggest choosing any one of a myriad of other games on the Wii featuring target shooting instead.

Even if there were no issues with this game locking up and becoming unplayable, it's still more hassle than it's worth. If you really want to play some golf on your DSi, try one of the other available games instead and save yourself the headache.

Though there are both Wireless and Download Play options for Multiplayer, the loading times are long and the battles are just as monotonous and repetitive against a human player as the CPU. This game is fine for young children, but adults will want to skip it.

With 36 main campaign levels and 24 additional "quickplay" levels, each of which consists of an "action" and "defense" part, you'll be content for a decent while if you're just looking for more tower defense action and have already exhausted DSiWare's other options.

The developers have done a fantastic job of recreating the overlay visuals that were painted on the screens of the original LCD units and the LCD displays are spot-on perfect renditions of the original.

Chef provides frantic, old-school pick-up-and-play fun that's just as addictive now as when it was first introduced, and along with the other DSiWare Game & Watch titles, Nintendo has used the better graphics and sound technology available now in order to make as authentic an LCD handheld experience as possible on your DSi.

Judge was only the fifth Game & Watch to be released, and it shows – it just isn't as addictive as other titles in the series.

If you were getting used to the characters and setting of the previous two Flips installments, it's mildly disappointing that this one features completely different ones. However, the story itself has been popular with kids for over 70 years, meaning it should also manage to hold your interest.

As for the difficulty, it's almost non-existent considering this game will put you to sleep long before it becomes any kind of a challenge – in fact, if you're on the market for a new sleep aid, this will probably pay for itself after the first couple of weeks.

What it does, it does well, so if you happen to be in the super niche market for an inexpensive DSiWare Nintendo metronome or always wanted to play Donkey Kong with an instrument or by clapping and yelling then look no further.

What it does, it does well – probably better than expected, in fact – so if you happen to be in the super-niche market for an inexpensive DSiWare Nintendo instrument tuner then look no further.

The driving and shooting are both unsatisfying, the mission structures lack variety and the writing shows off every negative stereotype under the sun.

If Grill-Off with Ultra Hand had a Weber-bound equivalent then it would be a cheap hot dog: it's okay to indulge in once in a while but not something you'll care to have again very often.

There's a good chance your 3-6 year old will get some decent mileage out of this title, and at 500 points, it costs less than most of the other toys and games they'll outgrow eventually.

Each playthrough starts off very slowly, but the fast-moving nature of later stages of the game is what will keep you coming back for more.

Quite simply, Helmet is boring and without any real challenge.

Vermin remains one of the more simple yet addictive entries in the Game & Watch collection and yet another fine addition to the growing Game & Watch library on DSiWare.

It's a little hit-and-miss and quite generic, but card-loving gamers may want to give it a go.

Overall it's hard to fault the application too much, especially since it will only set you back 200 Nintendo Points, but you can't help but wish the application had a little bit more to offer and in all honesty it ultimately might be easier to just use your computer to make the postcards instead.

Donkey Kong Jr. is easily one of the more enjoyable of the Game & Watch releases and if you've never tried any of the Game & Watch titles, this one is a great place to start.

Flagman isn't quite as engaging as some of the top shelf Game & Watch releases, but it's still got enough intriguing gameplay to make it worthwhile for gamers who can't get enough of these unique LCD games.

If you want a piece of gaming (or personal) history on the relative cheap side then toss this one in your download queue, but if you’re not a collector or nostalgic then snap up one of the more interesting Game & Watch DSiWare releases instead.

As it stands, there’s no real incentive to buy this as its central gimmick wears off too quickly and all that’s left is you, spinning around endlessly, zapping imaginary aliens.

With a short main game and no multiplayer, Brain Drain is nothing more than a passing, casual experience to be enjoyed on one's lunch break or while waiting for the bus. At home on your Wii the game can still provide some brief amusement for fans of puzzle games, but we suspect you'll find better things to do.

Don't Feed the Animals is devoid of complexity, personality, skill and entertainment value. It's boring, ugly, frustrating, repetitive and has bad collision mechanics.

Puffins are undeniably cute little critters, but slapping them on a labyrinth game with shoddy, mismatched controls won’t cover up the fact that it’s just not that fun.

It's a neat alternative to other DSiWare word games and worth checking out if you want something different, just don't expect to stick around for very long.

Its biggest fault being the extreme difficulty of its more challenging levels, Bloons is otherwise a simple, moderately enjoyable puzzle game. Those ready to face the frustration will find a challenge worth committing themselves to – unless its most obdurate stages cause them to be committed.

Try as it does, Bounce & Break never rises above unremarkable and ultimately feels hollow.

Those looking for a simple yet challenging experience will be happy with this collection and will have over a thousand unforgiving challenges to keep them busy. This quantity, however, won't matter to the majority of players, who will likely get too frustrated to continue after about ten or so.

Unfortunately, the chess clock option is about the only real option available in Chess Challenge. The rest is barebones to the point of being as straight of a no-frills chess game imaginable.