While the competition tries to one-up Wii with its universally beloved motion controllers and unmitigated family appeal, Nintendo just seems to sit there and bask in the sincerest form of flattery.

Well, more than that, Wii continues to host exclusively yet more exceptionally fun games. Here are five of its latest and greatest.


uDraw Tablet with uDraw Studio (Wii, $70)

Funny, but as Microsoft and Sony play catch-up with Wii's motion-sensitive controller, THQ out and out invents a new way use the tried and true. The rather remarkable uDraw Tablet with uDraw Studio, like it sounds, is a game & peripheral bundle turns the Wii into a virtual sketch board through a stylus activated drawing pad and corresponding game software. Effectively described as "Adobe Illustrator for Kids," uDraw offers an effective outlet for any budding artist as well as a mode to play some captivating, doodle-activated games. It also lets you store the plethora of gallery-worthy art pieces to memory instead of up on the fridge or way-up in the attic. There are also other games made for the uDraw tablet, including Pictionary ($30) which is already a "family game night" staple for many, now playable on the Wii. Too cool. Rated Everyone (6+)


GoldenEye 007 (Wii, $50)

Harkening back some 14 years and rightfully acclaimed as the first console game to deliver a spectacular first-person shooter experience, Goldeneye 007 has been retooled, remastered and pretty much re-made in entirety for the new generation. While its graphics might pale in comparison to the high definition mainstays of today, it nevertheless does a great job of delivering the same shoot 'em up spy game excellence of yesteryear, this time featuring the Daniel Craig version of everyone's favorite secret agent. Rated Teen (13+)


Super Mario All-Stars (Wii, $30)

Boasting hundreds of hours of classic gaming, Super Mario All-Stars is a compilation of several Nintendo blockbusters from the days of yore. Included are the full versions of Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3, all of them revamped and reimagined with updated graphics and modern gameplay niceties. Now featuring 4-player simultaneous play, All-Stars is both a blast-from-the-past for grownups who used to play Mario back in day, and a modern day party game for those same grownups to play with their kids. Rated Everyone (6+)


Wii Party (Wii, $50)

While shallow and derivative at first blush, Wii Party delivers the very essence of all ages fun. It stars the personal, user-made Mii characters and is played out as an interactive board game for four (or as mini games only from a one-off menu). Rolling dices and landing on any given square invokes some sort of goofball consequence or jumps to a mini game that has all four players battling it out in a variety of laugh inducing shenanigans that last but a few seconds or a few moments. Long playing, short-attention span fun at its finest. Rated Everyone (6+)



Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii, $50)

An uncanny reminder to parents who were once gamers, got a life and now have kids that fit the gamer bill, Donkey Kong Country Returns is the first sequel to the Super NES blockbuster circa 1994. As such, it's both nostalgic and modern, yet another all-ages extravaganza of platform-hopping, puzzle-solving baddie-bopping mayhem featuring that world-famous "Stubborn Big Ape" - curiously translated to "Donkey ("stubborn-like") Kong ("Big Ape"), as Cliff Claven might explain. Best of all Donkey Kong Country Returns allows two players to play at once for the first time, as both the super-sized simian and his tad, Junior, complementing the games aforementioned parent-with-kid appeal, tenfold. Let's play, dad. Rated Everyone (6+)

Complete Evergeek Gift Guide listings at www.evergeek.com/GiftGuide

 
 

It's true: Quality kids games are hard to find. Sure, there's lots out there, but few that are both good and genuinely kid-friendly. Fortunately, GamersGate online games portal has an entire section dedicated to quality family fare. Go ahead, check it out!