Continuing what appears to be a mission to dominate the world through casual contact, Nintendo is launching a new game brand called "Touch Generations."

Like it sounds, the Touch Generations brand will include titles that
anyone can pick up and play on the Nintendo DS, the pocket game system with two screens, one of which is touch-sensitive. Nintendo hopes to attract people with little or no videogame experience, an attraction the company has already managed quite nicely with an exclusive library of blockbuster NDS games that can barely be called games in the first place, so unconventional and hip-to-be-flip are they.

So as Nintendo has carved a niche in the "causal gamer" demographic, the company now seeks to rive it right the heck open--a no brainer considering the only competition is wimp cell phone games and regurgitational web-based freebies, each with 923 versions of Sudoko and three Diner Dash variants between them.

At any rate, Touch Generations will debut in June and include three new titles, including a second brain-training game and a band-wagon version of the ubiquitous Sudoku. Cake.

"We remain committed to turning video games into an inclusive mass medium that everyone can enjoy," spins George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications, which, in the parlance of gamers, means "we have seen the future and we PWN it!"

The first seven titles in the Touch Generations brand include repackaging of bona fide DS blockbusters already established as casual-centric, as well as a few new ones, which are:

• Big Brain Academy (launches June 5): The second title in the brain-training series tests players in five areas: thinking, memorization, computation, analysis and identification.




• Magnetica (launches June 5): A simple puzzle game challenges players to connect and eliminate like-colored marbles before they reach the goal.




• Sudoku Gridmaster (launches June 26): This me-too version of the wildly popular puzzle grid features more than 400 sudoku puzzles, all of which were apparently hand-picked by the original creators of sudoku.




• Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day (launched April 17): More than 5 million people around the world test their brains daily in areas like math, counting, reading and memorization. A phenomenon by videogame industry standards, Brain Age players include older people who had never previously played a videogame. (read review...)




• Nintendogs (launched Aug. 22, 2005): The hugely popular pet puppy simulator that lets users pet their pups using the touch screen and teach them commands using the DS's inbuilt microphone. (read review...)




• Tetris DS (launched March 20): Nintendo's marquee characters team up in one of the most popular puzzle games of all time. (read review...)




• True Swing Golf (launched Jan. 23): In this unique golf sim, players slide the stylus across the touch screen to strike the ball and send it flying. (read review...)