Warning: Birds, Bugs and Beans ($10) is not for the inhibited or the prudish. If you're out of touch with your inner adolescent boy, you probably won't enjoy yourself. However, if you can still find humor in bodily functions, this game is better than a whoopee cushion. The game consists of tossing cards to the center and, based on the card that appears, making appropriate (or, more often, inappropriate) sounds that correspond to the card. If the card shows a bug, you smash it. If it's a bird, you whistle. Or tweet. If it's a bean, well, you know what to do.The game goes quickly and easily dissolves into hilarity, with the more players the merrier (we had three and could easily have used more). My kids love it, so it's definitely a keeper — and I'm looking forward to introducing it to a group of drunken adults. — Karen Murphy

I asked my daughter how to play the Dress-Up Game ($10) and her summary was pretty good: "You have to use the special stickers and spin the spinner and dress the dolly." First one dressed wins! But she didn't mention the game's most compelling feature: it's made of Colorforms ("with pieces that stick like magic")! Everyone loves Colorforms — at least until they get all gummy from juice and covered with cat hair. Okay, so it pains my feminist soul just a little a bit that the dress-up options don't include something like a trial lawyer's briefcase or firefighter's hat. But I love the fact that the dress-up clothing is refreshingly kid-like: no belly shirts or high heels, just a cheeky red beret and some kick-butt cowboy boots. It's also perfect for kids who haven't quite mastered the concept of playing a game — which really is pretty hard, if you think about it; the first time we tried Candyland, my daughter looked at me like I had asked her the square root of forty-five. Now she's nearing four and we've graduated to Go Fish, but she still loves to play "the dolly game." I'll play as long as my dolly gets to wear those boots. — Jennifer V. Hughes

Pretending to fly is awesome. Airplanes are also awesome. So Konami's Wing Island ($40) for Wii should be a perfect videogame: playing the game is as easy as pointing the remote at the screen and watching the bird-piloted airplanes you've selected mirror your real-life movements. Once you start playing, though, it becomes clear that controlling a digital plane is not as fun as simply pretending you're a plane, or even playing with an actual toy one. Wing Island 's world is drab and ugly, and the tasks tedious (you can fly over cows and drop nets on them or slowly fly through a string of balloons). Even the youngest player may question the game's internal logic — why do giant birds need to fly in planes? — John Constantine

"I almost got it!"
"Look, it actually went over the dog!"
"This is Ant Number Five and this is his Mama."

Giggling, laughing, playing with ants: what could be more fun for a five-year-old? My twins' immediate fascination with this fabulously quiet, non-electronic, classic game ($10) had much to do with the cute colorful "ants" and very little to do with their ability to flick the ants into the big blue pants. No worries — this game was a roaring success. For once, the kids' difficulty achieving the actual goal of the game (to get as many of their ants in the pants as possible) didn't result in frustration and tears. Instead, they just morphed the thing into an adventure with the ant family. Ants in the Pants may not have inspired my family's competitive side, but it gave us plenty of adorable home videos. — Rachael Brownell

My kids couldn't wait to play Flea Circus ($15) — after all, it had dozens of little white plastic cats! And weird blue dogs! Sure, the rules of the game seemed a little confusing, but we'd figure it out as we went along.

"Ready to play?" I asked Serena.

"What?" She hadn't been listening; too busy playing with the little cats.

Having begun to read the instructions, I replied, "I need coffee to play this game."

Essentially, you build a flea circus show by stacking cards worth varying numbers of cats and dogs (the circus's "audience"), then vie with your opponents for control of the most audience members. When the audience pool is used up, each player counts their own dogs and cats, and the player who has attracted the biggest audience wins! If there's an actual strategy to playing this simple game, I haven't figured it out. Serena won and was happy, especially since she managed to score more coveted cats than reviled blue dogs. So I suffered with the dogs. (The sacrifices a parent makes!) Serena, clutching her handful of tiny cats, begged to play again; I suggested that we keep the cats and ditch the game.  — Karen Murphy

Board games are great for preschoolers, but being forced to play Candyland repeatedly can make any parent want to start the cocktail hour at noon. One of the first games my kids played, and one that I 'm happy to play with them, is Mystery Garden. Similar to a glorified Twenty Questions, Mystery Garden is played by secretly turning over picture-cards that match elements of the game board. The other players have to guess what's on the card by asking yes-or-no questions like "Is it something red?," "Does it have stripes?" or "Is it an animal?" Eventually, the answers allow the guessers to narrow down the possibilities and guess what's on the card. Whoever finally makes the correct guess gets to keep the card, and whoever has the most cards at the end is the winner. It's a quick game that's great for teaching categorization and observation skills to pre-readers, and it won't make you want to repeatedly knock your head against a wall. — Karen Murphy

Never has a game been more aptly named. Big Trouble, a brighter, noisier version of its 1970s counterpart, would probably be less trouble if it weren't loud as a fog horn and repetitive as a jackhammer. The game, slated for the over-six crowd, involves playing with cards and following the commands of the voice that sounds suspiciously like Queen Latifah (the twins call it "Bubble Lady"). The fun game I remember — the satisfying bubble in the middle, the popping noise as the die rolls around, the thrill of giving "big trouble" to annoying siblings — is somewhat lost in this new racket. Toys louder than squawking crows have long been banned from our house, so perhaps we're the wrong test group for Big Trouble — but when even a talkative five-year-old says it's "hurting my ears," something is amiss.— Rachael Brownell

The kids were right next to me when I unpacked Hide & Seek Safari, and the three of us reacted with a collective "whooooa!" Wonder of wonders, the batteries are included, so we got to work immediately. It's a twist on the classic game of hide and seek: someone hides the animal (ours is a tiger) anywhere in the immediate vicinity, then another person uses the Seeker Wand to find it. A light display on the wand lets you know when you're getting warmer, and when you're right on top of the animal, the wand will make a thoroughly obnoxious noise. (Dear R&R Games: my kids love this toy and so do I, but if you could make the Seeker Wand slightly less ear-puncturing, I would be eternally grateful. Love, Patti.) Traditional hide and seek has always been a family favorite, but we're pressed for space and we've run out of creative places to hide. Hide & Seek Safari's animals can go where kids and parents can't fit, and it's opened up new dimensions for us, indoors and out. - Patti Nichols