Babble

A friend's pre-adolescent son was staying with us for a week, and we needed some games with which to lure him from his Pokemon DS. Ransacking Babble's review box, I found Cosmic Catch ($25) and Electronic Battleship Advanced Mission ($40).

Cosmic Catch

"This is going to be awesome," Jacob said as we worked to install the AAA batteries into the purple Nerf ball (this took three people two screwdrivers and twenty minutes). I agreed, it seemed pretty awesome: the ball talks, Simon Says-style, and recognizes each player by bands worn around the hand. The ball will play four games with you, shouting orders like "Blue!" when you are to throw it to the person with the blue band. And it makes an exploding noise if you screw up. It was fun for about fifteen minutes. We took it out to try it again the second day and it didn't work. At all. It had been reduced overnight to nothing but a heavy Nerf ball. But we didn't mourn long, because we had . . .

Electronic Battleship Advanced Mission

Yowza. I always loved the old school version, but this is a million times swanker. You have to program in your coordinates, so there's no cheating. Plus, you can do "sonar sweeps," which tell you if one of your opponent's ships is within a nine-peg radius. And there are all kinds of special weapons and advanced versions — so many that even in three evenings of playing, we still hadn't figured them all out — which occasionally led to some real frustration on all our parts. But younger kids can enjoy the basic level, which is just the original version plus a satisfying electronic "BOOM!" and red light when you hit something. — Ada Calhoun

Navigating the endless game and product tie-ins associated with your kid's favorite TV show could make any parent cynical. But sometimes, those transparently commercial tie-ins result in something great. Disney's Kim Possible is a delightful and funny cartoon about a teenage girl who also happens to be an accomplished super spy, and this video game adaptation is every bit as well-made and fun as the show. While it may not be particularly educational, it is a challenging but forgiving platformer (meaning a game based on jumping and reflex challenges — think Super Mario Brothers) that lets fans of the show guide Kim, and her arch-nemesis Shego, through a series of levels that perfectly mimic the broad-lined pop art of the show. It's simple enough for a five-year-old player, but entertaining enough that parents won't mind picking up that second controller.  —John Constantine

Buckaroo ("the saddle-stacking game with the moody mule") is less a game than an object of familial fascination for all ages. Like its predecessor, Operation, Buckaroo requires some hand-eye coordination and patience; players must carefully place various items on the pack mule, failing which the whole thing goes kerplow! as the mule's spring-loaded legs scatter everything wildly. Like most games for young children, the stated object (to place as many items on the mule without triggering a wild kick) is sublimated to the real fun of the thing (to see how far the crazy mule's kick will send the colorful hat, rope, lamp and camp items). You'll be transfixed as your child reaches out that chubby hand to place the hat on the mule, her eyes growing wide as she slowly realizes the kick is coming, and then falls over in gales of laughter as all the pieces fly. — Rachael Brownell

This version of the classic game Boggle is aimed at preschoolers, and definitely not much use to most kids beyond kindergarten or so. But for the pre-reading set, it's solid gold: a deck of cards with a picture and a three- or four-letter word, six cubes with letters on each side and a plastic tray with a cover that flips up to hide the word. The instructions offer a few different ways your child can play, but the beauty of Boggle Jr. is that you can play it pretty much any way you please, and if you're playing with kids of different abilities, they can each play differently all at once. It's not really a game where anyone wins, and it seems to end when you feel like stopping. My two-year-old is just learning to recognize letters and chose the simplest method of matching the letter cubes to the word on the card, while my four-year-old's approach was to sound out the word and then hide it with the flip-up cover and really try to spell it out. It lends itself beautifully to solitaire, too: one day while I was working, the four-year-old brought Boggle Jr. up to the table and started setting it up next to me. "Honey, I'm sorry, I can't play with you right now." "Oh, that's okay, Mama," she assured me, "I don't want to play. I just want to practice." — Patti Nichols

Although my fourth grader and I have passed several enjoyable hours playing Bananagrams, I have to admit that, for me, the real fun lies in imagining the genesis of this frumpy, educationally sound product. (My frontrunner involves a harried stay-at-home mother, a yellow fanny pack and a Scrabble box that's been stepped on so many times that it's no longer functional.) In an age of 80-dollar Game Boys and other high-tech battery-eaters, Banangrams' old-fashioned pleasures come as a relief — even if, pouch aside, the banana connection is tenuous to the point of feeling forced. (The first player to use all his/her letters says "BANANAS!" and is the winner.) It's highly portable, can be played in various ways and favors any adult whose child opponent attends a progressive school where "invented spelling" is an essential component of the literacy platform. I've always liked games that I can win, as does my six-year-old son, who sidesteps the official rules by flinging handfuls of tiles at unseen aliens. At least we no longer have to worry that he'll put one in his mouth and swallow it. — Ayun Halliday

I remember sitting around my family's old wooden table in the late '70s playing Sorry, waiting for the inevitable bumping of my pieces back to the beginning. Sorry is, after all, "The Game of Sweet Revenge," so it remains a perfectly acceptable outlet for sibling rivalry. The object of Sorry is to be the first player to achieve the "safety zone" and bring all the pieces home. Even my five-year-old twins can appreciate this goal, though the game is slated for the 6+ crowd. The pieces are satisfyingly bright-colored plastic, with wide bases and bulbous tops that are fun to fiddle with between turns. If your family is anything like mine, playing a game that requires you to say "sorry" is always a good idea. According to the twins, the best part is "making the pieces kiss," which proves that Sorry! really is for any age. — Rachael Brownell

Not to say that this card game will save your sanity on vacation, but tossing it in your carry-on couldn't hurt. Each card has a whimsical illustration and a description of an easy-to-spot thing in the airport or on the plane (i.e., a plane taking off, a pay phone, plaid luggage). Bonus cards have challenges, like getting a person to smile at you. Technically, you're supposed to divvy up the cards, set a time limit, and the person with the most points wins the game — but honestly, who cares? Kids have way too much fun just racing to complete each challenge. And it's even better if grown-ups play along. I guarantee everyone sitting around reading Dean Koontz will be jealous. — J.L. Scott

Finally, a game that truly appeals to the wide range of preschool abilities! Cariboo is just complicated enough to keep older children and parents on their toes, and simple enough that my 2-and-half-year-old can get through it with minimal guidance. The premise is cleverly elaborate in a way that creative little minds will appreciate: drawn cards correspond to trap doors, which open with a key. The doors reveal whether the player has found a ball, which is then dropped down a chute. When all the balls are accounted for, a treasure chest springs open to reveal what my children call "The Fabulous Jewel." While my little one needs some help with the order of play, my 4-year-old revels in the game's complexity. Both of them get so caught up in the building anticipation that, no matter who "finds" the treasure, we all feel like winners. The booster pack of advanced cards included with Cariboo means it'll be a game night fixture for years to come. — Patti Nichols

Wallamoppi is an attractively packaged board game that is stored in a wooden box, which instantly makes it cooler than your ratty Jenga pieces from college. The concept of this game is similar: players stack round wooden disks before the marble hits the bottom of the game board. This is a great one to play with kids — even if they're too young to get the nuances of the game, they'll love to watch the discs go flying when the tower inevitably topples, or they'll just have a blast using the wooden discs to create their own buildings. — JL Scott

Growing up with two way-older brothers, I know how much it sucks to want to play a game and have no one to play with. My younger self would have been really excited about these one-player Spiderman logic games – provided she could make it past the tricky instructions. Each of the games has a plastic grid, where you have to get Spidey from one part of the game board to another. With the first one, Spiderman is magnetic and attaches to plastic webs between buildings. In the other, he jumps from plastic crate to crate (disclaimer: you will lose the plastic crates sooner rather than later). A card illustrates how to set up each game board, and a key in the back illustrates how to solve each game. The cards range from easy to hard, and once the initial directions and explanations are figured out, kids can be pretty independent with them, or they can just make up their own games with the moveable plastic pieces. Either choice encourages creativity and independent thinking, and not needing to follow the rules is a huge advantage of playing by yourself. – JL Scott

Here's how Rayman Raving Rabbids begins: our hero, Rayman, is having a picnic with a group of misshapen blue creatures called Globoxes, when a group of evil bunny rabbits bursts out of the ground screaming gibberish. The rabbits kidnap Rayman and then force him to compete in bizarre challenges in their coliseum. When he succeeds, they give him a plunger. Surreal? Certainly. Entertaining and hilarious? You betcha. The game, played alone or with a group of up to four people, is based around completing the rabbits' challenges — there are seventy in all, ranging from a cow toss to a drawing competition. This is a perfect game for a family: competitive but lighthearted enough to keep everything civil, cartoony enough for the very young, and bizarre enough for all but the most humorless adults. — John Constantine