Arcade and Puzzle Video Games

Gamers can help the famed city of Rome grow from a small village into a great empire in 100 levels of "match-three" adventure in Cradle of Rome 2. Players match three or more items to collect resources, earn gold, and find citizens to help construct buildings and populate the city. There are eight different power-ups to help when gamers get stuck, blueprint mini-games to keep the action varied, and three difficulty levels for added challenge. Players can also earn 28 different trophies and unlock the bonus "Blitz" and "Tourney" modes. ~ Christopher Brown, All Game Guide

This sequel to one of the earliest hits from the casual experts at PopCap Games comes to the DS for the first time with an exclusive multiplayer mode, new powers, and updated graphics in Zuma's Revenge! As always, players control a sphere-spewing frog through 60 levels and six boss battles, creating matches of three or more like-colored orbs. In addition to the classic "Adventure" mode, gamers can expand their experience with the "Iron Frog" endurance mode, the challenges of the "Daily Dungeon" mode, or the multiplayer action in the new "Versus" mode. ~ Christopher Brown, All Game Guide

This third entry in PopCap's pervasive puzzle series returns to the same match-three mechanic and stylus controls that made the first two games popular DS titles. Choose from eight game types designed to test your gem-matching abilities in various ways. Quest mode, for example, has you completing 40 consecutive puzzles, while lightning mode has you racing against time to clear as many gems as possible.

For those that want to just kick back and play without any restrictions, Zen mode will offer a relaxing respite with calming sounds, music, and backgrounds. Classic mode is the traditional game of Bejeweled with some new gems to encounter, and gamers can earn up to 65 badges by achieving certain milestones. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

The Silly Bandz line of rubber bracelets and rings are featured in this surprising tie-in from Zoo Games. Gameplay involves freeing captured Silly Bandz by aiming and flinging other Bandz toward cages and the enemies guarding them, similar to the concept behind the iPhone's Angry Birds. Each Silly Bandz type features distinct properties, so part of the strategy involves choosing the right Bandz for the task. Some multiply themselves in the air, for instance, while others explode on contact. Over 40 levels set in four themed environments are available, as is a multiplayer versus mode. Included with each game is an exclusive pack of 12 Silly Bandz in the shapes of video game controllers and platforms. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

Mario and his ape adversary, Donkey Kong, square off once again in this continuation of Nintendo's Lemmings-inspired puzzle series. Once again you must guide various wind-up toys (miniature versions of Nintendo characters) by carefully placing items like springs, conveyor belts, pipes, girders, and ladders on the touch screen. The goal is to have all playthings safely reach the door leading the next level before time expires.

Included is a built-in editor that lets aspiring game designers create their own levels to share with nearby friends or the online community. Online owners can browse and download user-submitted maps, each rated by the public, and enter special challenges. Pauline toys are the newest addition to a series that includes miniature versions of Mario, Toad, Princess Peach, and Donkey Kong. A help button, revamped map, and an onscreen reference guide are also included to ease new players into the game. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

The original Scribblenauts was roundly lauded for its creativity and the sheer ambition of providing visual representation of nearly any noun players could think to write, but the game nevertheless faced persistent criticism because intricately planned puzzle solutions were often destroyed by wonky stylus-only controls. In Super Scribblenauts, developer 5th Cell hopes to squelch those concerns by including optional D-pad controls. And for good measure, they've added more color to the gameplay, both literally and figuratively, by letting players modify any noun with multiple adjectives.

A mere platypus in Scribblenauts can now be a purple, angry, flaming platypus in Super Scribblenauts, and gamers are encouraged to let their imagination run wild thanks to nine different "Playgrounds" designed to spur experimentation. The rest of the gameplay remains relatively unmolested, with players once again using nothing but their imagination to guide Maxwell through 120 different levels in order to collect Starites and earn Ollars. The Advanced mode returns, tasking gamers with concocting three different solutions to each puzzle, and creative gamers can use the enhanced level editor to design and share their own puzzles via Nintendo's Wi-Fi connection. ~ Christopher Brown, All Game Guide

As the title implies, this version of PopCap's popular match-three puzzle game gets a bit of twist. Instead of swapping two jewels in an attempt to create matches of three or more, gamers must now rotate a cube of four jewels. Other than the altered matching mechanic, Bejeweled Twist remains largely the same as its forebears, eventually introducing obstacles and jewels with special attributes, and featuring "Classic," "Blitz," "Challenge," and "Zen" game modes. ~ Christopher Brown, All Game Guide

The third entry in the TouchMaster series of stylus-based mini-games once again finds players flicking their way through a variety of touch-screen activities. There are 20 different mini-games spread across five categories, and players earn trophies, badges, and medals for completing the five achievements associated with each mini-game. New goal-oriented gameplay means there are no more time constraints, and gamers looking for multiplayer fun can wirelessly share Touchmaster 3 with a friend using the single-cart Download Play option. ~ Christopher Brown, All Game Guide

The developer behind Lock's Quest and the Drawn to Life series returns with another stylus-driven DS title, this time challenging players to solve more than 200 puzzles by using nothing but their imagination. Each level contains a single star, and the goal for gamers is to help the main character Maxwell acquire that star. What sets Scribblenauts apart from other puzzle-heavy action games is that it provides no specific tools to solve problems, but instead asks players to simply write what they want to use.

As long as gamers refrain from requesting curse words, proper names, or copyrighted material, developer 5th Cell promises that every creature, item, or vehicle players request will appear and behave appropriately.There are more than 10,000 different items programmed into Scribblenauts, and at the end of each level players will be graded depending on how many items they conjured, how long it took them to retrieve the star, and how stylishly they solved the puzzle. Another game mode challenges players to solve the same puzzle three times in a row without ever using the same item twice, and creative gamers can use the level editor to design and share their own puzzles via Nintendo's Wi-Fi connection. ~ Christopher Brown, All Game Guide

Roogoo Attack is the Nintendo DS edition of SpiderMonk Entertainment's shape-matching puzzle game. In Roogoo, players manipulate discs with holes of different shapes, reminiscent of a toddler's toy, in order to allow objects of different shapes to fall through. The action moves from disc to disc, each of which must be turned to line up the correct hole for the dropping object -- a circle, square, triangle, star, heart, or object of another shape that falls from above. The DS game features more than 100 puzzles set in ten themed environments. Puzzles become more sophisticated as players progress. Single- and multi-card multiplayer option are available over a local wireless connection, with a selection of competitive game modes. When Roogoo Attack is connected to the concurrently released Wii version of the game, Roogoo: Twisted Towers, additional levels are unlocked for play in both games. ~ T.J. Deci, All Game Guide