Beautiful Katamari

Namco Bandai, for Xbox 360, $40

In one of the strangest of video-game plots, the mite-size Prince of All Cosmos attempts to impress his giant, capricious father by rolling up big balls of, well, stuff. But this bizarre storyline is, frankly, peripheral to the original, fun, and utterly addictive gameplay. The prince is armed with a katamari, a magnetic ball that attracts anything smaller than it. As the sphere is rolled across a household floor, picking up tiny items like pushpins and crackers, its mass increases, and soon it's capable of scooping books, pets, chairs, even people. Eventually, a gargantuan katamari will hit the open roads, rolling up trucks and buildings. Hidden among the surreal chaos is a lesson in comparative mass and volume. —Ages 6 and up

Ben 10: Protector of Earth

D3 Publishers, for PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii, and Nintendo DS, about $30

Just as he does regularly in his hit Cartoon Network series, prepubescent hero Ben must save the world from an extraterrestrial invasion. The action is fast and furious, requiring quick reflexes and even quicker thinking. With his unique superpower, Ben can transform into any of 10 different alien superheroes (hence the name), each of which has its own special skills. As challenges present themselves in the game, players must decide which of Ben's personae will best fit the situation.—Ages 6 and up

The Caplet

VG Pocket, $40

If you don't want to shell out hundreds of bucks for a handheld gaming system that then requires individual game discs that themselves cost about $40 apiece, the Caplet provides a nice low-budget alternative. The product gets its name from its shape (thus the tagline, "Get your daily dose of gaming") and comes preprogrammed with 35 retro gaming titles. Some of them are sure to ring distant bells for parents, including Space Invaders—the granddaddy of all video games—and Burger Time, in which a chef has to put together hamburgers while being pursued by hot dogs. Others are less familiar, but all share the same early-'80s innocence. The variety is great, and the games are fun, but the old-school graphics could appear lackluster to kids reared on PlayStations. Of course, if your child should balk, you've got the perfect excuse to fire up a game of Bust-a-Move yourself. Requires three AAA batteries (not included).—Ages 5 And Up

Chocolatier

PlayFirst, for PC and Mac, $20

Business games are a great way to introduce your child to economics: Suddenly, she's minding budgets and juggling supply and demand—and happily, because it's all part of the fun. This addition to the genre has the added allure of being set in the world of sweets. It's the 19^th century, and players must build dessert empires, traveling to far-off places to hunt down recipes and haggle over ingredient prices. The charmingly obscure confections themselves—Sulawesi-cacao macadamia infusions, say—will have mouths watering. Don't play when you're hungry.—Ages 8 and up

Color Scheme

Educational Insights, $30

The goal of this aesthetically pleasing game is simple: Just position three tiles of the same color in a row, à la tic-tac-toe. But here's the rub: The hues you're attempting to line up will constantly be changing. Players drop translucent tiles into a vertical frame, each column of which has two slots. Put a blue tile in a space that's already occupied by a yellow tile and voilà: That space is now green. And it's the secondary shades (orange, purple, green) that you need to align, so familiarity with the color spectrum is a must for success. To make things even more challenging, the pieces you're using are all domino-style double tiles, so dropping one into the frame alters the tint of two spaces, not just one. Color Scheme is strategy and science, all rolled into one.—Ages 6 and up

Cooking Mama: Cook Off

Majesco, for Nintendo Wii, $50

You can't eat the dishes you prepare in this game, but that's about the only real culinary action you won't take. Following more than 50 recipes from various global cuisines, you wield your Wii remote as the ultimate multipurpose utensil: It's your knife as you flick your wrist up and down to chop veggies, your mixing spoon as you stir giant bowls of batter. The cartoonish Mama, always ready with a word of encouragement, presides over the proceedings. As the subtitle implies, two players can also challenge each other, Iron Chef–style, to create the best virtual dish.—Ages 5 and up

Dewy's Adventure

Konami, for Nintendo Wii, $50

In order to save a mythical life-giving tree from an army of anthropomorphic pollutants, players take control of the most unlikely of heroes—a drop of water. By simply tilting the Wii's motion-sensitive remote in various directions, you guide "Dewy" through mazes and past enemies. In a truly ingenious twist, you also control the temperature in the Land of Eau—and with it, Dewy's physical state. Make it hotter and Dewy turns into a mist, capable of floating over obstacles. Or bring the mercury down to solidify an ice version of Dewy that can slide faster and freeze foes. The fantasy, action, and science all mingle remarkably well.—Ages 5 and up

Elebits

Konami, for Nintendo Wii, $40

This game gives classic hide-and-seek a high-tech spin. Its premise is that elebits, wee Pokémon-like creatures, are the true source of the world's energy. So you roam your house in search of them, wielding the Wii's remote like a laser pointer to pick up obstacles, then tossing them away with a flick of the wrist so you can collect the critters behind them. At the start, you can only move small items like books and toys, but the more elebit energy you discover, the stronger you get. By the end, you'll be shoving aside refrigerators and picking up cars to find the sneaky little sprites.—Ages 6 and up

FlapDoodle

(Wiggity Bang Games, $25)

From Lewis Carroll to Dr. Seuss, nonsense has long held a special place in the realm of children's entertainment. For the most part, though, absurdity tends to steer clear of board games, perhaps because of the reliance on rules. Flapdoodle, however, embraces the ridiculous to such an extent that winning can be a bummer, because it means the game is over. On any given turn, you may have to make your index fingers do a "worm dance," stand up and sing in a fairy voice, or hold a flashlight under your shirt and say, "Look, I'm a paper lantern!" Even the more straightforward questions border on the bizarre ("Name three people who have never been in your kitchen"). Sure, there's a finish line, but does reaching it really matter when you're pretending to make a little bed and put your foot to sleep? —Ages 5 and up

Eternal Sonata

Namco for Xbox 360, $60

In this unconventional action-adventure role-playing game, Frédéric Chopin (yes, the composer) leads a group of heroes in a quest to free the Dreamworld from the clutches of a ruthless tyrant and his horde of monsters. Along the way, players discover and compose pieces of music while learning details about Chopin's real life. The vibrant, lush environments are enhanced by a dramatic piano score.