NBA Jam (Video Game)

Released: October 2010

Console: Wii

Also available for these consoles: Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Interest level: Ages 8 & up

Genre: Sports - Basketball

Contents: For basketball fans, this game is a ton of fun. Choose your favorite players from any basketball team, from the Los Angeles Lakers Kobe Bryant or Pau Gasol or the Miami Heats LeBron James. There are many teams to choose from, but there are only some players to choose from, not the whole team. Some cool features are are you can choose to give your players big heads, which look funny, or you can choose to leave them regular. The Campaign Mode is hilarious: you can choose to play the Clintons, Bush or Sarah Palin. There are many classic players and codes that you can unlock, so play and have some fun. Dunking in this game is great, as well as pushing other players down to get them out of your way ( yeah, don't worry about fouls).

What you need: Wii controls and Nunchuks.

Mario Kart (Video Game)

Released: April 2008

Game Console: Nintendo Wii

Interest level: Ages 7 & up

Genre: Video game - Racing

Contents: For fans of previous Mario Karts, like the one for Nintendo 64 or Mario Kart Double dash for Gamecube, this version has better graphics and a lot of extras. Race on brand new tracks or race familiar old tracks from previous versions. As always you can choose your favorite character like Princess Peach, Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Yoshi, Toad, etc. Then your choose your car, which for me is always the fun part, and if you don't want to drive a car choose a motorcycle! Those are kind of hard for me, but I'm still getting used to them. Another fun feature is of course all the items you can pick up to deter other drivers from winning, like the blue shell with wings, which will blow up the driver in first place and anyone around them, or the bullet that takes you flying through the track past opponents for a short time. This is a really fun game!

What you need: Wii controls, Nunchuks.

Optional: Racing wheel

Nintendo Power (Magazine)

(December 2010). Nintendo Power.

Contents: This magazine is for lovers of the Nintendo gaming consoles like Wii and Nintendo DS. It gives the reader previews of new games that haven't come out yet and reviews of games so you can decide if a game will be worth your while. There are lots of pictures or screen shots of the actual game so you can see what the characters look like. This is a good feature because gamers like awesome graphics. I am a huge Nintendo fan, so I found this magazine fun and interesting. I have a Wii at home and like to play Mario Bros. games. The magazine also features ads for upcoming games in different formats.

Interest Level: 10 & up

Genre: Gaming Magazine

Subjects/themes: video games, nintendo, reviews, previews.