New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Since his 1981 debut in Donkey Kong, Mario has been a staple of the platforming genre, but in recent years he's branched out, taking on go-kart racing and fighting tournaments with other Nintendo characters, for instance. In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the original magic that caught our attention decades ago returns, along with the sadistic difficulty some have come to love and hate.

Assassin's Creed II

Assassin's Creed got a justifiably mixed response when it was released in 2007. I loved it for its free-running style in a giant open-world setting and its perspective on religious history, but I also loathed it because of the repetitive missions and the lack of combat AI. With the newly released sequel, the developers go a long way toward fulfilling their promise to address players' complaints about the original.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

After another trip to World War II last year for the annual Call of Duty series, Infinity Ward has finally released the sequel to its monster hit Modern Warfare, and it has already gone beyond anyone's expectations. In the first 24 hours the game was available, more than 4.7 million copies were sold, generating $310 million in revenue, Activision reported. That made Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 the biggest entertainment launch in history, with higher day-one receipts than The Dark Knight movie or the final Harry Potter book. The buzz around Modern Warfare 2 is outrageous, but it's well deserved.

Tim Schafer has made some cult-classic video games over the past decade, with amazing creativity and humor in his catalog: Grim Fandango (consisting of a mystery in a society of grim reapers), The Secret of Monkey Island (a hilarious pirate-themed adventure), and the award-winning Psychonauts (a summer camp involving psychic powers and a plot to take over the world), even though none of those was a big seller upon release. Four years after the hilarious and highly praised Psychonauts, fans are treated to Schafer's latest project: Brutal Legend, a game set in a fantasy land inspired by heavy metal. Yet despite a vast mythology, a great soundtrack, and hilarious dialogue featuring Jack Black, the overall game delivers more annoyance than enjoyment.

There's a short list of games that I think every PlayStation 3 owner should play. One of those is 2007's Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, a treasure-hunting adventure that feels like being in an adventure movie. While there were a number of shortcomings -- dodgy controls and a short story -- it was still an excellent exclusive game for the PS3. The newly released Uncharted 2: Among Thieves does something rare for a sequel: It fixes all the mistakes from its predecessor and really goes the extra mile with new features, including competitive and cooperative modes.

Scribblenauts for the Nintendo DS is a rare breed of game that can accurately be labeled "innovative." Most games set in stone the way you play and solve them, but Scribblenauts allows players to employ a tool that kids of all ages know how to use: imagination.

Scribblenauts is a puzzle game with more than 200 challenges based on the goal of capturing a trophy called a "starite." Some puzzles test logic -- such as helping a farmer pick animals for his barn -- while others are action-based, such as finding a way over a shark-filled lake. Type in words to create the items with which you want to solve the puzzle. The game's slogan is concise: "Write anything, solve everything."

'The Beatles: Rock Band'

With three Rock Band titles and a whopping 11 Guitar Hero titles that have popped up in the past four years, plus another three coming before the end of the year, figuring out a starting point or must-buys for the music-simulation genre can be overwhelming. With Guitar Hero 5 and The Beatles: Rock Band released earlier this month, this is an excellent time to evaluate what's available.

In the early '90s, Batman video games based on Tim Burton's movies were bright spots for Nintendo and Super Nintendo, with easy controls and simple combat. But the games based on Batman Forever and Batman & Robin suffered from the same deficiencies as their filmed sources: They lacked the elements that made their predecessors good. Sadly, the handful of games since then haven't improved much. But the new Batman: Arkham Asylum shatters any generalizations about the games with an all-new story based on the comic mythos, a fantastic presentation, and an amazing combat system that leaves you coming back for more.

Wii Sports Resort, the long-awaited sequel to 2006's Wii Sports, puts players in a tropical resort loaded with new activities to show off the Wii MotionPlus accessory that's bundled with the game, offering near-perfect motion control. There are 10 new game types, and most have variations to change things up.

Breaking the $49.95 package down, you essentially get a $30 game with the $20 MotionPlus controller add-on, and it's not a bad deal when you find a few games that get your blood pumping and keep you coming back for weeks on end. Everyone will have their own personal favorites, and it was easy for me to pick mine.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10

The Tiger Woods golf games have been a solid play experience for the past few years on every platform. The Xbox 360's and PlayStation 3's easy-to-learn controls combined with strong online support have ensured a high replay value. Fans had hoped the Wii's motion controls would improve the game further but were generally disappointed.

Enter 2009 and the new Wii MotionPlus accessory, giving the remote control near one-to-one motion detection for games programmed to use it. Simply put, your movements will be perfectly reflected in games. The upcoming Wii Sports Resort and Red Steel 2 include swordplay to highlight the enhanced motion detection, but Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 was one of the first games available using this new add-on. If you're a golfer, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better golf simulator for use at home.

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