The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (DS)

The Nintendo DS version of THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN, based on the Disney film of the same name, is not only a completely different title from the console versions but is also the first game to feature Disney's DGamer social network (see the Parents Note above). While overall it's a significant improvement over the Game Boy Advance version of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe -- which was criticized for focusing on combat at the expense of the rich world of Narnia -- Prince Caspian does also start to eventually get weighed down by repetitive enemy encounters.

The game doesn't just abandon the narrative in favor of action, but actually presents cutscenes in a text-based storybook format complete with watercolor-like illustrations. The action/role-playing gameplay lets players form a party of three characters drawn from a group that includes Caspian, the four Pevensie children, the dwarves Nikabrik and Trumpkin, and various creatures of Narnia including Trufflehunter the badger, and the noble mouse Reepicheep. Combat is not just mindless hack-and-slash, but introduces specializations for each character that involves tapping through a quick mini-game before each attack. For example, Edmund's sword-based attack involves tracing slashing movements on the screen with the stylus.