Imagine: Figure Skater (Nintendo DS)

Junior high school sports phenom Jessica has been figure skating since the age of three, and is ready to take her training to the next level and compete on the world stage. To do so, she'll have to train hard to improve her stamina, artistry, and coordination, and learn spins, salchows, toe-loop jumps, and other moves to create stellar skating routines to win competitions.

IMAGINE: FIGURE SKATER is part of Ubisoft's Imagine series, a collection of Nintendo DS games aimed at letting young girls explore different careers. The game is divided into weekdays with different goals each day, culminating in the big competition at the end of the month. Jessica can learn new skating moves at the rink (which involve tracing the stylus in different patterns as she skates to reproduce the move), and play various mini-games to improve stats (such as eating sushi to raise stamina, decorating cakes to improve artistry, and dancing via a simple rhythm action game to improve coordination). She can also shop for new skating costumes and CDs to skate to, and pursue a social life through various subplots involving students and teachers at her school, rival skaters, and even a stray puppy named "Milk" whom she adopts.

From training to putting a routine together (players can accept a preset routine or put their own together by selecting a sequence of moves) to sitting with your coach watching scores come in at the end of the program, the game really does a great job of showing the entire process. The game isn't just a sports sim either, but tackles some of the emotional ups and downs that young athletes face. For example, Jessica struggles to balancing her homework with practicing enough to be competitive. She also tries to overcome the jealousy she feels for her best friend Isabel, who's also a competitive skater, and strives to maintain her confidence and focus amidst various distractions.

Cute anime cartoon-style graphics and some fun and quirky scenarios (mini-games include having to clear marauding penguins out of the skating rink by bopping them with curling rocks, and eating sushi while avoiding the cat-shaped sushi rolls) make Imagine: Figure Skater a thorough and entertaining insight into what it's like to be an elite athlete.