Jenga World Tour (Nintendo DS)

JENGA WORLD TOUR takes the popular block-stacking pastime of Jenga and makes it digital, adding special locations, characters, effects, and gameplay modes. The game starts with all Jenga rectangular blocks stacked in a tower. Players take turns building the tower higher by carefully removing blocks from the structure and placing them on top; the first to topple the tower loses. In Jenga World Tour, players use the Nintendo DS stylus to move blocks.

In the main mode, World Tour, you are a Jenga champion who travels to different places and time periods -- such as medieval England, prehistoric Africa, or an underwater reef -- to challenge other Jenga masters. Each location has unique challenges, such as flying saucers on the moon that try to zap the tower, or pterodactyls that try to steal blocks. In Arcade mode, players try to build the tower as high as they can. In Quick Play, up to four players take turns with one Nintendo DS; multiplayer mode allows players to compete on separate DS' using the device's Wi-Fi connection.

The video game version of Jenga isn't as visceral of an experience as the original game, and you don't get the same level of responsiveness from the blocks as you do in real life. As a result, it's much harder to tell when the tower is about to tip. The graphics are also middle-of-the-road, which makes it harder to see how the blocks interlock and where the openings are.

Jenga World Tour is no substitute for sitting around a table and playing the real thing, but it's a decent substitute for taking on car or bus rides.