Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi)

In PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF, kids control Percy Jackson, a 12-year-old boy who discovers an alternative reality where Greek Gods and mythological creatures walk amongst us. Percy finds out that his father is Poseidon, the God of the Sea, which makes him a demigod and explains his special powers of controlling water. Percy and a group of demigod friends go on a quest to rescue Percy's mother from Hades and retrieve a lightning bolt belonging to Zeus. As players move from New York to California, they must fight Greek mythological creatures every step of the way, and eventually fight stronger foes including the Gods themselves. These fights are turned-based and winning means your fighters get stronger and earn new magical attacks.

Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief offers a deep combat system which uses some of the god-like skills discussed in Rick Riordan's books. It is a game about the strategy of how you use your group of demigods to defeat supernatural foes. You need both healers and attackers to survive.

But the problem is that this game is a one-pony show. The constant turn-based battling just gets old. And most of your enemies just aren't that tough, even though they may be Greek Gods. The book  on which this game is based is rich with clever and exciting ideas about how the Greek Gods are a part of the world as we know it. Too bad this game fails to enthrall the way the book did.