Phineas and Ferb

With virtually nothing in the way of violence, Phineas and Ferb is fine entertainment for elementary school kids. What's more, it makes creative use of the DS' touch screen. The neighborhood adventuring involves stroking and tapping the screen in a variety of intuitive ways to search for items and navigate obstacles, and vehicle parts are assembled by spinning them around with the stylus until their jagged edges fit together like puzzle pieces. There's also a nifty mechanic that involves one brother jumping on the other's shoulders, which lets them hide from their sister and interact with objects that are otherwise out of reach.

The rides players spend so much time striving to build, are, rather anticlimactically, the weakest part of the game. The controls are stiff and the objectives provided while riding -- such as leaping over paint cans and collecting items -- are simple relative to the rest of the game. Still, it is undeniably an above-average interactive incarnation of a kids cartoon.