Pictionary (DS)

If you have at least four people who are willing to play a board game on a handheld video game unit, then Pictionary (DS) could provide some fun. You just need to make sure that your teammates aren't peeking when you read the clue you're about to sketch. And then you have to make sure that everybody can see the small DS screen while you're drawing on the touchscreen with the stylus. It's clunky, but you can make it work. The solo modes offered here are just no fun, though. First of all, who wants to play Pictionary without getting to draw? But worse than that is how difficult it is to make a correct guess (even on the "easy" setting). The computer-made sketches are often hard to decipher, and even when you think you know what they are, you're probably wrong -- because you need to type in the answer exactly as the game understands it. So, for example, if you figure out that the sketch is a person eating sushi, and you type either "eating" or "sushi," you're still wrong, because the answer the game wants is "eat sushi." What you thought was "jump," turns out to be "leap." And so on. It's too frustrating.