Nintendo DS games, great for stocking stuffers!

Looking for a stocking stuffer for the adult on your list that has everything but loves their DS? Video games have always been one of my favorite gifts and usually 90% of my gift lists are filled with different games. For the first reason they are easy to buy I can give potential gift buyers a list of several games and there is no guessing what color I will like or what size.. You just buy the game and go. Nintendo DS games in particular are always one of my favorites as unlike many of my other consoles once I'm done playing a game I sell it or trade it in and move on to the next one. DS games tend to stick around here a lot longer as I like to have a little arsenal of DS games to take with me anytime I go on a long car trip, family vacation, or anywhere where I think I'm going to have a massive amount of free time as I'm not one to sit and do nothing I'm far to ADD for that. Needless to say my DS goes pretty much everywhere with me not unlike its many predecessors I'm fairly positive I have not been without some sort of gameboy close by since its original release in 1989.

One of my favorite type of games for the gameboy has always been minigames. I mean where exactly would the gameboy be without Tetris. They are the perfect short term distraction especially if your attempting to get some relaxing game time in between the baby's nap, while your kids are out playing, or especially on a plane (Seriously I do not and I mean DO not get on a plane without a game as I've been stuck in taxi way too many times besides very large smelly guys and a distraction is always fabulous.)

Needless to say when Midway sent me over their two new DS titles to try out I was pretty excited. The first of which is Touchmaster 2. Touchmaster 2 is a collection of 20 popular mini games from card games to scavenger hunts they remind me a lot of the type of mini game that you find on most people's computers. Personally I love mini card games which this one does include, especially a Speed Solitaire game which is incredibly entertaining. Possibly its taking que from the Wii but my favorite game included was Bowling which takes advantage of quite a few of the DS's special controls. Either way with 20 games to play everyone in the family will find one or two they really enjoy and everyone is happy.

Though if your really looking for something unusual to get the brain working and the time flying Mechanic Master from Midway is incredibly entertaining as well as a huge time killer as you really just won't want to put it down. Its sort of a huge game of mouse trap, you must have to work your way through each level moving objects, causing things to go boom, and pretty much manipulating everything on the screen to make it to the end. What really gets challenging though is if you upgrade the game to the Drawing Mode and you have to actually draw the solutions. I'm not quite ready to start the drawing process yet as I'm really terrible at DS drawing games but I did enjoy the rat maze sort of appeal to Mechanic Master. Its really quite a unique game I honestly in the 20+ years I've been playing video games on a daily basis I've not really seen anything even remotely like it. Its easy to play, fun, incredibly addicting, and even the novice gamer will really enjoy it. The only problem will be getting your kids to put it down long enough to eat dinner. Personally I really love the fact that its an entertaining family game that does not involve someone cutting someone else's head off. Not that I don't enjoy a good action game but the change of pace is actually really nice.

Mechanic Master and Touchmaster 2 are both available right now and would make fabulous stocking stuffers for anyone on your holiday list.

I'm giving away my copy of Mechanic Master to one lucky reader!

To enter :

• Leave a comment on this post. Check out Touchmaster 2 and Mechanic Master and tell me which is your favorite and why!
• Make sure there is a way for me to contact you - if your email address is not on your profile or you are not a blogger you may leave it in your comment or email it to me directly (angelaandconnor at gmail dot com) We have had to disqualify a lot of potential winners as of late as many people do not have emails available in their profiles or leave anonymous posts without any way to contact you.
• Please US entries only.
• To get extra credit :
  • For an extra entry :
  • Bloggers - Blog about this contest and leave me the link on your comment, or add me to your sidebar and let me know its there.
  • Non Bloggers (or bloggers) subscribe to my mailing list/RSS feed and earn another entry!
  • One extra credit per person. Please post your extra credit in a separate post.
  • This contest will end Jan 15th at midnight!