Who needs a deck of cards when you can play a game on your handheld? If you feel left out by all of the folks who are bowling on their new Nintendo Wii, maybe Clubhouse Games can lift a little bit of those blues. This new game for the Nintendo DS has over 40 games on its little chip, including lots of popular card games (Hearts, Rummy, Texas Hold-em), bowling, darts, chess checkers, backgammon and some games that have unusual names but you'll recognize right away (Field Tactics is remarkably like Stratego and Turncoat is better recognized as Othello). What really sets this game apart is that you can not only play nearly all of these games with your friends via the DS wireless connection, but you can also play online via WiFi. Just to make things interesting (and to introduce you to all of the games that you might not otherwise play) several of the games and other features can only be unlocked through single player stamp and challenge modes.

Another game that recently crossed our threshold is Final Fantasy III (also for the DS). I can't tell you too much about it as it belongs to my daughter, but what I've seen looks great. These folks did everything they could to take advantage of the capabilities of the DS. This is more than just a simple port. Maybe my daughter will share a review of the game when she's gone a little further into it (and finished her homework!)

(Voting is still open for the 2006 Video Game Awards. Our game is nominated for five awards. Vote early and vote often! - http://www.gamecreature.com/2006/11/news-flash-family-guy-game-is.html )