Puzzle games exercise your mind without splattering blood all over the screen. Pikmin is a great game that emphasizes cooperation over gore!

The concept and plot are fun and child-suitable. A space explorer, Olimar, has crash-landed on a planet. He only has 30 days of "air" to fix his spaceship, and he's missing 30 parts. Luckily, he doesn't have to find them alone. He has up to 100 little flower-like Pikmin to help him out!

They're cute and cuddly, and different pikmin have different skills. Some swim. Some are resistant to fire. Each one alone isn't very strong, so sometimes you need multiple of them to do something. The game becomes a logic puzzle - how do you get to a spaceship part if it's guarded by a series of obstacles? It's very rewarding when you figure each puzzle out.

The time limit is both good and bad. On the good side, it keeps the game challenging and means that the overall game is relatively short to play. On the down side, if you have trouble with something (or if a younger child is playing) it can get very frustrating. So the game might be far too short for you (compared to something like Final Fantasy X that you play for months) or it might be impossible because of the time limit.

Still, practice makes perfect, and most players will be sure to enjoy this one's puzzles as a fun challenge!

Buy Pikmin on Amazon.com