There are collections of games, but with 101 different solitaire card games (Patience for the British), Solitare DS has to be one of the best value games for the Nintendo DS yet.

If you thought Solitaire was the name of that game in Windows, then you;re missing on a huge range of games. Windows Solitaire is better known in solitaire circles as Klondyke, and yes that is part of the collection, as is Freecell. My feeling is that new players are going to head to those titles first purely from name recognition, and then start to explore once they get comfortable with the interface. If you’ve got a personal favourite game, then there’s every chance it is in here - your only problem might be if you don’t know the common name for it. From my point of view the inclusion of Forty Thieves and Canfield was expected, but I was happily surprised to find Scorpion in the mix as well.

Presentation is clear, the cards aren’t full cards, just the number (or single letter) and a single suit icon (rather than trying to squeeze 10 pips on a tiny card) and the majority of the work is on the touch screen - which makes it easy to slide cards and piles around. Each game has a little help file on what to do, but you’re on your own for working out strategies to complete them.

And did I say 101 games? Well it’s 101 games and with lots of optional rules for each game, so I suspect it ould be fairer to say 101 root games with over 500 variants on board. That’s a lot of gaming value, and should satisfy any solo card player. Good value for money, clean interface, perfect pick up and go game play all add up to recommend Solitaire DS.

It’s a good, old-fashioned shoot em up. Just like you would find lurking in the corner of every arcade across the world, it’s the ship at the bottom with a little gun, that flies up the screen, that gets better guns, and you have to kill everything while avoiding an in-ordinate amount of bullets.

But don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with that - sometimes you don’t need a cutesy animal, or a mass of strategy, to succeed. You just need gorgeous raster-like graphics, superbly smooth scrolling, or even a nod towards some higher purpose. Which is good, because Nanostray is simply fly around a shoot stuff. And it does it very well. All the action is on the top screen, with the bottom screen almost superfluous - it’s only used to change weapons, show how much power is left in the super weapon, and occassionally to highlight the hard to reach weak point on the end of level techno-monster.

Nanostray is fun - it’s not earth shattering, it’s not a must-buy, but if you’ve any sense of arcade gaming in your body, then Nanostray is definitely worth a budget buy.

Japanese games are always a riot, and when one of them became the biggest import title around, the programmers decided to tweak it slightly and create a western version. The result? The Elite Beat Agents, a genuinley addictive dance game, and one of the first that really works on a portable device.

Picture Dance Dance Revolution, cross it with the Men in Black, and a dash of Will Smith’s musical talent, and you have all the ingredients for this title. With plots that seem to have come straight out of a japanese version of Grindhouse (a dog wants to hitchhike home, Aliens ban dancing in the world, someone looses a shoe…), yo’ll hacve to be on top tapping form to win.

You help drive the story by guiding the dancing moves of the team as they move and gyrate to some top tunes (including a wicked cover of Jumping Jack Flash). Yoour dance steps appear on the bottom screen, tap these in time with the music (and the helpfully shrinking circles for reference) and you’ll get some cool. Miss a step, and you’ll loose your prowess. loose it all, and game over.

As well as tapping, you’ll have double taps, slides, spinners and shapes to trace, all providing variety, and keeping this game fresh. The learning curve is well thought out, it sounds great, and it has way too much ‘just one more’ potential - I’m sure that sort of level is illegal.

Here’s another example of the Nintendo DS being pitched as a play a little bit whenver you can device. Based on the theories of Professor Ryuuta Kawashima (that a little bit of exercise for your brain every day is a good thing), this is the most non traditional electronic game I’ve yet to see on any modern platform. It may be a number of very basic puzzles (short sums, counting and memory exercises), but the eco-system built up around them is what keeps me coming back.

The scoring in the game is either an encompassing brain age, reflecting where your head is relativley, and the ongoing graphs of your progress in each of the sub games. Personally I’m skipping the Brain Age thing, and watching the graphs of the mini games. What’s most impressive about this game is that there is a definite pull that makes you want to come back again and again, to see if you can do just a little bit better.

Brain Training takes a genre that you always expect to see, and turns it on its head. By challenging you to be better than yourself, you’re guaranteed a challenge. The simple input mechanism of cursive handwriting on the touchscreen is more than accurate enough; the bonus Sudoku option is worth half the cost in itself; the games have enough quality to make you want to try one more time. This is a little gem of a game if you take a chance on it. Which you should.

Virtual pets have come a long way since the first wave of Tamagotchi hit the streets, and Nintendogs is probably the best implementation of a pet in any current game. And that makes it a tricky title to review. As such it’s not really a game - there’s no victory conditions, it’s open ended. Yes there’s a monetary elemnt to the game, but to be honest after a few days you’re never really watching the pennies. And while there are competitions in the virtual world that you and your dog take part it (such as Agility Trials, Disc/Frisbee Throwing, and Obedience trials) these aren’t the main core of the game.

The core is, quite simply, live with your puppy dog. Care for it. Feed it, water, love it, hug it, squeeze it, and call it George (if you want). Because the impressive part of Nintedogs is the control interface. You want to call your puppy over to you? Just call out his or her name. Thanks to the DS microphone you’ll get a reaction. Your stylus is you hand - so petting the dog, tickling them, is all done by actually doing this. The same with picking up toys, frisbiees and the leash to take them out for a walk. Oh and to teach them tricks (such as ’sit’) then you train them by petting them into that position, and repeating the command. After a few demonstations, they’ll react to your voice and “George! Sit” on screen.

Add to this the realisation that the game is happening in real time, and you need to keep your dog fed and watered, with a daily walk, and a bath every few days, and the appeal of Nintendogs is clear. You can dip in and do enough to keep you dogs alive, or you can spend hours with tennis balls, going on long walks, traiing, and befriending whoever you picked up from the kennels. Be warned, you will get very attached to your (silicon) canine friend.