Mario Karts on DS

Hello everyone!

This week I've been playing Mario Kart on DS with my friends. I've been using multi-player, where you can have up to 8 players at the same time. My little brother Sam hosted it.

The good things about multiplayer are: your friends can join along on your team, or competing against your team.

On the courses, there are squares with a clue on them. If you touch them, you might find an Invincibility Star:

• Banana


• Triple Banana


• Green Shell


• Triple Green Shell


• Red Shell


• Triple Red Shell


• Spiny Shell


• Fake Item


• Dash Mushroom


• Triple Dash Mushroom


• Golden Dash Mushroom


• Bullet Bill


• Blooper


• Lightning


• Superstar


• Mega Mushroom


• Powerblock


• Thundercloud


• Ghost

You compete against people in races to become 1st, 2nd or 3rd. In four races, you'll get some points and at the end of a Prix, whoever has the most points wins. Second gets the second trophy and third gets the third trophy.

What's good about Mario Karts on DS: It's fun to play. [Sam's favourite track is Rainbow Road. My favourite track is Wario's Mine which is like a rollercoaster with mine karts everywhere and no gate rails!].

What's bad about Mario Karts: some levels are soooo hard. When you do 150 cc, it gets even harder.

Score out of 10: 7/10

Fossil Fighters: a very good game!

Able's little brother Sam reviews Fossil Fighters:

Fossil Fighters is a DS game where you are a human and you're trying to get to the level of Fossil Master (there are seven ranks).

You go to dig sites and you mine for fossils and rocks. When you finish a dig site, you enter a cleaning test. The cleaning test is when you have to clean a fossil. Then you enter a Level Up Battle.

In the battles, you use one, two or three Vivosaursuses to attack your opponent's Vivosaurus. You can choose their moves. Battles' complexity depends on the strength of your Vivosaur. There are four parts of a Vivosaur: the head, body, arms and legs. The better you clean your fossils, the better your Vivosaur will be.

Some tricky things about Fossil Fighters: is when you go to Notwood Forest at the DiggiDigger tribe. You go through the pyramid and vs BB Bandits. You get trapped into a pit and meet a girl (she is your friend). You find a key to unlock the ladder (you detect the key on your sonar. It appears like a red dot).

You climb up the ladder and go further into the pyramid and you meet the BB Bandits again. And they run away and lock a door. To get out of that place, you have to dig between two piles of bones, and you escape. (This is very hard to find - keep trying).

List of dig sites that I've unlocked: Greenhorn Plains, Notwood Forest, Rivet Ravines, Bottomsend Bay, BB Base, Secret Island, Icy Glacier, Portman Desert, and my favourite - Mount Lava Flow.

Sam's favourite things about Fossil Fighters:

• I like it because there are cool moves your Vivosaur can learn, like cyclonic breath or ocean pulse and water spout


• I like going to the Mask Salon where you can put on a mask you find or buy in your journey (like the Master Mask). It changes your look.

Mark out of ten: 9/10

This game is good for 6 year olds and over. It has some long words to read.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic ( a PC game)

This is a story of you a republic troop which was caught by a Sith attack on the Endire Spire ( a republic warship ) you crash land on ... darn I forgot the name of the planet! This is before Episode I of Star Wars.

This PC game is a very big mix game. It's got gambling, dancing, grenades, guns, mutants, aliens, robots.

You have a secret base which, when you leave, you choose your party. I have two members in my party so far: a human and a Twi 'lek (a humanoid with blue skin and a head with tentacles). When you leave the base, you're in an old shanty apartment only rented by aliens (and some humans).

Right now, my task is to find the Twi'lek's Wookie, Zaaldabar. The hard thing is, he got captured by Gamoreans, who took him down into their sewer home. Now I have to go get him ...

Best thing about the game: you can be a Bounty Hunter and collect bounties.

Worst thing about the game: the gambling. It's soooo hard!

Rating out of 10: 8/10

Mini Ninjas

This game is about 3 ninjas named Huto, Futo and Hiro ...

There's an evil Samurai Lord who is trying to take over the world using some magic called Ki. You have to be all 3 ninjas to destroy the Samurai Lord who is turning animals into his mini Samurai warriors!

It's your job tofind and destroy all the Samurais and the Samurai Lord.

At the start, when you're completing the training the master ninja gives you a special scroll which allows you to turn any animal. you can destroy a samurai useing your katana , hammer, pole and ninja stars. when you destroy a samurai it will either turn into a frog, a cat, a chicken or and lots of other stuff.

You can craft potions using lots of different plants to restore health, restoring your Ki, which is your magic energy. You have to meditate to get your Ki back.

Good things about 3 Ninjas: good graphics. There's a lot of Japanese culture in the game. The introduction isn't too long.

Not so good: When you're in the Plain of Spirits, that can be hard. First you have to trace a tower, then you go and do the bamboo, colouring that in. Then a square will appear and you have to cut it out with a knife. Then you go to the cloud place and paint a bridge, but if you touch the cloud you have to start all over again.

Saving is hard too. You can only save if you either finish the level or find a tengumage (they look like a black bird with limbs).

I give 3 Ninjas:8/10

Should be older than 6 if you want to enjoy it. Fair bit of reading, but not as much as some games.

Introducing Able + Scribblenauts

Hi everyone

My name is Able. I'm 9 years old ... but will be 10 soon.

I have been playing Nintendo DS games for about 3 years. I play DS every day, it's my favourite thing to do.

This weekend I tried playing Scribblenauts, a pretty new game. At the start in the tutorial, I thought it was really good.

Then when I got through the levels, it became better and better. Then it became harder: like when I was trying to defeat bees and piranhas.

Scribblenauts lets you type in words for almost anything, and then that object appears, and it can help you progress through the game.

Objects that Scribblenaut drew for me included: jet packs, howitzers, tanks and meteorites! (Warning: meteorites kill you and everything else on the screen as well).

I give Scribblenauts 8/10.