42 All Time Classics (Nintendo DS)

42 All-Time Classics brings all the best-loved card, board and parlour games to Nintendo DS for anyone to play; with simple touch screen control and a multiplayer mode that pits your skills against players across the world! With no boards to set up or cards to deal out, you can get straight into the action in seconds and play more than 40 gaming favourites - from draughts to darts, poker to bridge, and backgammon to billiards - with simple touch screen control. You can play solo or challenge up to seven friends by sharing one game card. And if you don't have anyone to play with, simply log on to Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and find opponents across Europe or in the US. You can even chat to each other, PictoChat-style, while you play!

In a nutshell:
Possibly the least obscure game title ever, this does exactly what it says on the tin with forty-two classics from chess and backgammon, to darts, poker, bridge and solitaire.

The lowdown:
The surprising thing about this game is that nobody’s thought to do it before. The games are split into three varieties of card game and two of board games, plus a selection of "action" games including bowling, darts and billiards. Playing the card games is just as easy as you’d expect with two screens and a stylus, whether it’s Old Maid and Pig or Texas Hold ‘Em and Bridge. The board games work just as well, with Chinese Checkers, Checkers (i.e. Draughts), Dots and Boxes and more. You’ll also find games like Turncoat (i.e. Othello), "Connect Five", Ludo, Mahjong and Solitaire. You have got to go to some effort not to find something of interest amongst this selection.

Most exciting moment:
The best thing about having so many games is that, except for the ones that are purposefully single player, they can all be played online. If you’re playing against a friend you can even chat using a PictoChat style interface.

Since you ask:
The Japanese and Western versions of the game have several different exclusive games. Japan never got Texas Hold 'Em, Dots and Boxes, Grid Attack, Ludo, Dominoes, Escape or Mahjong Solitaire but instead have Napoleon, Goninkan, Bozumekuri, Sugoroku, Size Game, Last One and Mini Golf in their version.

The bottom line:
The one video games compendium that really is for everyone. - HARRISON DENT