3. Electronic Arts Smarty Pants
Electronic Arts Smarty PantsAfter the initial small talk, family gatherings often start to get a little stale and awkward (or is that just at my house?). Everyone in the room knows what an excess of dead air will lead to: the dreaded family movies gambit. But this time, try breaking out the Wii instead. Smarty Pants is a group trivia game with a couple of cool twists. First, the questions differ depending on each player's age, so granny doesn't get presented with a math question suitable for a nine-year-old. Second, it incorporates the motion-sensing capabilities of the Wii, which means that you can do things like cranking your remote to spin the category wheel and shaking the remote to nudge the wheel to your favorite category.
The game features 20,000 questions in eight categories: art, books, entertainment, fashion, games, people/places, science/ math, and sports. You can play in Family mode, which requires the whole clan to answer as many questions as possible in a certain amount of time, or in Friends mode, which pits your gray matter against the fam's. ($50, available for Wii.)
4. Microsoft Viva Piñata: Party Animal
Microsoft Viva PinataGot kiddies at the party? Plop them in front of Viva Piñata: Party Animal and preempt--or at least postpone--fiesta meltdowns (it works with unruly grown-ups as well). Based on the Viva Piñata franchise, this Xbox 360 title features about 50 races and minigames. Pick your favorite piñata--Fergy Fudgehog, Paulie Pretztail, Franklin Fizzlybear, or Hudson Horstachio--and compete against three other players, in your living room or online over Xbox Live.
When racing against each other, players run through a course while jumping, avoiding obstacles, and using powerups such as missiles to boost their speed or spilled honey pots to hamper their opponents' progress. You also get a slew of bizarre minigames. In one, players hit a collection of hanging rubber balls to smack a piñata; in another, players must mash a sequence of buttons in order to down bottles of soda, then burp to send their boats skimming across the water. ($50, available for Xbox 360.)
5. SCEA SingStar '80s and SingStar Amped
SCEA SingStar '80sKaraoke bars are a blast, but sometimes singing cheesy '80s tunes is an act best done in the privacy of your home. Sony's SingStar games put your pitch to the test. Plug in the mics, and sing your heart out as the notes and lyrics appear on-screen and actual artist videos roll. The latest titles in the series are SingStar '80s, which features such gems as "Come On Eileen," "Rio," and "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?", and SingStar Amped, which includes rock anthems like "More Than a Feeling," "I Want You to Want Me," and "Born to be Wild." (SingStar '90s and SingStar for PlayStation 3 are due for release early next year.)
The game evaluates your efforts in three categories--pitch, tone, and rhythm--and rates your performance at the end of the song. The game accommodates cooperative Solo and Duet modes, as well, but competitive partiers will prefer Battle (where two players go larynx to larynx, hoping to outscore the other) and Pass the Mic (which lets up to eight players throw the microphone around while completing a set of challenges). You can also plug in an EyeToy camera, so you can star in your own video, or record performances to memory card, for postparty reminiscing--or blackmail.
($30 for game only, $50 with two microphones, available for PlayStation 2.)
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