I am finally going to give in and get my DD7 a Nintendo DS for her Bday.

Just curious as to which games you would recommend for a gifted girl and why?

Professor Lawton games offer brainteasers at many levels. The play is not action oriented but my DS8 still found it interesting and challenging. Also ScribbleNauts - Problem solving also.

My DS and DD also love to play Pokemon games and I find them to use a lot of strategy/memory and are great social connectors as many of the kids around here are into Pokemon so it gives them something in common to talk about.

My son, almost 7, got a DS for Christmas a year ago.

The giant hits on DS in our house:

Lego anything- we have Star Wars, Batman and Indiana Jones
Pokemon anything- we have Diamond, Pearl and Ranger
Mario anything- we have Kirby, Super Mario Bros and another I'm forgetting.

Other favorites: Henry Hatsworth, Drawn to Life and Drawn to Life the Next Chapter.

Busts: Guitar Hero, Chicken Little, Petz:Tigers and Harry Potter

My DD (just turned 7) likes Cooking Mama and Animal Crossing at the moment. When she was younger, she really liked Tinkerbell - she hasn't outgrown it, but played it so much that she wanted something new. Littlest Pet Shop has been mostly outgrown.

She also plays Big Brain Academy and Left Brain / Right Brain (borrowed from her grandmother).

If you have a GameStop near you, they have a 7-day no questions asked return policy on used games. Professor Layton and Scribblenauts both got returned. The used games are also a bit cheaper.

My sister, who is gifted, and myself (I might be partially-gifted) like:

~Cooking Mama 1-3 and Gardening Mama
~Animal Crossing (It's so awesome, I just hope they don't get too attatched to the characters and the move away/they get tired of playing it after a while--long story. But they can also make a new town)
~WarioWare DIY (You really get to make things yourself--great for virtuouso's, artists, game-makers-in-the-making, or anyone who enjoys creating things themselves. )
~Mario (Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, Super Mario)
~Kirby (anyone that comes out )
~Megaman Battle Network games (only for game boy, but it certain places they have one used game--all of the Megaman games are used, but they mostly work. Some of them don't)

GameStop is the place to go for getting very New--and Used games. You can return things, we've returned a lot (for example, Diary Girl), and we got at least $140.

Hope this helps!

We just bought one for my DS's 6th birthday last week. I'm not a huge fan of videogames, so we treat it like his old Leapster and generally buy educational games. (For those who think this is crazy, I assure you that PG kids can have just as much fun on quests while doing math as they can playing Sponge Bob.) We are also letting him get LEGO Harry Potter, since he's in a HP stage.

So far, he really likes BrainQuest Grade 3-4. He also has Brainquest 5-6 and he likes it, but it's not nearly as easy since he hasn't covered most of the subject matter yet. There's also a Smartbrain 8+ that was just released this week. Someone is giving him in another week or two (delayed birthday present), so we'll check back and report how that one is, too. We were also looking at Spelling Challenges, but I think we're going to wait until the Scripps one comes out in October.

Use the suggestions my sister Annetta gave you, as well as a few other things you might like!

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
This game has a multitude of puzzles, as well as action.

This is all that I really want to name...I forgot some...0//0

Wish I could destroy my DS7's DSI!
Talk about obssessed. He will not stop playing a game until he completes it. The pokemom manuals do have some good vocabulary though. I will try to use that a bit for learning new word. I am thinking to tell him to get me 3 new words from the book and look them up. Just a thought, haven't done it. He will ask me what words mean here and there. Other than that I hate that thing ! LOL

GD6 loves animals so most of her games reflect that. She loves World Zoo, Sims Animals Africa, and several other animal games (all have some educational value). She also had played Madagascar and the Littlest Pet Shop games. The newest ones are ZuZu Hamster and Petz Hamster (you have to take care of the hamsters). These latter games give her something to share with her friends. I am interested in looking into some of the other games mentioned like Brain Quest and Animal Crossing (didn't realize they made that for the DS).

You are lucky if she sticks to educational games. I wouldn't mind if my DS7 wasn't so obsessed. It is all he wants to do. I have to drag him out of the house. I would never ban it because this is what the kids his age are doing BUT even when I cut it to 1 hr a day, it still is all he thinks about, talks about even dreams about. I know it is bad bad bad,

Ooh, I have the same question, but more for 10year old boy, instead of younger gifted girl.... any thoughts on some of the older boy games? Pokemon we got, that is for sure! I thought one game for his birthday this year plus a lego starwars set should do the trick, but not sure what ds games are good.

Chris-
Henry Hatsworth is a huge hit here with my 7 year old but both my DH and I really like it. DH also suggested Professor Layton would be good (either game). Lego anything is always fun! Also I think Scribblenauts is one of those games that is ageless and everyone loves!

Cool, thanks!!

DS6 doesn't even have one yet, and it's all he talks about... thankfully we can't always take the Wii everywhere we go.

I want to thank everyone for the suggestions. DS WILL be getting a DS (hahaha) for Christmas this year, I think. It will be nice to have games lined up for him, other than the random few he won't stop talking about!

great fun but not educational is Big Bang Mini - really easy even dad can play, and the visuals are brilliant!

http://www.amazon.com/Big-Bang-Mini...videogames&qid=1278010015&sr=8-1

Little'un restricted to 1 hour Tv/computer/ds in total per day - (unless he wants to watch some educational TV like Simon Schama's History Of Britain or Dan Cruickshank's Around The World In 80 treasures or sagan's Cosmso)

We just got DS-now-7 Super Scribblenauts for his birthday yesterday. He loves it, but the best part is that his spelling is already improving! He is not one of those kids who could just always spell. In this game, you write whatever character you want to appear, and you can add as many adjectives as you want, and voila. It's pretty cool. It gives you hints if you're spelling is a little off. And the keyboard you write with is the standard QWERTY board. Yay!

ETA: Magic, flying, poisonous ghost tank is his latest creation. It flies.... (A weird thing - he also created a god character. Sometimes I wonder about this kid. As DH said, after he saw some of the titles of the games DS created (such as "Guy slays Mom", "Guy slays Dad,", etc...): "I think you will probably offend everyone with this game.")

One that hasn't been mentioned yet is Brain Age. DS8 has had it for a couple of years now (except I can't find it lately) and really got into it for a long time. It also takes 4 profiles, so other family members can play their own -- it's fun!

Ds10 doesn't typically get this 'into' a game, but lately he has been bonkers about 'Flip Notes'. It is a mini animation studio, he downloaded it (he's got the DSi, which can get on the internet), and he does nearly nothing else now!
I mean I rarely have had to tell him to put his ds down in the past, but now it is becoming more of a 'thing'. I don't mind too much as I think he is learning the basics of animation and I have seen some really amazing things he's done (amazing for a 10 year old). He is pushing beyond his usual story-telling and he doesn't seem to mind that it takes a really long time to make these, his focus is startling.