[FoRK] Edutainment or Entercation?

[Tom Higgins]

Having a couple of Nintendo DS's in the house (one more on its way
from the North Pole) has opened a few eyes to where games are going on
at least a few paths. While many of the games we see our friends, well
mostly their kids, playing are of the FPS or HackAndSlash mode the DS
has given us a plethora of games that either are somewhat of a
learning experience or are outright learning tools. Im not talking ust
about the Brain Training, Brian Academy, Vision Training  stuff
either.

Master of Illusion teaches magic tricks. Lets Yoga is an intro to yoga
and a nice beginners workout plan. My Spanish/French/?? Coach line
trains up on language basics. You can even toss in the Cooking Mama
games as my 5 year old can now tell me the ingredients and cooking
skills needed to make about a dozen dishes, of which i tried a few out
(I mostly just followed what he said to do) and by gosh and by golly
we had food.

Sure Ben is still playing Lego Star Wars and Mario Kart (btw, that has
to be the most played non entercation game in the house) but he also
plays the Interactive Story Book series along with his all time fave
Cooking Mama.

So is this a DS trend or are the other handhelds also on that track?
What about the flash gamers track?


-tom(oh yea I have not even mentioned the homebrew goodness)higgins