Oh, "Pokemon." Kids everywhere have anxiously awaited your next arrival -- and so have their parents.

To some, the Pokemon games may seem like they're just for little kids. But I guarantee adults will enjoy them just as much.

The two new ones -- "Pokemon Diamond" and "Pokemon Pearl" -- are the first true Pokemon games for the Nintendo DS. (For the inexperienced, "Pearl" and "Diamond" are the same game, with different end-game Pokemon to catch. You trade them with players of the opposite game to get them all.)

"Pearl" and "Diamond" (referred to as "P&D" from here out) take place in a new land called Sinnoh. The goal, of course, is to battle and hopefully capture the wild Pokemon that inhabit the land, all while battling other Pokemon "trainers." While there are some Pokemon from previous games, there are also more than 80 new ones (more than 100 if you count cross-game trading).

While the single-player game feels much the same as previous games, it's still absorbing and fun.

The graphics are crisp and colorful, with a bit of a 3-D feel to them. In addition, P&D keeps track of what time it is in your world and incorporates that into the game. So if you're playing at night, it's nighttime in the game. Subtle, but very cool.

I was disappointed in the DS-specific functionality, however. While you can use the touch screen to page through menus, it's rare and unnecessary. I quickly put the stylus away and played with buttons alone. The dual screens also aren't used as well as I'd like. The bottom screen is used as the attack selection screen during battles, but when you're running around, it simply does mundane things like tell you what time it is.

However, P&D jumps on the DS's wireless capabilities. In addition to battling friends in the same room with you, you can now connect to the Internet and play with anyone anywhere. Plus, the games use the new DS microphone headset so you can chat with said people. You also can put your Pokemon up for trade on an online market, and somebody else can take you up on that offer.

Between battling others and completing side quests, there's so much to do in addition to the main game. It's hard to be too concerned about P&D's minor faults when you have such a fun and expansive game in your hands.

Best of all, it's something that kids and adults can play together and equally enjoy.

Clumsy at the Dance

Before I start talking about "Dance Dance Revolution Universe" for the Xbox 360, I have a disclaimer: I haven't played a DDR game before. I'm so uncoordinated that I probably have three left feet. Knowing my luck, I'd trip and run my head through the TV screen, something I haven't been willing to risk.

So my thoughts here are not in comparison to past DDRs -- they're based on my impressions of "DDR Universe" alone, as a first-time stumbler.

"Universe" is the first in the DDR library to hit the Xbox 360. While I found it fun overall -- and I didn't kill myself, which is a big plus -- it had some issues, mostly with quest mode, the main "story" mode.

Quest mode is poorly organized, so half the time I didn't know what I was supposed to do or where to go next. Sometimes your goal is just to do well on a song, while other times you just have to do well on certain types of steps, such as jumps. Which means you can win the round if you just stand there and don't do anything but the jumps -- boring. You also have to cancel out after winning, instead of the game taking you back to the main menu, which is dumb.

While the game does a really good job -- no, a great job -- of teaching you how to play, once you get into quest mode, you just can't win on easy or even the regular difficulty. You have to play on hard in order to rack up enough points for victory. And that's just stupid. You should be able to beat the game on easy if you're not talented enough, maybe for lesser rewards.

But while quest mode quickly frustrated me, I did enjoy the rest of the game -- and let's face it, just dancing is what the game is really about, right? For the most part, the song selection is decent (and there are a lot of songs), and I found that as long as I avoided quest mode, I had a lot of fun. Plus, it's a great way to get exercise.

"Universe" also has the advantage of being on the Xbox 360, and new downloadable songs appeared quickly on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Plus, you can play online and check online rankings.

I wasn't that impressed by the visuals, and frequently found myself missing steps because I couldn't see them over the flashing backgrounds (which, thankfully, can be disabled). Honestly, though, it's hard to be picky about graphics when you're trying not to sprain an ankle.

The bottom line? As a casual dancing game, "Universe" is fun. I just hope next time the awful quest mode either gets a major overhaul or a trip to the trash can.