Best DS games for young kids

The Nintendo DS console is great for entertaining young kids. There are even a few good games that can teach some basic skills to kids. Skills like basic math, hand eye coordination, spelling, creative thought and so on.

In this article we will review some of the best Nintendo DS games for young kids we wrote a age recommendation with each game review. Some of the games are appropriate for kids as young as 3 years.

Nintendo DS games all have an age rating on the box. If it says E, in the bottom left of the front, that's the youngest rating, it stands for everyone. All games with the E on it is suitable for ages 6 and up, however there are a number of games that can be played by younger kids.

Recommended age: 3-7 years
Playhouse is a game from the Smart Girls series. It has 12 mini games for young girls. The games lean towards being more educational rather than just entertaining. It includes drawing and counting exercises. Reading is not required for the games.

One of the mini games is the dress-up game where they put together outfits and clothing styles. There is also a Lunch Box that let little ladies put together virtual lunches with a variety of different foods.

A great buy for girls who enjoy coloring, drawing, making music and other simple games.

Recommended age: 3-7 years
This is a collection of games aimed at young boys. There are 12 games in all. The graphics of the games are very good and inoffensive. A few of the games like the piano playing game encourage kids to use their fingers instead of the stylus. The piano game lets players create their own songs, record them and then play them back.

In the Match Sounds game, kids are asked to remember the correct order in which five vehicles blow their horns. After that they indicate the sequence by touching them in the right order.

In the car driving game they have to drive a police cruiser, a taxi or a kindergarten bus to certain destinations in a small town.

In my opinion the coloring and drawing games are the best. They can spend hours doing it without getting bored.

Recommended age: 6 years and up
Brain Age is the Nintendo DS's best brain teaser game. Basically it's a number of exercises intended to make you think and keep your mind fit. It's not specifically targeted at kids, so you can play this game yourself. Brain Age works by giving you a number of simple challenges which exercise different parts of the brain.

One of the games is rock paper scissors. The computer shows you two people playing it and you have to shout out the winning hand. The game uses voice recognition software to determine whether you shouted the right word. Sounds simple, but then they start switching between calling the winning or losing hand. 30 Seconds of this and you can feel your brain has been working out.

Then there is the math game. It combines simple math problems like '8 + 2 =' with remembering which numbers where used, in earlier questions. It gets tricky very quickly.

The only game that they kept from the original Brain Age is Sudoku.

Recommended age: 3-7 years
The game tries to replicate the build a bear shop experience. Once you have your bear you can participate in a number of activities which unlocks new designs and accessories for your bear.

I hope you enjoyed best DS games for young kids.