Video games

Video games are an everyday part of life for most kids! Chances are your child or the child on your Christmas shopping list would love a video game this holiday season.

Before you start to worry about turning your child into a couch potato, keep in mind that video games can not only provide fun and entertainment for your kids, but they can also be educational tools as well. In addition, they help to develop hand-eye coordination as well.

Ratings
Before you purchase video games for your children, it's important to keep a few things in mind. For starters, video games aren't just for kids. Many grown adults enjoy video games. As a result, there are quite a few games on the market that should be limited to teenagers and adults as their content is questionable or not suitable for younger children. Video games nowadays are extremely realistic - depending on the system, the picture quality is just like a movie!

In order to help you determine what is appropriate for your child, the MPAA has devised a rating system specifically for video games.

The ratings are as follows:

• EC - This rating stands for Early Childhood and indicates games that are appropriate for children aged 3 and over. Parents will not find the material in games rated EC inappropriate.
• E - An E rating indicates a video game appropriate for Everyone over 6 years of age. Content in an E rating may include mild cartoon violence.
  
• E 10+ - This title indicates games for everyone over 10 years of age. Games in this category may have the same sort of mild cartoon violence or themes seen in an E rating, just with a higher content.
  
• T - A T rating indicates Teen. Video games with a T rating are for children over 13 years old and may include content such as violence, suggestive or crude themes, and language.
  
• M - M stands for Mature and indicates a game that is not appropriate for anyone under 17. Games in this category tend to have strong violence, gore, suggestive themes, or foul language.
  
• A - An A rating indicates Adults only and contain images and content that should not be viewed by anyone under 18. Games in this category typically have prolonged scenes of violence or sexual content.
  

If you're still unsure about a game despite its rating, ask around or check out the back of the box. If it contains images you don't want your child to see, you're best going with your instincts and finding a different game.

Our Recommendations
There are hundreds of video games on the market today designed for an assortment of game consoles. (Make sure you buy the right game for the right system! A Nintendo Game Cube game won't play on a Sony Playstation!) Here are a few of our favorite popular games:

• Dance Dance Revolution UltraMix 4 for XBox ($29.99 on amazon.com) Rated E 10+, this video game teaches kids how to dance or perfect their dance moves. It contains 65 new songs and has content for beginning through advanced dancers.
  
• Shrek Smash and Crash for Nintendo Game Cube ($29.99 on amazon.com) Rated E for Everyone, this game allows players to choose their favorite Shrek character and then race through 12 different locations from the movie.
  
• Need for Speed Most Wanted for PlayStation 2 ($29.99 on amazon.com) This racing game allows users to choose a car and then hit the streets for street racing. Rated E.

For the video game lover on your shopping list, there are a number of games suited for each child's interest, from racing to role-playing to sports!