Real family games for Nintendo?

Can we still class The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, even Mario Kart as family games? The latest As Seen on TV titles from Koch Media suggest otherwise.

Family Fortunes, Countdown, Ready Steady Cook, I'm a Celebrity, Beat the Intro and The Ultimate Red Ball Challenge. You'll have heard of most if not all of these, they're famous prime-time TV shows watched by all the family. Now they're Nintendo Wii and DS games, or soon will be. Nothing fancy, just functioning as you would hope. And that's all that is really required. We think Koch Media has got this lot spot on.

The games join an existing line-up that includes Deal or No Deal and Golden Balls. These have proven steady sellers for DS especially, little wonder given the casual nature of the average owner. You might think that something like Countdown is going to be dull on DS, but yours truly remembers thinking the same thing about the TV show when it launched way back when. Simple but effective pretty much sums it up.

As soon as you're being asked to name, for example, an enjoyable event that can also be stressful in Family Fortunes, or scrunching up your face trying to make words out of random consonants and vowels in Countdown, you feel instantly enthralled.

This latest batch of As Seen on TV offerings will hit store shelves starting this weekend and through until the end of the month. They've arrived without fanfare, no shouting about being the Best Thing Ever or anything similarly vulgar.

You could argue that such quiz-based titles would work better, and cheaper, as iPhone apps or PSP Minis. However the ubiquitous nature of Wii and DS this Christmas justifies the publisher's decision to target Nintendo consoles.

Only one of them doesn't quite work in our view: The Ultimate Red Ball Challenge, based on the slapstick BBC show Total Wipeout, is too reliant on cool visuals to convey the fun. It's too much like a videogame in other words!

Probably not Christmas Number Ones, but your family might thank you for contributing to a stint in the Top 10 for either of these. Gosh it suddenly feels all so traditional on consoles this Christmas. Families might even sit in the same room for longer than it takes to wolf down Christmas dinner.

God bless Koch Media then.