Fantasy Life

$40, Nintendo 3DS

Teaches: logic, trading, spatial relations

CTR Rating: 88%

CTR Review

Animal Crossing meets Dragon Quest, in this well designed but complex role-playing game (RPG) that lets you become one of the central characters in a fictional town. You can become a cook, tailor, carpenter, blacksmith or wizard for example; each has different abilities, games, and related tools. You learn that you can make items for your house -- when you're a tailor, you can make a carpet, for example. It is possible to customize your character, decorate your home, and take care of pets. There are some multi-player features, but just three game save slots, so this game is not good for library circulation. This is not a casual game -- plan on putting in a full day of play before you start understanding the full potential of this experience. Our testers, who spent 30 hours with the game, didn't like all the tutorials and extra steps required to get started. But they said "the more you play, the more this game grows on you."