The Wii has been touted as a system that's great for the whole family to play together. So it makes sense that collections of mini-games would be a good choice for such gatherings. And there are a few games out there that do it well -- "WarioWare: Smooth Moves," for example.

It's too bad that two recent offerings just aren't very fun.

Let's start with the one I had a little bit of fun with: "EA Playground." "Playground" is a compilation of playground games: dodgeball, paper-plane races, tetherball, etc. You can play it alone or with a group of friends.

The single-player mode has you roaming around the school challenging other kids to their game of choice. If you win, you earn a sticker. The ultimate goal is to challenge the king of the school: The Sticker King.

Most of the games I didn't find particularly interesting. I had the most fun with dodgeball, and even then it was when I played with real-life friends. Smacking a friend's character hard with the ball and hearing their yell of anger is definitely satisfying.

However, when I played alone, it wasn't nearly as fun. The computer characters didn't put up much of a challenge, and I didn't feel engaged in what I was doing. Even when the computer put up a fight, it felt cheap.

The controls are OK. I never had any problems with the Wii remote not doing what I wanted, and that's always a plus.

But in most of the games, you don't control where your character moves; the game does it for you. This leaves a stripped-down match in which you generally just try to wave the Wii remote at the right time and hope for the best.

With the slot car racing and the paper-plane races, you have to tilt the remote from side to side to designate lane and direction changes. This works pretty well.

I have no complaints with how "EA Playground" looks; it's vibrant and colorful. Overall, though, it's only a mildly interesting game, and even then, that's only when you've got real-life friends or family to play against. I can't see it being a game you would keep returning to, as the novelty quickly wears thin.

Rent it if you want to check it out.

On the other hand, I'd take "EA Playground" over "Carnival Games" any day

"Carnival Games" seems like it would be perfect for the Wii -- it's got all those fun little contests you find at carnivals, and there are prizes to be won.

However, the controls don't perform well most of the time. The characters look pretty bad, and the guys in charge of the games get annoying quickly.

There are 25 games, which is a hefty number. My favorite was the Skee-Ball clone. Other games vary from a shooting range to ring toss to a strength test.

When you do well, you earn tickets, which can be used to purchase wearable items for your character or to spend on one-time-use "games" such as a fortuneteller or a love tester. Most of these games, however, barely hit mildly amusing the first time, much less warrant a second play.

You also can win prizes, in the form of stuffed animals of various sizes. They don't do much but sit in an area where you can return to look at them.

You can customize your character, but there are limited options, and the ones you get are all bad. Most of the faces look as if they're barely conscious or on drugs.

Then there are the actual games. A lot don't control well, either by lack of responsiveness or just being too awkward. Darts, for example, requires you to hold the remote like a dart and make a throwing motion. But you also have to aim while you're throwing, and it just doesn't work well.

The bottom line is this: The idea of "Carnival Games" may be appealing, but the characters look terrible, the games are boring and don't control well, and it will only take maybe an hour to play through all the games and be done with it. It doesn't have much replay value, and you wouldn't enjoy it even if it did.

I wouldn't even waste a rental on this one.

{M3'EA Playground'

System: {M3Wii

{M3Rated: {M3Everyone

{M3Cost:{M3 $39.99

{M3Score:{M3 3 out of 5 stars

{M3'Carnival Games'

System:{M3 Wii

{M3Rated: {M3Everyone

{M3Cost:{M3 $39.99

{M3Score: {M32 out of 5 stars