Family Time

Picking up Xbox 360™ is the easy part.Finding the best games for your son or daughter is more problematic. There are so many to choose from, but one category that should sit firmly in your mind when making the decision is family time. What games can we play together, and what games would we all want to play together?

The hours your child spends cross-legged in front of the TV with a controller in their hand need not be an isolated time if you choose a game the whole family can enjoy and look forward to. For Xbox 360, we've compiled a list of games that line up nicely with family time in mind. Here are a few suggested titles for you and yours.

A Vibrant Kameo

It's vivid, it's colorful, it's funny, and it's simply a joy to behold. Kameo™: Elements of Power™ is an action/adventure game that children of all ages can all appreciate. While not a multiplayer title, few games are better for backseat driving. Siblings and parents can take turns, help guide the action, give tips when someone gets stuck, or otherwise simply enjoy the unfurling of the spectacularly crafted world.If adventure is your son or daughter's delight, Kameo:Elements of Powerwill give you an adventure for the whole family.

Racket Time

Friendly competition is great for family bonding, and the more personal the experience, the better. That's exactly what Top Spin™ 2 offers. With its freakishly realistic graphics and one-on-one gameplay, tennis has never looked or played more realistically. Grab your favorite pro (like Roger Federer or Andy Roddick) or create and customise your very own player and pit yourself against parent, child, bother or sister in epic matches. What's more, with Xbox Live® play and relatively short matches, it's a great and quick way to touch base with kids while they’re away from home – like at college, for example.

Scantily Clad Aggression

For parents with teenagers, you can hardly do better than Dead or Alive® 4, with its jaw dropping eye-candy and fast-paced gameplay. So long as you don't mind some relatively scantily-clad fighters, there's nothing better for getting out the aggression than this fighting game.It’s so beautiful you can feel every punch, kick, and throw in your bones. For fans of the series, you'll be happy to hear that defense is a source of focus for Dead or Alive 4, with an even more intricate fighting system in place.

Hot Seat Crashing

Hot seat gaming – where each player takes a turn at the controller – works best in the family living room.Variations of "my turn next" have been heard in thousands upon thousands of family rooms over the years, and there's no better game for controller hopping than the high octane racer Burnout Revenge™. Whether you're taking turns trying to win races in the career mode, or piling up high scores in the hyperactive crash mode, Burnout Revenge offers up quick bite-sized bits of exhilarating racing for everyone involved.

Aside from belonging to traditionally family friendly genres, the above games have another important element in common: they all play easily. Control setups are simple and intuitive, so even the most hopeless gamer at both ends of the age scale can wrap their limited skill sets around any of these games.

Gaming time may be good, but gaming time as family time is better.