In our review of the Nintendo DS Lite - which you'll find here - we spent some time eulogising about the quality of the machine's software library. By way of putting our money where our sizeable mouth is, it seemed only right that we emptied out the petty cash tin and headed down to our nearest games emporium to bring you a round-up of the kind of titles we mean.

Let's start with the ones that have taken Japan by storm, the touch games that we know most fondly as Brain Training and Big Brain Academy. These are, bluntly, inspired, and the touch screen capability of the DS is integral to their success.

The idea behind both is that you're presented with time-limited puzzles to tackle - related to numbers, memory, analysis, that kind of thing - and then the game assesses either the weight of your brain or the age of your brain. And in spite of the fact that the aforementioned puzzles loop round a little quicker than we'd like, and some are downright frustrating, it's ludicrously addictive and dangerously competitive.

That's not for educational reasons of course; rather a strange, overwhelming urge to continually better your last score. And should you invite other players to have a go, time will happily disappear before your very eyes.

It should be pointed out that we regard neither game as a classic, but both Brain Training and Big Brain Academy are different, involving and very addictive. Technically advanced they're not, but then as they're priced at £19.99 each (and we all know that smarter shopping can bring those prices down), it's hard to grumble. A version to test English skills is next in the series. Yikes.

More on Nintendo home territory is Mario, who appears several times on the DS. New Super Mario Bros superbly harks back to the 2D platforming roots, and Super Mario 64 DS is a splendid retread of the Nintendo 64 classic, but it's Mario Kart DS that we've been playing with here. For far too long.

The concept of Mario Kart has barely altered over the years, with the cast of the franchise lining up in their vehicles to compete for numerous, increasingly challenging cups across increasingly sophisticated courses.

As this is Mario Kart, pick-ups are in play which allow you to set traps for those behind you, take out those in front, or simply boost your own kart. Knowing when to go for the power up and when to take the fastest route are but part of the challenge, and clever use of the second screen gives you the option of a 2D overview of how a particular race is playing out.

The single player game harks back to the SNES and N64 heights of the franchise, and when you opt for multiplayer gaming, Mario Kart proves to have lost none of its magic. Bluntly, it's brilliant. Quite, quite brilliant. The graphics aren't realistic, there are no glimmering official licences; just a game that plays like a dream.

And finally, just to prove that the DS software base is already garnering some depth to it, we headed to the second-hand section and picked up WarioWare Touched! It's not an easy game to get hold of now, as it's been out of print for a little while, but as anyone who enjoyed the Wario games on Game Boy Advance or Game Cube will know, it's wonderful fun.

The idea is that it simply throws a succession of very quick minigames at you, where you have a matter of seconds to work out what to do, how to do it and complete the task. Do it and you stay in the game, fail and you're a life down. With differing game modes, those all-important multi-player options (as this is a game that's wasted in single player mode) and that crucial dedication to presenting something a little different, it's a little treasure.

Not all of the DS gaming library is so agreeable of course, and we're aware that the sheer positive nature of this round-up could veer towards jingoistic if you didn't know us better. But these are interesting and enjoyable games. Our petty cash tin also went towards funding an awful rendition of King Kong, a disappointing FIFA game and the middling Puyo Pop Fever.

But you can get those on other formats. Our focus here has, instead, championed a gaming company that knows what it wants to do, knows how to do it and continues to thrive when many people had it already written off.

Genuinely interesting, slightly different games, with at least one flat-out classic. Could the DS prove to be the true home of games that are simply 'fun' for the next few years?