The Nintendo Wii ($249) is a decidedly unconventional gaming system. Instead of high-powered 3-D graphics and over-the-top processing power, Nintendo is focusing on the gaming experience. To wit, the Wii features a novel, immersive control scheme. If, for example, you're playing a tennis game, you don't press buttons or flip a joystick to swing the racket -- you actually swing the controller itself. The result is a gaming system the whole family will want to play.

Honorable mention: If you're looking for a more traditional, hard-core gaming experience, we recommend Microsoft's Xbox 360 ($400). It has a much bigger library of games and excellent online services. And with limited numbers of Sony PSP units available, it's not like you're going to get your hands on a PS3 anyway.

-- George Jones

Console game: Guitar Hero II

If you missed the first Guitar Hero, you missed the gaming phenomenon of the year. The premise is simple: You plug the bundled 1/3-scale plastic guitar into your Sony PlayStation 2 and rock out to your favorite classic rock songs.