Lego Racers

It's a whole new way of playing with LEGOs: no blocks required! Kids still need a vivid imagination but in today's tech-savvy world, they'll also need a 3-D graphics accelerator card. Racers allows players to build, customise and race both cars and drivers. Building is unlimited and there's 12 different tracks in a variety of settings to choose from.

It's an interesting exercise to compare the real-life elements to their electronic counterparts. Any LEGO fan will recognise infamous opponents from their plastic incarnations; Captain Redbeard, King Kahuka and Basil the Batlord are some of our favorites, and they're just as great-looking onscreen as they are in the toy chest kits. The level of hand-eye coordination required to build amazing cars is, we think, lower than with real LEGOS (and there's no dropping and breaking possible!). Parents don't need to buy a million different sets to get all desired pieces–they're all right there on the screen.