American Idol All Star Challenge

Kids used to sing in front of the mirror with their hairbrush as the mike, but 21st-century playtime is professional. In this hybrid DVD–board game, players use an echo-chamber microphone to sing and dance their way to fame, accompanied by clips from the TV talent show. Earplugs not included. $45. Ages eight and up. Available at Strategy Games (1683 Bayview Ave., 416-486-3395) and Toy Town.

Apples to Apples

Attention, budding psychologists. This game combines power tripping (each person gets a turn playing the judge), mind reading and word association. The judge picks a card emblazoned with an adjective—“outrageous,” for instance. The other players must decide which of their cards (featuring random nouns such as “bowl of cherries” or “my family”) best matches the judge’s word. Since there’s no correct answer (the judge decides whose match is the most amusing), reading people’s personalities is the name of the game. $20–$35. Ages nine and up. Available at Strategy Games, Top Banana and Toy Town.

Blokus

If you’re good at chess or other strategy games, you’ll love Blokus. Though the premise is simple—get rid of your tiles before your opponents do—the game is said to improve spatial perception, logic and tactical planning. It’s also addictive. Players must arrange their colour­ful, oddly shaped pieces on a 400-square gridded board. But each piece must touch another of the same colour—and only at the corners. The game can get vicious when players block each others’ paths. $39.99. Ages seven and up. Available at Mastermind, Strategy Games, Top Banana and Toy Town.

Da Vinci’s Mancala

As old as the hills, this African game—also known as kalah— recently got a 21st-century update courtesy of the summer’s big blockbuster. It’s normally played with marbles or flat glass pieces; in the Da Vinci version, the pieces are mosaic tiles bearing fragments of images. The goal is to gather the most pieces and create intricate mosaics, which may reveal the meaning of life (or at least a pretty picture). $29.95. Ages eight and up. Available at Mastermind, Strategy Games and Toy Town.