Top Kids Video Games include Super Mario, Spyro Skylanders, and Sesame Street

While a number of video games suitable for children of all ages may be on the wish list of some kids you know, three of the top video games have some very familiar characters.

The top three games are: Super Mario 3D Land for the Nintendo 3DS, Sesame Street Once Upon a Monster for the XBOX 360, and, for users of the big 3 video gaming systems of PS3, XBOX 360, PC, MAC, and the Nintendo Wii, Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure.

While Super Mario and Sesame are rated E for everyone, the latest installment of Spyro is rated E for ages 10 and up. Here is a brief summary of each of the games, which are available from a number of in-store and online retailers including Amazon.com and by online order and in-store pickup at Walmart.com.

Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure – released by Activision, kids are really excited about the latest adventures of Spyro the Dragon not just because of the game itself. Skylanders comes with a variety of small figurine characters. When the child places the character on the “portal of power”, which is included with the game purchase, that character becomes a playable character in the video game.

In addition to being able to use the skylander character figures across all video game consoles, and on a PC or MAC, the characters can also be used of online play on the games website, universe.skylanders.com.

Skylanders Spyros Adventure comes with 3 of the action-character figurines with additional characters retailing for $7.99. The video game itself currently retails for about $59.99.

Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster – a video game by Double Fine Productions, featuring all of the popular sesame street characters including Elmo, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster and others.

Game play is based on a scenario in which children are able to help their furry monster friend solve problem and learn along the way. Taking advantage of the XBOX 360 Kinect system, kids are able to interact with the characters and the game without the need to hold or manipulate a controller – a great feature for younger children allowing them to focus more on the learning and game play.

Sesame Street Once Upon a Monster retails for $49.99

Super Mario Land 3D – is a familiar adventure featuring the well known Mario character. Players must help Mario rescue Princess Peach by making his way through a series of levels of game play. The focus in this most recent installment of the Super Mario franchise is the focus on the 3D environment. This is Nintendo’s first big release which is designed to showcase the Nintendo 3DS hand-held video game system.

Super Mario Land 3D retails for $39.99.