But never fear, we have a few suggestions for you, based on my annual Today show toy test.

Before I tell you which video games won this year's Today Show Toy Test let me explain how we rated this year's crop of video games.

Back in August, we built a one-of-a-kind arcade at the Pacific Science Center and filled it with Xbox, PlayStation and GameCube machines. We asked Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo to choose this year's hot titles. We tested 63 of them from Spiderman to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Since many hit video games are rather violent we set a few rules: no shooting and no stabbing of human characters on-screen and nothing in our Toy Test arcade could be rated higher than teen.

Players got to test drive a title for up to 20 minutes, then they rated the game for us from terrible to most excellent. By the time we were done, we had collected almost 11,000 ratings. We put those numbers into a computer to come up with this year's top-rated titles.

And here they are.

# 1 BURNOUT REVENGE
Rated: E+10, for ages 10 & up
Systems: PS2, XBox

# 2 SUPER MARIO STRIKERS
Rated: E, for 6 & up
System: GameCube
* available December 5

# 3 MARIO SUPERSTAR BASEBALL
Rated: E, for ages 6 & up
System: GameCube

# 4 DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION MARIO MIX
Rating: E for ages 6 & up
System: GameCube

# 5 EYETOY: PLAY 2
Rating: E, for ages 6 & up
System: PS2

#6 THE INCREDIBLE HULK: ULTIMATE DESTRUCTION
Rating: Teen for players 13 and up
Systems: XBox, PS2, GameCube

Click here for more information on these games, plus a list more winning titles from the Today Show's Toy Test 2005.

You'll find top rated toys in all age groups on Herb's Web site: www.consumerman.com. Just look for the Toy Test 2005 logo on the home page.

A word to parents: some video games are pretty violent. Before you buy, look for the ratings information on the package; the recommended age and the explanation of why the game got that rating, such as: violence, language, animated blood, crude humor, or suggestive themes.

You can also read reviews of the games online and in most cases see actual game footage.

For More Information:

Read Herb's tip: Understanding Video Game Ratings -- www.komonews.com