Nintendo was proudly displaying its new toy, the Nintendo DSi, on the show floor of the Game Developers Conference and had a couple of DSi Ware games to show off too. Since the handheld market prefers games that are easy to pick up and play, one of the games we got to see was Bird & Beans, a simple game in which you play as a bird and eat--you guessed it--beans.

　　Bird & Beans

　　You play as a pudgy little bird with an elastic tongue that can reach well across the entire screen. The length of its tongue depends on how long you hold the A button before letting go. The bird can only catch falling beans at a 45 degree angle, so you must move the little guy and grab the beans before they either reach the ground or bop you on the head. The ground is composed of blocks that will disappear if a bean touches them, and because the bird doesn't seem to have any other special abilities--like jump--you'll be limited to a smaller area if there are holes in the ground. The game ends when a bean lands on your noggin, which will happen often if you're not on top of the bean catching.

　　As of right now, there is only one level, and the beans will progressively drop at a faster rate. We encountered two types of beans: the green bean and the white bean. The green bean is there for points but by catching the white bean, you'll rebuild a missing block, so you'll have full run of the area again. The entire game is set on a single screen, with simple graphics that make it look like a cell phone game. It's cute and it's easy to learn, but currently there isn't too much content other than eating beans.

　　Aquia

　　Like Tetris, Bejeweled, and all the great puzzle games that came before it, Aquia uses the match-three idea, only in an underwater setting. There are two modes to choose from: a timed mode and free play. By beating the game's timed levels, you'll unlock various aquariums (a collection of fish that swim happily in the top screen).

　　Aquia takes a few tries to get used to, but once you get it, it's really addictive. The level we played had a stack of colored square blocks, three blocks wide, that extended across both screens down the middle. You have control of two blocks, stacked vertically--with the ability to swap places with each other if they're of different color--and your goal is to line up three of a kind horizontally or vertically so that they disappear. New blocks will shuffle into their place, so what you're trying to do is look for blocks along the stack that already have two of the same color lined up and try to get one of your two blocks to match. The only thing you can do is push your two blocks into the giant underwater pile. For example, if you push it from the right, it will then nudge two blocks out from the other side. So now you have two blocks on the left side of the stack to deal with and you're free to move up and down either screen to decide where you want to stuff your pieces. It sounds complicated and intimidating at first, but after a few tries, you'll figure out how to push and shuffle blocks around to chain combos easily.

　　Your timer is represented by a moving wall of darkness that descends gradually from the top screen. Your goal is to help the diver on the right side of the screen make it to the bottom of the touch screen by clearing the blocks quickly. The game's underwater setup has a calming effect, but when you're on a timer and the darkness begins to descend, it becomes a frantic race to clear all the blocks before it's game over.

　　Nintendo representatives still haven't confirmed if or when these games will be released, but if the price is right, these short but simple games will find a large audience because of their addictive and fun gameplay.