Find a good time with 'I Spy' on the Wii

— -- The I Spy riddle books by Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick have inspired many computer and video games. But for the first time, these visual puzzles can now be tackled on the Nintendo Wii.

In Ultimate I Spy, kids use the Wii remote as a pointer to scour through 10 crowded 3-D locations to find items that will solve 40 rhyming riddles. And in the process, they will discover a variety of minigames that make good use of the unique motion controls of the Wii. Once unlocked, some of these minigames become games that two players can explore together over many levels of competition.

For those unfamiliar with the I Spy puzzles, a child looks through a crowded scene to find items mentioned in an attached riddle. For example, one of the puzzles in Ultimate I Spy involves a set of magician's objects floating in the air. The riddle reads: I spy four birds, a heart that is blue, two juggled balls, a baseball too; a magic wand waved, a pencil, a boot, check the crystal ball, then find the hidden fruit.

To solve this riddle, kids use the Wii remote as a pointer while rotating 360 degrees around these floating objects using the multidirectional button on the remote or by attaching a nunchuk. One of the four birds may be visible only when viewed from a specific angle, so players need to slowly circle the floating scene while looking carefully for the objects named in the riddle.

Within each riddle, three minigames occur when you click on certain riddle items. In the Magic puzzle discussed above, clicking on a juggling ball leads to a minigame of tilting the remote back and forth to simulate tossing a ball upward and catching a second ball. The more accurate you are in timing these movements, the higher the juggling meter rises until you win the needed "two juggled balls" listed in the riddle.

In Ultimate I Spy, you discover a mysterious futuristic machine that houses the 10 interesting locations for the puzzles, including a fish tank, outer space and a city made of paper. Each location has four riddles that send you hunting for objects. The machine will also send you on a scavenger hunt to find eight objects within the 10 locations, which then opens one last game.