Xbox 360 is a prerequisite for these item. But they also make great gifts, so don't let that stop you.

See, I love my time at the arcade, but you don’t always feel like going out to play, especially in the rainy season. At home, you may not have as many multiplayer, cooperative gaming options available. Here are a couple of great choices!

Bejeweled 3 for Xbox 360 is not only a terrific game in its own right, the disk version also includes Bejeweled Blitz Live, which is a really fun way to spend time with someone you care about. I’ve spent hours with good friends, alternately winning and losing rounds, talking smack and laughing like crazy as we make gems explode.

Plants vs. Zombies for Xbox 360 has the first-ever co-op mode in a PopCap game, and it’s a great choice if you want to sneak a love of gaming past the skeptical or snooty misgivings of a friend or partner who’s been reluctant to try it out. Even better, it also includes Peggle, the simplest form of radiant delight the world has ever known. (And if that sounds like hyperbole, you haven’t played Peggle.)

So that’s my holiday shopping list from PopCap!  What about you?

Hello procrastinating gift-givers! Don’t worry, I’m right there with you. Thankfully, there’s still time, and this last-minute shopping experience is perfectly suited for today’s gift guide: the thrill-seeker!

Zuma’s Revenge! PC/Mac — Iron Frog Mode

If you think regular Zuma is hard — Iron Frog is the ultimate Zuma challenge. First, this mode is only unlocked after completing Adventure Mode so you’ve got to have some skills before you can even get here. Once there, Iron Frog mode only gives you one life and challenges you to beat 10 levels in a row. Yep, 10 levels without dying once. The adrenaline junkie in your life will love it.

Bejeweled 3 for PC/Mac — Diamond Mine Mode

If you’re familiar with Bejeweled Blitz, Diamond Mine is very similar to this — except you’re given the extra challenge of playing with half of the board. The lower part of the board is filled with rocks and you have to match gems next to the rocks in order to clear more space and add extra time. The board will continue to move up as well, so you’ll have to match quickly and strategically to play Diamond Mine!

P.S. You can also play this mode in the Bejeweled app, for your friends with iPhones or iPod touches.

Feeding Frenzy for XBLA

Feeding Frenzy will give your thrill-seeking friend the chance to start as prey and move up to predator! The more fish you eat, the bigger you become. Of course, with any type of success comes enemies. As you grow, bigger and more dangerous fish will be after you, so you’ll have to dart about ever more nimbly to evade their maneuvers, and more importantly, their mouths. Obviously, being a fish is a perilous existence, perfect for your risk-taking friend.

Need more suggestions? Check out all of our gift guides here.

For example, have you ever tickled a chuzzle? Click on the same chuzzle a few times in a row to see its adorability quotient increase exponentially!

Chuzzle for PC/Mac

Chuzzles are cute, fuzzy little guys with wide eyes who squeak, shed their fur and sneeze when tickled! They blink innocently at you as you work to reunite them with their families and rescue them from captivity. Chuzzles come from another dimension and are longing to return home, and every time you make a match, you set another little group free! In their home dimension, they don’t need their goggles any longer — those are just protection for their eyes while in this harsh grid-like prison environment.

Sidenote: none of the above is “true.” (Well, except the first line about chuzzles being cute and fuzzy.) This is just the story I tell myself about Chuzzle. The true story of Chuzzle remains shrouded in mystery and will probably be the subject of a future episode of Brad Meltzer’s Decoded. But don’t quote me on that either.

Insaniquarium for PC

Insaniquarium appeals to the caretaker in all of us. You start out with two tiny fishies, and it’s your job to feed them, protect them, and bring them new friends to stave off fishy loneliness.

Look at how happy they are! They don't even know that alien wants to eat them. It's up to you to preserve their happy fishy world.

When aliens attack (again with the dimensional portals! Someone needs to close those off to protect all the little creatures!), you must fiercely defend your fishies and drive the predators in the opposite direction until you have vanquished them. Along the way, you earn new pets who will help you out, like Itchy the Swordfish, who joins in your attack against intruders, and Stinky the Snail, whom you may recognize from Plants vs. Zombies! He’s doing his usual coin-collecting duties. I love a mollusk with a hobby.

Insaniquarium has always been a personal favorite of mine, because I love keeping little creatures safe. It’s also probably the most obsessed-over game we’ve ever made; there’s a thriving fan community site for it to this day!  Check it out!

Feeding Frenzy 2 for PC & Xbox or Feeding Frenzy for PC/Mac & Xbox

And more fishes for your holiday wishes! If wishes were fishes, as the saying goes, we’d all be swimming pretty! Wait, that’s not how that… never mind.

You’ve never seen prettier fishes than in the world of Feeding Frenzy 2! They’re vibrant and colorful, and they move just like fish — gracefully, languidly, and with no seeming purpose or direction until they notice food!

That's right -- this time, the food is you.

You start out as a little fish who must try to avoid the bigger fish as you eat your way up the food chain. It’s a tense ride at times, zipping through the narrow gaps between two big scaries, trying to evade their notice as you slurp up the guppies. As you grow and become the dominant species in the ocean, you will feel proud, powerful, and most of all, glad you were able to keep your little friend safe and well-fed in this dog-eat-dog, er, fish-eat-fish world.

Banana Bugs for PC

From Marcel to Ampersand to Virgil, everyone loves monkeys! Indulge your monkey love with this fun little PC puzzler.

In addition to loving monkeys, I have it on good authority that everyone hates bugs. Monkeys fighting bugs? That's just gold.

In Banana Bugs, the mean nasty bugs have stolen all of our little friends’ bananas! Plus, they’re continuing to buzz around and be nuisances, and as anyone who’s ever suffered a fruit fly infestation will agree, these guys have just got to go! Weave your ropes between sections of vines to trap the nasties and send them to their doom. As you progress, your heroic efforts inspire other monkeys to come to your aid, throwing coconuts and shooting blow darts to take out some of the bugs for you.

There are so many reasons to love these games, but for me, it all comes down to the little creatures you’re protecting, feeding and rescuing.  If you’ve got a doting pet-lover in your life, these might be the perfect gifts!

Please note: all the links in this post will take you over to Amazon.com. Now you know.

First up is our perennial (pun probably intended) favorite:

Plants vs. Zombies for Xbox 360

This version includes all the zombie-thumping fun you’ve come to expect, plus a Co-op mode that lets players team up to fight the shambling horde and a Versus mode that allows someone to play as the zombies! Yes, it is as awesome as it sounds. Plus also too as well, the Xbox 360 edition comes loaded with Zuma and Peggle, so it’s like getting three games for the price of one. Exactly like.

The ESRB rating for this one is 10+ for “Cartoon Violence.” As someone who grew up on cartoon violence, I have to say that this is less a parental advisory and more the single greatest endorsement of any video game ever. And as an aside, my kid is 4-1/2 and is koo-koo for the Wall-Nut Bowling mini-game. Father of the Year? Me.

Next up is a little something for the more erudite child (or man-child) in your life:

Bookworm for Nintendo DS

From the game description: (Which my boss wrote so, yes, I am both lazy and totally sucking up. Employee of the Year? Me.):

Feed your appetite for words in the hit word-puzzle game! Link letter tiles left, right, up and down to build words and keep Lex the bookworm smiling. Spell words to fill your bookshelves, unlock 20 themed books and build out 18 unique library rooms. Boost your score using bonus words and Word of the Day. Work wordy wonders in three game modes: Classic, fast-paced Action, and Multiplayer. No matter which mode you like best, you can take the brain-boosting fun anywhere you go!

Finally, we have something of a combination gift:

Zuma’s Revenge! Limited Edition

That’s right, it’s a game in a lunch box. What’s not to love? Nothing, that’s what. You get all the frog-firing, ball-blasting action of Zuma’s Revenge! and a nifty metal lunch box for holding a lunch, your prize baseball cards, your D&D miniatures, your favorite action figures… whatever! Or it will look swell on a collector shelf in between The Bionic Woman and Peanuts. Unless you sort them alphabetically, in which case I just messed you up.

You’re welcome. TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year? Me. (Or probably Oprah. Sigh. It’s such a popularity contest.)

Why no, I don’t know anyone like that myself… why do you ask?

Plants vs. Zombies for Nintendo DS

Recently, a man asked me whether he ought to buy his grandson a DS or an iPad, because he needed the device that would allow the grandchildren to play Plants vs. Zombies against one another. Well, first of all… best. grampa. ever.

I pointed him in the direction of the Nintendo DS, because PvZ on DS includes Versus mode, in which you take on a friend and choose whether you will play on the side of Plants or Zombies!

And seriously, best grampa ever! That’s a happy holiday for a lucky kid.

Bejeweled Blitz LIVE for Xbox 360

Included on the disk for the newly released Bejeweled 3 for Xbox 360 is a real gem of a game for the competitive beast inside. In fact, it would be fair to say that this game is responsible for bringing out a deep-down, heretofore unseen competitive side in a great many people. I’m talking, of course, about Bejeweled Blitz. And if you ask me, there has never been a purer incarnation of Bejeweled Blitz than Bejeweled Blitz LIVE for Xbox 360.

Both Classic and Twist mode are included. Just when you start to get frustrated at how good your opponent is getting, switch modes to reset the playing field! Then laugh an evil laugh.

Sit side-by-side with a friend and take a minute with Bejeweled Blitz LIVE, Xbox controllers in hand. An hour or so later, wonder how a minute can be so incredibly invigorating and fun! You start each round with an identical board, and each move you make changes the layout and causes different cascades and explosions. That’s competition in its purest form, when you can see clearly that you each started with the same materials in the same configuration, and one of you spun gold while the other wound up with a chunk of lead.

Peggle Nights for PC/Mac

That brings us to the granddaddy of PopCap competitions: Peggle and Peggle Nights’ Duel mode.

We take this very seriously around these parts — never do we allow a PopCap Olympics to go by without a masters’ Duel on the big screen while we ooh and aah at the expert skills on display and collectively sigh at the occasional near miss. You know the audience sound effects in the game when you almost hit a peg?  Recorded live at one of our events.

(Okay, not really.  But it would be cool, wouldn’t it?)

When you duel in the Peggle world, you have such complex choices to make! Do I aim to make the highest score myself each shot, or do I aim to block the good moves for my opponent on their next turn? Do I dare risk the consequences of missing an orange peg in order to try for greatness with a purple and a bucket bounce combo? You’ll watch as your friend lines up a glorious shot and soars ahead of your score… only to have their score diminished moments later by a poorly executed maneuver. The ups and downs of Peggle Nights are as dramatic as the circus dreams of Kat Tut himself.

Sure, Jimmy scored a rockin' slide, but Master Hu is about to go totally Zen with the smackdown, just you wait.

Peggle is also available on DS and Xbox… if you have a friend or family member who doesn’t think they enjoy gaming, this is your ticket to winning them over! The precision, the patience, the sheer joy from which the ode takes its name, will lure the game-shy to your side and make them eager converts! Well, those things plus the satisfaction of winning a duel against their own teacher! Competition is healthy, fun, and friendly, and never more so than at the Peggle Institute!

Happy holidays everyone!

Don’t know any Zen Gardeners? Maybe it’s time you met one. There’s a Zen Gardener hidden inside all of us. Don’t believe me? Well, just play one of these games and you’ll radiate calm!

Bejeweled 3 for PC and Mac

Let your inner wisdom be your guide while you match sparkling gems in Zen mode. There’s no pressure or time limit here. You can create your own relaxing retreat with awesome audio-visual effects to help modulate your breathing and rejuvenate your spirit. You can even choose ambient sounds, positive affirmations, and binaural beats to accompany you on your journey.

Will you walk with me, Grasshopper?

Mahjong Escape: Ancient China for PC

Unlock ancient Chinese wisdom as you match gold tiles in Classic Mahjong solitaire. This is truly a Zen paradise. Soothe your senses with relaxing music, beautiful scenery and hand-painted backgrounds as you travel through time. This is a perfect game for parents and grandparents.

Chuzzle for PC and Mac

Even Zen Gardeners need to release their inner silly. There’s just no better way to soothe frayed nerves and restore balance than playing with these cute, googly-eyed furballs. In Zen mode, you won’t find any puzzle locks or timers to stress out about. You’ll soon float away in Chuzzle bliss as you walk the path to Chuzzlightenment.

Ommmm….

Just remember: With the holidays fast-approaching, we all need to cultivate a little inner peace! So have fun and come back next week for more Gift Guides.

Twice a week for the next three weeks, we’ll be doing a Gift Guide to let you know the best types of PopCap games for all the different people in your life. Of course, if you just want to get yourself something, we won’t judge you.

Up first: Smarty Pants.

They’re smart, they always finish tests first, and they always seem to have the right answer. It could include: your sister, who answers every Jeopardy! question correctly; your brother, who annihilates everyone at RISK; or even your darling child, who obviously knows WAY more than you about everything.

So, what are the perfect PopCap games for Smarty Pants?

Bookworm Adventures for PC

Yes, Virginia, there really is a literate invertebrate.

Okay, a word game is a bit obvious: but if these people are so smart, they should love cobbling together letter tiles to form the biggest words they can, and showing off their vaunted vocab valor by vanquishing villains with valuable v-words. Plus, they’ll discover a host of mythology lessons in the fabled Tome of Knowledge.

This isn’t just a great game for word nerds: it’s a hit for kids, and a sneaky way to help them build their vocabulary. (Who’s the Smarty Pants now?)

Peggle for PC and Mac

Peggle: A festival of lights-out awesomeness.

You may not think a game filled with rainbows and fireworks could captivate scholars — but when you enroll at the Peggle Institute, you’ll learn quickly that this game isn’t just about luck: you’ll need sharp, strategic thinking (as evidenced by this Strategy Guide), as well as a solid grasp of math and geometry.

Plus, it has a unicorn. Only the greatest of minds can understand that truth and myth, when married perfectly with totally awesome, cause a spectacular reaction known as Extreme Fever.

Bejeweled Twist for Nintendo DS

The perfect way to settle a family feud.

The busiest of Smarty Pants need a challenge on the go — whether they’re headed to the Geography Bee, or just to Applebee’s. For these fine few, I recommend Bejeweled Twist for DS.

At first glance, you may look at Bejeweled Twist and say, “What’s the big deal? You rotate the gems.” But this is a strategic, break-your-brain version of Bejeweled. And the puzzles in Challenge mode are likely to test the limits of your puzzle-game abilities. Plus, in 2-player Battle mode, you’ll get to see who the smartest player truly is.

That’s all for today. But keep checking in for more of our Holiday Gift Guides. Now go play a PopCap game — it’s the smartest thing you’ll do all day.