Xiaolin Showdown is the first game to come out of the Kids WB cartoon series of the same name and seems to do a pretty good job of sticking with the show's theme and style.

Xiaolin Showdown's representation of the characters is good enough to make it obvious who is who. Of course, it is pretty hard to mix up the large Clay with the big-headed Omi. But the camera seems to be pulled back just a little too far, allowing everybody to seem just a little too small for my tastes.

One thing to note is that Xiaolin Showdown actually has voiceovers. This is such a rare even in DS games that I thought it was worth mentioning. Not only are there voiceovers in the game, but each of the main heroes and villains are played by the same actors and actresses from the series. This was a nice and surprising bonus.

The game's music seems to come straight out of the show as well. Not only did I hear the theme song, but several other scores that either came from episodes or sounded enough like the series' style to belong there.

Xiaolin Showdown lets you control those four young Xiaolin warriors in training as they search for the mystic Shen Gong Wu. You will control Omi, Clay, Kimiko and Raimundo as they face off against Wuya, Jack Spicer and many of their other foes from the TV series.

Most of the game has a action RPG style. You go from room to room taking out enemy after enemy with your various attacks and elemental spells. Between levels, you get to upgrade your warrior's attacks and select different Shen Gong Wu that he or she can use.

Where the game really shines is where it breaks away from this mold, and that is during the Showdowns. Each Showdown, a battle for a newly revealed Shen Gong Wu, is a mini game that will have you doing everything from playing a game of tic-tac-toe with catapults to small platformer-like levels. As you pass Showdowns, you can go back and play them later at anytime via the Showdown option in the main menu.

Xiaolin Showdown also offers bonus games that can be played either by yourself or with a friend. There are four games, one for each element and character. They are: Wind Hockey, Boulder Basho, Fire Bowling and Water Warriors. The first three are pretty standard; Wind Hockey is air hockey where you control the paddle on your side of the field with the stylus. Fire Bowling is a bowling game and Boulder Basho is in the vein of Breakout. The bonus game that caught my attention and I played over and over again was Water Warriors. Here you play a type of sumo game with blobs of water. You stretch your glob out and release it to have it go flying across the arena. Your goal is to hit the other glob and knock it off of the arena and into the water.

Xiaolin Showdown has a moderate difficulty level. I found that I could typically plow through the main levels of the game without much trouble, and each character's unique abilities lent themselves well to the challenges the game threw at him or her. The only real times I had problems in Xiaolin Showdown were during a few of the Showdowns.

One such Showdown would be a Simon-type game where a cheer-bot shows you a series of buttons and, when it's your turn, has you repeating the sequence. This wasn't an issue early in the Showdown, but as the competition went on, the patterns got to be more difficult.

But even that one wasn't as unnerving as the pirate ship challenge which has you drawing a circle around your ship, turning it and then blowing into your mic to push it forward in order to grab as many treasures as possible. This particular Showdown drove me to putting the game down more times than I'd care to admit.

Xiaolin Showdown's controls are a mix between standard, easy to pick up schemes and some more complicated actions that require a bit of practice. Simple moves like kicking and jumping are done with the (A) and (B) buttons. And Punching is done with the (Y) while (X) is used for your character's elemental attacks.

Some of the more complex, and less used, actions include picking up and throwing objects by holding down (R) and pressing (A) or activating your two Shen Gong Wu with (L) and either (Y) or (A) (depending on which Wu you are trying to use). Powerful attacks like the jump kick or body slam are done by pressing (B) then (A) or (Y) (respectively).

Where the game's controls go even more out of the ordinary are during the mini-games found in the Showdowns and bonuses. I already described two of the Showdowns in the previous section, but other unusual schemes include a game of Toss-Tac-Toe (essentially), Air-Hockey, Bowling and the Water Warriors game, which all require the use of the stylus.

Xiaolin Showdown is a fun action/adventure game whose mini-games are different enough to break up the potential repetitiveness that could easily overwhelm any game like this. Fans of the characters and show should jump at this title, but DS gamers who are looking for something with a bit of a mixed-media feel to it should also check it out.