We don't have to tell you how cute this case is. It's etched right on the front of the kitty with the big eyes. And, with a see-through pouch on the back (complete with velcro strap for securing precious games), this thing also has "complete package" written all over it.

For further evidence of flickr user Michy Michelle's extreme skill at DS crafts, peep the Hello Kitty DS Lite. We just wish we had a bigger picture to drool over. Hello Kitty isn't really our thing, but if someone did the same thing to a DS except replaced the Hello Kitty with, say, He-Man, then we'd totally be down with it.

Head on past the break for a look at the Chococat case from a different angle.

If you have severe heart problems, then we suggest you watch the video above. Why? Well, the power of cute pets is known the world over and we've never underestimated the worth of something that makes you go "awww." And with everything we've seen on Yume Neko DS so far, we're convinced that this is going to be the most purest concentration of cute found outside of searching for kittens on YouTube or a certain website called Cute Overload.

[Via Go Nintendo]

If anyone would be likely to buy and enjoy a game about taking care of virtual cats, you would expect it to be patrons of a cafe where people pay to spend time in the company of cats. That's why Sega's partnership with Cat Cafe Calico is so brilliant.

The Tokyo cafe has 18 friendly cats (and one dog) "on staff" to hang out and play with cafe customers. It is frequented by people whose apartments or busy lifestyles make a cat of their own impossible. Or people who just really like cats. From March 26th to May 6th, those cat enthusiasts will all receive a Yume Neko DS postcard and seals upon entering Calico, which will be decorated in a Yume Neko DS theme and will play the game's music.

We vaguely remember Sega's Yume Neko DS to be some kind of Nintendog-esque virtual cat game. At this point, we want to buy it right now, because Sega's trailer is perfect. Except for the whole not one second of gameplay being shown bit. But is the actual game going to be better than cute kittens?

That's right, instead of showing off the game's graphics or features, Sega just created a video of four and a half minutes of cute kittens. We support the adoption of the "kitten footage" style for more game trailers -- we'd rather stare at kittens than know what games are about. Mew!

When determining the best games of the year, it's a good idea to go at it from different angles: by referencing our own history of reviews, obviously, but we must also look to the wider journalism community. Our reviews, while insightful and entertaining, were not comprehensive. We just didn't play everything. In addition, one reviewer's opinion is simply not sufficient data to make definitive conclusions, even if that one reviewer is me.

So we turned to everyone else in aggregate to see what they thought of this year's releases. We've gathered the top 10 DS games of 2007 according to their Metacritic ranking. Keep in mind that many of these games tied in Metascore, meaning that if we were to rank the games, there would be fewer than ten positions. It's still sequential, but with a lot of tie scores.

We then carefully applied science to these games in order to convert the Metacritic numbers into a rubric we feel more accurately conveys the quality of these games. Head past the post break for Metacritic's top ten DS games of 2007, graded on a scale from adorable kitten video to unbelievably adorable kitten video.

Fans anticipating the release of It's a Wonderful World won't have just a limited edition DS Lite bundle to look forward to; Square Enix announced today that preordering the Shibuya-district RPG in advance of its July 27th release will also net gamers a miniature kitten to hitch onto your handheld.

The feline charm mimics Pochi, a stuffed cat that plays into Shiki Misaki's (IAWW's female lead) special attacks, and also doubles as a wipe to keep your DS screens free of dust and kitty litter. Pounce past the post break for some in-game screenshots of Pochi.

See also:

• Just about the oddest/cutest/scariest thing you will ever see
• More from the DS cat