According to the Entertainment Software Association, 41 percent of video-game players are female. But consider your typical game hero: a gun-toting, muscle-bound lunk with all the personality of a side of beef. Where are the heroines?

There have been a few: Lara Croft in "Tomb Raider," Samus Aran in "Metroid," Jade in "Beyond Good & Evil." A handful of games - "Knights of the Old Republic" and "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion" come to mind - let you choose your character's gender. But most of the women in video games serve merely as eye candy for the presumed audience of adolescent boys.

Younger heroines are even harder to find. Yes, there are familiar characters like Barbie and Nancy Drew who have their own computer-game franchises. But why isn't there a Super Mario Sister? Let's look at a few potential role models for the girl gamer in your family.

-"Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure" (Mastiff, for the PlayStation Portable, $39.99): Anyone who's ever been accused of having an overactive imagination will identify with Parin, the heroine of "Gurumin." Stuck in a boring town without any playmates, Parin finds a secret passage to Monster Village, a town under siege by evil phantoms. Armed with the "Legendary Drill," the girl ventures into a series of vibrant, colorful landscapes to rescue the friendly monsters. The levels will look familiar to fans of games like "The Legend of Zelda," with pits to jump over, doors to unlock and treasures to unearth.

While it looks like a kids' game, players of all ages will be happy to dis-cover that it's got a lot of depth, with plenty of ways to enhance Parin's skills - not to mention her wardrobe. (There's a monkey costume that's to die for.) "Gurumin" is filled with a uniquely Japanese sense of whimsy that trans-lates well into English, and it's one of the nicest surprises of the year so far. Three stars out of four.

-"Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja" (Atlus, for the Nintendo DS, $29.99): Izuna is a sassy teenage ninja who loses her job during a flurry of feudal downsizing. After wandering into a small village, she inadvertently riles up the local gods, who promptly drop some nasty curses on the townsfolk. To lift the curses, Izuna has to venture into a series of increasingly deadly caves, where the game suddenly becomes a lot less cute. A warning for parents: Despite its adorable appearance, "Izuna" is really difficult, and will tax the pa-tience of young players who aren't accustomed to long, methodical dungeon crawls. On the other hand, older players - male or female - who relish a chal-lenge will enjoy exploring its unpredictable, randomly generated mazes.

Aboveground, "Izuna" has plenty of charm and comedy, but most of the time it's an old-fashioned, hard-as-nails role-playing game that requires a high tol-erance for frustration. Two stars.

-"Kim Possible: Global Gemini" (Disney, for the Nintendo DS, $29.99): Par-ents of young girls are no doubt familiar with Kim Possible, the Disney Channel cheerleader who moonlights as a globetrotting crime fighter. As her latest game begins, the villainous Gemini has escaped from jail and is bent on rebuilding his criminal empire. Kim's mission to stop the evil genius takes her around the world, but most of the time you'll find her jumping around obstacles or battling Gemini's minions in fairly nondescript locales.

"Global Gemini" plays smoothly enough and has some decent snowboarding and driving sequences, but doesn't offer anything special to anyone who isn't a die-hard fan of the TV show. Two stars.

On the Net:

"Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure": http://www.gurumin.us

"Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja": http://www.atlus.com/izuna

"Kim Possible: Global Gemini": http://disney.go.com/disneyinteractivestudios