playing video games to learn a new language

I'm traveling to Ecuador this summer, and I was a little apprehensive because my Spanish is a little rusty. Maybe rusty is the wrong term, because that implies that my Spanish was at some point in good, working order (which may not be entirely true). But anyways, I was looking for programs to help me brush up on my Spanish before leaving, and I ran across this:

http://www.amazon.com/My-Spanish-Coach-Nintendo-DS/dp/B000SQ5LOQ

My Spanish Coach, developed by UBI soft, is a videogame for the Nintendo DS system and promises to teach Spanish in just 15-20 minutes a day! Finally, a videogame my parents might actually want me to buy! UBI soft has developed games for several other languages including Japanese, French, and even Mandarin Chinese. Fascinated, I clicked through all the reviews of the product to learn more. It just seemed to be too good to be true.

And it was, sort of. Yes, the game is a an excellent tool for beginners, but it's hardly the tool to master the language as it promises to be. Very few verb tenses are covered, and the game skips over a couple critical language lessons including "por" vs "para," the different genders within the language, and much more. The game is useful for learning more vocabulary, which it presents in a random fashion after you reach a certain level of expertise. Also useful is the ability to record your voice to be able to listen to how you pronounce various words (something that I need very very much). Finally, the game also includes a Spanish-English dictionary, but I don't think I'll be able to walk around the streets of Quito consulting my DS to communicate to the locals.

In any case, it still seems to be an interesting buy. Who knows, I might go ahead and purchase it in a few weeks. I'm that desperate for Spanish help, and I'm a sucker for good marketing.