Games
I’ll admit something here and now. I’m not a gaming freak. I like playing games but don’t want to spend hours slaving away on getting through a level or getting the next powerup or best track time. I like to pick up a console, get in 10 to 15 minutes of good gaming done and then put it away again.

The games I have had on my Gameboy Advance in the past, have been games I could pick up and play quickly. Apart from Advance Wars, on which I never even completed the training missions, I have enjoyed the games I have owned. No Pokemon or Zelda for me. Just give me a few games of FIFA or a time challenge on Tekken Advance any day.

When I purchased by Nintendo DS Lite, I had this in mind. I decided to go for the new Super Mario Bros game and Metroid Prime Hunters. I thought that Mario would be a game with lots of longevity and a different style of play on each level and that Metroid would be good as I could play the single player levels but also dive online for a quick deathmatch too.

New Super Marios Bros
This game is possibly the best platformer I have played. Its fast, colorful, cute and damn frustrating too! The psuedo 3d graphics are good and the stero sound is also excellent. I was brought up on games like Manic Miner and Chucky Egg, so there will always be a plaformer fan in me – and Super Mario Bros fits that hole perfectly.

The game also has a selection of mini games that are just as good as the main title. You can bounce Mario’s off trampolines you have drawn with the stylus to kill enemies or play card games against Luigi. The addition of these games has meant that my children love playing the DS Lite and even my wife plays the mingame where you have to find the faces of Mario and his friends hidden in a multi layer scrolling image.

My rating out of 10 would be 8 i think. I’m not sure what they could do to improve on it though.

Metroid Prime Hunters
This was one of the original launch titles of the DS and I can remember playing it on a demo console but not thinking much of it at the time. The game still receives excellent reviews and I can now see why.

This is probably as close as you will get to playing a FPS on a handheld console. To control your “hunter” you must hold the console in your left hand which allows you to move using the directional pad and fire using the shoulder button. You right hand is used with the stylus on the lower screen to look around as you move. The control system is pretty much the same as using a keyboard and mouse to play Quake for example. The stylus is also used to select weapons and morph the hunter into his secondary form, such as a ball, which enables you to fit into smaller spaces and travel faster through levels.

This control method is excellent and feels very natural after a few minutes of play. I can achieve similar moves when playing Metroid that I can when playing Quake on a PC such as running away from an enemy, jumping and turning in mid air to shoot them and then continue running backwards. Try doing that on a PSP. You can’t. The controls are just too slow to allow it. You can even use the stylus to make headshots against opponents which on other similar handheld titles was impossible – or just a fluke.

The internet multiplayer mode is good too although there seems to be a limited number of opponents and it can take several minutes of searching for a game to get one going with more than two other people. I have experienced no lag at all either, which is excellent. Nintendo also produce a headset which you can plug into the DS Lite to verbally assault your opponents as you play – although as the DS has a built in microphone, is this necessary? I will try shouting at my next opponent to see what happens.

Out of 10, I give this game 9. It’s really, really, really good.

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