Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story // DS

It would be lazy to describe Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story as the third instalment in a trilogy of Mario games that you’ve never played, but it wouldn’t be far from the truth. Developed by Alpha Dream and not the big N (with the reduced marketing budget that that entails) and featuring the plumber and his friends in an RPG-like mechanic, virtually guarantees that this series will never get the audience it deserves. Which is a shame, as it’s a beautifully polished gem that should be in every DS collection.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii // Wii

I’ve been slack. Once a devoted Nintendo fanboy who would devour any new Mario games within days of release, I’ve recently allowed myself to become distracted by numerous other games on other consoles. Today, I was determined to make amends, to give New Super Mario Bros. Wii the dedicated attention it deserved, and sat down to my save at World 5 determined not to get up again until the final credits rolled.

Wario Videogame Minimalism tee now on sale

Mario’s evil namesake is now available to buy as a t-shirt from my MySoti store. Pop along and check him out. Don’t forget to vote on him while you are there!

First Impressions: Wario Land: The Shake Dimension

As I’ve mentioned recently, since the turn of the decade I’ve been obsessed with the online multiplayer deathmatches and dominations of a certain Modern Warfare 2, to the point where I’ve been seeing snipers in my sleep and idly fantasizing about tossing semtex into a group of hooligans raising hell outside our flat. What better way, then, to soothe my frayed nerves and assuage my battered psyche, than by settling down to a type of game that, for me, started it all off all those years ago – a 2D platformer on a Nintendo console? Enter Wario Land: The Shake Dimension (aka Wario Land: Shake It! in the US).

Retro Sunday: Donkey Kong Country // VC

It was coming up to 15 years ago, on Christmas Day 1994, that a giddy 12-year-old me excitedly unwrapped Donkey Kong Country from underneath the Christmas tree. Not only did I play it all day, I also lugged my SNES, connection leads and the game round to my Nan’s for the evening, where my family traditionally gathers for Christmas Night. There, I set up on the tiny portable TV in my Nan’s bedroom and showed it to my incredulous younger cousin; particularly, as I remember, the first mine cart level ‘Mine Cart Carnage’. It was the start of a love affair with Donkey Kong that ensured I would snaffle up subsequent releases from Rare; the rest of this series, of which there were three in total, and Donkey Kong 64 on the N64.

Critter Crunch // PSN

I’ve been playing a lot of ‘heavy’ videogames recently. I’ve been asked to eliminate terrorists in Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, shoot hundreds and hundreds of people in order to recover lost treasures in Uncharted 2, blow up planes in GTA: The Ballad Of Gay Tony and slip hidden blades into the ribs of Templars in Assassin’s Creed 2. That’s a whole lotta killing. Critter Crunch, then, is the perfect tonic for my frayed nerves and battered psyche.

First Impressions: New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Balancing the expectations of a veteran enthusiast who grew up with Mario games, and a casual gamer only just getting to grips with the platforming exploits of the portly plumber was always going to be a tough task. Judging by the amount of laughs me and my girlfriend shared within our first few hours of the follow-up to the DS game, New Super Mario Bros. Wii makes a decent fist of it. And it does it in vibrant and colourful style, with a grin-inducing spoonful of nostalgia to boot.