Nintendo does seem to be giving the DS a pretty good send off.  Two of the final games for the system are Professor Layton and a new Kirby. Professor Layton and the Last Specter is as fantastic as all the other installments but not much is actually new to the gameplay.  Although, really, I can’t begin to imagine how they could change it without ruining the game. Kirby on the other hand seems to be a new take on the series.  This installment takes the platform to a new level by mixing in what they have deemed realtime strategy.  What it looks like to me is more using the new powers at the right time. The new power is the ability for Kirby to split into multiple Kirbys.  Basically the idea is very similar to The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure but on a larger level.

The Wii titles this year were also pretty scarce.  I don’t think this is a sign of the Wii coming to an early end but it does make me think the transition is going to be very abrupt when the time comes. The big game was still The new Legend of Zelda title, but three other games caught my eye just as much. The first is Kirby and maybe it isn’t well known but Kirby is a powerhouse in my book.  This installment seems to revert back to the older style of inhaling enemies and stealing their powers. The addition of extra powers is also very exciting. The more exciting news is the multiplayer to the extent of having four players at once.  The only thing is the non-Kirby players most likely function in a different way. I wish that there had been more shown in this regard. The other two exciting games are Mario Party 9 and Fortune Street. Both games are board game style games. The announcement of Mario Party 9  surprised me as Wii Party seemed to be the new direction.  I’m actually happy this isn’t the case.  The other game Fortune Street is Square Enix’s take on the board game using Dragon Quest and Mario characters. This one has potential for the Monopoly fan and plenty of opportunities to annoy others.  The game seems to focus on real-estate and stock style strategy.

Overall, the main game news seems to have been saved for the 3DS.  At the same time the news on the DS and Wii are nothing to laugh at or ignore. Though at the same time it is probably safe to assume that next year’s E3 will have few, if any games for the Wii and almost no chance for DS games.

Story wise, there is one but it’s weak and really just superfluous.  This game is clearly all about playing with some friends at a party.  The games are easy to pick up for this reason and somewhat addictive. Now on the flip side, the one player game is just as easy to pick up but super repetitive.  You just play through the same tournament, same games, over-and-over with minimal difficulty increase.  The only reward to doing this is unlocking additional characters.  The most of these characters are colour variations of Toad or Yoshi.  However, the gems among these unlocks are characters from Square Enix games including the ninja, white mage, black mage, and moogle from the Final Fantasy series.

The levels are probably what add the most to the game.  Each level has its quirks and fun but once you get use to them they only add so much.  The areas are rather compact so there is only so much to add in this way.  Like the characters, more of these locales are added as you play through the one player game.

Unfortunately, these unlockable characters are barely enough to hold out for.  Once you’ve played the games once, there really isn’t a huge reason to go back.  Now to avoid this lack of change there is an online mode, for those lacking local friends. The good news is that simply by playing enough games you can also unlock the extra characters.  So really just let the good times roll and just play with friends.

Now the controls are incredibly simple.  For the most part you could play the entire game just flicking your wrist.  Now there are two options, which is to either hold the remote like a classic controller or use the nunchuk.  I suggest the nunchuk as at this point it seems more natural but that’s up to the player.  The nunchuk style lends itself to a lot more variety but the weird thing is there isn’t much.  In fact, once you learn to play one you pretty much know how to play them all.  In fact this really only adds to the redundancy that is already there.

In the end, this is a really weak Mario offshoot. I guess till one of the classic sports games comes out then we’re stuck with this one, but it is probably better to skip this one.