Nintendo's WiiWare and the Virtual Store have done an excellent job in bringing to life some of their (and Sega's) oldest games for those of us who, despite what we say, like a bit of nostalgia. To see the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog's original beauties, the Mario Brothers in 2D and the Legend of Zelda all revamped for the 21st Century makes the Wii appealing to people of all ages.



The Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 were huge games on the groundbreaking N64, and while we are ll waiting to see Goldeneye brought to the Wii, any fan of the console should make sure that any new-comer to Nintendo is made aware that these games are easy to find! All it takes is around £3.50 and a little hard drive space to download games from Wiiware.

When Nintendo joined the latest generation of consoles in 2006 on releasing the Wii, despite the company's famous innovation they were unable to halt the progress of gaming, and decided to go with the flow and put all their efforts, in terms of multiplayer into the online experience. Here is House of Nintendo's Top 3 online games;

The Conduit

The most recent release on the list, it's offline story-mode is hugely entertaining. Bringing your console online, however, is well worth it as The Conduit has some excellent team and individual matches, using futuristic weapons developed from alien technology or normal, earthly uzis and shotguns!

Mario Kart

This game can be incredibly addictive offline when trying to complete all the championships. It's when you go online though that it becomes one of last decade's best racing and most entertaining racing games, a must-own for the Wii.

Call of Duty: World at War

Top of the list for its nature as an ongoing game which encourages you to develop online, potentially without ever being completed. By rising through the ranks you unlock better weapons with which to wage war and hasten your climb to the top, all in one of the most addictively competitive, and adult, FPS games for the console.

In every game there is a villain. At some point in your journey through the story someone is going to do you wrong. Here are, as we see it, Nintendo's best villains.

This, of course, will be a prolific list. Nintendo do great bad-guys.

5) General Ourumov

This enormously-hatted military leader was Bond's nemesis in Goldeneye. One of the most memorable parts of the single-player campaign in the widely-celebrated game (which, although being praised for its multiplayer, was excellent in one-player mode too) is the shoot out Bond has with him in the silo while a timer counts down towards an imminent explosion. Comedy could be found there too, as you chase him down the corridor in "invincibility mode" filling him with lead to absolutely no avail.

4) King Dedede

Probably the most cuddly enemy on the list. This giant duck spent his time trying to eat the ever-cute Kirby, or at least blast him needlessly with his massive hammer. Why a duck needed a comedy hammer we could never figure out, but he was cool nevertheless.

3) Dr Robotnik (AKA Dr Eggman)

Although not strictly a Nintendo franchise, we thought we would include Sonic's arch-nemesis here, thanks to the fact that they do both after all appear in the Mario and Sonic Olympics series. He is super-tall, floats about in a weird spaceship thing and is pure evil, right down to his hilarious moustache. To play some of his earliest encounters with our speedy blue friend, visit the Wii's excellent resource of download games, WiiWare.

2) Bowser

It was a close-run thing for first place, but out own personal preferences have put Bowser in second, I'm afraid. Feel free to disagree. The angry Koopa who persecuted his own people and could never take losing with any grace is quite reminiscent of plenty on the world stage today.

1) Ganondorf

A man, with too much ambition. And this is why we hated him. As kids he frightened us with his stylish terror, and still won't go away (making a cameo appearance in Twilight Princess). No doubt the most formidable enemy of Nintendo's coolest hero, Link.

Nintendo has just held its European summit in London, which showcased some exciting new releases set for the first half of this year.

The one game that undoubtedly stands out to us is the sequel to the Wii's smash hit game of 2007, Super Mario Galaxy. Super Mario Galaxy II looks largely the same, having kept in the old features that all the fans loved such as the gravity-defying exploration which made it feel like such an open adventure. But, in pure Nintendo fashion, while they intend to please the old fans they always try something new, and to me this looks a mile better than the original.



This is for one reason only. Call me a heathen, but I have always strongly disliked (hate is a strong word to be aimed at a good guy) Mario, and feel he is the worst character in his own franchise. In this game, however, you now have the option, some of the time, to pair up with his ever-brilliant green friend Yoshi! To me, this already seems like a worthwhile purchase.

It is set for release in June, so you'll have to wait a while yet. Let's hope they incorporate a few more characters into the gameplay from now to then!

Although it often brings the cynic out in us and many of the games in the franchise on the Wii have been disappointing at best, we still can't help but get excited at the prospect of another Sonic game on the console. Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing is set for release at the end of this week, and we are uber-excited.

Take a look at the trailer here to see that it is definitely an improvement on, if not a total shift away from, past racing games in the hedgehog's name. It's gameplay has been compared to that of Mario Kart, which can only be a good thing. However, anyone of the right age reading this may remember one racing game on the N64 called Diddy Kong Racing, and how, despite never quite getting the same acclaim as its main competitor on the console thanks to the Mario name having a Corleone-style monopoly on good reviews, it was definitely as good if not better than Mario Kart 64. We may be getting our hopes up, but it does look very reminiscent of this cult favourite.

Sonic and Sega's All Stars Racing brings another racing game to us which, apparently, going on some of the hands-on previews out there, is actually one to rival Mario Kart. That is a big claim, and one which we will hopefully back ourselves come next week...