While I have fallen behind in playing Oblivion on the Xbox 360, I have made time to play the New Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo DS. If you were a fan of Super Mario either in the older consoles or in the Arcade, you will *L*O*V*E* this game. The graphics are updated and fantastic, the gameplay is spot on, and the control is perfect. This is the game you remember and so much more. The world selection system is very much like like Super Mario World. The length isn’t huge but just right. My only complaint is the save points can sometimes feel a little far apart — I wish you could save after ever world, but, oh well. The really neat thing about playing this game on the Nintendo DS is the battery life on the DS really good and you can, at any time, just close the DS and it will hibernate the system; when you are ready to play again just open the DS and immediately pick up where you left off. Let’s see the PSP have zero boot time between gaming sessions like that.
I am also playing the new Half Life: Episode One. It is really polished and a lot of fun. Unfortunately, it is a touch taxing on my system – it seems my video card is just a little out of date for the game, but, it mostly keeps up if I don’t put the resolution too high. If you are a Half-Life fan, this seems to be a worthy addition to the franchise.