For a self-effacing, portly little plumber, Mario may be the most ambitious guy in video games.
No other video game company puts its characters to work as much as Nintendo does. Mario’s closest competitor is Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog, but he’s had some pretty rough years, with a run of lacklustre games. But you can’t keep a popular mascot down forever, and Sonic may be on the verge of a long-awaited comeback.

Wario Land: Shake it!
System: Nintendo Wii
Rating: **

Wario is Mario’s evil alter ego: He’s fatter, meaner and greedier, and his moustache is out of control. While he began his career as an antagonist for Mario, he’s taken the lead in about a dozen games since, including the terrific WarioWare series of five-second-long “microgames.”

Shake It! isn’t anywhere near as inventive as those gems. Instead, it’s a fairly linear, two-dimensional running-and-jumping game. It’s exactly the kind of game that made Mario famous two decades ago, and it feels awfully old-fashioned. You can polish off the entire game in just a few hours. There are some bonus goals that provide motivation to replay levels, but most gamers will be disappointed.

Kirby Super Star Ultra
System: Nintendo DS
Rating: **

Kirby is one of those second-string Nintendo characters that gamers either love or hate. He’s a simple pink ball with flipperlike arms and big red feet, and he sucks. Literally. His primary power is the ability to inhale his enemies, which allows him to absorb their powers.

Ultra is a remake of a 1996 game that came out on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.   Young Kirby fans who missed the original game will get a kick out of Ultra, but it’s not the best showcase for the iron-lunged dynamo.

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
System: Nintendo DS
Rating: ***

Sega has been trying for years to recapture the excitement generated by the original Sonic the Hedgehog, released in 1991. For this DS adventure, the company put its marquee performer in the hands of BioWare, the studio that made the last great Star Wars game, Knights of the Old Republic.

The result is a crafty genre mix that could introduce Sonic fans to BioWare’s specialty, the role-playing game. The combat sequences mix turn-based strategy with the need for nimble stylus-tapping.