Mario Party's combination of mini-game challenges and traditional board-game structure remains largely unchanged in its first outing on the Nintendo 3DS. But for innovation Island Tour focuses on the tilt, microphone, touch-screen and augmented-reality abilities of the handheld, employing them liberally in its 80 or so challenges. Although each is short-lived, they impress with both variety and execution, starring favourite Nintendo characters and using 3DS interactions intelligently.

Tapping, pressing, drawing or waving the 3DS around accurately wins an extra dice to roll back in the main game and faster progress around the board. However, for all this creativity, there is a lack of coherence; mini-games sometimes feel inconsequential, as chance often determines progress.

Island Tour resolves this in its local multiplayer mode, where human competition refocuses all those involved on the outcome. To encourage this form of play, a single copy allows three friends to download it and join in, – great for younger gamers and families Andy Robertson

NES Remix

Wii U, Nintendo, cert: 3

NES Remix is a strange narcotic. The first hit gives older players a wave of nostalgia by repackaging Nintendo's 1980s hits – Mario Bros, Excitebike, Donkey Kong and more – into seconds-long micro-games. Then comes the addiction, as you compulsively repeat seemingly simple tasks such as running Mario through a string of Goombas or sending enemies crashing out of the sky in a flash of Balloon Fight. The reward is the buzz of a three-star-rainbow score ranking and virtual stamps for online bragging.

But then the crash hits, as you realise that many of the "classics" included are no such thing – Tennis, Urban Champion and Ice Climber being just some of the guilty parties – and that even the better examples haven't aged well. Controls are near-uniformly frustrating, while the titular remix levels (placing Zelda's Link in Donkey Kong levels, for instance) erroneously confuse controller-smashing difficulty with tests of skill. Nintendo devotees are likely to enjoy the package more than most, but even then, most probably through gritted teeth. Matt Kamen