Holiday Gift Guide 2010 – Classics Video Games on the Nintendo DS & DSi

An upgraded version of the classic PC game SimCity 3000 has players designing, building and modifying and running a virtual city. As this is a “god game” players can control most of what happens, but even a society’s overseen by deities have a natural disaster or two, such as fires, earthquakes and alien attacks. To maintain order and keep your urban society happy, you must use the touch screen controls and microphone to keep your city safe.

A collection of the very best 2D side-scrolling Sonic games originally released on the SEGA Genesis. While back in the day Sonic was SEGA flagship franchise during their console war with arch nemesis Nintendo, the series is now available on all of Nintendo’s modern systems.

Sega Sonic Classic Collection includes the first four hits in the series including the original Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, and 3, plus the first spin-off title, Sonic & Knuckles.

An update to the world’s most popular alien shooter Space Invaders was so popular that the made a sequel. Like the first Space Invaders Extreme, part 2 takes you on a frenetic fast paced action mission where you try to blast away armadas of invading alien ships. In addition to the increased speed, the aliens invade in a variety of formations, and are now interspersed with boss battles. The look of the game has been given an overhaul that maintains the retro feel, but also gives it a cyberpunk techno edge.

The original Super Mario 64 made for the perfect launch title when Nintendo made their leap into 64-bit 3D gaming with the N64 console. The game was such a big hit that it led this final cartridge based gaming system to enormous success.

When the Nintendo DS was first previewed at the 2004 E3 Expo, Mario 64 was used as a tech demo to show the systems capabilities, so when the handheld finally shipped, so did Mario 64. A perfect rendition of the original platforming adventure, making full use of the dual screens and stylus, plus it includes new multiplayer modes where up to four players can compete wirelessly. Perfect for any new or old-school Mario fan.

One of the most popular football video games in history, Tecmo Super Bowl, gets a DS upgrade. While the visuals have been revised to compliment the DS graphics capabilities, the 2D gameplay style remains the same as the original. The game structures are identical to the original, only with some new added features such as Super Abilities (aka power-ups), customizable teams and playbook, plus instant replays of key moves.

What would a Nintendo handheld system be without Tetris? Heck, the original Tetris put the first Game Boy system on the map, and its old-school block dropping style is still just as addictive as ever. Now in addition to using traditional control buttons the DS takes advantage of its unique touch screen with Touch Mode, plus a multiplayer mode allows for competitions via wireless connectivity. There are six game modes in total, each featuring different classic Nintendo characters such as Link (from the Legend of Zelda), Mario, Metroid and Donkey Kong.