Super Mario and Mario Kart 3D 3D is a must buy for 3DS owners and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - probably the Wii 's swan song - worth the wait

For Nintendo this year 's E3 wasn' t just about the Wii U: the noise from the new console, rather the fact that make-or-break time is approaching for the 3DS dark, and the Wii isn ' t quite dead and buried just yet. Nintendo was interested in presenting games for the existing consoles, and we have our hands on two efforts should 3DS sales campaign - Mario Kart 3D, Super Mario 3D - plus The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which despite its slowness, certainly the highly anticipated Wii game ever.

Mario Kart 3D

Pretty much every Nintendo console has launched with a version of Mario Kart, so it was a bit surprising that the 3DS didn 't. But the four courses that make up the demo version of the game we played at E3 have any idea why Mario Kart 3D hasn 't has arrived. Instead of just a warmed-ISED 3D version of Mario Kart for the DS, Mario Kart 3D is actually a few new things in it.

'T to say that all the old stuff isn' isn \ t even there: it 'sa soothing familiar game, and his perfectly judged mechanics (eg, drifting round corners and knocking on the opposite lock for a speed Boost) have, wisely, has not been tampered with. But one difference is evident when you first dive into the race: You can use your card by picking from a selection of equipment, wheels adjust (some of which jack-kart like a monster truck) and screen for the rear-wing.

That 's right: Mario Kart in 3D if you start your kart off one of those characteristic cliffs or jumps, opens on a wing and you will glide back to Earth. We discovered that speed-boost power-ups to work in midair, and there 'sa beautiful trade-off between staying in the air and thus prevent soil traps, and again on the ground as early as possible, which usually is a slightly faster way to proceed.

Another innovation is the ability to drive underwater – in previous versions of Mario Kart, there were plenty of water's-edge tracks and, if you ended up submerged, you would be fished out and replaced on the track. But in Mario Kart 3D, when you go underwater, your car sprouts a propeller, and you can drive normally.

Plenty of work has gone into Mario Kart 3D's tracks – while some feel familiar, albeit with new additions, the majority of the ones we played were new. Some featured multiple paths, with thin tracks, requiring precision driving and providing the best short-cuts. There were rolling boulders to be dodged, and a Donkey Kong-themed jungle track – unfortunately, crashing into the DK barrels, we discovered, didn't yield any power-ups. The bottom screen showed a top-down map, so you could keep tabs on competitors: up to eight people can race against each other, either locally or via the web. Although the stereoscopic 3D made it marginally easier to judge distances and aim green shells accurately, it couldn't really be said to have added much to Mario Kart's classic gameplay.

Super Mario 3D

Nintendo development guru Shigeru Miyamoto recently described 3D Super Mario - Mario 's first starring vehicle in the 3DS - like a cross between Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy, and the four levels that we played at E3 confirmed just that. His name doesn 't really do justice to his originality: Super Mario 3D is definitely not composed of bits of old Super Mario games cobblestones.

Gameplay-wise, it bends more towards Super Mario 64 's classic 3-D platformer - it isn' t too much messing around with gravity, which is of course characteristic of Super Mario Galaxy. But there are a lot of familiar elements from the latter, as rhythmic tiles that appear and disappear. Involved a level you make your way through a pirate ship, avoiding slow moving balls and the like, and moving into and out of the screen at regular intervals. Moving in and out of the screen was a recurring theme, and this is an area that is much easier to judge when you play in 3D.

We also had a go with the Tanooki (raccoon) suit, which transforms Mario into a raccoon with a tail attack (which can also be used to float, be). We put on a mini-boss - one of Bowser 's younger relations - and had it with the Tanooki-tail whipped, until he was dizzy. And we saw a new type of block, which, if you bash it, you teleporting to an otherwise inaccessible part of the plane. Super Mario 3D because it is brand new, will be a must-buy for 3DS owners.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

You can 't resist that, when the first Wii-specific version of what surely Nintendo' s most revered franchise - The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - was ready in time for Christmas 2010, the Wii 's disastrous late-period sales would dip at least delayed. As it is, the Wii 's successor has already emerged, with what is surely the Wii \ be' s swan song is still months away.

We were able to play three levels of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword at E3, and were convinced that it's worth the interminable wait was. They clearly illustrate how the latest iteration of the action-adventure franchise makes full use of the Wii remote 's motion-sensing capabilities.

The first stage was a bird-riding one, with a hint of Quidditch is: in the competition with three AI-controlled characters, we had a bird hunt and grab a golden statue was holding it. Moving the Wii Remote changed the bird 's orientation and shook encouraged them to beat their wings and to accelerate. We discovered that the best approach is to discuss our goal and plunge to fly on them. Although this '\ t representative of the core gameplay, it was quite funny and the game was' clearly wasn \ s diversity.

The second level was set in a castle, much more familiar Zelda fare: Link was on foot, and had to fight spiders and skeleton enemies, the latter with his sword and shield (swinging the Wii remote for sword slashes and thrusting the Nunchuk to use the shield). The spiders were best with a bow and arrow (with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk sent together to bow chimps) have been attacked, and there was also access to solve puzzles for the link used to open his-flying beetles and stumble to switch doors . Classic stuff indeed.

The final level on show was a boss-battle, involving just swordfighting, but as we were taking on an elf-like boss, a precise and tactical approach was required, to get around his defences and find unprotected areas to attack. Again, this was classic Zelda gameplay, and the responsiveness and controllability of Link's sword was very satisfying. In its graphics, Skyward Sword harks back to earlier Zelda games, eschewing Twilight Princess's more realistic look in favour of a fairly cartoonish approach. If you're thinking of buying just one more game for your Wii, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword will surely be it.