My 5 yr old son is really playing the heck out the "New" Super Mario Bros. game for the DS.  Honestly, I'm enjoying it a great deal too, though I am finding it's design overall a little TOO oldschool for my tastes.  Of course now "my" DS is getting appropriated by the kids a lot and when the big brother has the DS, the little brother has to have my SP, even if he doesn't really know how to do anything with it yet other than mash the buttons randomly. 

I am naturally quite looking forward to Super Mario Galaxy on the (sigh) Wii.  In fact, that's pretty much a system seller there for me.  I feel like the "lost arts" of the 90s are as lamentably gone in platformers in some ways as they are on the PC side of things.  Don't get me wrong, games like Sly Cooper, Ratchet and Clank, Mario Sunshine, and Daxter are all amazing games.  But I fundamentally miss the "collect 'em ups" from Rare like Donkey Kong 64 and both Banjo-Kazooie games, the classic Insomniac Spyro games, and of coursethe grand-daddy, Mario 64.  Wow, the N64 really was *the* system to have for that kind of game.

I continue to hold out hope that someday we'll see another Banjo-Kazooie game, or that perhaps Mario Galaxy will harken back to Mario 64 (as opposed to my fears of it being gimmick-laden).  And hey, at least Ratchet and Clank are making the jump to the PS3, so perhaps Sly Cooper will too, or maybe even someone other than Insomniac will make a Spyro game that's worthy of the franchise...