The game starts off as you would expect; Princess Peach has baked Mario a cake, the camera pans down the outside of the castle, a pipe appears out of the ground and Mario pops out with a YAHOOO! But this is where the game changes from what you know into something completely new. Three more pipes appear and out of each comes Yoshi, Luigi and Wario. The three moustached men all go heading into the castle for cake with Princess Peach.

After taking control of the lone Yoshi you find out that Mario, his brother, his alter ego and Princess Peach have all disappeared and it's up to you to save them. Taking control of Yoshi from the get-go might be a little weird for veterans of this game but it is a nice change once you realise that controlling Mario becomes available early on in the story. With the collection of the plumber's little red hat, Yoshi can change into and utilise Mario's moves. And once you find where Mario has been locked away you can simply swap between Yoshi and Mario (and any other unlocked character) whenever you want. The reason behind the caps - there are yellow and green ones as well - is that some of the stars can only be collected by certain characters, true to previous games in the series. So instead of having to leave the world you are in to trek back to the "swap" room you can simply grab the hat of the character you need.

The three characters aren't hugely different from each other. Yoshi uses his tongue to swallow enemies and with the press of the crouch button you can turn them into eggs and in turn as ammo. His Flutter Kick also comes in handy for hard to reach platforms. Mario has all the traditional moves that include the Wall Kick and a specific hat that enables him to fly. Luigi can run on water for a brief time, turn invisible with the help of a Power Flower and has an incredibly goofy jump if the jump button is held down. Wario rounds this off with the ability to break items others can't and can turn into metal which allows him to walk on the bottom of any water areas.

Nintendo have really shown its user-base what can be done with the DS in almost every way possible. The majority of the sounds have been rerecorded or at least tweaked for the DS release, but the shining light here is the stereo sound. Somehow Nintendo have managed to pull off surround sound with two speakers that actually works. There are puzzles that require you to know which direction a certain sound is coming from, and because of the effectiveness of this system, you won't find these difficult.

How is the touch screen utilised and what for? Well, for the main adventure mode it is used mainly as map of which ever level you are in. It will show where you are, where the star you are after is and also any other items such as caps or red coins - these need to be memorised as they are only there while talking to a specific character. The touch screen can also be used for controlling your character.

What Nintendo have of course essentially done with Super Mario 64 DS is port a game that showed the world we needed analogue control, onto a system that doesn't have any analogue buttons. So you can play it with the D-pad, but all this does is confirm that the game was never meant to be played this way, or with the touch screen via the little thumb pad on the end of the wrist strap. When your thumb is placed onto the screen a centre point for the analogue control is created and sliding your thumb around this center point will give you analogue effects. Sadly, because of the lack in physical feedback, you will often find that your thumb will keep sliding to the edge of the screen and you will need to recentre. While the system does work, even people who master it will still find it a little cumbersome.

The other use for the touch screen is the mini-game madness. Each character starts with two minigames and has to unlock another seven via catching bunnies scattered around the main story mode. While the adventure game is fun to pick up and play, the mini-games is what will hook you into turning the system on each day. Each game utilises the stylus in many different ways, some require you to draw trampolines, others require you to slide shells about on ice. You will find yourself competing with friends and family for high scores; it's just a pity that Nintendo didn't have specific multiplayer mini-games.

As mentioned, Nintendo really have utilised most of what makes the DS a DS, including the wireless multiplayer capaiblity. Only one person will need the game card and after a brief downloading from the host machine, up to four people can join up and battle it out for the most stars. While it is simply a 'run around and get the stars before the others' kinda game, once you have a feeling for the controls it will guarantee a few hours of fun. This mode does however seem tacked on like a last minute thought - there are only four maps to choose from and you can't choose which character to be, instead you must rely on the caps scattered around the levels.