At the recent Nintendo European Gamers Summit, we had a chance to check out some of their hottest upcoming games. By far the biggest queue was for Super Mario Galaxy 2 (out for Wii on 11 June). The first game is one of the Wii’s highest-rated titles, and if you liked that, you’ll love this one (picture 1).

It’s got the same mix of cool 3D action, and the big new feature this time is the appearance of Yoshi. Pop his egg open and jump on his back, and the game suddenly takes a new turn. You can use the green fella’s big tongue to grab onto things, including mid-air platforms that help you to swing across gaps. Make him eat a red-hot chilli and he’ll go crazily fast!

There are also some cool bosses to scrap with, including a truly huge dragon (see it in the trailer below), and the whole thing looks brilliant.

We also liked Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Skies on the Wii (out 7 May, picture 2). This all-action Japanese game involves non-stop shooting, and is really cool when you use a Wii Zapper.

Armed with guns, a sword and jet pack, you’ll be challenged to do as well as you can on each level, so that you can compete on an online international leaderboard. Click here to see the trailer.

They were the two most popular, but there was lots of other cool stuff for us to try out. While we were queuing up for our turn on Super Mario Galaxy 2, we had a few races on Mario Kart on the new, bigger DSi XL. It certainly feels meatier and is noticeably heavier, but the larger screen really does make a cool difference. Nintendo claimed that it would have a wider viewing angle, so that your mates or family can see the screen from the side, and they weren’t wrong. All in all, it’s a great new addition to the DS family.

If you’ve ever been interested in making your own games, we recommend getting hold of the new Wario game when it’s out on 30 April. WarioWare: Do It Yourself (picture 3) will be available for DS, and is a speedy and wacky collection of mini-games. Some are great, some are completely baffling and others are a bit naff, but they go by so fast that it’s a lot of fun.

You can only make the mini-games on the DS version, and there are really detailed tutorials about how to draw, animate and even make music. There’s a useful example to get you started, and if you’ve got the patience to give it a go you’ll have loads of fun. Click here to see the trailer.

You can also upload the games you’ve made to your Wii or the net if you also buy WarioWare: D.I.Y. Showcase for the Wii. That’s out on WiiWare on the same day.

We also tried out FlingSmash on the Wii (picture 4). In this one, you use the Wii Remote to hurl a bouncy ball into various bricks and obstacles. So you fling your ball about and it smashes things, see? Very clever. Anyway, it’s very simple and you can just pick it up and play, as long as you have the Wii MotionPlus add-on.

The trick comes in choosing your path and beating the time limits. As you get further into the game, you can upgrade to a metal ball, and so on. Another player can join in, and there’s a neat adaptation for left-handers. The ball usually moves from the right to left, but if you’re left-handed you can reverse that so that it’s more natural.