Wario Land: Shake It! (Nintendo, for the Wii, $49.99)

Wario is Mario’s evil alter ego: He’s fatter, meaner and greedier, and his mustache is out of control. While he began his career as an antagonist for Mario, he’s taken the lead in about a dozen games since, including the terrific WarioWare series of five-second-long “microgames.”

Shake It! isn’t anywhere near as inventive as those gems. Instead, it’s a fairly linear, two-dimensional running-and-jumping game (a “platformer,” to resort to industry jargon). It’s exactly the kind of game that made Mario famous two decades ago, and it feels awfully old-fashioned.

The twist is that by shaking the Wii remote, you can cause earthquakes, which flip your enemies upside-down and open up new areas to explore. While Shake It! is a solid platformer, the levels aren’t very challenging — you can get through each one in about 10 minutes, and you can polish off the entire game in just a few hours. There are some bonus goals that provide motivation to replay levels, but most gamers will be disappointed.

Kirby Super Star Ultra (Nintendo, for the DS, $34.99)

Kirby is one of those second-string Nintendo characters that gamers either love or hate. He’s a simple pink ball with flipperlike arms and big red feet, and he sucks. Literally. His primary power is the ability to inhale his enemies, which allows him to absorb their powers. Amazingly, this cipher has his own Saturday morning cartoon series.

Ultra is a remake of a 1996 game that came out on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. For the most part, it’s a straightforward platformer. After you breeze through the initial levels, subsequent stages throw in variations: You may need to race against an opponent or collect a certain number of treasures before time runs out. There are also a few minigames in which you need to match cards or hit targets, but they aren’t worth more than a couple of plays.