New screens of Nintendo's hottest upcoming DS games

Like a frustrating but dentally-aware mother applying strict calendar-based rules of kiddie access to the cookie jar, Nintendo has teased us with a precious few new screens of three of the games we're most hungry for.

We've already looked at Yoshi's Island 2, Mario versus Donkey Kong 2: Return of the Minis, and The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass in one form or another (follow those links for our latest story on each). But that isn't to say we're not excited by these new screens (right, in three groups – press the arrows to scroll through).

It's The Legend of Zelda shots that are of most interest, showing four ways in which the map system will work across the dual-screens. Or rather, three shots apparently portray three different scales – room, dungeon and world-based, depending on Link's position at the time. The fourth shot sees the map swap to the lower screen to enable the player to scrawl notes on it.

As for dino-platformer Yoshi's Island 2, it's due to arrive on December 1st. Incidentally, the name isn't yet confirmed, although as it's a sequel to Yoshi's Island and it's set on an island, we struggle to see what else Nintendo will call it.

We're still waiting for confirmation of the release date for the Mario and Zelda games, but we certainly don't expect to see them before Christmas, so don't bother being too good for Santa.