With two of the nation's top-selling games and a hot new look to the hardware, the global Nintendo DS phenomenon has become more popular than ever. New Super Mario Bros. and Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day ranked as the No. 1 and No. 3 best-selling games of May, according to the independent NPD Group. And early reports from major retailers indicate that those same titles are being scooped up with the new Nintendo DS Lite in advance of Father's Day.

After going on sale May 15, New Super Mario Bros. sold at a nonstop rate of roughly one every four seconds nationwide during the reporting period.

New Super Mario Bros. emerged as the No. 1 game of the month, even though it was in stores for just 13 days of the four-week reporting period.

The DS Lite is also performing well. Just two days after Nintendo DS Lite went on sale in the United States on June 11, the new lighter, brighter portable system sold more than 136,500 units, with many retail outlets reporting sellouts.

By comparison, DS Lite is outpacing 2003's launch sales of Nintendo's Game Boy Advance SP by more than 12 percent. Major retailers also report that sales of Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day tripled over the previous week, whereas sales of the New Super Mario Bros doubled in the same time period.