Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis (DS) Review
There are ninety-nine Marios sitting on a pipe. If one fell off there would be ninety-eight Marios sitting on a pipe. The sequel to the Game Boy Advance hit, Mario Vs. Donkey Kong, continues Nintendos legacy of touch screen controlled handheld games for the DS system. In what could only be considered as one of the more cleverer games of the year, Mario Vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis takes us through over 80 unique levels. For the first time we also see the curtain rise thanks to a wonderful level editor that is both easy to use and can be shared with friends. You’re looking at more content and fun than a barrel full of Mario toys.
In the Game Boy Advance prequel, Mario travelled through a series of worlds searching for stolen mini Mario toys that Donkey Kong had fiendishly taken all for himself. You were given the task of controlling Mario throughout the levels, rescuing the mini Marios as you progressed through the adventure. This time around however, the Mini Marios are under your command as you make your way to the top of the building to rescue Pauline from Donkey Kong. How does this change the experience you ask? Firstly you cannot control the mini Marios by using the D-Pad. Movement is controlled by both the touch screen and stylus, but while being innovative breath of fresh air for the games, at times when there are four Mini Marios running around on screen, players may find themselves becoming confused. Instead of having one character to control, you have to micromanage over five Mini Marios at any one particular time, and this takes some getting used to.
The bulk of the game is in the single player experience. As mentioned earlier, there are over 80 levels spread across 8 different environments, some which are easily recognisable as straight out of the Mario handbook. A few of the worlds include: an exotic beach, the inside of Peachs castle, a spooky mansion and a red rot lava world. In each of these worlds are nine levels, one mini game and the all important final boss battle. The levels tend to vary in size, shape and difficulty, usually starting off as childs play and progressing toward swear-inducing frustration. The mini games and boss battles present no difference as your journey progresses. The mini games simply have you bashing the Shy Guy for a period of thirty seconds, and while the background may change from world to world, the mini game is always the same as before. This can be echoed for the boss battles. The background may go through a makeover but theres hardly any variety in what should be the thrilling final fight.
Throughout the levels are obstacles that mean to hinder your path as well as see to the doom of your little mini Mario friends. Notable obstructions include: Shy Guys, Monkeys that throw oblivious Mini Marios into their backpack and Bloopers. Each of these can be dealt with easily though by using a number of weapons sometimes available only on a particular level. The weapons include: the famous Fireball Flower and the trusty Hammer that has you bashing anything in sight a mile per second. These weapons are not available on every level so due care must be taken to devise other strategies and utilise other obstacles such as pink blocks that can be moved around willingly and elevators that you control.
Finishing a level will give you a total score of how well you did. Depending on factors such as your time, amount of coins collected and number of Mini Marios saved, you have the ability to unlock star ratings that come in Bronze, Silver and Gold. For the most part, Silver is easily obtainable as long as you get all your Minis back before the timer reaches zero. If a Mini Mario falls victim to a levels traps and obstacles then you can kiss anything above a Bronze rating goodbye. Gold ratings are where the replay value comes into effect. Obtaining this rating is near impossible and will require many hours of concentration from the more seasoned gamers. Why should you bother working your arse off for these Golden Stars you say? Putting aside the ability to brag once a certain amount of Silver Stars and Golden Stars have been reached, some juicy game unlockables become available.
Everything is touch screen controlled, so this is another game that will be giving your stylus pen a work out. To move a Mini Mario you slide the stylus in the direction you want it to go over the top of him. To make the little fella jump, slide the stylus upward across him and to stop the mini in his tracks, tap it once. The controls are simple and user friendly, meaning that you will have them perfected in no time. One issue that has risen for me personally however is when multiple minis come walking into one another. Its a frantic bash of the touch screen to get them to stop. Sometimes the tap to stop the mini doesnt register and can result in rather messy repercussions.
The other half of the March of the Minis is the Level Editor which gives you the option to trade your self-made levels online with friends. Yes, this game is WiFi however it is restricted to friends only, which means yet more tedious friend code entries. Creating a map is simple, as you can choose from over 8 different backgrounds, each based on the Single Player worlds (you have to have completed the world in Single player to be able to use the background in Level Editor) as well as unlockable kits so you can place characters and obstacles around your level.
There are heaps of slots available for saved levels and each allows a vast amount of scenery however the space for your level is somewhat restricted. To top things off, Nintendo will occasionally send out levels made especially by them so you dont have to rely of friends frequently updating there levels.
