Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis

"The minis may be mini, but this game's greatness isn't!"

Mario, his minis, and Donkey Kong return, but this time they come to the DS. Although, they came to a double screen, does that mean that their return was a good one?

The story is the same as other Mario games, but also different. Mario opens up a new amusement park in honor of his successful minis, and invites a VIP guest, Paulina. Donkey Kong sees this VIP guest and starts a crush on her. Donkey Kong and Mario both show their mini characters both at the same time, but when Paulina examines Mario's mini first with a positive thought towards it, Donkey Kong is heart-broken. He kidnaps Paulina and runs to the tallest building and reaches the top of it. Mario realizes he will have to rescue her by defeating Donkey Kong, but when he sees his Mini Marios, he decides they should help him. The story is somewhat the same as Mario's previous adventures, but it's also mixed around a little bit as well, adding some spiciness to it.

The gameplay is very unique, interesting, and contains some bright ideas. There are eight floors, each with its own theme, nine levels, a boss level where you fight Donkey Kong, making ten levels every floor. In the nine levels, you need to get atleast one Mini Mario to the exit, but the more you get to the exit, the better. You need to avoid some of the other mini characters that Donkey Kong put as “guards”, along with other hazards such as water or spikes. You can scan through the level before the time starts to think of a strategy for the level. Don't worry, the time doesn't start until you move a mini, or do something else like tap something with the stylus that can be tapped.

In order to get to the end, you have to get your minis to walk through hazards at the right time, such as when there is a floater on top of water to ride on, and also use weapons like hammers and fire flowers to take out some enemies for points or a brief amount of time.

Depending on how much time you have left, how many enemies you defeated, how many coins you collected, if you complete the level without stopping your minis, and also if your minis reached the exit in a chain, which is when the minis reach the exit in a “group” without having each mini reach the exit too separately. There is also a golden Mini Mario in certain levels, and if he is at the end of a perfect chain, you get bonus points. Depending on how many points you got in the level, you receive either a bronze star, a silver star, or a gold star for the level, and the amount of points it takes to get each star is different depending on the level. The exact amount of points is also recorded for each level, which means even if you have a gold star, there is still a reason to play the level besides enjoying it.

The stages contain many gimmicks, like elevators, magnetic walls, and rotatable pipes, which you learn how to use in the help section throughout the game. The help section will let you know whenever there is something new to learn. Some of these gimmicks contain some quite creative ideas, for example, you can tap blocks with your stylus to take them away, and put them in another place that allows blocks. Once you learn how to do them, you don't really need to look at the help section again, unless your memory has a fluke, which will only happen once or twice.

Hidden in each level is a card with a letter on it. This letter is one of the letters in the words, “Mini Mario”. If you collect them all, you unlock the minigame for the floor, which is taping shy guys as they come out of pipes while avoiding bomb-ombs, which also come out of pipes. The layout of these pipes is different for each floor. The highscore for these minigames is recorded, giving a good reason to play the minigames again besides enjoying them so many times.

The boss level for each floor involves shooting Mini Marios from a cannon to hit Donkey Kong, who might be on a platform, in a pipe, or in another place, and has six lives. Mini Marios don't get destroyed if they reach the top without getting hit by hazards, but if they do get hit, then you lose them. Points and stars are recorded in these levels as well, depending on how many minis you end with, and how much time you have left at the end. The amount of minis you have depend on how many Mini Marios you got to the exit in the previous levels, which means if you are struggling with the bossfight, just go back to previous levels and rescue more minis.

There is also a construction zone involved where you can build your own levels! Although, the amount of things you can use and put in your levels is slightly limited, this is still a very good addition to the game.

The gameplay is very large, unique, interesting, and has many creative ideas that make gameplay the best part of this game.

The controls are easily learned in the help section. About Ninty-eight percent of the controls involve the stylus, so if your DS can't sense the stylus well, this might not be a good game for you. The controls aren't complicated though, as most of them are obvious, like sliding across a mini to have it start walking, and tapping it to have it stop.

Sound is very good, but this is a handheld system, and the sound quality on portables aren't as good as sound quality on consoles. These sounds are still good though, and the only other flaws is that sounds like the squeaky voice of the Mini Marios might get slightly repetitive, but it's tolerable do to other sounds that are good.

Music is also very good in this game, and contains a couple solid tracks that you should like. The amount of music is not super-large, but it still is slightly big, and the solid tracks this game contains make up for the “lightly smaller than usual” amount of music.

Graphics are good as well. There are video clips that tell the story that have great graphics for the DS. The graphics inside the levels are a little different though. They aren't perfect, but they are somewhat made to look like the inside of a building, and objects that are ment to be farther away scroll slower then objects that are ment to be closer, adding depth to the backrounds.

There is an extra multiplayer mode that is very small, but adds a little extra to the game. As you create your own levels with the construction zone, you can give levels to your friends for them to play and receive levels from them for you to play. You can also use Wi-Fi connection to put your levels up for receiving and receive levels from other people. Although the mulitplayer is light, you can use it to show your level creations, and examine user-made levels from other people.

The game won't take you to long to beat itself, about 5-10 hours. But, there is a lot of reasons to come back to this game. You can try getting gold stars on all the levels, try getting as many points as you can in the minigames, build and receive however many levels, or just enjoy this game's greatness again. With all of the replayability in this game, you are most likely going to come back to playing this game again.

Overall, this game may have slightly repetitive sound, and it may take a short time to beat, but the great gameplay, simple controls, and large amount of replayability make up for it by far. This game is worth a buy.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/29/09

Game Release: Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis (US, 09/25/06)