etmaul's Review of Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis

Want A Game That Uses The Stylus Like There's No Tomorrow? Then This Game Is For You & You Won't Be Disappointed!

User Rating: 9 | Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis DS

By etmaul | Review Date: September 27, 2006

I must say, MvDK2 may look like a pretty lame game, but lame it is not! If you used to play Lemmings long ago for the PC, you'll definitely enjoy MvDK2. The Gameplay is just what you'd expect, only the use of the stylus is key and it works very, very well. Move your Marios left and right, make them jump by flicking the stylus up, stop them with a tap, controlling individual Marios is easy! If you thought Lemmings was easy, the stylus controlled Minis are a dream! The go from simple to complex and require much thought if you want to keep all your Minis as well as collecting all the coins and cards that up your point total. Then again, the longer you take, the less points you get for time at the end of the level. Everytime you complete the entire floor, which usually consists of nine stages, you go up a level in the building; slowly ascending to the top floor where Donkey Kong has Pauline, the woman you're trying to save. Another cool aspect of the game are the placement of blocks, sounds boring right? Not so! Say you have 3 Minis on one row of blocks and you need to drop them to another set of blocks directly below, but because you have your Minis on blocks, you have to tap the blocks you're on, then immediately tap the blocks below to fill them in so your Minis don't meet their death. I know it sounds confusing, but its a neat little feature. There are also Shy Guys, Pirhana plants and windup Donkey Kongs that will be in your way, but fear not, you can use a trusty hammer to bash them into submission allowing your minis to pass.

As for graphics, once again, cuteness wins the race with this one. Who doesn't look at a Mini Mario and go "awwwwwwwwwwww," seriously, they're cute. Plus the stages are very bright and colorful so you won't lose interest too quickly when some levels may look the same after a while. Another cool feature which tends to be showing up more and more in DS games are cutscenes, much like MPH and FFIII's cutscenes, the opening for MvDK2 is a nice little feature that further showcases the DS's potential.

As for sound, whenever you touch a Mini, it makes noise, again, cute. The music is nice and doesn't get annoying so that's a plus. Also, all the genuine Mario sounds are here for example, when a Mini gets a hold of a hammer and goes ballistic, I love that music! Other than that, Nintendo hits a homerun with its creative sound efforts as always.

Something you always tend to find in DS games is value. I think this one will have a high replay rate because of the ability to share maps via the wi-fi connection and the levels really don't take that long to complete. One thing Nintendo realizes, especially with the DS is that most people don't play it as much as a console, so being able to complete a level in a short amount of time, while keeping it challenging, is something they took into account. Much like Rub Rabbits and WarioWare, you can do a couple stages on your way to school and pick up where you left off during lunch, or something of that nature.

Bottom line, this game is one every DS owner should consider. Think of all the games that use the stylus, but not really to its full potential, because this one is stylus heavy. After all, it's all about touch with the DS right, so go ahead...be a Mini!

Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis

Want A Game That Uses The Stylus Like There's No Tomorrow? Then This Game Is For You &amp; You Won't Be Disappointed!

A new, different, interesting puzzle, that surely deserves a try!

Lemmings and Mario got married.

Want A Game That Uses The Stylus Like There's No Tomorrow? Then This Game Is For You & You Won't Be Disappointed!