The third entry in the series expands on every strength, with ever-expanding content for Mario vs Donkey Kong addicts.
The premise of the third game may be predictable to most but is nonetheless entertaining. Due to their other attractions achieving great success, Mario and long-time (and more realistic) girlfriend Pauline are opening a new themed park called Mini Land (a park whose main features are the wind-up toys dotting the attractions), and a mini-Pauline is given to the first one hundred entrants. An enthusiastic Donkey Kong (what, he couldn't bring Diddy?) bulldozes his way to the front of the line in the hopes of receiving a mini-Pauline for his own. Unfortunately the last mini-Pauline has just been given away, causing the temperamental Donkey Kong to become enraged. He then decides that the real Pauline would suffice, grabbing her and then racing into the park. Mario's attempt to grab Pauline back fails, leaving him to rely once again on his Mini-Mario toys to dodge hundreds of obstructions within the games many attractions in the hopes of thwarting Donkey Kong and saving Pauline.
The first part of the game contains eight attractions (levels) with eight stages each with a boss battle between Donkey Kong and your group of windup heroes. In every stage your primary goal is to guide Mini-Marios to the exit while manipulating the environment to dodge obstacles, avoid spike pits and even defeat enemy windup toys left by Donkey Kong. In every attraction's fourth level you'll be tasked with guiding different windup toys to different doors. In these stages, you'll find windup versions of Toad, Peach, DK and Pauline in plastic capsules which must be freed by your Mini-Mario and then herded to their individual exits, all the while watching for obstacles, collecting items and being mindful of the time limit. Players may find that these stages may be finished more easily if the Mini-Mario frees his friends and is then guided to his exit while leaving his windup friends to collect the items for him. Every attraction's eighth stage consist of a locked door and one of your Mini-Marios holding a key. In these stages you must manipulate the marching Mini-Marios so that the one holding the key is in the front, thus being able to unlock the door for his companions. This is easier said than done as (unlike the previous games) your windup toys can't be stopped once they've started, so scanning the level for upcoming obstacles or enemies is key to planning a fast way to guide your Mario toys to the exit.
A ninth stage consists of the aforementioned boss battle between Donkey Kong and your windup Musketeers. Paying homage to the c1assic Donkey Kong releases, you goal is to guide three Mini-Marios to the top of the screen and set off traps or weapons to use against Donkey Kong in an attempt to pacify him. This won't be easy as DK usually has an unfair advantage in that he can manipulate the environment so that rivets can break causing girders and support beams to fall, conveyor belts can reverse direction, drop objects, flames or windup enemies or even change the environment itself. The game encourages you to lose as few of your Mini-Marios as possible while being mindful of the time limit while fighting him, which may seem next to impossible as there are times when even finishing the boss battles take a little luck. Fortunately clock items appear as the boss battle drags on; sending a Mini Mario over to pick up the object adds more time to the clock. Defeat Donkey Kong to clear the attraction and prepare for the next.
Mini-games and extra levels can be unlocked by collecting special objects scattered around the environments, the most important items being Mini Mario Cards and M-Tokens. Each stage (including boss battles) contains these items, which forces the player plan more efficiently in collecting these items while dodging obstacles and reaching the exit within a preset time limit. Collecting all nine cards within an attraction spells out M-I-N-I-M-A-R-I-O and unlocks a mini-game for that attraction which allows the player the chance to win extra M-Tokens. The tokens won in the mini-game as well as the ones collected in the stages unlock stages in the Special Attraction, an attraction in which players are given three seconds to plan a safe route before all of the toys begin moving automatically.
There's yet another set of levels that be unlocked with even more taxing stages depending on how many trophies the player has earned throughout the game called the Expert Levels, denoted by an "X" in the level select menu. Set in the storage area of the park, these are highly taxing levels in which it may take several tries to complete without losing a Mini-Mario. These stages can only be unlocked by earning large numbers of awards, which are given by completing the normal stages in the least amount of time while collecting every item, as well as defeating Donkey Kong in boss battles in the least amount of time without losing a single Mini-Mario in the process. THAT is hardcore gaming, folks.
Unlike previous games, the player doesn't have to worry about their "life" count. Instead, a normal stage must be retried when the player accidentally loses a Mini Mario or other Mini character by either dropping it from an excessive height, having it collide with an enemy or having it touch or fall in spike traps. Should the player fail to finish the stage several times in a row, a Mini Guide option appears which will complete the stage for you. The player won't receive credit for any M-Tokens or Mini Mario Cards collected but progress can continue. It's helpful for newcomers in the Mario vs DK series, but old-school gamers would want to learn to complete the stages on their own.
Controls are more intuitive and responsive than the previous games, and building platforms, ladders or conveyor belts between two rivets is as easy as a flick of the stylus. There are even times when it may be necessary to collapse a platform on which a Mini-Mario is walking and then quickly redraw a platform at a lower height as your precious toy begins falling into a spike pit, or when drawing girders over a Mini-Mario to stop falling objects during a boss stage; these instances make responsive controls a necessity. This may be one of the few games in which losing a Mini-Mario is usually your fault due to a miscalculation in planning or not adjusting to a changing environment quick enough and not because of the game's control.
The presentation is noticeably better than March of the Minis even though the graphics consist of mostly primary colors. Still, it's better than the white backgrounds used primarily on the attraction screens of the previous title and DSiWare release Minis March Again and is eye-resting despite the vast amount of information displayed on both screens. The backgrounds are bright and colorful and in no way detract from the puzzle-solving, and the character designs on both the variety of Minis and the enemy toys (mainly the Shy Guys and different Kongs) are appropriate for their function, although I consider the grey Kongs the ugliest characters in the whole series (they steal your Minis and bag them; they can only be freed by a Mini coming along swinging c1assic hammers). The music consists of remixed Mario tunes which fit the themes of the attractions but may seem a little too similar to the previous entry, however the gameplay can grab the player's attention in such as way that they may tune out the music due to concentration on the fastest route for the toys.
Finally, for those of you who may not be satisfied with the 200-plus levels packaged in the game, an included level editor makes an appearance. Like the previous title, DS owners can build, share and download up to forty puzzles using Nintendo's Wifi Connection as well as participate in special contests by Nintendo which tasks the player to build puzzles around specific themes, participate in Challenge modes between players or download specially created puzzles by Nintendo Software Technology programmers. Overall, a nice amount of extended gameplay and modes for your $30.00.
Mini-Land Mayhem is another solid entry in the Mario vs Donkey Kong series which addresses the complaints regarding the previous release's control and presentation while expanding on the addictive qualities of the series such as the level design, gameplay and content. For gamers who really want to demonstrate how hardcore they can be in unlocking every single expert stage or even casual gamers who simply want a game that's fun and wholesome to play, I can think of few DS releases more worthy than Mini-Land Mayhem.