Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis

I have to admit, I didn’t play the original Mario vs. Donkey Kong, but was struck by how cute the Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis (Nintendo DS) packaging was while I was looking for a Wii online. We all know how much cuteness means to a game, right? :D Anyway…

The storyline is pretty typical — heroine gets kidnapped, Mario must rescue her. Except, in this case, the heroine is Pauline who I’ve not seen since I was a kid and instead of Mario, there’s lots of Mini Mario toys created in (for?) the newly opened Super Mini Mario World theme park. Tiny little wind ’em up Marios, how sweet.

March of the Minis involves controlling the Mini Marios around puzzle-style levels on each floor using a variety of tools and scenery to help you along. Springs, ‘moveable’ (or should that be tappable?) blocks and a favour baddie of mine — the shy guy. Once you’ve got used to using the stylus for everything (I’m a d-pad girl, go figure) it’s quite fun to race around collecting as many coins and other goodies as possible to try and get the best score. Controlling multiple Minis at once, and getting the gold Mario last in the chain apparently helps too. The higher your score at the end of each level, the better the star you’re awarded.

After you’ve completed all of the levels on a floor, you meet up with DK for the boss battle. Compared to normal style Mario bosses, these are the easiest I’ve come across… but that’s pretty much a theme for the entire game. Easy, fun game-play. Nothing too strenuous on the ol’ noggin. I’m led to believe that this changes at — or near — the end but I’ve not got that far yet so you’ll have to wait and see.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 is not what I thought it’d be when I bought it, but I think it’ll appeal to new and old Mario fans alike. Using the stylus takes a short while to get used but the controls are very intuitive and can be quickly mastered. Once you get the hang of controlling all of them Marios at once, you’re ready to take on the big ape Donkey Kong. It’s a good, fresh game that I’d recommend to all.

9 comments so far

  1. Jenny said:
    On 19 Mar at 11:09 pm

    I wish I could read all that and actually comprehend it. The last old-game I played was Crash Bandicoot though, which I’m sure has nothing to do with Mario..

  2. Hillarie said:
    On 19 Mar at 11:53 pm

    I like games. Unless they are too challenging, then I’ll just give up. But, oh, the stylus! It bugs me to no end, because I’m told that my handwriting is nice, but it’s horrible on the DS, because I can’t use the stylus very well. It’s too tiny! But the game sounds fun.

  3. Jordan said:
    On 20 Mar at 12:17 am

    I came across this game the other day while I was surfing ebay for good deals on a DS. I’ve been dying to get my paws on one but haven’t really found any games that I’d play on it regularly, though this one did have somewhat of an interest to me, though I don’t think I’d go with it, even if I bought a DS.

  4. Ashley said:
    On 20 Mar at 12:53 am

    Oh, I strictly buy games based on cuteness factor. :D If it’s scary and ugly looking I don’t want anything to do with it. But hey, you can’t really go too wrong with Mario. Maybe my sister will want this and I can try it out from her.

  5. Stephanie said:
    On 20 Mar at 3:53 am

    Interesting…I believed I’ve played a version of Mario vs. DK, but it definitely wasn’t this one. Sounds like fun.

  6. Kelly said:
    On 20 Mar at 2:20 pm

    I’ve recently gotten the hang of using DOSBox as an emulator for old Commodore 64 and Amiga games, so I’ve been playing *classics* such as Lemmings, Mario, Dizzy (Prince of the Yolk Folk, naturally), Locomotion and other such amazing games that I’ve not played in donkeys years. :)

  7. Montoya said:
    On 22 Mar at 7:16 pm

    I played the first half of this game until I think 3-3 or 3-4… things got too hectic and I didn’t have time to go on. The later levels are way tougher than the early stuff… good luck with them!

  8. Han said:
    On 22 Apr at 2:38 pm

    Could it be likened to lemmings or Qbert!? (or even zoombinies!? – god I love them!) I’m liking the osund of this game!!

  9. Birgit said:
    On 25 Dec at 10:53 pm

    Our youngest (5) got a DS Lite and this game for Christmas, it took him only a couple of tries to get the stylus technique working and grasp the idea of navigating the multiple Marios etc. Although he has some experience with flash based online games, I can probably vouch for the level of easiness of the game.