Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem Review
Since its GameBoy Advance debut, the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series put the two gaming icons back in adversarial roles with gameplay inspired by classic design. The latest game has mini-Marios traipsing across an amusement park with all manner of obstacles in their way and only your deft stylus to safely guide them. Over one hundred clever puzzle-platformer levels await you in Mini-Land Mayhem, and you’ll even have the chance to construct your own.
Donkey Kong is up to no good again. When he doesn’t get the limited edition mini-Pauline figurine he wanted, he opts for the real thing instead and whisks away Pauline. It’s up to Mario and, more specifically, the mini-Mario figurines to rescue the damsel in distress by chasing DK across eight themed worlds in the Mini-Land amusement park. The gameplay is essentially similar to Lemmings: once the mini-Marios start moving, they don’t stop, and your job is to guide them around obstacles and across treacherous terrain. For example, you can create bridges to guide the minis up, down, or to block them so they turn around. What makes Mini-Land Mayhem stand out from similar games is variety. No two levels feel pointlessly similar, and with ever-changing items like conveyor belts and cannons that are introduced in each new world, the gameplay doesn’t grow stale or complacent. It’s always a unique challenge to reach the goal, and always satisfying when you do.
Build and delete walls, bridges, and ramps to put the minis on the right path.
It helps that the game doesn’t force you down one correct path. Some methods are certainly faster, and if you want to earn the high score trophy you’ll need to learn the most efficient tricks in the game, but otherwise many levels leave it up to you to discover. With collectibles and coins in every stage, you truly have to study the map and put your puzzle-solving skills to work to guide the minis not only safely but quickly. Though you can ignore the collectibles, you’ll miss out on bonus stages and a significant portion of the game. Just reaching the end would be a dull affair; collectibles spice up the gameplay and challenge you to often work yourself into a corner then find your way back out again.
Even with collectibles and trying to move quickly, the difficulty here can be somewhat middling. A few stages will truly push your skills, but most fall within a fairly average to easy range, fun though they are. However, a secondary adventure called Plus Mode that unlocks after you’ve finished the main game gives you the added task of not only guiding all minis to the exit, but guiding them in the right order. Thanks to how mindless the minis can be, this is a much more challenging task than it might seem–anyone looking for a real test of skill shouldn’t be disappointed here. Some might be bothered that you have to finish the game once to earn this “hard” mode, but if you really do find the main game that easy, it shouldn’t take you more than six hours or so to see Donkey Kong fall.
Special stages give you a variety of minis; get each to the correct door!
Mini-Land Mayhem includes a rather robust level creator mode as well. Finishing worlds in the main game unlocks more content in this editor mode so that by the end of the game, you’ll have a wide assortment of tools at your disposal. As the main game shows, the relatively simple concept here is open to hundreds of permutations. The stylus controls make it easy to place objects and items, though it would be nice to have a slightly faster system for erasing mistakes and switching between objects. Nevertheless, construction mode provides a convenient way to flex your creativity and share it with friends locally or via wi-fi. The best news here, though, is that you can download levels made by other players in a setting called Challenge Mode, ensuring that you have tons of ever-changing content at your fingertips.
The stylus controls work great for this type of game; you have a quick and easy means of building and destroying bridges or walls instantly–perfect for split-second decisions. It’s a perfectly intuitive system that shouldn’t take any time at all to understand, and since you can only build objects at certain junction points anyway, the game essentially does the “heavy lifting” for you. What’s really convenient here is that if, for example, you don’t have enough blocks to create that bridge you want, the game shows you how many you’re missing with a ghost image, allowing you to quickly see that you’ll need one or two more blocks for that action. In short, the developers have made it as easy as possible for the player to pick up this game and get playing immediately.
Each world ends with a boss fight showdown. Hit the switches and bring Donkey Kong down!
In keeping with the cute, friendly motif of the game–you are guiding mechanical wind-up mini-Marios around an amusement park, after all–the graphics are suitably cheery with few bells and whistles. That doesn’t mean the game looks bad, in fact the sprites look pretty sharp, but there’s not a lot that jumps out at the player visually. The music, meanwhile, is an awesome mix of classic Mario tunes that any fan will be humming along to instantly as well as some original songs that match the playful motif of the game. It’s great to hear new renditions of familiar Mario songs, and Mini-Land Mayhem draws upon a variety of older Mario games for its soundtrack.
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem is a fun, whimsical game that packs in a lot more replay value than it might initially seem to. The gameplay strikes a pitch perfect mix of accessible yet challenging as a puzzle game, making it a great title for players of any skill level.
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