Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again

Genre: Puzzle-Platformer

Players: 1, Local Wireless Content Sharing

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Review:

Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again is a Puzzle-Platformer released on the Nintendo DSi via the DSiWare service in 2009, and was later grandfathered into the Nintendo 3DS eShop when the Nintendo 3DS released. Much as with the second game in the Mario Vs. Donkey Kong series, this game does not have players controlling a character directly. Instead, they must place and remove objects from the level using the touchscreen to create a safe path for the robotic toy Mario “minis”, ensuring that they safely reach the door in each of the game’s levels.

In terms of presentation, Minis March Again follows in the footsteps of the second game, using clean, cartoony pre-rendered 2D visuals with cheerful music and cartoony sound effects, including slightly “roboticized” voice clips for the mechanical wind-up versions of Mario characters that players control during the game. It’s nothing new or extraordinary, but it works well for the game.

Unfortunately, the one “new” and “extraordinary” thing about this entry in the series is one that is no longer available to players – the ability to share and download custom levels. Of course, this game’s online functionality is no longer available, meaning the only thing you can really do with the level creator now is make levels for yourself or share it with others who own the game via wireless connectivity.

Beyond that, this is a pretty standard “Minis” era Mario Vs. Donkey Kong game. Which is to say that it’s a solid Puzzle-Platformer that has perhaps more in common with the Lemmings franchise than with the Game Boy Donkey Kong game that this series originated from. You don’t interact much with the “minis” themselves (robotic versions of Mario characters that need to be safely delivered to each level’s door), but rather, you interact with the level itself to ensure they have a safe path. It’s very good, but it’s nothing that’s likely to set the world on fire.

Here’s the issue I have, though. The Mario Vs. Donkey Kong games are all good, but after the second game they’re also all very similar – similar visuals, similar gameplay, similar features. And Minis March Again has the unfortunate distinction of being on a DSiWare game, which means that it requires space in the very limited amount of memory on the Nintendo DSi or 3DS – you can’t download this game to a MicroSD Card. As a result, it’s much easier to recommend players on the Nintendo Switch to get a later game in the series, such as Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars. Not only will you be getting a very similar experience, but you’ll save on space you can devote to other DSiWare games that don’t have a comparable experience you can get outside of DSiWare.

So that leaves me in the odd position of saying that Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again is a good game, and I don’t recommend that you get it. The Puzzle-Platformer gameplay here is excellent, but it’s not significantly different from later games in the series, and those games don’t come with the same drawbacks that this game does. If that weren’t the case, this might be one of the better DSiWare games on the Nintendo 3DS, but since you have other alternatives, you’re better off taking those.

tl;dr – Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again is a Puzzle-Platformer that has you guiding robotic toy versions of Mario characters through levels by interacting with the level itself. It’s still a solid entry in the genre and series, but later entries are very similar and don’t come with the baggage of a DSiWare game. You should probably get one of those later games instead.

Grade: B-

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