Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars

Genre: Puzzle-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars is a Puzzle-Platformer released on Wii U and 3DS in 2015. Not only was this game released simultaneously on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, but this was a rare occurrence of cross-buy between the two platforms – getting one version of the game gave you a free copy of the other version.

In terms of presentation, Tipping Stars doesn’t change much from prior entries in the series, 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. As with prior entries in the series, this game was designed to give players the ability to share and download custom levels, and that’s where the new “Tipping Stars” of the title comes in – players earned stars when others played their levels, and could “tip” stars to players whose levels they liked, enabling them to publish even more levels online. It’s a clever way to have a community reward the better levels to ensure they got more of them. Or, it was – 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 others in your household.

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.

If you happen to own a Wii U or Nintendo 3DS, or both, and you enjoy Puzzle-Platformers, this is still a game well worth getting, even if its most distinct feature is no longer usable. In the end, this is now only a standard single-player Mario Vs. Donkey Kong game, but… well, that’s still good, even if it’s nothing new.

tl;dr – Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars 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, even if its one most noteworthy feature, its online level-sharing, is no longer available.

Grade: B

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