The Mario vs. Donkey Kong seems to just keeping going... and going... and going... I don't know if they keep churning them out just to keep the Nintendo Software Technology (NST) group busy, or if every entry actually sells well. Anyway, I felt like I was getting behind, so I tackled the next entry in the series in an attempt to catch up a bit. The next entry for me was Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!, the second of the DS releases. The first DS release, March of the Minis, introduced a lot of gadgets, but you had to control the minis individually, which I found to be overly fussy. I preferred the DSiWare follow-up, Minis March Again, which is more Lemmings-like in that the minis keep marching forward until they hit a wall in which case they turn and move in the opposite direction.
Mini-Land Mayhem feels like a combination of the previous two games in that it has all the gadgets of March of the Minis, but the automatic movement of the minis as in Minis March Again. It doesn't end up feeling all that different from its immediate predecessor, but they did finally change the boss fights from the last two games. Here the boss fights are more like the regular stages, but more tedious as you have to play them perfectly in order to get the highest medal, and they drag on longer than regular stages. As with the previous games it's pretty easy and mindless to get to the end of every stage, but collecting everything and getting the highest medals will take a bit more effort. The simple graphics are pretty much identical to the previous two games, and as before there are some mildly diverting mini-games. A hard mode unlocks once you beat the main game, although I didn't have much interest in continuing. The game also includes a level editor, although those features are severely hampered now that the game no longer supports its online features.
At this rate I seriously doubt that any of the remaining games in the series are going to change my overall impression of the series. At least the next entry, Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move, changes up the formula. We'll have to see if that makes things any more interesting, although I'm pretty skeptical.
March with these Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! links:
- Review at NintendoLife
- Entry at mariowiki.com
- List of unlockables at GameFAQs