Friday 15 Dec 2006

Damsel in distress

March of the Minis begins with an emotive cut scene depicting Mario opening his amusement park called “Super Mini Mario World.” His guest of honor is none other than Pauline, the original damsel in distress from Donkey Kong. It is Mario’s big day however Donkey Kong, still smitten with Pauline, attempts to give her a Mini Donkey Kong toy and this is where it all goes wrong. Pauline ignores Donkey Kong’s gift and takes a Mini Mario from Mario instead. Enter the enraged Donkey Kong, who quickly reverts to his troublesome ways, snatches Pauline and retreats to the highest level of the amusement park via the super dupa express elevator! Mario is unable to follow and sends his Mini Marios in pursuit through a small opening.

Classic

Your challenge is to safely maneuver the Mini Marios through the 80 levels, free Pauline and open the amusement park. No mean feat given the obstacles you need to overcome, like going to work, feeding the dog, taking out the trash… sigh, the distractions of life. Fortunately March of the Minis is superbly suited for the pick-up-and-play in my free seconds on the way to the photocopier type lifestyle. Just flip the screen down and it goes into power saving mode, but not before giving you something to giggle about. I was left chuckling to myself on a number of occasions by one of these classic lines delivered in superb Italian plumber accent from Mr Mario himself.

“Hey! Come back here you big monkey!”
“Okie dokie!”
“Let’s play again!”
“Here we go again”

And my all time favourite…
“I love this game!”

Controlling the Mini Marios

Right…onto the serious review stuff now. The controls are ridiculously simple and so intuitive you will wonder why it took so long for Nintendo to release a handheld with a touch screen. You use the stylus to prod, flick and generally harass the Mini Marios until they are safely through the exit door. Previous versions worked well using the D-Pad, but the stylus just feels so right you can’t imagine playing this type of game without one ever again. I said it is easy, but you have still got to have your wits about you as there are plenty of ways for your Mini Marios to terminate their cute little existences and boy are they good at getting into trouble. There are spike pits, fireballs, traps, high rises etc…to keep you on your toes as you play mother to these Mini Mario innocents and guide them through the obstacles. Drag the stylus right and they go right… flick up and they jump … got it?

A floor is comprised of nine levels, with each level containing a varying number of Mini Marios, coins, a Mini Mario card, exit door, and plenty of obstacles. You goal is to get all the Mini Marios through the exit in the shortest time possible. Once you start a Mini Mario moving or activate a switch the timer starts counting down and the pressure is on. It is best to scope out the level and plan your route before plunging in head first. Early in the game it is fairly simple to get through a level by getting a solitary Mini Mario through the exit, but as you will find out later it is better to make sure they all make it through safely in the long run.

Point system

Points are allocated for getting the Mini Marios safely through the level, with an additional bonus for having them exit quickly one after another. In some stages you will find yourself with a Gold Mini Mario, having him exit the stage last in a chain with multiple your score. A further, yet more difficult to achieve bonus is the non-stop accumulator which rewards you with score if you manage to keep a Mini Mario moving from the start of the level until passing through the exit (waiting for elevators etc.. does not count against you for this bonus calculation). Lastly, in true Mario fashion, there are coins aplenty to pick up around the levels although not in the easiest to reach places. Once your score is tallied you could be the proud recipient of a bronze, silver or gold star depending on your level of skill! Pay heed to these stars as at the very least you will want to aim for silver and work your way up to gold. Collecting 40 silver stars will yield a thrilling unlockable, while 40 gold stars will render you delirious with excitement over your bonus content.

Facing DK

Mastering the nine levels on a floor will unlock the Donkey Kong (DK) mini stage for that floor. At this point you will either smile gleefully, or sigh heavily, noting that your ammo to fight DK with equates to the number of Mini Marios you just saved on the prior nine levels. You have been warned…rush through the levels and suffer the wrath of DK at the end without ammo! Each DK level is slightly varied but generally boils down to shooting Mini Marios at DK while he appears from a pipe, hangs from a vine etc… You’ll have to simultaneously dodge falling objects and keep a watch on the time that always counts down and never up. So in summary, dodge debris, calculate trajectory, rotate cannon, fire Mini Mario, waste time checking timer, repeat! If you hit DK with a Mini Mario your ammo count remains unchanged, however, taking a hit from falling debris or hitting a spiked barrier reduces your ammo, which is deadly if you started on a low tally. You win by reducing DK’s health to zero before you run out of Mini Marios or time.

Each floor has one unlockable minigame which can be accessed by collecting all nine of the Mini Mario cards. Once you have collected all nine cards it spells MINIMARIO, cool hey, unlocking the minigame. The minigames are variations of the Shy Guys Smash theme. Shy Guys or Bob-omb’s will peak out of pipes and you need to tap ONLY the Shy Guys. If you manage to tap the required number of Shy Guys before the time runs out, you can unlock some extra special content.

Challenging

Nintendo excelled with this title through the inclusion of an in-game construction kit. You can create your very own levels to challenge yourself with and then share locally via wireless with friends or over the Nintendo Wi-fi connection. In true console fashion you can unlock construction kit components as you progress through the standard 80 levels, so be sure to complete each floor carefully to maximize on your construction options.

Pros: Excellent use of the touch screen for navigating Mini Marios; vibrant colours; shiny Nintendo polish; construction kit and map sharing with local and online play.

Cons: Addictive; sleep depravation; wrist sprains; absolutely nothing wrong with this game.

Rating:
Contributor:	Wayne

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