by Flake Sun Jan 28, 2018 8:32 pm
January
Yakuza Kiwami (PS4)
Batman: The Telltale Series (PS4)
Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)
Mario vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again (DSi ware)
4th game of the year! This year Elkin and I have a shared theme for the games we play: Beat the stuff that is already purchased. In keeping with this theme, I dug WAAAY into the backlog to a game I downloaded on my DSiXL back in the day and then never played...even once.
Here is why that is significant - I traded that DSiXL in for a launch 3DS which I then traded in for a 3DSXL which I then traded in for a Super Mario and Luigi themed 3DSXL which I then traded in for a New 3DS XL. That is 5 iterations of the DS that I had this game downloaded on and never touched.
It's a shame that I didn't bother with it because it's actually a really good game. Right off the bat, it's clear that it's more of a series of Mario Mini vignettes than full levels. The DSiWare platform had some really strict limits on file size due to both the speed of the wireless adapter in the machine as well as the size of flash storage at the time. One thing about file size limitations is that it can sometimes inform good game design. Fluff or filler gets thrown away and the experience gets condensed into a purer form.
Mario vs Donkey Kong's levels are designed so that the simplest plans work best. When you try to get too many minis doing too much at the same time, you usually end up failing the level. The gameplay lets you 'bank' pink squares that you can use to fill in the map on the fly to keep the Lemming like Mario Minis from committing suicide or walking into disaster. There aren't a lot of enemies and those that you see are generally necessary to solve the level - a type of game design that I have always liked ever since Wario Land 2.
Except for introducing a few new elements here and there, the levels mostly play the same which isn't bad. There are boss fights where you have to use the stylus to aim cannons full of mini Marios at Donkey Kong or areas near him to damage him. I enjoyed these parts more than I thought I would since you have to balance attacking with not shooting your Mario Mini's into traps or debris that will cause them to break, leaving you with no ammunition.
I don't know if this game is still playable for most - I think that DSiWare was taken down a year or two ago. But if you need a game to pad out January and have this socked away, it's only about 3 hours from beginning to end. For completionists, there are remixed levels unlocked after the main story.
Maybe now Nintendo will acknowledge Metroid has a fanbase?