The only loser is whoever buys this game
| Platform | Presentation | Controls | Variety | Audio | Depth | Value & Fun | OVERALL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nintendo DS | 7.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 9.00 | 0.50 | 1.00 | 3.23 |
| General Information |
| Previously played game in the series: None. |
| Gameplay Description |
| Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 is a "puzzle" game in which you try to get your scattered mini-Marios to the exit door somewhere in the level by navigating them passed various obstacles. You earn a star rating of Gold/Silver/Bronze based on your score based on various factors but this is not neccessary to complete the game. |
| Dedication Meter | 1.00 |
| Playing this game more than once will not increase your enjoyment. Puzzles take no time and are pretty self-explanatory. Although you have to finish the game to play the best level. | |
| Presentation | 7.00 |
|
Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 has a distinctive 2D toy sprite style that suits the game well. The Mario and Donkey Kong toys are quite cute and everything is pretty detailed. Each floor (there are 9 levels on each of the 8 floors) has its own style, such as jungle or fire and the style changes with mostly good results. The jungle enemies are a bit bland. At the start and end of the game you get high-quality CG cutscenes, the first that sets up what little story there is, and the last concluding in a weird, unexplainable fashion. They don't quite match the visual style of the game itself, though. Overall in terms of prettiness, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 does quite well. There are a couple caviats in the visual design regarding interaction, however. You control multiple mini-Marios in each level (up to 8, usually only 3 or 4, though) but you can't neccessarily see the entire level despite your Marios being scattered about. A simple alleviation to this little irritation would have been to add a zoomed out view on the top screen. The other problem is that you can't tell at which ledges your mini-Marios will stop, and at which they'll fall off. Similarly, it is not clear (although trial and error will say) how many mini-Marios can fit on each platform. |
|
| Controls | 3.00 |
|
The touch controls do not work. Simply, they don't work. You stroke across a mini-Mario in a direction to cause him to walk in that direction, but it may or may not comply. It may ignore you several times over. It may interpret it as a tap, which causes it to stop. Your stylus movements leave a golden glittery trail, which even though you can see it going over the mini-Mario, occasionally it will ignore you. You also stoke up to cause it to jump. In the environment the mini-Mario won't comply either. If a mini-Mario walks toward an edge that drops into water, it may or may not fall in. If a mini-Mario walks toward a ledge, it may or may not go down. If you use the stylus to tell it to go forward over that edge, that may or may not get it to go, not because of it ignoring the stroke, but for whatever reason, it won't go down that edge. If a mini-Mario walks into another mini-Mario, it gets worse, because it will turn around and go the other direction, and the one it bumped into will do the same, which makes no sense. The boss battle controls are also weird. You shoot mini-Marios from a canon you angle by spinning what can only be descibed as a pirate-ship steering wheel back and forth on the touch screen which is slow and awkward. |
|
| Variety | 4.00 |
|
The level design is too consistent for its own good. Despite a decent variety of enemies, it's all basically the same. You make the mini-Mairos walk to the door without having to do anything different in strategy, if there even was one in the first place. The boss battles are all basically the same also, although with a different theme and mildly increased difficulty each time. The final boss is different and by far the best segment in the game, perfectly fitting the subject matter as are the unlockable battles. Beyond that you aren't doing much but directing traffic which is pretty relatively simple. There are two types of enemies--those that affect movement (allow you to got places you couldn't without them) and those who just get in your way. There's nothing very tricky to them, but there are a fair number of them. |
|
| Audio | 9.00 |
| The audio is an excellent set of remixes of classic Mario and Donkey Kong themes that make it worthwhile to take a listen. The songs range from throughout the series, from right back to the original arcade Donkey Kong game to Mario 64 to the Rare Donkey Kong games. There are some instances in which there is some original music that isn't up to par. | |
| Depth | 0.50 |
| Really, the game is just categorized as a puzzle game by default. In reality, puzzles require thought, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 does not. It's getting something that moves in straight lines to a door in a small level. The obstacles couldn't reasonbly be difficult as you aren't directly controlling the mini-Marios, so they're stupidly simple instead. High scores in levels aren't so much the ways in which you can go about the level (there usually is only one reasonable way) but rather be able to manage the frustrating group of mini-Marios. | |
| Value & Fun | 1.00 |
|
The simplest thing to say is that Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 is not fun. That is a literal quote. It is not in any way fun to play this game level by level. The boss battles are tolerable enough to suggest that there is an element of "fun" in them but that is it. Other than that, it never came up in the game. You go from start to finish and earn a score. The levels take 30 seconds to complete, and giving yourself at most 30 seconds to take a look at the level to what you have to do, each stage only takes about a minute in total. There are 8 "floors" with 9 stages on each for a total of 72, and a boss at the end of each floor. It is entirely conceivable that this game could be completed start to finish in an hour-and-a-half. But really, that's not the problem. Despite controls, the main issue is difficulty and general concept. If you are just trying to complete the level (get the mini-Marios to the door) it is arguably the easiest game I've ever played, particularly in that you only need to have one mini-Mario survive. On the other hand, if you are trying to get the Gold/Silver/Bronze stars, the flaws in the game become utterly frustrating. It's not overly hard, just aggrevating to control the mini-Marios in a chain, and keep them from wondering off. In each level you get a score, and you score is calculated based on the time you have left, how many mini-Marios you have, number of coins collected, and the bonuses of getting all three in within so long of each other in a "chain", and for not stopping the mini-Marios. If you want to get the Gold star for the level, you require all mini-Marios and the chain and non-stop bonuses. Since you need the chain, any mini-Marios that take the same route must be moved along together, and because of the non-stop bonus, you can't stop them. However, it is impossible to just keep them walking in a direction just based on timing, because of obstacles, enemies, and having other mini-Marios on the other side of the screen. Because of this, you have to pseudo-stop them by sending them back and forth, which is completely stupid. Additionally, when the touch-screen decides to ignore you, things go out of control, particularly if they bump into each other. They could have, at the least, had eight different mini-games instead of repeatedly unlocking the same whack-a-mole game over and over. This ignoring that you probably already have three different whack-a-mole minigames on other DS games. The game is the strangest combination of incredibly easy and frustrating. It's not entertaining and it's not challenging. Conceivably the included level editor, which is very complete (although unfortunately you can't mix elements from different floors, such as a fire enemy in a jungle setting) could make it challenging, but it's the concept that's broken--the poor design only makes it more obvious. |
|
| Value & Fun (with online) | 1.00 |
| You can trade your created levels with registered friends over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. This is a nice additional feature, but doesn't change the value of the game. | |
| Overall | 3.23 |
| Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 is a game so genuine in its lack of entertainment value that it isn't even fun to laugh at how bad it is. To emulate this game, try doing first-grade arithmetic for an hour, then punching yourself in the groin. | |
Posted by Ellyoda Fri, 07 Sep 2007 00:00:00
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