A bright and cheery puzzle game with lots of longevity. Watch out for this one on the DS.

Way back in 1994, Nintendo released a game for the Game Boy entitled Donkey Kong. Differing from Nintendo’s classic arcade game of the same name, Donkey Kong ’94 (as it is referred to by collectors) was a unique combination of a Mario platform game and a level-based puzzler. Many years later, Nintendo revisited this concept with Mario vs. Donkey Kong, a Game Boy Advance title with a similar concept. GBA gamers obviously loved running and jumping their way through level after level of puzzley goodness, as Nintendo is releasing a sequel, Mario vs DK 2: March of the Minis, this September.



March of the Minis plays a lot like a simplified version of Lemmings. The game is centered around controlling Minis, the small mechanical Marios that appeared in later levels of the original Mario vs. Donkey Kong. Each level consists of guiding a number of Minis through all sorts of obstacles to a goal. Like most games, it starts out simple – moving blocks around so that the Minis don’t fall into a pit of spikes – but by the end things get wildly complex, with enemy Shy Guys lurking around and elevators and all sorts of craziness.

The control scheme makes great use of the touch screen. To activate a Mini, you just tap on it. Stroking the stylus left or right starts the Mini moving in that direction, and a quick upwards stroke makes it jump. Various mechanical elements within the levels, such as bridges and elevators, are activated by tapping them. The controls are very simple but effective, a great example of when touch screen controls can be more effective than a traditional setup.