Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move 3DS eShop Review | Negative World

Andrew N from Negative World says: "Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move (Nintendo Software Technology) is a game with some serious lineage. It all began with a tight little platformer named Donkey Kong that released in the arcades way back in 1981, when I was just a wee young lad. Years later (1994, to be precise), Nintendo would release a Game Boy game named, once again, Donkey Kong (generally referred to as Donkey Kong ‘94 to avoid confusion), which took the basic premise of the original Donkey Kong and expanded it with over 100 stages of platforming brilliance, throwing in some puzzle elements for good measure. 2004’s Mario vs. Donkey Kong for the Game Boy Advance was a pseudo-sequel to this game, and it introduced the “Minis”, small mechanical Mario toys that, in certain stages, Mario would have to lead to the exit. In 2006 Nintendo changed up the formula completely with Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, focusing solely on the Minis themselves with some Lemmings-esque puzzle platforming gameplay. A few sequels using this new Mini-focused gameplay formula followed in 2009 and 2010 on DSiWare and the DS respectively, and that brings us up to date. It’s 2013, and apparently Nintendo Software Technology felt that yet another formula shift was necessary. Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move is indeed a shift, and the result is what happens when you take the previous Minis-focused 2D games and use them as inspiration for a full 3D game, creating a brand new experience in the process."