Mario vs. Donkey Kong (series)

Mario vs. Donkey Kong (known as Mario and Donkey Kong in Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move) is a sub-series of the Mario series and the Donkey Kong series. The first game, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, was heavily inspired by the Game Boy follow up to the original Donkey Kong game, and was initially planned as Donkey Kong Plus. This series features a comeback of Pauline and Donkey Kong's rivalry with Mario.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong
Each of the games six worlds is divided into eight levels. For the first six levels within each world, Mario must find a key and open up a door to the second half of the level, which is a checkpoint. There, Mario will find the toy that Donkey Kong dropped. If Mario is defeated in the second half of the level, his points reset to zero. At the beginning of each level, there is short sequence showing what Mario needs to do or what he may face before playing the level. This short sequence also explains what moves Mario needs to use to complete the level, showing some button combinations.

Unlike other Mario games, when Mario takes a hit, he loses a life. He can also lose a life from getting squished and falling on from a great height and landing on his head. If the fall is not big enough, Mario may get stunned on his back instead. There is also a time limit, which is similar to the traditional Super Mario Bros. games; if the time limit is low, an alarm plays and Mario panics. If the time limit runs out, Mario loses a life. Also unlike other Mario games, however, Mario has more moves he can use, such as jump, handstand, and and even higher jump. To defeat enemies, Mario must pick up objects and throw them at enemies, reminiscent of Super Mario Bros. 2. Throughout the level, there are some collectibles Mario can collect. Three are pivotal in earning a high score, which are different colored presents. Earning a high enough score, beating the default socre, earns a star for that level. The stars later are used to unlock Expert levels.

Once Mario completes a level and collects enough presents, he can play a short minigame to earn extra lives. One present may have a 1-up, one may have a 3-up or 5-up, and one present may have nothing; this is shown at the beginning of the minigame. One minigame is stopping a scrolling arrow on top of the desired present while the other has Mario swapping presents so Donkey Kong's fist squashes an undesired present.

The seventh level in each world is a Mini-Mario level. Mario leads the six Mini-Mario toys he collected back to their toy chest; however, he must make sure they avoid obstacles along the way. This leads into a battle with Donkey Kong, with each Mini-Mario saved becoming a "hit point". For example, if Mario saves all six of the Mini-Mario toys, he'll be able to be hit six times by Donkey Kong before losing a life. If the player fails to defeat Donkey Kong and chooses to replay the fight without doing the Mini-Mario level, Mario will start the fight with four hit points.

After Mario has beaten the six worlds and defeated Donkey Kong, six "Plus" Worlds are unlocked, numbered 1+, 2+, and so on. There are seven stages in each Plus Worlds, and there are no Mini-Mario levels. Mario must get to a Mini-Mario holding a key and lead it to the exit doorway. There is only one part per level in the Plus Worlds, and they are designed to be more difficult than the main worlds. There are still Donkey Kong boss levels in the Plus Worlds.

After beating all of the Plus Worlds, Mario fights Donkey Kong for the final time. If the player found all of the remaining presents in replay mode, the "Expert" levels will unlock; instead of completing them one at a time, the player must beat the game's default high scores (from the "Main" and "Plus" levels) to progressively unlock the levels.

The Japanese version of the game features e-Reader support and had space for 12 levels, but only 6 cards were released.



Controls

 * - Jumps
 * - Picks up item
 * - Moves Mario
 * / - Selects between worlds
 * - Pauses and continues game.

Mario's moves

 * Jump
 * Handstand (Down + )
 * Handstand jump ( while handstanding)
 * Double handstand jump ( after touching the ground from handstand jump)
 * Backflip (while facing right) (Left + )

Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis
Unlike the Game Boy Advance predecessor, Mario plays absolutely no role in this game; he is only seen in the beginning of each floor, and before each boss fight and in the final boss fight and following cut-scene. Instead, the task is to control the Mini Mario toys through eight diverse floors of nine levels each to reach Pauline. At the end of each floor is a boss battle with DK. There are 240 Minis in all - generally, there are more minis in a level as the difficulty increases (going as high as 8 in a level called 8-3). This change in gameplay laid the foundation for the two Mario vs. Donkey Kong games that followed on the DS.

Controls
In each level, the player attempts to move all of the Minis on the map to a portal-like doorway that has a red M on top - this is the goal. Moving the Minis around uses the stylus and touch screen entirely. Touching a Mini activates it. Swiping a Mini left or right moves it in that direction or switches directions. Swiping the same way across multiple Minis changes the direction of all the Minis. Swiping up makes a Mini jump. Swiping down on a Warp Pipe makes the Mini go down into it, and jumping and swiping up makes a Mini go up a pipe. Touching a Mini again stops it.

Minis automatically change directions when hitting a wall or another Mini. Also, a Mini gives a warning "whoa!" noise when it is about to fall into spikes or another danger that will break it, including large heights. What makes the game challenging is the requirement of having to move environmental pieces of the level around to reach the Goal - similar to Lemmings. For example, colored blocks (most commonly pink) can be realized if the player has a certain number of blocks in the inventory - for example, players can take three blocks from one part of the level and use them somewhere else, perhaps where the Minis need to cross first. Other such examples are elevators with an up and down pad and conveyor belts with a left and right pad.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again!
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! features a less detailed story with slight changes from March of the Minis. The game also lacks some of the functions the Minis use, like jumping and changing directions. Instead, the minis move by themselves after being activated, while the player changes the obstacles around to lead the minis to the goal. Also, every mini must be in the goal near the same amount of time; otherwise, the door will close, locking out some of the minis. Lives are also new in Minis March Again!; the player will lose a life if time runs out, if a Mini Mario dies, or if the door closes before all the minis have reached it. Plus Mode is also available after beating the first four worlds, unlike March of the Minis, which did not have the mode. Both games share the Construction Zone function, but Minis March Again! doesn't contain as many items as March of the Minis.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!
Players are able to drag objects such as girders, springs, conveyor belts, pipes, and ladders to guide the Mini Marios to the ends of levels. There are also separate doors for different Minis.

The cards that spell "Mini Mario" from Mario vs. Donkey Kong: March of the Minis and Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! reappear in this game. They will be now available in the Construction Mode, even though they are shaped like crowns.

Additionally, the game features an optional "Mini Guide," similar to the Super Guide first seen in New Super Mario Bros. Wii and the Tip Network and Cosmic Guide first seen in Super Mario Galaxy 2. If the player chooses to play the guide, they can see an example of how to get the Mini Marios to the end of the stage.

Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move
The basic objective of Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move is the same as the previous three games, in that the player must guide the Mini Marios to the goal within the time limit. In this game, however, the path is cut off in sections, and the player must either drag tiles into place or rearrange them (depending on the mode) in order to create a path leading to the goal; filing in the path to the goal causes the mini to automatically speed to the goal; at this point, the timer automatically stops and the player cannot place any more tiles. Additionally, tapping one of the mini icon on the touch screen causes it to have a short burst of speed. If at any point the mini falls off the pathway or is blocked, the player fails. This also occurs if they do not move the mini out of the pipe before a certain amount of time passes, or if the player runs out of time during a stage. The player can use the Button and  Button buttons at any time to change the camera angle on a course.

In Mario's Main Event and Giant Jungle, the player gets pieces of pathway by tapping the "tile pipe," which causes a piece to fall in that the player can place on the path. The tile pipe can only hold five tiles at one time, and not clearing one before another enters results in failing. Occasionally, the player may also be given a bomb tile, which removes a tile that has been placed. In some courses, there are also "trash cans," in which the player can place any unneeded tiles; filling them up gives the player a "magic tile" as their next tile, which takes the form of a tile required to fill the path. In Many Mini Mayhem, the player rearrange the given path to guide multiple minis to the goal, and in Puzzle Palace the player must use the tiles given in order to create a path to the goal.

Within each level in every mode minus Giant Jungle are three M-Tokens; collecting all of them within a level and beating it earns the player a star, which allows them to unlock things such as extra modes and Minis to view.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars
Players are able to drag objects such as girders, springs, conveyor belts, pipes, and lifts to guide the Mini Marios to the ends of levels, similar to Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!. There are also separate doors for different Minis in some levels.

The game also includes the Workshop, where players can make up to 50 custom levels. Parts from the Workshop Store can be used in the Workshop to customize the look of created levels. Levels can be shared trough the Community option, which works with Miiverse. Players can share, play, and 'Yeah' levels. Players can also tip Stars they earned in the main game to level creators. Players can also share levels between both versions of the game. Players can earn stars by playing user-created levels and earning them in the main game. Players can earn an total 267 stars in the main game by getting a gold trophy on all levels; levels cannot be played again to get more stars.

Trivia

 * All games in the series were initially released outside Japan, usually in North America before any other regions.
 * All of the handheld games can be played on the 3DS, as the first game can be played in the Ambassodor Program, the next two are DS games, the DSi one can be system transferred and bought on the eShop, and the fifth and sixth are eShop exclusives.