Prince talks about fun

[Prince would like to share with you all about his favorite Christmas present: Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem, for the DS. I gave him some coupons for Daddy Dates while I'm not at school. Any time during the day he wants, he presents me a coupon and I stop my work and come play with him for half an hour. This is what he wants to play. Today we beat the final level and the final boss and got the credits rolling. I thought it was a very short game if we could beat it 30 minutes at a time already. But then after the credits, Donkey Kong jumped down from the Ferris Wheel and kidnapped Penelope AGAIN! This is where Prince's narrative begins:]

We're going to get Penelope again when we beat Donkey Kong again. Ummmm, uh, um, well, we're on the first level and then we do a second level and a third level and then a 5th level and then a 6th level and then we face off Donkey Kong haha. Haha! And uh um when I when I said, "How many times do I have to beat Donkey Kong?" And then and then six times we had to beat Donkey and when I saw how many time to we have to get Toad and then do Mario again? The next after we get Mario, then Mario comes with Toad and then Luigi! Daddy, when we beat Donkey Kong again after Toad then what happens next?

[Well, presumably we win the game for real this time.]


And then we and then do we get another character?

[I think we'll get Mario, Toad, Princess Peach, Donkey Kong, and Penelope dolls all fighting for us before we beat Donkey Kong again.]

Okay, yeah.. Daddy, I'm all done talking about fun and Mario.

[This is a very odd Mario title. You aren't really Mario. You control MiniMarios, who are windup toys that act like lemmings. You construct bridges, move pipes, aim cannons, and otherwise help them from point A to point B. They also fight D.K. for you. I was surprised at how easy the first time through was. It's a lot more of a logic puzzle than a Mario platformer. Now the logic is going to get clearly harder. Prince has been able to beat some of the levels all by himself.]

Daddy, the next time I beat D.K. in my pretend game, it's a very hard level. I have to beat him 8 times before I win. 80 times! That's a lot of work to do. But he can't get all. You know why? D.K. throws a ship over to the canon, and then Mario falls into the lava! Woah! That was after when I when I go, when I have 5 pipes beating on D.K.. Then you know what happens? D.K. throws a barrel across Mario, and it doesn't hit Penelope, but Luigi is next to it, and he throws it into the air back to where Donkey Kong is, and it hits D.K. and then he never comes back!

[Silly rules require me to mention that Prince does not receive remuneration for reviewing Nintendo products.]