The Mario vs Donkey Kong series of puzzlers have been a staple of Nintendo's handhelds for almost a decade, with the soon to be released Mario & Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move marking the series' return, this time for the 3DS. While previous games in the series have mostly followed a fairly similar plot, asking you, playing as Mario, to guide a number of toy Marios to a goal in order to rescue the captured Pauline (who was also the kidnapee from the original Donkey Kong arcade game, fact fans), the fifth instalment takes a slightly different tack, as Donkey Kong and Pauline team up to run a carnival - a severe case of Stockholm syndrome if we've ever seen one.
The gameplay here is slightly different too, although it does keep the same 'protect the mindless Lemmings from doom' puzzle gameplay. Presenting you with a number of coins floating in mid air, and a few blocks scattered around, your mini Mario will pop out of a pipe and start instantly walking towards eternal doom. It's up to you to quickly use the pieces at your disposal to create a path that'll let your meandering Mini Mario pick up three coloured medals, and get to the finish. With limited pieces at your disposal, and a relentless Mario marching ever closer towards the edge of the screen, it looks set to be a battle of your wits against your reactions, as you guide your Mario to safety.
You can play as mini versions of a number of Mushroom Kingdom characters - Mario, Donkey Kong, Pauline, Peach and Toad.
To help keep you on your toes, there'll be a number of different types of puzzle on offer, too - some give you a library of pieces you can choose from at will, while others insist you put tiles down in a certain order, making things that little bit harder. Others still seem to have you control two characters simultaneously, asking you to spin panels around that are already on the grid, rather than decide where the plonk them yourself, while four mini-games promise to give your brain a bit of a break, letting you catapult Marios at Shy Guy balloons, or giant rainbow cubes instead.
All in all, Mario & Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move is shaping up to be a pretty feature-packed download, and with a release date now decided, there's just one thing to be revealed - the price. Considering Nintendo's current pricing policy (read: expensive, particularly if it has 'Mario' in the title), we're expecting this one to set us back a pretty penny - although that does mean we'll be pleasantly surprised if it slinks in at less than a tenner. With a whopping 180 levels across four different modes, plus a level creator with the option to download extra stages created by other players, and the aforementioned minigames, there's certainly plenty to sink your teeth into - provided the price is right on the 9th of May, this should be an insta-download.
