ICYF, or In Case You Forgot is a side feature that 8BitHD will be running from now on. In it, a past game will be featured that may or may not have flown under your radar when it was current. Each ICYF article will explain the basic premise and mechanics of the game, whether the components hold up in the year 2009 (or whatever year we are in) and how many of your 2009 dollars this game is worth. Should you grab it no matter what the cost, should you avoid it at all costs, or is it a decent bargain bin pickup for $15 or less? As it is hard to give a game a numerical score years after the time of its original release, it is much easier to decide how much money it's worth and let the reader judge from there. And now without further ado...

In case you forgot, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis was released September 25, 2006. It is the sequel to Mario vs. Donkey Kong, the 2004 puzzler on the GBA which put Mario to the task of finding the toy mini-marios that Donkey Kong had stolen. Unlike the original, this time around you need to control the mini-marios in an attempt to rescue Princess Pauline (yes from the arcade game) who has been stolen my Donkey Kong, like the arcade game.

Each level has you micro-managing anywhere from two to eight, but most of the time three or four mini-marios exclusively with the stylus as you guide them to a portal. The level ends when all of the mini-marios are either through the door or broken. You get a score based on how many mini-marios went through the door, if you did it in a quick succession style chain, and if you never had to stop them while you were working. The reason not stopping them is a challenge is because you can't be watching and controlling everybody at once, so if you leave a Mario alone, he could walk into danger and subsequently break if you spend too much time not paying attention to him. Halting the Mario in its tracks will remedy that problem, but it'll cost you in the points department.

The Mario's can jump on springs, go down pipes, ride on shyguy's heads, and many more things that are customary in 2-D Mario platforming games. Though there are no less than 23 mechanics to learn in Mario vs Donkey Kong 2, the game is surprisingly repetitive. Sure There are eight worlds, each consisting of nine levels and a boss at the end, each with a different theme and new play styles to learn, but the stages will feel very similar very quickly. It got to the point where I had to literally force myself to keep finishing levels in order to say that I had indeed finished all 72, and that's really a shame. Its one thing for a game to have too few levels, but its far another when there are more levels than you want to play because the mechanics are boring.

Beyond this, the game is also painfully easy. All you need to do is get any one of the numerous mini-marios to the goal and the game will consider the level passed. You can probably do this by operating the touch screen with your tongue for the all the challenge and work it entails. In order to get a bronze, silver, or gold star, you are going to want to chain the Marios into the goal for a score multiplier, which is also easy to do. Only a handful of the 72 levels are complex enough that you have to think hard in order to chain to the goal. Doing this will get you an instant silver medal, doing it without stopping any of the Mario's will probably net you gold.

Like most puzzlers, you need to decide whether to go out of your way to get coins to boost score, or save time and take the easier path to the goal. This decision is made easy for you in Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 because in every situation, the amount of points you get by sending the Marios straight to the finish will be enough to net you a gold star, no coins or dangerous roundabout paths required. This really shouldn't be. In order to net gold, you should have to get the majority, if not all of the hard to reach coins, and do it in a timely manner. As it stands, all you have to do is move the Marios to the portal in the most direct path you can come up with, and you have easy golds. In order to get what is basically the only unlockable, which is pretty lame in itself, you need 40 of a possible 80 golds. I had that in my first playthrough, without having to replay any levels.

Games that are short and easy have notoriously poor replay value and Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 is no different. There is a stage editor, and you can send levels back and forth through Nintendo WFC, but who is going to be doing that at this stage of the game? There is no indication as to how long it took you to complete the levels, but it did not seem long at all. As this game is only two and a half years old, the graphics and controls all hold up fine, its just that there is not much at all to the package. Short, easy, and repetitive add up to a game that is not worth anywhere over $10, and that 10 is money much better spent on a classic SNES game on the Wii Virtual Console.