Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars is very reminiscent of Lemmings, as the goal is to guide Mario and friends through levels by manipulating objects around them, instead of directly controlling them. Creating inventive ways to avoid hazards and collect coins make each level a challenging, but endearing, experience.
Although it remains a simple - and for the most part unchanged - concept, the Mario vs. Donkey Kong formula has been honed to near-perfection over the years. Tipping Stars is far from revolutionary, but for quick bursts of action-puzzling, there’s little better. While the cast of robotic minis might be brainless, the game they star in is anything but.
This game delivers everything a Mario vs. Donkey Kong could offer and then some! Level editing and sharing take it to a new level and I love the HD graphics. I think it's amazing that it comes with the 3DS version and your game is transferable, making it easy to go portable if you are on the move. This has been holding me over until Super Mario Maker comes out. Excellent level design and I enjoy the tipping stars aspect. The music is wonderful also.
Great Nintendo, makes fun use of the gamepad. Basically requires your characters to the end of the stage, while strategically placing and removing items along the way, while collecting more. You also control devices completely with the gamepad/stylus....
Many ways to play, if you good enough, you'll be able to play without looking at the gamepad, controlling it as you watch the screen.
Very well made, for a budget price, their are approximately 5-6 worlds, plus 4 post game worlds.
The grading system creates alot more replayability, as you will need to figure out the quickest strategies, and collect more items to get to 3 star grades per level...
The level creator also gives you alot of replayability, you basically have a select number of items at the beginning, and you earn more as you share and tip stars when you upload them to miiverse...
Other users can download your levels and tip you in the process. For newcomers, their are plenty of easy levels to practice with.
Highly recommended for Wii U, great 2015 exclusive.
As always it is a great feeling to puzzle your cutesy Mini's all the way to the end door. It is solid puzzle-gameplay with a happy feel to it, but it does not really excite us. Nothing new is added to the franchise and the TV does not add anything to the game besides better graphics.
The level editor is a great example of empowering players with clear and solid tools, which allow you to to work creatively and effectively without being hampered by overly complicated systems.
The gameplay is classic and solid, but it lacks refreshing ideas. Whoever has already played any Mario vs. Donkey Kong with Lemmings influence, won't find anything new here. The editor is the better part of the offering, and the star economy is fun enough to put to good profit.
If gamers flock to Tipping Stars and really embrace the level creator, we could see a thriving community that provides tons of innovative levels for years to come. If people skip the game, you're stuck with another by-the-numbers sequel in this long-running series. [Issue #14: Old vs. New – March/April 2015, p.30]
Between its lackluster introductions and almost total lack of context for why you're doing anything in the game, Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars feels more like a particularly robust tech demo than a proper full-release.
This game is all it should be. The sharing level and tipping features are awesome, and the levels are fantastic. It was real fun to play, and deserves lots of credit. I love the increase in difficulty, and overall, this is a great game. Also, I forget to mention the 'Cursed Mini Mario'. It's a really cool idea that was implemented into this game.
because I love this game because this very well at first levels are easy but some are increasing the difficulty and what iso that this game would give a closed 10 is that you can create levels and share with others the world
I wonder if "mainstream" video game media outlets are angry that the other console's AAA titles are flopping, and are trying to paint a more sour light around the big N. That's really the only way to explain giving this game anything less then an 8. Anyway:
It's a nifty puzzle game, akin to Lemmings. You're trying to use the environment to funnel your ally to the end, all the while collecting stars and other things along the way. It's a very crisp game with extremely fun puzzle mechanics. The tipping feature adds a very nice touch as well.
But alas, we could be playing "blockbuster titles" that are essentially 5 hour games, with 4 hours consisting of cut scenes and quick time events, all the while sites like IGN convince us at that $60, its the cat's meow.
I loved previous installments in this light-hearted puzzle series, but this time Nintendo have cut it a little too short, making this latest one a game that is only worth buying if you haven't got any of the others.
The main game consists of the same old classic puzzle challenges that, while fairly enjoyable, introduce hardly any new mechanics. Instead, they take all of the previous Mario vs DK games' innovations and simple recycle them. This means that the game is rarely surprising and you'll probably get bored if you've played the previous Mario vs DK titles.
Still, the single player isn't the focus here, of course, as the title suggests. The level editor is what is supposed to keep you coming back for more, and that is, in the end, the biggest disappointment. You can use it to design levels, like in the previous games, for sharing online. But the trouble is, because the game barely introduces any new ideas, if you've played the previous games and made a lot of levels with them, then you won't have many ideas for new levels here. According to Nintendo, this is where the 'tipping stars' come in. The idea is, if other people like your levels, they'll tip you stars which you can then use to buy new mechanics and options to use in the levels you make. This, according to Nintendo, should keep people making levels. And it's a nice idea- but it's made pointless by the fact that these new mechanics are merely new themes, not anything else! How is a golden pipe going to help you make more creative levels any more than an ordinary green pipe? Or a new background? I don't know what was going through the developers' minds, but they really got this very wrong indeed. And did I mention you can't even share more than 20 levels anyway per account?
Oh, and the price tag- the game should be half that price, but the fact the purchase was crossplatform seemed to make Nintendo think they could charge double for it, even though it's exactly the same on Wii U and 3DS!
If you've never played a Mario vs DK game before, this might be worth picking up. But even then, you'd get more enjoyment from buying the old DS entries in the series than this one, for their more inspired level design.
Metacritic keeps thinking I want to write a review for this game when I'm just trying to review the remake on Switch. How does something like this even happen.
SummaryThe Mario vs. Donkey Kong series makes its way to Wii U with the newest
game in the charming puzzle series. This HD entry takes full advantage of the touch screen on the GamePad controller and features a near-limitless puzzle-creation mode.