A brand new batch of DS titles are hitting stores this autumn playing quite differently to some of which we have experienced so far. In these previous games for the DS the touch screen was mainly seen as a nice new feature which could be used for some nice gadgets; selecting items, showing stats, hey, maybe you could even display a map down there!

Those days seem to be over with most new DS titles in the works. Big players like Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Mario Slam Basketball feature entirely touch screen controls. The follow-up of Mario vs. Donkey Kong can also be put in that list.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis is all about, sigh, the minis. These little robot replica's of Mario, DK and Toad are the main characters in the game. The mini-Mario's are after DK (the real one, mind you) to get back a certain lady, of which the older of you will recognise as Pauline, featured in the original Donkey Kong game. Her task in that game was to yell for help to get the red-suited Mario – more known as 'jumpman' in those days – to help her. Now more than 25 years later she's back to get kidnapped by DK again. Ah, some girls somehow always manage to get into trouble.

Back to the minis (Mario is more of a side character in this game). It's the task of the gamer to guide these little ones through more than eighty levels. The goal is to get as many as possible to the exit of each level. Simple, eh… well not exactly when you take into account the different obstacles like death defying gaps, walls blocking your way and numerous enemies walking around. The minis constantly need your attention. Touch on one and slide your stylus to a certain direction to let the robot start walking. Touch again on the mini to let him stop. Let the minis walk for too long without keeping an eye on them and they'll soon be done for. Luckily there're other minis and items to accompany you such as a fire flower power-up that can make the minis show off their red hot balls.

There are enough things other than the mini-Mario's you can control with that little stylus of yours though. Some walls for instance can be transferred to another place by touching on them. Obviously by moving it the wall pops up in another place. These touch-screen controls really make you feel like you're playing something totally different from what you play on your couch with your favourite console. The button-pressing fad feels old-fashioned and something from the past – at least on a handheld when you play games like Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2. Touching and dragging seems to be the new and best way to play games remotely now.

I tried to avoid comparing this game to the famous Lemmings games but the association is quite inevitable. Basic idea: get little creatures to the exit of a level. Of course gameplay-wise there are quite some differences between these two but the basics remain the same. Mario vs. DK 2 is also quite different from its predecessor. The original game on the GBA was more of a platform game with puzzle elements. This game can be entitled more as a puzzle game. A fast-paced one, though.

The game consists out of eight worlds with up to ten levels each. Every world ends with a confrontation between DK and the minis that survived. Gameplay changes drastically in these fights. For example there's a fight where you fire minis to DK at the top screen, comparable with the popular bob-bomb mini-game in the Mario DS games. With the right timing you can smack DK to the ground to defeat the hairy ape.

As promising as this game may look, the E3 demo we played had some cons, mostly focused around the difficulty level of the game. The first three worlds were playable for us, but quite easy to finish. True, the first levels are often used to get the player familiar with the game, but for us the first worlds were an easy walk-through, an enjoyable walk-through but still. Luckily there's another big pro to this game as it's yet another title that's going to make use of the Nintendo WI-FI Connection. It's possible for players to create their own maps and share them online with friends and strangers. A rating system will be implemented with this and seems like a good way to increase the difficulty level of the game.

Although the first Mario vs Donkey Kong game was an enjoyable game, it was one without many surprises. The follow-up doesn't look totally different on first glance but is very dissimilar on closer inspection. The looks are more colourful (how surprising for a Nintendo game), but it's in the gameplay department where you'll find the real differences. The game looks to have way more depth, thought and originality.

The march of the Minis starts in the U.S. in September. The release date for the game in our continent is still to be announced.