Mini-Mario & Friends: amiibo Challenge

 Wii U
User Score
6.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 14 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 14
  3. Negative: 2 out of 14

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  1. moothemagiccow
    May 5, 2016
    5
    The game is "free" but you need a $15 amiibo to play it. It's almost exactly the same as Mario vs Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars, to the point where it seems like they planned amiibo functionality and then spun it off into this game.
    If you have any amiibo, you can play like ten levels. If you have a Mario character amiibo (like, I had Yoshi) you can play five extra levels. The more    The game is "free" but you need a $15 amiibo to play it. It's almost exactly the same as Mario vs Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars, to the point where it seems like they planned amiibo functionality and then spun it off into this game.
    If you have any amiibo, you can play like ten levels. If you have a Mario character amiibo (like, I had Yoshi) you can play five extra levels. The more characters you have, the more levels you can play. The whole game (basics + Yoshi levels) took me about an hour, including the time to get the extras in every level.
    The Yoshi levels were not that different from Tipping Stars. Yoshi can eat enemies, so there are enemies, but they may as well not be there. There is a special kind of Egg Cannon only Yoshi can use, but it didn't present a lot of difficulty.
    It's an oddity, in that it's sort of a demo for Tipping Stars (even has a link to buy the game on the main menu) but it's not actually free. You must press an amiibo to the gamepad to start the game. I'd call it DLC, but most of the levels were introductory.
    If you already own a lot of amiibo, this is a no-brainer. If you don't, I wouldn't bother.    … Expand
  2. VideoGameLover
    May 2, 2016
    10
    Oh shut up negative troll reviews who hate for the sake of hating.

    This game is FREE and for free it's an amazing game! Fun, frantic, deep, fast. If you own a 3DS or Wii U get it now!
  3. alexmega30
    Apr 1, 2016
    8
    I Took 1 Day to play this game and It's Better than recent Mini Mario Games, the game has multiple levels that require specific amiibo, but the themes for the levels are wonderful, like Mario's with dash pads and Luigi's with Candles and Boos, along with a remix of The Luigi's mansion theme, My only real Complaint is that amiibo not supported have the little cube model, not their model,I Took 1 Day to play this game and It's Better than recent Mini Mario Games, the game has multiple levels that require specific amiibo, but the themes for the levels are wonderful, like Mario's with dash pads and Luigi's with Candles and Boos, along with a remix of The Luigi's mansion theme, My only real Complaint is that amiibo not supported have the little cube model, not their model, yea it would have taken more time, but it would add charm, Ways Nintendo could improve this is by adding more amiibo stages and amiibo models, like a zelda stage for link, or a starfox like stage for Fox… Expand
  4. multiplat_gamer
    Apr 30, 2016
    5
    Mini-Mario & Friends: amiibo Challenge is a Mini-Mario game that requires amiibo figurines to play. First of all, you need one of them to start playing using that character. You basically go the linear path and in the meantime you unlock ten exclusive character worlds using compatible amiibos. Also, each of the compatible amiibo has a special power, but you will only see that power in theMini-Mario & Friends: amiibo Challenge is a Mini-Mario game that requires amiibo figurines to play. First of all, you need one of them to start playing using that character. You basically go the linear path and in the meantime you unlock ten exclusive character worlds using compatible amiibos. Also, each of the compatible amiibo has a special power, but you will only see that power in the four-level exclusive world of that particular amiibo. Each amiibo’s main mission is to collect specific cards with their face on them, so you’ll have to replay the same levels with different amiibos to collect them all, which is far from appealing. Once you have enough cards, you will be able to unlock levels in the “special world”. These few levels are the only levels that will be challenging for most players. The rest of the levels are easy, although they combine different gameplay styles that we have seen in the series before. For example, you can put and erase pink blocks like in Mario vs. DK: Minis March Again. There are also new features that create a varied gameplay.

    The soundtrack has some lazy remixes of classic Nintendo themes that will bring back memories of the more experienced players like myself. The visuals are simple and nice. You’ll need to hold the GamePad/3DS console with one hand and the stylus with the other hand, it’s that kind of gameplay.

    If you only have one or two amiibo, this game is a long demo. If you have the ten of them that the game specifically requires, it's a short and easy game, except for a few levels of the special world. If you have many amiibos, the game is an easy recommendation as you don’t have to pay any more. If you are planning to buy amiibos for playing this game, just don’t do it.    … Expand
  5. The_Jujuman
    May 1, 2016
    10
    Sure you will need an Amiibo to play, but for the many of us that already have them this is a wonderful gift from Nintendo. In order to 100% the game you will need access to 10 Amiibos, mostly those from the Mushroom Kingdom and the Kongs.

    The game is not overly complicated to play, nor will it take more than a day to complete. The puzzles are well thought out and planning is generally    Sure you will need an Amiibo to play, but for the many of us that already have them this is a wonderful gift from Nintendo. In order to 100% the game you will need access to 10 Amiibos, mostly those from the Mushroom Kingdom and the Kongs.

    The game is not overly complicated to play, nor will it take more than a day to complete. The puzzles are well thought out and planning is generally the key to success. Some of the levels require a specific Amiibo for collectibles, so you will be required to play through some of the levels more than once to capture them all.

    Level design is charming and the music is classic Nintendo. Its a solid 8 (mostly because it is free), but given the ridiculous negatives, I'm giving it a 10 to balance out the unfair reviews that it has received.    … Expand
  6. Alex2304
    May 8, 2016
    10
    excellent game , i only have 2 compatible amiibos , but I can play for free and with a great mechanic , its a great idea , like amiibo tap , its better than what i sp-ect
  7. buildz
    May 22, 2016
    8
    Mini Mario & Friends: amiibo Challenge is a nice incentive towards purchasing an amiibo, with it standing out upon the other amiibo-centric ventures Nintendo has tried; in short, it's much better than amiibo Tap and amiibo Festival.

    amiibo Challenge iterates on the formula set out by Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars - in that, you have to guide a Mini towards the goal by using the    Mini Mario & Friends: amiibo Challenge is a nice incentive towards purchasing an amiibo, with it standing out upon the other amiibo-centric ventures Nintendo has tried; in short, it's much better than amiibo Tap and amiibo Festival.

    amiibo Challenge iterates on the formula set out by Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars - in that, you have to guide a Mini towards the goal by using the resources placed throughout the levels, including girders, pink blocks, and pipes. The game has a heavy emphasis on resource management, yet I only found that element to actually manifest itself during the main twelve levels of the game. Moreover, I found the game to be incredibly easy; sure, I've played most of the Mario vs. Donkey Kong games, but this is remarkably easy, except for a few levels in the Star World. This extends to the character-specific worlds, too. The puzzles in the game are well designed, despite their lack of difficulty.

    To unlock the character-specific worlds, you need to scan the respective amiibo in, to play as said character, and then you need to find their amiibo door, which is hidden in one of the twelve main levels. Each amiibo has their own unique ability that is exploited to reach these goals, such as Mario, and his ability to wall-jump. If you scan in a non-Mario amiibo, you get a Mini known as Mini-Spek. He has no special abilities and can only play the basic levels. All the levels have amiibo cards, also, that you need to obtain, using that amiibo's respective ability. These are both implemented very well. I

    I found the character-specific worlds to be very gimmicky, with some using boost pads, or minecarts (like Donkey Kong Country 1-3), and whilst these gimmicks are very nice and very well implemented (and I do like them, a lot actually), I found that they weren't expanded upon enough. This is primarily due the fact that each character-specific world is only four levels long, however, it is also because some gimmicks are very shallow in nature, such as the candles used in the Luigi-specific levels (I'm avoiding pointing out the level names for spoilers' sake). The gimmicks do make a reappearance in the post-game, however, they aren't expanded upon there, sadly.

    What I can say is that the game does have some of the best graphics in the series, by far. It uses source materials from many different Mario games (including Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario Galaxy, and even Yoshi's Woolly World), however, I found they looked a little compressed at first. However, it is the most stylized game in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong game and I can easily identify the worlds, which I can't say for some earlier games in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series. The music is also marvellous, featuring some nice remixes of Nintendo songs, taken from the respective games from each characters.

    The game took me about 3 hours to finish, and that was with 6/10 required amiibo in my possession. As a result, I do feel this game is quite short, however, I did enjoy the three hours, and because of this, I would recommend this game to anyone with a majority of the amiibo. If you don't own any of the amiibo needed, this will only serve as a way to introduce you to the series. If you do, you'll have a lot of fun with this game.

    In all, I award this game an 8 out of 10!

    + Good graphics and music
    + Well implemented gimmicks
    + Good puzzle design

    - Too easy
    - Gimmicks feel under-utilised
    - Somewhat short    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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No score yet - based on 3 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. Nintendo Life
    May 24, 2016
    70
    It's a fun if not premium experience, with some rather uninspired level designs mixed in with moments of greater quality - for amiibo fans it's well worth a look.
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  2. Cubed3
    May 4, 2016
    80
    Anyone with an amiibo should download this to try it out, especially if he or she enjoys puzzle games and/or Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars.
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  3. Post Arcade (National Post)
    May 3, 2016
    60
    That said, if you’ve already got a shelf full of Amiibo there’s no reason not to at least give Mini Mario & Friends Amiibo Challenge a go. It’ll cost you nothing and requires just a wee bit of space on your Wii U hard drive. No point looking a gift horse in the mouth. However, if you’ve yet to pick up at least a few Amiibo or have shied away from collecting the core Mario characters, this is one free game you can skip without losing much sleep.
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