The two iconic and most recognizable video game characters have teamed up once again in Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! With the game available on  DSiWare, you’ll be able guide the adorable, tiny wind-up Marios to safety. The game was announced during the Nintendo press conference, and we had an opportunity to check it out on the show floor of the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

It looks like there will be more than 30 levels in the game, with additional puzzle packs that will be available weekly after launch. It’s unknown at this time how long the service will go on for, but we were told by a Nintendo rep that it will last at least six months. There are four worlds, and each will have eight levels, a bonus stage to unlock, as well as a boss level.

Like the Mario vs. Donkey Kong games before it, your goal is to manipulate the 2D platformer environment so that the mindless Mario drones can make it to the door. It starts off relatively easy, especially if you’re just aiming to get them to the finish line. Given that your performance score is tallied at the end, it’s beneficial to snag all of the coins and cards to get the gold star. Once you activate the mini-Marios, they’ll walk back and forth until they exit the stage or wind up in a pit with spikes. The first world that we played was simple and required us mostly to tap pink blocks and reposition them so that the Marios can reach the goods. We encountered a mechanical Donkey Kong in one stage who would toss your Marios in the air, helping you reach the higher platforms. There wasn’t much diversity in the first few stages, other than a ladder, a spring and DK. It all felt very familiar, but considering that this demo ended after the first world, we’re wondering if there are going to be any other new additions.

The boss stage was actually quite fun because you’re using the stylus to control and fire a cannon with a mini loaded in it. All you need to do to get rid of Donkey Kong is use your stylus to spin the wheel and tap the giant “shoot” button. The wheel is linked to a conveyer belt of sorts that moves the cannon left and right. Donkey Kong hops in and out of three windows in the top screen while hazardous items rain down. He can take only about five hits, so it’s not exactly a long and drawn-out battle.

One of the biggest and lasting features of Minis March Again (especially since it’s on the DSi) is the level editor, in which you can create and share your own devious creations locally and online. It’s very easy to pull up a template and choose what kind of contraptions you want in your level. There is a limit as to how many items you can place on the map, but the possibilities are nearly endless.

We assume that the levels will ramp up in difficulty, but we look forward to playing more of Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! The game will be available via the DSi store June 8 at a price of 800 Wii points.

Check out the source at GameSpot

New York Times bestselling author James Patterson has his finger in a lot of pies. With 52 novels under his belt, he has dedicated a lot of time to various adaptations for film, TV, and video games. The upcoming Women’s Murder Club: Crimes of Passion, announced for the DS and DSi at Nintendo’s Tuesday press conference, is based on Patterson’s highly successful series of books about four women who dedicate their time to solving crimes. We tried our hand at being a detective at THQ’s booth during E3 2009.

Who’s Making This Game:

Women’s Murder Club: Crimes of Passion was developed by Seattle-based Griptonite Games and is being published by THQ. The game’s producer, Adam Affruniti, told us Patterson was involved in all aspects of the game’s eight-month development, including the decision to exclude the fourth member of the Women’s Murder Club from the game’s story. The game is targeted at women between 18 and 49 years, but THQ is not hiding the fact that they think everyone who is a fan of Patterson’s work will play this.

What The Game Looks Like:

This is an action mystery game in the same manner as Hotel Dusk and is heavily story-driven. The game’s environments range from crime scene exteriors to restaurants and cafe interiors, and its visual style is realistic, with a lot of attention to detail on objects and faces. For example, players will be required to medically examine a human body, which is visually impressive up close.

What There Is To Do:

There are three stories in the game, each played from the perspective of one of the three main characters: Lindsay (detective), Claire (medical examiner), and Cindy (news reporter). Each story has its own mystery, but we are told they are all connected in some way. The game is broken up between dialogue-driven story sequences and gameplay that involves analyzing crime scenes and evidence, finding clues, solving puzzles, and conducting witness interviews. There are also minigames that help to unlock clues throughout the game. In the demo we played, we had to analyze a crime scene under a bridge with a variety of different objects to examine, including a car, a basketball, a handbag, and a hedge. We were then transported back to the lab where we had to examine a body, discovering clues that could help us understand why the victim was murdered. Throughout the game, you will have to report back to your boss in between looking for clues, as well as regroup with the other members of the Women’s Murder Club, who will help with unsolved clues. The gameplay lasts roughly four hours.

How The Game Is Played:

The game is played with the DS and DSi stylus by simply touching the area of the screen that you want to examine or activate (for example, during the dialogue). The game is played mainly holding the console on its side, with the bottom screen serving as the action screen and the top screen as the information screen. However, sometimes this will change. In the demo we played, the top screen held a list of items that we had to find at the crime scene displayed in the bottom screen. To find items, we simply touched the screen to move and zoom and then touched a particular item when we located it.

The game also has DSi functionality, which includes eight mini-stories that use the console’s many features. For example, one of the stories requires players to use the DSi camera to take photos of various faces, which are then included in the story. DSi players will start out with just two of these mini-stories, and must unlock the other six as they play the game’s main story.

What We Didn’t See:

We played a very short demo that included analyzing a crime scene, examining a body, and having a short conversation with our character’s boss. We didn’t get to see the game from the perspective of the other two characters, nor did we see more environments or anything more substantial relating to the main storyline.

What They Say:

This game will appeal to all gamers, and there are plans to make more in the series.

What We Say:

We couldn’t deduce much from our short hands-on demo other than the fact that the game looks good, and it sounds promising in terms of delivering a captivating story and challenging puzzles. We were also keen to check out some of the minigames mentioned. There is no doubt that this game will appeal to those who are fans of the portable mystery genre, but just how exciting the gameplay will get we can’t tell.

Nintendo’s DSi has just celebrated selling one million units in Europe, but that’s still a small number compared to the 150 million books that James Patterson has sold worldwide. The thriller author is one of the most popular writers in the world, and his Women’s Murder Club series is now coming to the DS and DSi thanks to publisher THQ.

The game will be called James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club, and from the look of the video shown at Nintendo’s E3 press conference, it looks to be in the vein of Hotel Dusk and Professor Leyton. You play the game by holding the DS on its side, and it has a graphic-novel visual style.

You will take control of different women from the series, including Lindsay Boxer and Cindy Thomas, as they attempt to catch the killer. They have to solve puzzles, which seem to include Tetris-style block games.

Check out the source at GameSpot

Pencils still exist?

Shaun, Brian, Kevin and I played a couple of rounds of Mixed Messages. Can you guess what Shaun’s drawing is supposed to represent?

Hint: Drunk baby falls down the stairs. Again.
Mixed Messages is a multiplayer-only game for up to 21 players. It’s not the type of game that you’d want to gather 21 people specifically for, but if you’re stuck at a boring cocktail party and they somehow ran out of drinks and food, you can bust this out on your brand spanking new DSi and get a few chuckles. No artistic skills are required and good grammar is optional. The more absurd the sentence you start off with is, the better the end result. It’s hilarious to see what people come up with, just think of the possibilities! Ninjas, flying monkeys and drunk babies are just a few ideas. The interface is easy to use and you can save multiple game sessions on the DSi.

The game continuously saves after each turn so you never have to worry about losing your progress, in the event that the DSi falls into the hands of someone who can’t read and decides to push random buttons. After each turn, the game will tell you to pass it on to the next person, and then he or she taps the touch screen to continue. It’s all laid out very clearly and it’ll even ask you to input your name before your turn, so your piece of art is tied to your name forever.

Yeah…we’re not that good.

Mixed Messages works extremely well on Nintendo’s latest system, and as long as you have friends who are willing to kill some time while standing in line for the next Harry Potter movie, this will definitely keep you occupied. We haven’t been able to confirm a price point yet, but it should be released in the near future as one of the first third-party titles (developed by Vicarious Visions)to hit the system.

Check out the source at GameSpot

The title of this preview is actually a little misleading. Although we did play WarioWare: Snapped today–the newest collection of strange minigames from Nintendo–we never actually got our hands on anything. That’s because Snapped, which will be available on DSiWare for the about-to-be-released DSi, is played entirely using the new handheld’s camera, making it a mostly hands-free experience.

You’ll have to drop your inhibitions–again–when playing this WarioWare game.

To play Snapped, you’ll need to position the DSi on a table or other stable surface with the game’s internal camera pointed in your direction. The game will initially ask you to hold your head and right hand in a certain position for a few seconds for calibration; the DSi’s top screen will show your silhouette, so it’s easy to see where you need to be.

From there, Snapped will throw you a series of minigames, each lasting only a few seconds, in which you have to do specific movements to advance. In our gameplay session, we had to massage an old woman by forming a fist and moving it in front of the DSi camera, wave goodbye five times in quick succession, play peek-a-boo with a baby onscreen, and more. After the first wave of games, we were then treated to a quick photo slideshow. Apparently the game had snapped a few stills of us making our movements and wanted to show us how weird we looked while doing them.

Snapped is typically WarioWare wacky, although it did seem to be a bit more generous than other games in the series when it came to how much time it gave you to figure out what to do with each minigame. WarioWare: Snapped is expected to launch at around the same time as the DSi in the US, Europe, and Australia.

Check out the source at GameSpot