Everybody! Do the Mario!
It seems that these days Mario can be found doing just about everything. He saves princesses, kingdoms, and the world on a regular basis. He's a doctor, a plumber, and a master of disguise. He plays just about every sport known to man. And now he dances.
Mario Mix is, in many ways, just like any other DDR game. You step on the arrows as they appear, and if you do it with precise timing you get more points. But this game introduces a lot of new elements that make the game entirely unique in the series. First off is the story mode. This involves Mario (or Luigi) dancing around the Mushroom Kingdom in search of the four music keys. It's here that you unlock the songs that can be played in free mode, most of which are remixed Mario Bros. tunes. In this mode, you can also buy items to make the going a little easier, such as extra lives and items to keep your dance meter from going down when you miss a move. Unfortunately, this can take away a bit of the challenge from the game, but if you want a challenge, you can always just avoid buying items.
Some songs require the player stomp enemies as they dance to give this game that real Mario feel. The enemies will float about on the screen, and failure to stomp on them as they pass over your arrows usually means a major hit to your meter, or that the arrows will become harder to see. Some levels require the player to hit these in order to pass, so even if you manage to somehow get through the song without hitting these, you still fail the level. This might annoy some hard-core DDR fans, but I thought it was a lot of fun.
There are also several fun little mini-games that can be unlocked to keep things interesting. These are all reminiscent of activities from other Mario games, such as running to the flag-pole, and hitting goombas with a hammer (ala whack-a-mole). Any of these can be played during story mode or free mode after they are unlocked.
There's only two gripes that I really have about this game. First and foremost is that the song list for this game is VERY short compared to other DDR games (twenty-something songs total). This takes A LOT away from the game and greatly shorted the amount of time that I spent playing it. The second thing that I found to be annoying was the lack of playable characters. Even in free mode, you only get the choice to play as Mario or Luigi, both of whom use the exact same rediculous (and hilarious) dance moves. Would it have killed Nintendo to add in a few of the old Mario stand-bys (Peach, Yoshi, a few of the NPC villians) and give them their own movesets? This wasn't really that big of a deal to me, but it was a disappointment. Also of note is that the dance pad for this game was supposedly recalled, so you may want to invest in a third-party mat for this game.
All-in-all, this is a pretty fun game, but it could have used some improvements. If you are a DDR fanatic, you might enjoy the new tunes and gameplay additions, but you could just as easily be turned off by the very same things. I'd mostly recommend this game to those who, like me, are passive DDR players, Mario fans, or people who are just looking for a novelty game. It really is a lot of fun, and could be a great way to introduce a noob or younger player to the DDR series. Just don't expect it to be the typical DDR.Read full review
