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• Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! review: Good things, small packages

   

  

  By now, you'd think Super Mario would know better. Like Captain Kirk and Mitch Buchanan before him, any woman he romances is destined for danger. A kinder man would quit the dating scene altogether, maybe take up a hobby, and take comfort in knowing that he has spared some beautiful stranger the peril of knowing him. Not this guy. It's like he's got a hero complex or something.

  And so, in Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!, there's Mario taking Pauline out of hiding for a romantic day at the Mini-Land amusement park, and there's Donkey Kong, right on schedule, snatching her away. Even though "mayhem" is not exactly the right word for the low-key puzzle game that ensues (and the exclamation point is just gratuitous), Mario's latest handheld adventure is nevertheless an appealing, though minor, entry in his canon.