Mini Mario & Friends amiibo Challenge

It's interesting to see how the Mario vs. Donkey Kong games have slowly changed over time. While the first game was a 2D platformer that echoed the philosophy of the classic Donkey Kong arcade game, each successive entry focused more and more on the miniature toy versions of characters. Now, it's become a Lemmings-esque puzzle game series, where the goal is to guide toys safely to the goal in the most efficient way possible.

It seems that the 'Mario vs. Donkey Kong' phrase may now be retired, as the newest entry in this series will be called Mini Mario & Friends amiibo Challenge. The game will support all amiibo; scanning in Mario related amiibo will drop in the respective character, while any other amiibo character will drop in a robot called 'Mini Spec'. Evidently, toys will have certain special abilities - such as a wall run or a ground pound - and these will occasionally give the player access to hidden stages centered around a particular character. Mini Mario & Friends amiibo Challenge releases for both Wii U and 3DS in Japan on the 28th, and while there isn't any confirmation yet of a localisation, it'd be a bit surprising if it didn't make it over to the west. Check out the announcement trailer below, footage of the game starts about a minute in:

You may recall that we reported on a rumour before Christmas that NST was working on such a title - this could well be that game.

What do you think? Would you be interested in this? What are your thoughts on the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series? Drop us a comment in the section below.

[source nintendoeverything.com, via topics.nintendo.co.jp]