Mario vs Donkey Kong – Nintendo Switch

From saving damsels to saving toys, Mario vs Donkey Kong continues the rivalry between Nintendo’s biggest icons with this mostly faithful remake of the original Game Boy Advance game.

The Kong Strikes Back

Mario vs Donkey Kong’s story is as straightforward and to the point as its title. After Donkey Kong steals all the Mini-Marios, the hot new toys from Mario’s Toy Factory, it’s up to Mario to grab them back from his longtime rival!

This remake’s graphics have the appealing, colourful style of modern Mario with super-cool 3D recreations of the original’s world aesthetics and creative character designs, like the wind-up toy Shy Guys and cartoony DK Jungle animals. Plus, the cutscenes are now fully animated, really bringing these iconic characters to life, unlike the original’s still image slideshows.

One thing that’s disappointing is that the original’s iconic character animations have been changed here, dampening the charming wackiness and playing down the comical ways Mario reacted when injured in the original. However, the animation is still appealing enough overall and maintains most of the original’s charm.

The game’s soundtrack features modernised smooth jazz rearrangements of the original version’s compressed music, along with a few new tracks to go along with it, and they’re all expressive, catchy, and contribute to the fun.

Monkey Puzzle

This evolution of the underrated Game Boy version of Donkey Kong’s core gameplay is on the simple side, but it’s what’s built around that simplicity that makes it fun. Mario vs Donkey Kong’s short-but-sweet stages involve solving creative 2D puzzle platforming challenges, unlocking doors with keys, and saving Mini-Marios. Do that six times in a world and you can navigate the Mini-Marios to a toy box before a Donkey Kong boss fight, with your hit points depending on how many of those little guys you saved.

Moving Mario with the analogue stick feels more comfortable than the original D-pad, especially when jumping up higher with an acrobatic backflip, blocking falling objects with a handstand, climbing ladders and ropes, throwing objects at enemies (or enemies themselves), and smashing them with a hammer, just like in Mario’s arcade days.

This remake’s level design is faithful to the original, with a few minor tweaks improving enemy and obstacle placement. Other gameplay tweaks include respawning hammers after use, and now you don’t lose a life by falling from high places, retrying, or exiting stages. Even the point system is replaced with a simplified ranking system based on how many presents collected in a stage – some will see these changes as an overcorrection, but I don’t mind as it makes the experience accessible for casual players too.

Besides, the remake now has timed, skill-based 1-Up grabbing platformer bonus stages, a worthy change as you gain extra lives on merit compared to the original’s luck-based bonus challenges.

However, there are some gripes I have with the more dated elements. Some levels feel tedious, like those making you wait for moving platforms after missing them, which is annoying when racing against a time limit. Also, while the Mini-Mario stages are cleverly designed, their AI is a bit finicky at times, especially in the harder levels.

The New Toy Box

Alongside the original’s six, this version features two new worlds, and they’re both cleverly designed, welcome additions: Merry Mini-Land includes a creative “Flower Fan” that carries everything along with its gust of wind, and Slippery Summit lives up to its name, letting you slide on ice to get you and the items where they need to be.

Another cool feature added is “Casual Style”, where there’s still a life counter, but Mario can now be saved from obstacles and enemies by a limited supply of bubbles, the time limit is removed, and the levels have added checkpoints – the perfect mode for casual players!

Plus, the remake supports local co-op, where Player 2 controls Toad, and doors need to be unlocked with a sliver flying key. Despite the levels being initially designed for single player, co-op changes up the gameplay very well, especially since Toad can do things that Mario can’t, like walk and handstand through small gaps and climb ropes faster.

Verdict

Despite some disappointing changes and dated gameplay elements, Mario Vs Donkey Kong’s clever gameplay, charming visuals, and quality-of-life improvements recapture what made the original so good. If you love puzzle-platformers and are looking for a simple, fun time, go buy a copy before they sell out faster than the Mini-Marios!