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Mario VS. Donkey Kong: Written by: Michael Anthony
 Publisher: Nintendo Price: 29.99 Genre: Puzzle E for Everyone
In the 1980’s, Nintendo debuted top-tier title Donkey Kong, starring the congenial Mario (AKA Jump-man)
and the ferocious Donkey Kong. Although the game was an arcade hit, both characters would later find their way into separate
franchises like Super NES hit; Donkey Kong, along with Mario’s alluring Super Mario Bros. series. Although
they’ve managed to make little appearances together, arguably; we’ve never really had a true sequel. Sure
you may have engaged in recreation on the older GameBoy version, but we’ve never gotten the probability to play a newer
version until now
Mario VS. Donkey Kong is a puzzle/platformer game that incessantly produces obstacles
with a boundless amount of brain-numbing puzzles that may sometimes bewilder, or frustrate you, but overall give you a great
experience.
Levels are sometimes short, while others are longer, but each level is crafted with an excellent
amount of ingenuity. Rather your jumping on switches making foes fall to create a walkway or climbing from rope-to-rope trying
to avoid Petey Piranha's traps, level design is brilliant. The obstacles couldn’t be anymore ingenious. Although some
levels may require you to think, others will simply force you to bypass foes, where you’ll have to work against, and
sometimes with them. Each world sports a different theme; rather it be a Jungle, or factory,
creativity is present.
The puzzles may overtake the fact that this isn’t a platformer, but with Mario’s
polished set of moves, it’s hard to tell the difference. When it comes to Mario-2D your most likely going to find that
“jumping” is his one and only move, however Mario VS. Donkey Kong proves that Mario can do more than just jump.
Moves were taken straight from Mario’s 3D predecessors (i.e. Mario Sunshine) like the side-jump along with a
new set of moves like the groovy hand-walk trick, and front flip.
Admit it; listening to Mario repeat his “It’s-a-me-Mario” phrase or the infamous
“Ma-ma-mia“ was cute at first, but after hearing those two phrases over and over again, it would make you sometimes
question if your Nintendo was possessed by a Furby. Fortunately, Mario’s got a much larger vocabulary that goes great
with the game‘s storyline, however Donkey Kong makes no other noises then grunts that may sometimes sound like he’s
trying to fart.
Believe it or not, the game does have a storyline, although it may be lackluster and predictable,
it is still very humorous and goes great with the atmosphere of the game.
There’s not much to complain about, the game has great puzzles and level design along
with a cutesy story, but Mario VS. Donkey feels more like a time-saver than anything. Of course the game is fun, but there’s
not much to it. Perhaps a multi-player mode would spice things up, or maybe even some more modes other then... one. Although
the game is satisfying, and does carry a great amount of replay value, there’s just not much to it. With any luck, we’ll
see another Mario VS. Donkey Kong game sometime in the near future, with more modes and a possible multi-player mode, but
overall, Mario VS. Donkey Kong will please you.
Level design and character sprites are remarkably detailed, however, clichės
are easily noticed throughout gameplay. While looking at characters, you may sometimes notice a pixel that seems off-placed,
but it’s never enough to distract you from the great elements of gameplay itself that this game sports. However, when
you look past minor details like these, you’re going to find that the wonderful use of color, along with the nice character
animations are very attractive. 2D worlds with 3D characters add a nice finishing touch to the game’s overall appearance. . . . . . . .
Unexpectedly, Mario VS. Donkey Kong sports great sound, possibly the best we’ve
seen on the GameBoy Advance in a while. Although there’s no singing soundtrack of course (a boundary that most cartridges
set); sound effects, along with great music go perfect with the game. Every aspect of the game seems to seamlessly fit in
perfect. While listening to the sound quality in cut-scenes, you’ll notice Mario’s new vocabulary, along with
a great set of Background Music. Rather your watching the cut-scenes, or playing, you can rest assure, that your ears will
be in for a treat. .
. . . . . . . .
Although learning the controls in this game is very simple (every level has
a short tutorial), you may sometimes feel that controls are rather unresponsive or clunky. In order to perform the “side-jump”,
you must turn the Directional pad right [or left] and quickly jerk it toward the opposite direction while jumping. Although
this wasn’t a hard maneuver to pull off in Mario Sunshine, trying to perform this trick with a D-Pad is very
hard to pull off, especially when you are trying to use this technique on short ledges. While it’s hard to perform the
side-jump you may sometimes find it hard to jump at all. I found minor unresponsive controls during some levels, like when
Mario carries an item, and tries to jump to a moving platform; you may sometimes find that the jump button doesn’t respond
quickly enough, which results in either a Game Over, or broken A button. Overall, this problem occurs sporadically and happens
mostly when played on the GameBoy Player for some reason. . . . . .
Some levels in Mario VS. Donkey Kong are very addictive and fun, while
others are extremely difficult and repetitive. However, being able to return to the accomplished parts of the game makes the
experience less linear than the usual level-to-next-level game style. Although the game is fun, it’s not something that
you would want to play through again if you recently beat it, besides, the game isn’t as short as you think, ending
twists adds to the replay value as well.. .
. . . . .
Mario VS. Donkey Kong is a great game. Catchy BGM, great visuals and solid
gameplay makes a great portable gaming experience. However, there’s not much to the game except one mode, with questionably
linear levels, along with the lack of a multiplayer mode, but don’t fret my young friend, there’ll be plenty more
opportunities in the future for even greater Mario VS. Donkey Kong action. All in all, Ignore my minor complaints, because
Mario VS. Donkey Kong delivers, I just want to see different styles of gameplay than just one. Perhaps a Wi-Fi wireless DS
version of Mario VS. Donkey Kong (hint hint Nintendo) in the future? Oh yeah
Graphics: 8.2 | Sound: 8.7 |
Control: 7.0 | Replay: 6.9 | Overall Game Score: 7.5/10
       
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