Mario Vs Donkey Kong Review

Mario & Donkey:

The remake for the Switch of “Mario Vs. Donkey Kong” is based on the original GameBoy Advance version, now brought with graphical and gameplay improvements in a very beautiful package. That said, what to expect from another remake of a Nintendo IP?

Story:

The story is simple, and ends up being told in the game’s opening cutscene. Donkey Kong is bored and flipping through the TV channels quickly, until he comes across a commercial that shows a very charismatic toy called Mini-Mario. The gorilla then falls in love with him and decides to go after the store that sells him. Once there, however, the product is out of stock, so he decides to break into the factory to steal all the toys and get away.

Gameplay:

Our mission is to control Mario in the most diverse worlds and solve puzzles in the levels to reach the end. The gameplay is simple and involves the classic jump, a command that allows you to do a handstand to jump higher, and a double jump that reaches even higher places. The objective is to get the golden key to open the door and go to the next level, avoiding obstacles and using enemies to your advantage such as platforms, explosives, and the like.

In other phases, the mission changes and becomes collecting Mini-Mario at the end of them. In the fifth phase (out of six in total) of each world, we need to take all the Mini-Mario collected to the chest at the end, all of which need to be taken safely. To do this, it is necessary to know which path we should follow. It is also possible to see the entire environment with the press of a button, which makes the camera free to roam the place. That helps a little.

The star here is definitely the cooperative gameplay. Playing two-person, the second player controls Toad, and the level adds an extra gray key to make things a little more difficult. The gray phase serves to unlock the lock that closes the door, while the gold phase continues to open the door itself. Both keys can be collected by only one player at a time, which balances the level of difficulty and makes everyone important in terms of gameplay. Furthermore, we can also press colored buttons to turn blocks in the respective colors on or off, which adds to the complexity of the puzzles.

In the last phase of each world, we always face Donkey Kong in a kind of battle that reminds us of the classic NES Mario games. Here, it is generally necessary to pick up a barrel or something similar that the gorilla throws to use against him, but we need to be constantly careful because of the paraphernalia that he throws everywhere and enemies that fall from above.

The most notable perhaps is the inclusion of two new worlds: Alegre Miniland (fourth world inspired by an amusement park) and Slippery Top (sixth world based on an icy place). Added to these new levels is a Time Trial mode to beat our marks that we will unlock by completing the main part of the game and a local multiplayer mode for up to two players where one will be Mario and the other will be Toad, turning the game into a somewhat more bearable cooperative experience.

Presentation:

This remake of Mario vs. Donkey Kong introduces many new features with respect to the original game that go beyond a simple facelift. Far from the careful cinematics with which the story is told, its modernized visual section and its updated sound section, the title includes various additions that give it even more content than ever before.

Conclusion:

With new levels, a fun local co-op mode, and updated graphics and soundtrack, this remake of the classic “Mario vs Donkey Kong” we found it to be an ideal game to exercise the brain in a dynamic and fun way.

Being a fairly replayable experience that encourages you to complete it one hundred percent, we have also felt that it is a game that is enjoyed more in small sips . Clearly, a very well-managed remake that gave us a good time.