Game Review: Mario vs. Donkey Kong (Nintendo Switch)

Mario vs. Donkey Kong – or “Donkey Kong vs. Jumpman” is one of the oldest rivalry in videogame history! And one of the most popular till today!

Shigeru Miyamoto started this good old battle between Mario and the ape in 1981. Donkey Kong was the start of Nintendo’s success. Without Donkey Kong videogames wouldn’t be the same, because the jumping and running mechanics defined the era of the videogames.

Donkey Kong was followed by a lots of successors – the most popular Donkey Kong games are the five Donkey Kong Country games. But – the origin rivalry had some great successors, too. On the Game Boy you can play Donkey Kong – a game with the four old platform levels and 96 new ones!

On the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo released Mario vs. Donkey Kong, which was the beginning of the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series. The original Mario vs. Donkey Kong was remade for Switch – and became another million seller on the popular handheld hybrid.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong offers great modern graphics, a renewed soundtrack and the whole original game, which can be played in casual or the original classic mode. Why casual? The GBA game was very difficult, so you have two difficult modes now. Casual removes the time limit, adds checkpoints to levels, and let Mario take five hits before losing a life.

You can play the 48 levels of the GBA game, but Nintendo did not only remake it, but added two new worlds – Merry Mini-Land, taking place in an amusement park, and Slippery Summit, an icy mountain. In every world you have six levels in which you have to collect three presents and to reach a goal, plus one level in which Mini Marios have to reach a goal. And – of course, one level in which you have to beat Donkey Kong himself. So the remake offers you 64 levels and the plus counterparts that miss the Mini Mario stages – so 56 new levels! And that’s not enough – Nintendo gives you the chance to beat 16 pro levels. But there’s still a challenge waiting for you – all 136 levels can be played in a time trial mode in which you have high scores to beat. A really great remake!

I enjoyed the game a lot – OK, I love the original game, but everyone should try out this challenging jump’n’run game. It is the pure Mario game experience!

Verdict:  Nintendo took the original recipe and pushed the great old soup to a new level – now it is banquet! Get it!

Soup Temperature:  9/10