Mario vs Donkey Kong (Game Boy Advance, 2004)
Mario vs Donkey Kong is the 2004 follow-up to the popular 1994 Game Boy title, Donkey Kong. It was released for the Game Boy Advance handheld, and apparently started its life as some sort of weird GameCube / GBA hybrid:
At E3 2002, a title called Donkey Kong Plus was put on display. During the show, Plus had a feature that allowed players to design and save their own levels on the GameCube, then copy them to the Game Boy Advance using a link cable. It was essentially an updated version of Donkey Kong ’94, but the game had disappeared by the following year.
This sounds really cool! And is probably something that eventually became real in the Super Mario Maker series; apparently the level creator exists in the code on the Mario vs DK cart, and can be accessed with modification. I’m not ever going to try that, but kudos to those who have figured it out.
Going back to Mario vs Donkey Kong, this game pulls many elements from the 10-year-old Donkey Kong title for the Game Boy, and adds quite a few more to try to make the game a little more challenging. Plus, the graphics are massively upgraded. Mario has a lot more definition to him – in the original game, Mario only looked vaguely like Mario. In MvsDK, Mario looks like the one we’re familiar with on the handheld platform. The levels are colourful and some of the puzzles rely on this use of colour to activate various switches in specific order. In many ways some of the elements from 1994 are made easier to identify because things have different shades.
The level design is different too – instead of working through one level from start to finish, you’re presented with levels that are two stages. The first stage has you bringing a key to a door, similar to Donkey Kong. In the second stage, you have to retrieve a mini Mario (a toy that DK has stolen…there’s a whole story to this thing). Since it’s a checkpoint, if you die in the second stage you don’t need to begin all over again to get the key and go through the locked door, etc. etc. So while the level designs are a tad more challenging, the game is a little bit more forgiving when it comes to completing a level. The other challenging part is that it’s not super easy to reach 99 lives anymore. On my recent replay of the original Donkey Kong I had already racked up 60+ lives within the first few world maps. In MvsDK, I haven’t even reached 20 and I’m on level 3. I appreciate that a little.
The sound design is both good and bad, though. The good: the game takes full advantage of stereo speakers. Sounds eminate from the left or right speakers depending on what side of the screen they’re on. The game has great stepping sounds when Mario runs, and the original sounds from the 1994 game are back and improved here.
The bad: Mario’s voice during the game. It’s gotta go. I know that’s not going to happen…see: “Just what I needed!” in the GBA version of Super Mario Bros. 3. Donkey Kong makes some weird “Ugh” voice when you pick his 0 Up prize in the bonus game. I don’t know about you but despite the improvements above I really appreciate the simplicity of the 1994 game. All you need are some minor flourishes, and sound/music cues for different events in the game (like when you have a hammer for a limited time, when ladders and platforms are in place for a limited time, and so on).
Really…that’s what holds me back from truly enjoying this game. I can go back to 1994’s Donkey Kong any day, but I wouldn’t be upset if I couldn’t play this game anymore. It just doesn’t have the same charm.
I recommend playing it for the strong puzzle aspects of the game but it’s not nearly as fun for me as the original DK.