Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a faithful revamp of the GBA original, to a fault

videogameschronicle.com:

Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a hybrid puzzle-platformer which, while well-crafted like most Nintendo games, never truly excels within either genre and, remade in 2024, doesn’t feel challenging enough to cater to experienced players.

For those much younger than this writer, and those who’ll get additional enjoyment from reliving their own youth, there’s plenty of content within this Switch remake to keep you going, including a generous number of accessibility options to ensure that players of any skill can take on the mighty DK.

But for those used to the tight controls and challenging difficulty of the 2D Super Mario games, you might be better off waiting for a full sequel rather than what is a faithful-to-a-fault remake of a 20-year-old game, which many will argue could’ve done with a bit more demolition work.

Created by Nintendo’s American arm, NST, Mario vs. Donkey Kong was originally released for Game Boy Advance as a spiritual successor to the arcade Donkey Kong game, and its subsequent Game Boy follow-up. Players navigate a series of small platforming levels, with the objective of finding a hidden key and bringing it to a locked door, avoiding enemies and obstacles along the way. Simple.

In each of the game’s eight worlds, you’ll complete six of these kinds of levels before taking on a bonus stage where you lead a group of ‘Mini Mario’ robots through an obstacle course to a goal, and then a boss battle against Donkey Kong himself.

Playing Mario vs. DK in 2024, with vibrant, HD graphics unrecognisable from its pixelated GBA origins, is initially a jarring experience. Despite looking like a traditional sidescroller, Mario vs. DK plays nothing like a traditional 2D Mario game. The plumber’s movement feels slow and clunky, reminiscent of the original Donkey Kong arcade game this pays homage to, and there are no power-ups to be found on stages other than the iconic hammer from the 80s classic.

Mario can perform a few special moves, such as flipping onto his hands to deflect