Mario vs. Donkey Kong

"The worst Donkey Kong game"

I was really excited when I first heard that Nintendo is making this game. However I was really disappointed when I laid my hands on it

Story: 2/10
Through out the history of Donkey Kong, he only has the craze for Princess Peach,
and each time he laid his hands on Princess Peach, Mario will get in his way.
Based on normal logic, there is no logic for Donkey Kong to fall in love with Mini-Mario dolls (unless he wants one as voodoo doll). Hence, I found the story in Mario vs. Donkey Kong to be unacceptable. Moreover, I think Nintendo is trying too hard to promote Mario. This game is suppose to be a Donkey Kong game, and the big N name it "MARIO vs. donkey kong". Come on Nintendo, you should at least call it "DONKEY KONG vs. mario".

Graphics: 9/10
The best Donkey Kong graphics I've seen so far. It is very bright and colourful. All the characters are nicely drawn. I minus 1 point for the movie clips, the graphics are nice, but not very smooth.

Music/Sound: 7/10
The music is superb, but the sound effect gets a bit annoying, especially Mario's voice.

Levels: 1/10
There may be a lot of levels in this game, but there are all very very similar. Almost all the puzzles in this game are made up of moving platform and color switches. Yes, I mean you jump on a platform, then move to another one, step on a switch, then go to the next platform, next switch and so on. The Mini-Mario did bring some new lights into this game's levels, but not by that much, as the Mini-Mario levels is also heavily relying on the color switches and moving platforms.

Control: 3/10
The control in this game is not responsive, you'll find yourself dying due to the buggy jump button. This jumping bus usually happened when you are on a moving platform.

Movements: 0/10
If you played any Mario game before, you'll know how Mario moves. Mario will start of moving slow (walking pace) and gradually increasing speed until running pace. In this game, Mario only move at one pace, that is jogging pace. The character in the game is not Mario, it is someone else using a Mario sprite as disguise.

Difficulty: 6/10
To finish the game is very easy. To get all the stars in this game is moderate. However, to get yourself to endure the dullness of this game is very hard.

Re-playability: 4/10
I love Donkey Kong 94, but I just couldn't get myself to stick to this game. I got this game when it first released, played up to stage 2-8, then stopped cause I was too bored of the same old dull level design. Picked it up again 3 weeks later and finished the Original World and stopped again. Picked it again 1 month later and finished the Plus World then stopped again.

Overall: 3/10
If you are a Donkey Kong fan, you should avoid this and go and play Donkey Kong 94' instead.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 07/09/04