Mario Vs. Donkey Kong (Game Boy Advance)

Tale as old as time. Song as old as rhyme. Plumber and the ape. Donkey Kong and Mario have quite the history as long standing frienemies. From Mario rescuing Pauline from the angry ape in 1980's Donkey Kong, to Mario's rare villain role in Donkey Kong Junior. While Mario increased upon his resume in the 80's and early 90's, Donkey Kong stewed in the background, waiting for his opportunity again. To make up for his embarrassing role in Donkey Kong 3. Some bug sprays up the butt just can't be forgiven.

Regardless, DK was slowly making his comeback by the mid-90's and 1994 was the beginning of the return of the barrel tossing granddaddy of them all. Of course, everyone knows Donkey Kong Country being the revolutionary title that it was for the Super Nintendo, but some often forget the Game Boy port of Donkey Kong, which expanded the game's mere four level affair to a hundred and one level obstacle course that pushed Mario to his platforming limits.  It is a true classic that often gets overlooked in the original GB library.

But thankfully for those who were fans of the Game Boy Donkey Kong were given another round in 2004 with Mario Vs. Donkey Kong for the Game Boy Advance. Originally planned as Donkey Kong Plus, which would work with both the GBA and Gamecube, allowing the ability to edit levels, but eventually the game was turned into a new experience without those features (though they are still hidden in the game through hacking).

The story of the game is pretty simple stuff. Donkey Kong is watching television one night and spots and ad for Mini Mario toys. Yes, the plumber is good at something other than rescuing princesses and unclogging toilets, and that's selling out. DK becomes so enamored with the Mini Marios that he breaks into the factory ans steals all the dolls. It's up to Mario to put a stop to the simple simian and rescue all the Mini Mario dolls.

Mario Vs. Donkey Kong is a one player affair. You control Mario through six worlds as you collect the Mini Mario dolls and face off with Donkey Kong. A button has Mario jump, while B allows him to pick up the key in each level, or free the Mini Mario from its Crystal Ball. Mario has a multitude of tricks. From climbing ropes, to walking on his hands to deflect debris, to his patented backflip. All these tools are needed to make it through each stage.

Each world is broken into eight stages. Six of those stages are broken into two stages. The first sees Mario try to collect a key to open the door to make it to the second room where he has to collect the Mini Mario doll. The final two are a lemmings-like level where Mario has to guide the Mini Mario dolls to a toy box, and the other being a boss fight with Donkey Kong. Complete all eight stages to advance to the next world. Each world contains a particular theme. From the toy factory to a jungle, to a volcano, a haunted house and more.

Each key level contains three present boxes to find. Picking up all three will give Mario a shot at extra lives for completing the level. These break down to one of two different bonus games. One where you have to stop an arrow on a particular present box, or another where you swap boxes around to keep Donkey Kong from squashing the box you're after. You can earn up to five lives. Another completion item is the star earned for getting the best score in a level. Similarly for completion sake, each Mini Mario level has the letters T, O and Y to collect. After completing the game the first time, and collecting the stars, you can redo other levels in a plus mode, which ramps up the challenge.

In terms of difficulty, the game has a good level of challenge. Almost every stage adds something new for you to learn (with demos before each level), and level layouts can often be tricky. But there's never many levels where you can't figure out what to do after a short while. And since the game does offer a lot of extra lives,  you can often afford to lose a life or two in trial and error. That's a definite plus to Mario Vs. Donkey Kong. There is plenty of variety in the levels to keep you wondering what could be coming up next.

Graphically, the game looks great. Sticking to the more classic DK formula with pre-rendered graphics, making for a nice 3D-ish (I guess by GBA standards) look and feel to the game. I also like the still images used for the cutscenes, which makes for some fun moments. I do wish the cutscenes were more animated, but considering this is a GBA game, I'd expect a dip in quality if that were the case. Audio wise, lots of great sound effects from Mario and even some from DK. Musically, the soundtrack is pretty basic. Nothing that will really leave you coming back for more.

Overall, Mario Vs Donkey Kong is a fun game for the GBA. It's a perfect "Pick up and Play" style game where you can tackle a level or two at a time. Perfect for a trip from one place to another. It proved successful for Nintendo to continue the series with several more sequels throughout the years. But for the bedrock of the franchise, it's a great start.

RATING: A