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GameBoy Advance : Mario vs. Donkey Kong Reviews

Gas Gauge: 78
Gas Gauge 78
Below are user reviews of Mario vs. Donkey Kong and on the right are links to professionally written reviews. The summary of review scores shows the distribution of scores given by the professional reviewers for Mario vs. Donkey Kong. Column height indicates the number of reviews with a score within the range shown at the bottom of the column. Higher scores (columns further towards the right) are better.

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ReviewsScore
Game Spot 80
Game FAQs
IGN 85
GameSpy 60
GameZone 85
1UP 80






User Reviews (1 - 11 of 27)

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The DS version is slightly better

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Great game, overall. I'm a huge fan of Mario games (especially the original ones) and this one was a lot of fun to play. I think the DS version is slightly better because it's easier to scroll through the level (so you can see what items you need to find and where you need to go), but that's a minor inconvenience. Overall, I give it an A- because there are better Mario games out there but if you're a Mario fan, you'll like this one.

Great game for older gamer.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game reminds me of the old Donkey Kong games that I used to play. It is easy enough for my 7 year old and me to play, but challenging enough for my 13 year old daughter. One of my favorite Game boy Advance games.

Interesting Arcade/Puzzle mix

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: October 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Ever since I bought this game, I've barely set it down. It's a highly addictive arcade-platformer with quite a bit of puzzle strategies integrated with the gameplay. The game's 100+ levels (yes, there are that many when you count all the difficulty levels) range from simple jumping-and-climbing rooms to enormous chambers where one badly-timed movement could mean game over. The game takes several recognizable elements from the classic Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. arcade games, including climbing up and swinging between ropes to knock items down and climbing ladders and moving platforms while jumping over incoming barrels. It also introduces some new concepts, such as leading a troop of half a dozen half-size Marios past enemies and obstacles into a toybox.
Unfortunately, the game also has a few weak points. For instance, the controls are sometimes less responsive than they need to be, making levels more difficult thatn they need to be (not that some of the later ones aren't already that way). Also, when picking up and throwing items, it's difficult to get the game to register which direction you are throwing the item/object/enemy in. You might try to throw it straight up and end up tossing it off a ledge. Still, with probably the best graphics seen in any GBA game and a fun soundtrack that fits with the gameplay and doesn't distract the player, this is definitely worth a shot for anyone who likes classic arcade-style games with a bit of a puzzle spin.

Addicting but sometimes hard

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is a very addicting game, especially in the first few levels where you can pretty much breeze through them. However, near the end of the game, I have encountered problems to the point where I just gave up, figuring the frustration wasn't worth it. Some of the music is good, some not so good. I also encountered occasional problems with controlling Mario. Overall, I would say this game is quite good. I just wish it was a little bit easier near the end.

"Come here you big monkey!"

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is a revamped game concept from the somewhat known gameboy game "Donkey Kong(1994, not the original)". This game was an amazing game at the time to me. There's a puzzles in each level kind of and you have the chase Donkey Kong down. I forgot the storyline in the original 1994 game. I've always borrowed it from some friends about ten years ago.

The new storyline is quite funny and absurd. Donkey wants these Mini Mario becaue he saw them on a commercial on TV and I guess he's really bored and the psychology of the TV makes him and everyone else want these toys. He goes to the store and finds that the little Marios are sold out. He's furious and looks across the street to find the Mario Toy Company. He bust up the toadies and steals lots of Mario toys. Mario is angered ,and he wants the toys back. OK. He chases Donkey Kong down through quite a few levels and catches a mini Mario at the end of each level...once he gets six, Mario must go through a level and lead all the toys in a box...this makes an interesting concept where you must lead the toys and collect letters T-O-Y(like Tony hawk with SKATE) and must be led to a toy chest. Good concept.

The levels are great with conveyor belts, switches, keys, shy guys, birds, etc. Some of the levels are a little easy...some hard...some in between. Mario always banters like he does in Mario 64 with h9is "Mama mias." and etc.

If this sounds good to you...buy it. Because it's quite fun and there's a classic 94 and even 80's feel to the levels, great graphics, mario's banter,etc. The only drawback really is there's not much replay value...it'll only last so long before you beat the game. But you can stop playing anytime and pick off where you left off...it's not like an RPG where you have to play forever.

The older DK with better graphics

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is really fun with good graphics. It is like the older one but with more stuff and different story line. Instead of saving Peach you save these Mini Mario Toys from Donkey Kong. The levels are challenging for people who aren't hard core gamers. Gamers might think it to easy. I'm enbetween and I enjoy playing it.

It was nice... I guess

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a nice game, nothing really special. I've played better Mario games in the past. The game play was okay and the game itself gets boring after a while. I don't own the game myself (I've only played it from my older brother). But, I wouldn't really recommend it if you're really looking for one of those pick up and play games.

BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 10
Date: April 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

THIS IS THE WORST MARIO GAME EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's to easy to beat and it's boring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Don't buy this game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is why you don't outsource your intellectual property.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 19
Date: November 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

So... Mario vs Donkey Kong. Nintendo's latest shameless capitalization of a once-venerable series of games. I bit the bullet and started playing this recently, curiosity winning out over the recent experiences with Mario-branded games. Despite such tragedies of game design of the last 10 years like Mario Sunshine and Wario World, I still harbor warm feelings for the Mario games of the late 20th century, forgetting time and again that as their management and lead designers age and stagnate, fun, clever, original games like those are seemingly forever in Nintendo's past.

The game started out alright, an interesting puzzle-focused twist on the main-sequence Super Mario series... they eliminated the venerable stomping-enemies-and-grabbing-power-ups formula, and replaced it entirely with simple logic puzzles in underwhelming levels usually no larger than two screens' worth. You can still jump around, but Mario's jumping range is no higher than about twice his height, which for Mario is absolutely pathetic. He also moves at a constant rate of speed no matter how long he's been running, making nimble jumps practically impossible, and skids randomly when he stops; I found myself constantly plunging into crevasses and falling off cliffs, wondering with utterly genuine surprise and confusion why the character was receiving commands I wasn't inputting. Probably the biggest sin of all, though, is the ludicrously short distance he can fall before pancaking on the ground and whining like a toddler. And if you're falling while holding something, he'll pitch the item across the screen once you've fallen a certain distance, forcing you to retrieve it once he's done feeling sorry for himself.

Also, Mario's got the same voice actor they've been using in Mario games for years, Charles Martinet, who produces an entirely testicle-free whiny broken falsetto soaked in an Italian accent that rings less authentically than a Wichita Godfather's Pizza commercial. After maybe 20 minutes of gameplay, I was nearly in tears, begging the gods of video games to make him shut up... even if you're Mother Teresa, you can only really hear that "Mama Mia!" croon a limited number of times before a primal urge to exterminate mankind kicks in. And god help you if you let the rescued mini-Marios fall off the screen on the Mini Mario levels: until you retrieve all of them, which can sometimes take a while, they'll continuously shriek "Oh, Mario!" every second or so like starving lupine infants, producing a sensation that I can only describe as cannibalistic rage mixed with crippling nausea. One of the biggest letdowns in the game is the inability to pitch these mewling little parasites into an active caldera, forever silencing their demonic little voices.

Donkey Kong himself is probably the strangest part of the game, though. During the opening cinematic, we see DK sitting on his fat simian butt in his house, flipping idly through channels, until he sees a commercial advertising some kind of weird mini Mario dolls. Then, suddenly, hearts appear in DK's eyes. I am not making this up. It appears to anyone with more than one digit in their age that Donkey Kong is either harboring a secret lust for everyone's favorite effeminate plumber, or has a sick fetish for plushie toys. The latter becomes evident as we see DK break into the factory and steal one sack full of mini-Marios, crippling the entire toy doll industry. Apparently in their panic, the ubiquitous, androgenous little toadstool slaves forgot they could just turn the machines back on and... uh, you know.... just, uh, make more. Instead, Mario comes to the rescue and follows DK through six worlds of improbable puzzles, rescuing one mini Mario on every level.

So yeah, yet another failed opportunity to restore the Mario franchise to some mote of its former glory. I'm sure Nintendo won't care as it'll still undoubtedly make them money, but it's yet another shovel working to dig their corporate grave.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: November 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is mostly about Donkey Kong trying to steal Mini Mario toys. Mario goes through 6 levels with 6 courses a Mini Mario course and a Donkey Kong course. Here are my ratings:
Music-10/10 its cool
Gamplay-10/10 good
Hardness-8/10 its pretty tough
Funness-10/10 you will love it


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