Mario vs Donkey Kong review: Throwback to a simpler era

Even this freshly baked puzzle-platformer stems from a 20-year-old Game Boy Advance game that has long since passed into obscurity. Mario vs DK 2024 counts as more than a remaster given the significant additions to the original beyond the crisp and shiny visuals.

Remember that 2004 produced some gloriously innovative games, with GTA: San Andreas redefining open-world adventures and Half-Life 2 proving that interactive entertainment had as much storytelling potential as movies. But M vs DK was hewn from classic gaming foundations – 2D stages composed of platforms, hazards and a countdown timer.

This structure remains in 2024 – Donkey Kong has robbed Mario of some toy lookalike figurines, leaving the plumber to retrieve them from various precarious and mazy levels. Each stage consists of two short levels – the first requiring the transport of a key to a locked door that’s always just out of reach at first, the second the rescuing of a figurine from a labyrinthine set of obstacles. Both contain roaming enemies, colour-coded switches and brain-tickling spatial conundrums.

Yet you quickly realise there’s less to the puzzles than meets the eye. Just when you think a scene is too complicated, it dawns that Nintendo has sprinkled some red herrings among the level furniture. You might not need that trampoline, or to defeat certain enemies. Sure, quick fingers come into play regularly and the intricacy of the missions slowly deepen but in general you’ll race through the eight worlds of puzzles, of which two are new to this 2024 edition.

It's only when you’ve rinsed those worlds – and their regrettable easy boss fights with DK himself – that the challenge stiffens. A sort of New Game Plus reworks the levels to satisfying effect and Expert mode makes them even more tricky – often bringing the red herrings into play. On the other end of the difficulty scale, casual mode renders the missions frightfully easy for even the faint of heart while two-player co-op – obviously aimed at parent-and-child sessions – demands collaboration and adds a dash of chaos for good measure.

Mario vs Donkey Kong 2024 has a time-worn charm polished by Nintendo’s acute attention to detail and its mid-price probably earns it a review star more than it deserves. Juxtaposed with the furious invention of recent full-priced stablemates such as Super Mario Bros Wonder or Kirby’s Forgotten Land, it’s a bit of a relic.