Mario vs. Donkey Kong on GBA, puzzle-platformer that recalls the arcade origins. Original mechanics around transporting mini-Marios. Creative, varied and challenging. An excellent Nintendo game.
Your verdict
Category
Puzzle1 player3+
Description
Puzzle-platform game developed by Nintendo and published in Japan in July 2004. Donkey Kong steals Mini-Mario toys from a factory and Mario must traverse 80 levels of platforms and puzzles to recover them. Precise jumping and wall-grabbing mechanics, crates to move and switches to activate in the right order, DK boss fights at the end of each world. A crossover between the Game Boy Donkey Kong and a modern puzzle-platformer.
Mario vs. Donkey Kong review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
1/5
Story
★★★★★
"Anecdotal"
The toy factory provides a coherent visual vocabulary: exposed mechanisms, belts, coloured switches and small figures to collect, all drawn with crisp outlines so their function can be guessed at a glance. The great ape, animated with far more frames than anything else, acts as an expressive counterpoint to that mechanical rigour.
The accompaniment takes motifs twenty years old and rearranges them: the original cabinet's theme returns in several forms, slowed in the puzzle phases, accelerated in the chases. The factory pieces add metallic percussion imitating the machines, so music and scenery noise answer each other constantly.
The Japanese edition is the title's worldwide debut, carrying no localized text since the puzzle play reads without language. Its print run is tighter than the Western pressings, explaining a higher perceived scarcity despite an aligned market value, and a Japanese complete copy harder to find outside the archipelago. The katakana sleeve and NTSC-J shell make it the natural target for region-focused Nintendo shelves chasing first impressions.
Is Mario vs. Donkey Kong still worth playing in 2026?
Mario vs. Donkey Kong revives the two heroes' cult rivalry in a clever puzzle-platformer, where Mario crosses eighty factory levels to recover the Mini-Mario toys stolen by the gorilla. The blend of thinking and dexterity, inherited from Donkey Kong on Game Boy, offers an exemplary balance between observation and execution. The progressive, inventive level design keeps interest going to the end. For fans of demanding puzzle-platformers and polished Nintendo-style game design, it is a timeless success.
