This puzzle platformer is as addictive as it is challenging. One of the best Mario games on any system.
Mario vs. Donkey Kong is neither a standard Mario game nor Donkey Kong. It stands on its own as an original platformer in its own right. Gameplay is a mix of puzzle solving and finger-twitching, fine-tuned platforming goodness and it really holds up well eight years after its original release.
The graphics, of course, are a bit dated. It looks about like a SNES game w/ per-rendered 3D a la Donkey Kong Country but the small screen and the relatively small sprite size in comparison mean it does not look nearly as striking as the best 16-bit graphics1994 had to offer. The sound design is nice though and there's some really catchy tunes. After a while, the sampled Mario voice got on my nerves and so I ended up playing w/ the sound turned down much of the time. This is all well and good in this case because this is one title that is single-mindedly focused on gameplay.
Those who like it old school will love the tough timed jumps and tricky platforming. This is not just your run of the mill walk-to-the-right or even single-screen platformer however; the puzzle-solving elements are equally important. Mario has to carry keys across mazes of hazards and enemies to locked doors. He has to reverse conveyer belts and hop on switches to make blocks appear and disappear. He has to traverse patches of spikes on the backs of bad guys. In short, he does basically everything he has to do in any other game but in the space of just a screen or too which makes it both more intense and more challenging.
The gestalt of these puzzle solving and platforming elements make Mario Vs. Donkey Kong extremely addictive. Once you've figured out how to complete a level, it puts you in a "halfway home" mindset that makes the game incredibly hard to put down until you are able to successfully execute them. The puzzles aren't too hard and neither is the platforming taken on its own but together, it's a real treat for those who like a satisfying challenge.
The difficulty level scales really nicely too. The initial levels are pretty simple but difficulty scales about halfway through and the final levels of the games are right at that almost-too-hard level. I found myself continually about ready to scream in frustration but then when I finally pulled through whatever tough section was giving me fits, I just could not help myself from advancing to the next challenge. After the main section of the game is finished, which consists of six worlds, a new set of six worlds is unlocked, which provide a whole new set of challenges. Additionally, in each level w/in the worlds, there are three packages you can optionally pick up for a bonus mini-game to get extra lives and if that's not enough, if each level is finished w/ a high enough score--which can be terrifically difficult is some cases--you get a star on that level. Collect enough stars and you begin to unlock even more bonus levels which range from extremely hard to almost impossible. Expect a real challenge if you just want to breeze through the main game but if you want to do every last thing, prepare for some serious white-knuckle frustration. It's all real difficulty, though, and it never feels cheap even on the hardest portions.
There are just a few things I felt were a little off though and all of them were ultimately minor. The first is the limited number of lives you have. Many of the levels will take many if not dozens of tries for most people but running out of lives has nearly no effect and you can just continue where you died off w/o any setbacks whatever. All it amounts to is seeing an occasional game over screen to remind you the level you're playing is really tough--as if you'd need any reminder of that! The other issue is sometimes the controls are just a bit finicky, in particular Mario's backflip which is executed by jumping while changing directions. It is far from a dealbreaker on the game but there were a few sections which I thought were unnecessarily frustrating because I couldn't reliably execute a move. Overall, the controlls are tight and good though and there is really very little bad to say about Mario Vs. Donky Kong at all.
In the end, Nintendo has provided us w/ a nearly perfect puzzle platformer. The gameplay is simple but varied. Level design is thoughtful and challenging. Plus, each is short which makes it great for handheld gaming because each session can be more or less as short or as long as you want w/o losing more than maybe a minutes worth of progress. This might not exactly fit the bill for people who really just want a walk-to-the-right style of platformer but those who like platforming, puzzles or both and are willing to try something a bit different, will find themselves playing one of the best Mario games to hit any system before or since.