Mario vs. Donkey Kong Is a Fun Puzzle Platformer That’s Fit for the Switch [Review]

The 2024 version of Mario vs. Donkey Kong on Nintendo Switch is a great little game.

A remake of the 2004 Game Boy Advance game of the same name, Mario vs. Donkey Kong sees the titular plumber once again facing off against his original foe. This time around, Donkey Kong has stolen a bunch of toys from Mario’s Toy Company, and the hero is looking to get his likeness back. As such, he pursues the great ape across several different levels — generally divided into two parts — and puts him into conflict with a lot of classic Mario enemies. Each different world essentially has its own shtick that you’ve got to get used to in order to collect presents and retrieve the Mario toys before facing off against Donkey Kong.

Overall, Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a pretty short game, and that’s about the biggest black mark against it. You can pretty easily beat the title in five hours, and fully completing it doesn’t take much longer, especially once you start to get used to how the puzzles work. And luckily, the puzzles are pretty intuitive. It doesn’t take that long to figure out what the game is asking, and that keeps it from feeling like you’re ever really banging your head against a wall.

Related: All 2D Mario Games, Ranked From Worst to Best

That being said, while it lasts, Mario vs. Donkey Kong is an excellent time. The early levels are pretty easy overall, but the farther you get, the more difficult the puzzles start to become, and it’s really satisfying to get through a level. No level is really that hard, and after a few tries, you’re likely to finish just fine.

I really enjoyed, specifically, the levels that required you to lead the little Mario toys through various obstacles to collect the letters “TOY” and then get them back to their toy box. These were among the most challenging in the game, but the solutions felt interesting and intuitive.

Aesthetically, Mario vs. Donkey Kong also looks good. It doesn’t necessarily have the panache of Super Mario Bros Wonder, which was a trippy psychedelic experience I often found myself wanting to show to other people. However, the levels and character models look good. I don’t really have any complaint there, except that Mario Wonder just set the part pretty high for aesthetics in a Mario game, so the puzzler doesn’t feel special, even if it looks great.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong also has pretty simple, easy to remember controls that make it simple to play. I never found myself forgetting any of the moves I could do, and there’s an elegance to that sort of simple game design that I really appreciate.

At the end of the day, I wish I had more to say about Mario vs. Donkey Kong. It’s a really enjoyable puzzle-platformer, and it works well on the Nintendo Switch. Still, the game is so short that there’s not a lot to comment on overall. It’s well-made and worth your time if you love simple, clean puzzle games. I also imagine it’d be a great game for younger kids who are still working on their puzzle-solving skills. So if you’re looking for another game starring the beloved plumber to tide you over between releases, Mario vs. Donkey Kong is the game for you.

A review code was provided by the publisher.