Sunday, January 27, 2008

Reviews Sunday

Sunday is now officially reviews day. Where I'll review things that I found during my week and then mark them out of seven (because then I can't give anything half marks*). In this inaugural edition I will be reviewing Mario Vs Donkey Kong on the GameBoy Advance.

Mario Vs Donkey Kong is based on Donkey Kong 94 which was the Game Boy game that could be played on the Super Game Boy for added graphical effects. DK94 is the game that connects 3D Mario to 2D Mario as it was in this game that Mario started to do backflips, somersaults and not really care about how many lives you had. It was also very hard and whilst easy to complete, to fully get all of the extra goodies took a lot of skill and patience. Yes, plenty of patience.



Mario Versus Donkey Kong is more of the same. But with better graphics and great sound bites**. The aim is to collect a key to get through the door, and the challenge is in all the little things that get in the way. You can also collect the three presents for an opportunity to win an extra life and completing the level with a high enough score gives you a star (apparently getting all of these unlocks expert levels, which luckily I'm nowhere near getting).



So it's Mario & Donkey Kong business as usual, except every six levels you have a section where you have to guide mini toy Marios to a toybox***. This is more of a challenge as the Mario's follow you, but can't do the same moves as you, so you have to make the level mini-friendly in a Timekeepers sort of way.

I'm rapidly losing enthusiasm for this reviews Sunday format, therefore I will end by saying that Mario Versus Donkey Kong is a worthy successor to the excellent Donkey Kong 94 and I highly recommend it to anyone. Six out of seven.

"Thank you very much for to reading my reviewsis."

* Unless you count zero as a mark, in which case three would be a half mark. But I'm not so it's not. Perhaps tomorrow I'll explain my scoring system. Hopefully not.

** They're really great. Charles Martinet really earns his money on this one. When starting the 'plus' levels Mario says "Here we go again. Again."

*** There's a vague plot about DK getting annoyed with Mario having his own toyline. In a first for a Mario game (probably) the Princess DOESN'T get kidnapped. Just some toys.

No comments: