Mario, the plumber... We all know him, we all love him, we all enjoy playing the games containing him. In 1981, Mario made his first appearance in the infamous arcade game Donkey Kong, and since then, Super Mario became the probably most successful Nintendo franchise ever. This game for the Gameboy Advance is the beginning of the series entitled "Mario vs. Donkey Kong". And there are always a lot of questions before playing the game, like in every single game else which one hasn't played yet. And this review should give one the answers for the questions one have before he or she starts playing the game.

First of all, we have the graphics. One has to admit, that the graphics in this game are fabulous. In contrast to other games for the Gameboy Advance, the graphics in this game are resembling 3 dimensional graphics. And also, the background and characters are very detailed and have a very lovely design which one just simply can not hate. I can only give 10 points out of 10 for the great work, the makers of the game really focused a lot on the design of the game.

And there is also the sound. The sounds fit very well to every action, the music fits to every level (and the music is also very diverse, there are a lot of different background tracks for each level!) and we also have Charles Martinet, the voice actor of Mario and almost every other character of the Mario universe, who is doing a great job at giving Mario and the others his voice. Therefore I also have to give 10 points out of 10 for the sound, for the diversity, catchiness, it fits very well... let us say that everyone did a great job.

Then there is the addictiveness. And I really don't know why, but Mario games will always have this magic that they are so addictive. I don't know how often I finished this game, but I played it over and over again. It is always a lot of fun playing these levels, and if you fail somehow, you can just laugh out loud, because playing Mario games is a lot of fun. Mario will always be the king of addictiveness, and therefore I will give 10 points out of 10.

Well, the story... The story will always be Mario's biggest weakness, because the stories of Mario games never have been very complex or deep. But well, therefore, the Mario franchise is one of the first game franchises which are able to tell a story. I mean, the first video games ever have been games like Ping Pong... can you imagine that a game like Ping Pong tells a story? I can't... Never mind, the story of this game is as simple as the story of other Mario games: one day, Donkey Kong watches the Mini Mario commercial (brand new toys in the Mario universe), falls in love with it, and decides to steal all the Mini Marios. And our hero, Mario, will try his best to get the Mini Marios back. For the simple story without any deep messages, I can only give 5 points out of 10, sorry. But still, who cares if the story is simple or not? Mario games are still addictive as hell.

Finally, we have the depth. Well, the game is a basic Jump 'n Run where you have to... uhm... well... jump and run. But therefore, it is also pretty diverse sometimes: you can throw buckets on your enemies (or your enemies on your enemies), you can use the super hammer, you can climb ropes and so on and so on... and there are also different ways to finish the levels, like bringing a key to the keyhole, leading the Mini Marios to a box etc. And also the boss battles against Donkey Kong are always different. And don't forget the mini games when you collect all the presents during level. For a basic Jump 'n Run, it has a lot to offer, so I will give 8 points out of 10 therefore.

And the difficulty of the game is nothing to worry about, because the game tells you how to do everything. The levels are getting more difficult and difficult, but well, that is usual for every video game.

The scores:

Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 10/10
Addictiveness: 10/10
Story: 5/10
Depth: 8/10
Overall: 43/50

8,6/10

Well, what else can I say about the game? Mario still knows how to entertain players with addictive games. It's probably a must play for heavy Mario addicts, and Jump 'n Run lovers will also love this game. But everyone else can also check out this game, you won't be disappointed. Like I said before: I used to play this game a lot, so I bet you could maybe also get addicted to it.

Otherwise, thank you very much for reading this review, I hope you enjoyed reading it and hope you will also read my upcoming reviews If there is anything that I could do better, then please tell me, ok? Greetings from Germany,

MisakiMei

MisakiMei : Eh...I liked it better when Donkey Kong was stealing Mario's (old)girl away...a more, "mature" theme if it's not exactly a story.

Well I didn't said anything about that I would prefer any story but well, yea, I have to agree with that, this story with rescuing the mini marios is more like a super hero story and not that realistic than the thing with the girlfriend etc...

I've played this game, and I could find some of my opinions back in your review. The story is meh, but it's like a Mario game: Great graphics, gameplay and sound but low difficulty and next to no story. It's a cool game, but I personally prefer the DSIware title Minis March Again.

About your review, it had a lot of detail and you stated your opinions well, although I think you could've said a little bit more about the difficulty section, but that's all. Anyways, good luck on your next one!

Yea, exactly I have to admit that I didn't managed it yet to play the sequels of it D:

But thank you very much, I'm glad that it had a lot of detail ^.^ yea, I realized that, too, there really could have been more o: thank you very much, I will need it