Mario vs Donkey Kong is fine. I should probably open this review by talking about the mechanics of the game, how much should or should not change in a remake, or if this title is worth its $50 price point; but, several hours after seeing the credits roll, I remain fixated on the overwhelming okay-ness of this Mario game. I was tempted to use the more confrontational adjective "mid" to describe this game.

A big part of my indifference towards this game stems from it being a remake of a kind of game that doesn't exist on consoles anymore. This genre doesn't have a formal name, but depending on a person's age, anyone can think of titles on the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, or Nintendo 3DS that existed to fill time more than anything else. With its snappy levels and intuitive mechanics, the original Mario vs Donkey Kong was perfect for filling hour-long car rides to your grandparents or — if your orthodontist was as cool as mine — to play while waiting for x-rays of your teeth to come in.

But now we have phones! More importantly, kids about as old as I was when I got a Game Boy Advance have phones! Those things have games designed with the precision of a neurosurgeon to stimulate specific parts of our brains to feel like THE BEST way to kill time (so long as you're okay with being pressured into paying for microtransactions). Even if you've managed to avoid the mobile gaming vice, your phone still probably has social media apps, which are also scarily good at filling free time.

Where does that leave the Mario vs Donkey Kong remake in 2024? Nowhere; it doesn't fit into the modern gaming landscape or attention economy. If this remake were tailored for the mobile platform, it'd have a broader appeal. This is a shame since it's a solid puzzle-platformer that could be a great introduction to the genre for younger players.

Each stage in the main game consists of two levels: one where Mario has to obtain a key and carry it to a door to progress, and a second where Mario has to reach a stationary Mini-Mario toy. It's a little strange that the first portion of each stage has a more stringent win condition, thereby often making it the more difficult of the two levels. Still, the vast majority of these levels are easy enough that this imbalance is mostly unnoticed. To progress through each level, Mario generally has to trigger a series of color-coded switches that materialize corresponding blocks, which allow access to previously inaccessible areas or a way to avoid enemies or hazards.

Enemies sometimes need to be utilized to progress, though. For instance, Mario can stand on a Shy Guy's head to be carried across a spike pit or throw a Bob-Omb a la Super Mario Bros 2 to destroy breakable blocks. There are also present boxes — now color-coded in the remake to hint at the optional pickup order — that add a little bit more of a challenge to each level for completionists. At the end of each world, comprised of six stages, is a stage where Mario has to coordinate the Mini-Marios he's collected to grab letter icons — similar to the necromancy bunny gag in Delicious in Dungeon — and then there's a fight with Donkey Kong that incorporates the new mechanics introduced in each world.

At the end of the eight worlds and after an extended boss fight with DK, Expert levels unlock depending on how many levels a player cleared perfectly, which is tied to collecting those presents or not taking any hits during boss fights. Like most Mario games, these hidden levels dial up the difficulty exponentially and push the previously introduced mechanics to their limit. This is where puzzle-platforming sickos will get their fix, but you'll have to slog through a lot of easy levels to get there.

This inspires an age-old question regarding video game remakes: how much should change when a game is remade? While updating the graphics, adding more visual clarity to items like the present boxes, and turning slideshow cutscenes into full-on animations is appreciated, should Nintendo have gone further? Since this is a remake of an old and well-documented game, there isn't much sense of surprise at discovering more difficult levels after beating the main game. I would have enjoyed my experience with this title more if stages weren't so blocked off, and I could engage with the difficulty I was in the mood for in a given session. The remake does feature new Casual and Two Player modes to help assist younger players who are new to the genre. Still, those considerations aren't extended to players who'd instead engage with higher-level gameplay from the get-go.

The updated score to the original GBA soundtrack is appreciated, but it doesn't compensate for how much of a relic this game feels like in 2024. The puzzle-platformer genre has come incredibly far in the 20 years since Mario vs Donkey Kong's original release. In that time, we've gotten the mechanically innovative Fez and Portal games, the emotionally affecting The Missing: J.J. Macfield and The Island of Memories, and Nintendo's own beloved Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. In the face of so much innovation in the genre, a largely direct remake of Mario vs Donkey Kong feels superfluous, especially when it has a $50 price tag.

I generally find it reductive to frame a media review regarding whether a game is worth the cost of the experience. There's value and something to be gained from experiencing any creative work, and it's generally more interesting to focus on what a work is doing well or poorly and how it's engaging with its chosen medium. That being said, that amount of money for a GBA game with a facelift is pretty ridiculous.

Fez and Portal are both $10 on Steam and often bundled to an even lower collective price. The MISSING: J.J. Macfield and The Island of Memories is available for $30 and, even with the DLC, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is $46. There are better and more affordable ways to scratch your puzzle-platforming itch than Mario vs Donkey Kong.

It's not even the best way to get a sense of the pick-up-and-play game design that shaped many of the titles on the Game Boy Advance. Access to the Game Boy Advance section of the Nintendo Switch Online experience costs $50 a year. This provides access to ports of Game Boy Advance games like Kuru Kuru Kururin, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, and Wario Ware, Inc: Mega Microgames; which are maybe the best examples of games from the 2000s that can be enjoyed to their fullest in five to ten-minute sessions. This subscription also comes with access to other incredible titles, like The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, and the two Golden Sun GBA games. The simple fact is that the amount of money required to experience Mario vs Donkey Kong can provide a more robust and rewarding experience elsewhere.

The most interesting part of Mario vs Donkey Kong is trying to figure out why Nintendo released this title, in this way, at this time. It's strange that the Mario title to follow Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which owes all of its success to its willingness to hilariously innovate on well-worn genre conventions, would be a straightforward remake with some dated design choices. The credits also note that Charles Martinet voices Mario in this title, implying that they reused voice lines from the original game's recording. It feels like backtracking after Kevin Afghani famously replaced him in Wonder. Furthermore, with rumors circulating about the release of the sequel console to the Nintendo Switch, it begs the question of whether games of this caliber are all we can expect from first-party Nintendo titles until the new hardware launches.

Outside of these external options and circumstances, Mario vs Donkey Kong is fine. The graphics bring the game up to the style of the New Super Mario Bros. games, which is serviceable if not uninspired after Wonder. The music is also a big step up from the original game but still pales compared to one of the most musically inclined franchises in the gaming industry. The gameplay is charitably a good introduction to puzzle-platformers and the presentation is as easy to navigate as most of Nintendo's Mario titles.

If you're a fan of this sub-franchise and know you'll enjoy this title, this is probably a worthwhile experience, but if you're less confident or looking to buy a younger gamer a gift, your time and money are probably better spent elsewhere.