After playing the first level or two of Mario vs. Donkey Kong -- a modern remake of the GBA classic -- I thought there'd be no chance I'd make it all the way through. I'd just finished playing Mario Wonder, and there is a STARK difference in the controls, and especially the movement, between the two. It was pretty jarring at first. But, once I started to get the hang of the timing, the jump distance, and what I was really supposed to do, I was hooked.
I ended up not only getting gold stars ("Perfect" rank) on all 8 of the original worlds, but after rolling credits, I got gold stars on all of the Plus levels AND the Expert levels, too (though, admittedly, I bumped the difficulty down for the Expert levels bc I was kinda ready to move on to something else).
In short, this game does a lot right: the bite-sized levels on Classic difficulty come with a nice balance of push-and-pull as you make your way through each world; the world/enemy variety is nice and no gimmick seems to wear out its welcome too quickly; the boss fights were OK given you're just fighting DK over and over, but they do spice it up a little at times as they become more challenging (if you're going for the "Perfect" rank). And, most importantly, it was just a flat-out fun time for 95% of my 15 hours with it.
Sure, there were moments where I wanted to pull my hair out because the platforming wasn't always precise, and the story (like most Mario games) was pretty lacking -- I still have no idea why DK's so obsessed with these little Mini Mario toys and why he needs to steal an entire factory's worth??? -- but, overall, I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would and would absolutely consider this an under-the-radar drop from Nintendo this year.
I ended up not only getting gold stars ("Perfect" rank) on all 8 of the original worlds, but after rolling credits, I got gold stars on all of the Plus levels AND the Expert levels, too (though, admittedly, I bumped the difficulty down for the Expert levels bc I was kinda ready to move on to something else).
In short, this game does a lot right: the bite-sized levels on Classic difficulty come with a nice balance of push-and-pull as you make your way through each world; the world/enemy variety is nice and no gimmick seems to wear out its welcome too quickly; the boss fights were OK given you're just fighting DK over and over, but they do spice it up a little at times as they become more challenging (if you're going for the "Perfect" rank). And, most importantly, it was just a flat-out fun time for 95% of my 15 hours with it.
Sure, there were moments where I wanted to pull my hair out because the platforming wasn't always precise, and the story (like most Mario games) was pretty lacking -- I still have no idea why DK's so obsessed with these little Mini Mario toys and why he needs to steal an entire factory's worth??? -- but, overall, I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would and would absolutely consider this an under-the-radar drop from Nintendo this year.