Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a Game Boy Advance spiritual sequel to the first Donkey Kong game for Game Boy. The game concept revolves around a combination of platform and puzzle elements, challenging Mario to find keys, reach a locked door, and rescue mini-Marios. This game humorously revives Mario and Donkey Kong's old rivalry. The game's sequel, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, is on the Nintendo DS. This is the seventh Mario game for the Game Boy Advance.
The game is an evolution of Donkey Kong Plus, a title on display at E3 2002. During the show, Plus had a feature that allowed players to design and save their own levels on the GameCube, then copy them across to the Game Boy Advance using a link cable. It was essentially an updated version of Donkey Kong 94, but the game had disappeared by the following year. It was replaced with the pre-rendered graphics and gameplay additions of Mario vs. Donkey Kong. The Create-a-Level feature was removed from this version (but appears in its sequel.)
The U.S. version of this game is notorious for being somewhat rushed. In other releases of the game, a special effect is added to the timer when Mario goes through and comes out of a door. The Japanese version also includes subtitles and menus in Japanese, and the European version has a language selection like most Nintendo of Europe releases.
It is a little known fact that this game has a hidden e-Reader support. Nintendo of Japan had a competition where 1,000 lucky people won cards. However, there is space for twelve levels, and there were only five cards released. They are considered to be among the rarest of e-Cards. It is not tested if these cards also work for non-Japanese versions, or if it is exclusive to it.
