Mario Vs. Donkey Kong

The absence of puzzle-platform game par excellence, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, from the currently available list has left me so mystified I’ve gone back and triple-checked that I’ve not missed it. Then I remembered—oh yeah, it’s getting a remake. They don’t want to cut into that.

This 2004 release was a reinvention of 1994’s Donkey Kong, the bait-n-switch Game Boy game that began as if the same as the original arcade game, before turning into a puzzler. Here, in a toy factory, Mario is trying to recover Mini-Mario clockwork toys that DK has stolen, by figuring out the correct routes through its platformy rooms.

This game spawned a series of six more sequels, up until 2016, whereupon the franchise went quiet. It is, of course, about to be reborn once more—next month in fact—when Mario vs, Donkey Kong is getting a complete remake as a modern Switch game. So no, it’s unlikely to appear on NSO any time soon. But wouldn’t it be brilliant if buying the new version gave you access to the original via the service?