Mario has come a long way. In 20-odd years, he has evolved from a simple barrel-jumping carpenter into a hero of epic proportion. Every new Mario game gets richer and more detailed with story, and introduces a new aspect of his character as well as new moves for him to trot out when needed. On the other hand, it seems that Nintendo often discards these attributes, never to bring them back again. Which begs the question: Why not?

Mario Vs. Donkey Kong marks the return of the hammer from the original Donkey Kong, complete with music. It brings back the vine climbing mechanism (ascension is faster with two vines, descent quicker with one) from Donkey Kong Jr. There are no scenarios here where you exterminate a beehive, but I think we'll let that one slide in the interest of merciful revisionism. It brings back the pick-up-and-throw-baddies gimmick from SMB2, a game that has long been treated as the redheaded stepchild of the franchise. And it does it all to great effect.

All the exposition is given at the beginning of the game, with no cutscenes to break up the levels throughout - Donkey Kong, lounging in his rec room, sees an advertisement for a new toy, the Mini-Mario. He decides he needs one, and heads off to the toy store. When he finds that they are out of them, that crazy neuron in his brain sparks him into resorting to crime to get his hands on the coveted toy. He steals the entire stock of Mini-Marios from the factory, and goes running off towards - brace yourselves - a construction site! Mario, naturally, sets off to save them from our favorite gorilla, and to defeat him in his sweetly misguided but, really, evil act of conquest. The cutscenes are not full-motion, but the slideshow is entertaining. There are a few more slideshows later in the game, but we'll keep this review spoiler-free.

This launches a six-world romp, with eight levels per world. The first six levels of each world are split into a key-finding level and a Mini-Mario recon area. Once you've recovered the six Mini-Marios, you must lead them into a safe toy chest, by way of Oddworld-esque maneuvering, after which DK will need to be defeated, prompting him to grab his sack of toys and jump off to the next world.

After the six worlds, and a final confrontation with the beast, the "Plus" worlds open up. These are the same six worlds, but you are now leading a key-wielding Mini-Mario to the keyhole, killing two birds with one stone, and eschewing the Abe-y board to allow direct conflict with the gigantic primate. These worlds are considerably more challenging than the first six, and will take some mastery of spatial relations to solve.

Replay incentive comes in the form of the twelve aptly named Expert levels, which can only be unlocked after all worlds are cleared, and even then ten of them are unlocked individually every time the player gains nine stars. To get a gold star, one must beat a level with the preset high-score, with all items grabbed. Once the first ten are unlocked, the second two are made available, but this is no easy task, and the reward for finishing the dozen of them is an anomalous display of diminishing returns: a gold crown and "All Cleared" on the front screen. The levels themselves are arguably a reward in themselves - they're that tough and that good - but an unlocked classic game would have helped to sweeten the pot.

The only really confusing aspect was the use of Lives. I guess it is mainly for self-motivation - "I can get through 6 worlds with no continues" - but it is useless here, as losing all your lives only means that you have to click "restart" and continue at the level you were on. The game doesn't keep track of the amount of continues you use, so there's no statistical analysis of it, either. No real loss from a Game Over makes the minigames where you pick up extra lives a bit of a joke. It's a small blemish, but a nagging one.

I found myself charmed by the mixture of nostalgic homage and innovation. While MvDK borrows a lot from previous iterations of the franchise, it brings puzzle solving to the center of the table in a way that its relatives don't. The real challenge is in figuring out how to accomplish the tasks at hand - the controls are instinctive enough to allow the player to carry out his or her plan. Every so often a twist causes a board to become difficult, but with the sound scheme on this game, it's tough to forget how fun it is.

Consistently, this game should appeal to all ages - it is a full-motion exercise in logical thought, masked in a bizarre blend of sounds and humorous antics. The Mini-Marios engender a protective instinct by being cute and energetic, and the use of the ape's visage from the Donkey Kong Country series keeps us from demonizing a character who, despite the destruction he is causing, really just wants a friggin' toy.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong is Nintendo doing what they do best - giving the player a rewarding, challenging, yet fundamentally simple experience. If you are experienced with Mario, you will quickly find yourself mastering the controls, as well as the few new moves involved. For new initiates to the series, they include brief tutorials before each level, and a well-written manual. Of course, if you're new to this series, you are probably still teething, and will need the manual to be read to you.