This is gonna be a short post, I just wanted to quickly give my thoughts on two demos I played recently for two 2024 games: Mario Vs Donkey Kong, and Another Code Recollection. Both of these are remakes, but while I'm incredibly familiar with the former, I've never experienced Another Code, so my goal with playing these demos was different. I tried the MvDK demo to see if Nintendo nailed the game feel, and I tried Another Code's demo to see if it's something I'd be into. The results... definitely varied...
Mario Vs Donkey Kong: Being a big GBA buff, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that I've played the original Mario Vs Donkey Kong. As a matter of fact, I've beaten it multiple times and even 100%'d it once. It's a really fun puzzle game with tight and freeflowing movement, a ridiculously high skill ceiling, and a charmingly awkward presentation. Unfortunately, from what I've played, MvDK kinda removes all of that. The original game controls wonderfully. It takes a bit to get used to, but controlling Mario and doing all his acrobatics feels really tight and precise. The remake does keep that robust moveset, but the physics feel somewhat stiffer and jankier, and the hitboxes aren't much better. I think the biggest issue is the fact that jumping on enemies is weirdly difficult in the remake. If you jump onto the edge of an enemy, you'll die, and it made getting through even the earliest levels a lot iffier than they should've been.
What also caught me off-guard is the fact that this game removed a pivotal aspect of the original, which is its score system. In the GBA version, you had a score that would accumulate as you defeat enemies, get the three presents, and beat the stage quickly. By beating the preset high score for each level, you get a gold star which you can use to unlock even harder expert levels. Some of these high scores are incredibly tight and will require mastering each stage, which is ultimately part of the appeal. If you're just beating it normal, MvDK isn't very hard, and its puzzles won't leave you all that stumped. But optimize your route through each stage to get the highest score? That's where the real puzzle comes in. So Nintendo removing the scoring system and just making it that you get a gold star for finding all three presents removes any of that extra depth and complexity. Sure, there's apparently going to be a Time Attack Mode, but that's just not the same since you won't have to take the presents into account.
As for the presentation, well, the Mario Vs Donkey Kong remake looks... alright. We've never seen the series rendered in full 3D and in HD quality, and most of the models and environments do look quite nice. Even more, the prerendered cutscenes look really good, not on the level of the SMRPG remake, but still very solid. However, a lot of the animations in gameplay look quite stiff. Granted, they were also stiff in the original game, but that's because it's a GBA game that used prerendered graphics. In the Switch remake, they make the game look a tad cheap. Another downgrade is unfortunately the voice acting. Part of the charm of the original MvDK is how much Mario talked. Nintendo squeezed a ton of compressed Martinet lines in that cartridge, which gave the whole game a goofy charm. While Martinet lines are used in the remake, they're less frequent and often less funny, like how in the redone opening cutscene, Mario doesn't scream at Donkey Kong in Italian. Even the soundtrack feels weaker from what I've heard. Lawrence Schwelder's original score is very silly but incredibly expressive and snappy, giving the game a fun blues-y feel. The remake goes for a most orchestral soundtrack employing a lot of smooth jazz, which caused it to blend into the background a bit.
Edit: So as it turns out, Schwelder returned to do the remake's soundtrack. I'm glad to see him back since his music was a big part of the MvDK game's identity, but I still kinda prefer the original's harsher sound.
Look, I know I tend to be a lot harder on remakes than most. In the grand scheme of things, with the improved visuals and extra stages and mode, this is still probably gonna be a fine way to play this game. However, when I'm innately familiar with the original game, these kinds of downgrades are going to stick out all the more, and they are going to be what makes-or-breaks, not the added features. Magolor Epilogue in RTDLDX or a better save system in Crash aren't going to change the fact that I prefer Wii RTDL's balancing and PS1 Crash's controls. So, I'm probably not going to get the full game, unless it's like, really on sale or something.
Another Code Recollection: I don't have as much to say on Another Code as I never played the original, and thus have nothing to compare it to. However, I can say that I actually quite enjoyed my time with the demo. It's a far longer demo than the MvDK demo, at roughly an hour in length, and I think it gave me a good vertical slice of what to expect. It's a sort of point-and-click adventure game where you play as Ashley, a girl who visits an island upon learning that her father that she previously thought was dead is actually there. Soon after arriving, her aunt who accompanied her disappears, and she also meets a ghost trapped on the island, which leaves her with a bunch of mysteries to solve. As far as story goes, there's a lot to latch onto here. The mystery element is already pretty intriguing, Ashley is a very expressive protagonist, and her unlikely pairing with the aforementioned ghost D is quite charming. It's all bolstered by some pretty fantastic character animation and strong voice acting, which is used for pretty much every major conversation. Obviously, I can't say much more about the story since I haven't played the rest, but it's a strong set-up.
As far as the gameplay is concerned, you explore the (so far quite linear) island from an over-the-shoulder perspective and solve a series of environmental puzzles. It actually took me a while to adjust to the camera angle as I don't usually play the kinds of cinematic games that would use an over-the-shoulder perspective, but it overall does a solid job of putting you in Ashley's shoes as you explore the island while still letting you see her interact with the world around her. The puzzles are where it's really at, though. There's a really nice variety of them within the demo ranging from gyroscope-based puzzles, to exploring an area, to noticing marks on the ground. I played without hints and I thought the puzzles were the perfect difficulty, never leaving me completely stumped but still forcing me to think and assess my surroundings. So yeah, I definitely liked what I played of the Another Code demo, the puzzles and exploration is engaging and the story is quite intriguing. It's not something I'm going to jump straight to buying right away, especially with Side Order, the Cavern Of Dreams port, and Princess Peach Showtime coming soon, but I'd definitely be open to getting the full game at some point.
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