Mario vs. Donkey Kong

A revival of Donkey Kong (Game Boy), with a heavy emphasis on tri-color switches.

Unused Graphics
These seem to be from a very early stage in the game when Mini Marios literally looked like Mini Marios rather than toys. They are also done in a completely different style.

Unused Gimmicks
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A strange object loaded in most of the tilesets, often fully animated. It works with the three giftbox color palettes.

Red - Has a blue switch inside it. Deactivates currently activated color and activates previously activated color. Blue - Has a yellow switch inside it; activates yellow blocks. Yellow - Has a red present inside it; not solid.

Unused Object Behaviour
Bob-ombs start running around scared, just like Shy-Guys do, when Mario is equipped with the hammer. You never see them running normally, because none of the levels with Bob-ombs include a hammer. You won't earn points for smashing them with the hammer. You can see this in the game with the level editor.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong was originally going to use the Mini Marios trapped inside crystal balls as keys (as seen in old footage/images). You can place the old type of crystal ball with the level editor. It turns into a key when brought to the door.

Level Editor stuff
Theme Card already loaded! Overwrite existing theme? Theme Card DEACTIVATED! Theme Card ACTIVATED! Erase old world Level does not belong to current world!

As Mario VS Donkey Kong originally planned to have a full fledged Level Editor, there seems to be some text left of it, which includes the mention of Theme Cards, probably to have custom themes from e-Cards. There's also text about Worlds, assuming we could create several worlds in it.

An incomplete Level Editor is still in the game, and is accessible via GameShark or by memory hacking. It does not work with the first level of each world for an unknown reason and you cannot save.

The controls for the level editor are as follows:

Select - Switch between different object types L / R - Scroll through the objects A - Place an object B - Remove an object Start - Play your edited level

To access it; edit the following bytes in the IRAM while in a level:

In the US/JP versions:

Change the byte at 0x30009C4 from 0x0D to 0x0B.

In the EU version:

Change the byte at 0x3000984 from 0x0D to 0x0B.

or use the US/JP Codebreaker code and press select in a level

Heap Overflow
This appears if you place too many objects with the level editor.

Big City and Forest


A tile viewer reveals the original names for Mystic Forest and Twilight City were based on the levels in DK '94. The final names are the last graphics in the set before other tiles begin.

Further evidence suggests that these worlds were the first two to be developed, in the same order as in DK94. Both worlds use a black background color for the tile maps, along with Fire Mountain (the third name in the tile list), while the rest of the worlds use white. Both worlds also use slightly different tiles for standard color block outlines, with Twilight City's being the most different and Mystic Forest's being only a pixel off from the rest.

e-Reader levels
Very few people know that Mario vs. Donkey Kong has e-Reader support, or that 12 preloaded level cards were made. Only a handful of these cards exist in the world, as they were given away for a special promotion: even then, the limited 1000 card pack run only offered the first five levels. In the EU release, Nintendo removed all e-Reader support from the game.

The e-Reader level menu can be accessed by changing the value at from 18 (normal menu) to 1A, and the list of preloaded levels can be accessed by changing it to '1C' after choosing "Add Level". The thirteenth level on the list is a dummy level, probably for testing.

Regional Differences
In addition to e-Reader cards, the Japanese version contained a few graphical differences - like subtitles under cutscenes and the timer getting sucked inside doors along Mario - that the English versions do not have.

Japan has 14 preloaded e-Reader levels, instead of the US version's 13. Several of them are different.

Title Screen
The title screen was redone in the Japanese version to feature the Mini-Marios rather than Mario and Donkey Kong. This style of title screen has been used in all future games in the series, even in international releases.