With Mario Day is just around the corner, Nintendo is here to give you a heads up that Super Mario Sunshine won't be coming out this month. Instead, we're getting three completely different Mario games. I'm talking about both Mario's Tennis and Mario Clash on the Virtual Boy, along with Mario vs. Donkey Kong on the Game Boy Advance. That's exciting news, but are any of these games actually worth playing? To answer that question, I decided to flip through the pages of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Next Generation, Nintendo Power and more magazines that reviewed these games back when they first came out. It's time to kick some turtle butt in this Mario-themed episode of Nintendo Classics Review Crew.

SEE MORE: Nintendo Classics Game Archive


While the Virtual Boy may not have been the cultural juggernaut that Nintendo hoped for, it did give us one enduring franchise that is still going to this very day. I'm talking about Mario's Tennis, which has remained one of Nintendo's most reliable sports franchises, popping up on every console they've released in the last 30 years, including the Wii U and, most recently, Switch 2. While this was certainly not Nintendo's first tennis game, it was the first to star Mario and all of his friends (and enemies) from the Mushroom Kingdom. It also did a good job of easing people in to the Virtual Boy's 3D effect, which is probably why it was selected as the system's pack-in game. Despite being a freebie, a lot of different magazines had strong opinions about Mario's Tennis. Let's see what they said back in 1995.

If you watched our last Virtual Boy episode, then you already know that Next Generation was not a fan. It was painfully obvious that every single review they published was written with a giant eye roll. Surprise! This dynamic continues with Mario's Tennis, or Mario's Dream Tennis, which they called it while giving it 3 out of 5 stars. “Each of the first five titles being released by Nintendo for the Virtual Boy is an attempt to fire new life into an old 8-bit title by adding a few three-dimensional effects. And strangely enough, with Mario's Dream Tennis, it works quite well. Graphics and play are almost identical to Nintendo's original Tennis, and any gamer who's looking for something new is almost assured to be disappointed, but if you're looking for an addictive title to play on your Virtual Boy, this is one of the best choices you could make.”

As I'm sure you've already guessed, Next Generation's 3 out of 5 was the lowest score. That said, Nintendo Power didn't like it much better, giving it a surprisingly low 3.4 out of 5. Game Players liked it a little bit more, going with a 70%, but I want to talk about Game Fan, who went all the way up to an 84%. I hate to quote the all-around terrible Nick Rox, but here we go anyway: “I've never been a fan of any type of sports game, but this game truly held my attention and was ... well, uh ... fun. Really fun, in fact. The actiony feel and ultra-simple play controls suited me perfectly, and the line-scrolling courts are truly a thing of beauty – playing games in 3D is gonna be pure joy. If Mario's Tennis had a link-up option, it could easily be the best Virtual Boy game so far. What a pack-in.” The best thing I can say about Nick is that his terrible writing is only the second worst thing about him.

On a more positive note, GamePro gave Mario's Tennis a perfect 5 out of 5. That puts it in league with Wario Land. Their only complaint was that the music and sound effects were a bit too simplistic. “Whether or not you're a racket buff, you can find plenty of cool gameplay in Mario's Tennis. It isn't Wimbeldon, but the tennis is virtually the same.”

While the game may be a bit shallow, the critics felt like this was a good pack-in game. Mario's Tennis makes a good first impression. That helped it earn an overall average of 76%, the highest score of any Virtual Boy game so far. Will anything be able to top that? We'll find out soon enough.

When it comes to the Virtual Boy launch, Nintendo didn't take a lot of risks. Perhaps knowing that selling the unusual hardware was always going to be an uphill battle, the developers stuck with simple concepts and retreads of already proven games. A great example of this is Mario Clash, an updated take on Nintendo's 1983 arcade game, Mario Bros. The biggest and most obvious change is that Mario is moving between platforms on both the foreground and background. This allows the Virtual Boy to give the playfield some depth, though the 3D elements are mostly superficial. Was this the Mario game that the critics were waiting for? Let's find out.

We're going to start with Electronic Gaming Monthly this time around, mostly because they are, as usual, right in the middle of the scale. They gave Mario Clash a so-so average of 7.1 out of 10, but the full story is that the scores were all over the place. For example, Mike gave the game a 6 out of 10, complaining that “its control is loose and I kept finding myself getting killed because I jumped either too short or directly over the enemy. After playing for a while, Mario Clash became quite boring, repetitive and frustrating because of the control. Younger gamers might find this game enjoyable and fun, but veterans who want a game other than one to just pass the time, look elsewhere. It's just too boring.” Mark, on the other hand, liked the game a lot more, giving it an 8. “Mario Clash is the perfect example of a game that utilizes the potential of the Virtual Boy to a T. Not only is the game highly addictive, but the levels have a nice three-dimensional feel to them. The two reasons that will make this game a winner are: It's the same principle as the original Mario Bros., so most everybody will be familiar with the basics of the game, and it is simply a fun game to play.”

When we look at other magazines, we see that GamePro liked it almost as much as EGM, giving the game a 3.5 out of 5. Once again, Nintendo Power did not care for another first-party Virtual Boy game, going all the way down to a 3 out of 5. If you expected them to do a lot of the water carrying for the system, think again. Next Generation also gave the game a 3 out of 5, because of course they did. “Still suffering from childhood memories of a savage tortoise mauling, Mario sets out in another of his psychotic episodes, once again seeking to render the world's turtles extinct. Mario Clash doesn't deliver the next generation in gaming. It's not addicting, or even nice looking, but it's a darn good distraction in an interesting new format. As far as the turtles go ... Mario, it's time to stop the madness! Can't we all just get along?”

On the other side of the EGM divide we have Game Fan, which liked the game enough to give it a score of 74%. Game Players liked Mario Clash even more, going all the way up to an 80%, the highest score of any English-language magazines. “Mario kicks some turtle butt in this return to the dark pipes of the original Mario Bros. arcade game. Unlike the two-dimensional hot and stomp, Mario Clash takes full advantage of the Virtual Boy's 3D environment by presenting two sets of platforms and forcing players to knock off enemies by throwing shells either towards or away from the viewscreen. Graphics aren't impressive by a long shot, but they do a perfectly good job of presenting the simple images of the game. Every Virtual Boy owner definitely needs to check out this title.”

While Game Players may have been high on Mario Clash, the rest of the critics were less impressed. The game ended up averaging a score of 69%, making it one of the lower-ranked Virtual Boy games on the Nintendo Switch Online. I suggest you give it a shot and see where you land on Maro Clash.

After sitting out the back half of the 1980s, Donkey Kong came back bigger and better than ever in the 1990s. Between the Super NES trilogy and a massive 64-bit adventure, the Kong family was done playing second banana to Mario and Luigi. But even with all of that success, Nintendo decided to wait a full decade before following up the critically-acclaimed Donkey Kong update from 1994. The result was Mario vs. Donkey Kong, a side-scrolling puzzle game that revolves around rescuing a bunch of Mini-Marios from you-know-who. Let's see if the critics agreed that this follow-up was worth the wait.

We're going to once again start with Electronic Gaming Monthly, which gave Mario vs. Donkey Kong a so-so score of 7.3 out of 10. Mark liked the game, but not nearly as much as Donkey Kong '94: “Certain elements of this Kong come up a bit short. Controls are solid and dependable, but don't quite reach the usual Mario level of spot-on responsiveness, and many of your more interesting moves are only rarely necessary. Visually, the game is colorful and sharp, but with a simple, pre-rendered look that can appear spartan and cold. Thankfully, the core gameplay works well. More and bigger levels that combined and explored the various moves and game mechanics you don't see enough of would've gone a long way. A good time killer, even if it doesn't quite live up to its potential or famous namesakes.” Andrew liked it a bit more, calling it a good example of what a handheld game should be: “nugget-sized entertainment that you can put down just as easily as you pick it up. The short, puzzle-based levels manage to incorporate many different elements without making things needlessly complicated. A seasoned gamer might find Vs. easy at first, but mastering each stage in an attempt at beating the high scores proves much more challenging – and, ultimately, rewarding.”

Believe it or not, EGM's 7.3 score is not that far off from being the lowest score of any English-language magazines. GMR ended up giving the game a slightly lower 7 out of 10 in their 18th issue, while Edge gave it the exact same score in issue 139. “Mario vs. Donkey Kong may not be easy on the eye, but it's a delight to behold the system of checks and balances, rules and relationships at work here, some of them rooted deep in Mario lore. For the most part they're well exploited, exhibiting some invention and requiring some from the player in return. Some, but not quite enough to fully satisfy. The elegant slight-of-mind that marks a great puzzle game is too scarce, the freedom afforded the player too fleeting. So, ultimately this is not the triumphant return of a long-lost genre we were hoping for. It's just a tribute.”

As we work our way back up the scale, we see Game Informer give Mario vs. Donkey Kong a solid 7.5 out of 10, while Australia's own GBA World went with an 8 out of 10. Computer & Video Games liked it quite a bit more than that, going all the way up to an 88%. But if you're looking for the top score, then of course we're going right back to GamePro. Giving it a 4.5 out of 5, Dr. Chapstick called it a “synergistic gene-splicing of classic Nintendo side-scrolling platformers with strands of recent fare as Mario can wield a hammer as he did in the original Donkey Kong, herd Pikmin-like mini-Marios through jigsaw environments, climb and slide along chains and vines like Donkey Kong, Jr., and take occasional breaks for WarioWare-style five-second mini-games. But for all the genre-requisite spike avoiding, platform hopping and ghost dodging, the stars here are the levels themselves. They are, in essence, entire puzzles to be solved by leading Mario mites into toy chests, finding keys and backflipping onto triggers that make some walls or walkways materialize from the ether, and other magically disappear. Me likes.”

Despite a few naysayers, the critics largely liked Mario vs. Donkey Kong. They ended up giving the game an overall average of 78%. That's down ten points from the 1994 Donkey Kong game, but also higher than either of the other games in this episode. I say give it a play, especially if you're into puzzle games.