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Mario and Donkey Kong have been rivals, frenemies, go-kart competitors, and tennis partners. The Italian plumber once kidnapped Donkey Kong’s son. DK once, uh, took over Mario’s toy company (?) and for some reason. They have history. What they haven’t done, however, is appear as playable characters in one another’s platforming adventures. Thanks to a nifty bit of hacking, that just changed.
Mario is now a playable character in a hacked version of the SNES classic Donkey Kong Country, thanks to a ROM programmer named RainbowSprinklez. The hack, aptly named DKC X Mario, is far from a simple sprite swap. Mario had to be entirely re-engineered into the game, as his original moveset isn’t part of the original code. Donkey Kong is a lumbering beast who doesn’t spin around, double jump, or carry items. Check out the video and prepare to be impressed.
This Mario is pulled directly from Super Mario World, with matching sprites and controls. There are mushrooms to make him grow, fire flowers, and of course, everyone’s favorite dino-thingie Yoshi. Otherwise, this is still Donkey Kong Country. The levels remain the same. The enemies, primarily consisting of King K. Rool and his Kremling army, are unchanged. If you’re very familiar with the layout of the original DKC, this hack might breathe new life into the classic platformer.
The music appears to be altered as well, with original tracks replaced by songs from Mario, Zelda, and Mega Man games. RainbowSprinklez stated that the hack was “made for no other reason than I like Mario” in a document released alongside the ROM. You can download the whole thing right here to give it a go, and you might want to do so sooner rather than later. Nintendo on projects like this.
