Mario vs. Donkey Kong is actually itself an homage to Donkey Kong on the Game Boy. I've played it before, and it's basically the same experience but feels more polished (ironically) as I recall.
I'm pretty sure the commercial was more likely an abstract jab at those ads for yogurt and the like...
Watching Jerma's Pikmin 2 stream. At 4:59:20, this big rock snail guy's stomping sound effect sounds just like what I imagine high quality clips of Bowser's Mario 64 stomping would sound like. Also, the brass samples sound awfully similar to WariOwOrld's brass.
something inherently interesting about the idea of something being right before your eyes. also plenty of potential for humor as a byproduct of the idea.
A test for this system of plugins I have in place which aims to recreate how WL4 sounds coming through VisualBoyAdvance.
I'm getting reeeeaaally close, now.