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Today, almost all of the credit
for getting Nintendo on the map goes to Super Mario Bros. and while that
games importance for Nintendo cant be denied it was a
different game featuring Mario that really put Nintendo in the video game
business. That game was
Donkey Kong. Due to Donkey Kongs recent
resurgence in pop culture I felt it was a good time to  give the
original classic a review. In case
youre
not sure what resurgence Im referring to, Donkey Kong was recently
mentioned in the classy country tune
Honky Tonk Badonkadonk
and more importantly was the subject of the documentary The King of Kong:
A Fistful of Quarters.
In 1981 Nintendo was a struggling
company trying to figure out how to break into the video game
market. Nintendo had released a
few arcade games but had yet to find its big hit. Then a young game designer, Shigeru
Miyamoto, was given the task of turning a lame space shooter into a new
game of his own choosing. He
decided to base his game on the Beauty and the Beast theme and created
Donkey Kong. His story idea
consisted of a man (informally called Jumpman
at the time, this was changed to Mario for the sequel Donkey Kong, Jr.)
who has mistreated his pet gorilla and the gorilla then captures his
girlfriend (Pauline) in an effort to teach his owner a lesson. The game was scoffed at by every expert
who played it yet it still became a smash hit in the United States. The rest, as they say, is history. Nintendo continued making popular
arcade games (Donkey Kong, Jr, Donkey Kong 3,
Mario Bros., Popeye
) often (but not always) with Miyamoto
at  the helm
and then Shigeru Miyamoto went on to create two of the greatest video
game classics ever in Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda causing
Nintendos first home video console to be the most successful video game system of all time.
The game itself is very
simple. You control Mario as he
dodges barrels that his pet gorilla is throwing at him. Mario can pick up Paulines lost
belongings for bonus points and can grab a hammer to smash some of the barrels that Kong is throwing at
him. The entire arcade game lasts
4 screens and then it resets back to the original screen again but with a
higher difficulty setting. The
first level is the definitive Donkey Kong level to me but the final level
is also pretty fun as you must take all the pins out of the tower that
Kong is standing on to make him tumble to the ground. If you succeed you and Pauline can
enjoy a brief kiss before the whole thing starts over again.
Its hard to imagine that prior
to the NES landing in the United States
that Nintendo was merely a licensee for the other big name video gaming
systems like Atari, Intellivision and ColecoVision.
Early Donkey Kong ports were poor to decent at best. When Nintendo decided to port Donkey
Kong over to the NES they made sure that this was the definitive home
version of their original arcade classic.
Positives:
This game has a lot going for
it. Of course even by NES
standards this game is old fashioned.
It is the equivalent of watching an old silent film. It is a lot different but still very
good. Compared to the other
versions of Donkey Kong that Ive seen, this game looks great and has
crisp controls. This is the only
version that Ive played where you can easily do running jumps easily. Usually, it is a real pain to successfully
pull off that maneuver. All three
stages are basic but fun. They are
all substantially different from each other so that provides the game
with a little variety which is rare for a game originally made in
1981.
Glaring
Negatives:
 Unfortunately, even though this game is
the best home version available it still is inferior to the arcade
classic. This is because one of
the stages from the arcade game is missing. For some reason Nintendo decided to
leave out the popular conveyor belt stage, I
have a feeling that it was difficult to recreate. The game is also missing some cool cut
scenes that were featured in the arcade version and if you are like me
then you will miss them. After all
these years Ive never
gotten sick of the cut scenes in the Pac-Man games. The only other negative is that the
game is a one-screen looper. That means that you are actually
playing mainly for points as opposed to having an end point so the game
goes on forever repeating the
same three one-screen stages.
Graphics
and Sound: Solid
I am surprised that the graphics
are as good as they are. All the
characters are drawn well and Mario is clearly Mario. There are a couple of neat themes as
well as some standard beeps and doinks for
sound effects. Although, I do have
to say that the noise of Marios shoes squeaking with every step
definitely gets on my nerves.
Gameplay
and Controls: Good
 Donkey Kong has always suffered from poor
controls on home gaming systems so I was pleasantly surprised by how easy
the controls were to master in this version.
Features:
2 skill levels
You can play on skill level A or
B. If you want a bigger challenge
go with B. Of course, whats the
point if the game is just going to loop back around and become more
challenging anyway?
Fun?:
Yes
If you dont enjoy
classic video games, then dont bother with this one. But if you are a fan of early video
games then you will appreciate Donkey Kong for the NES.
Challenge:
Easy to figure out, tough to master
Youll be
getting 50,000 points in no time but
if you want to get 500,000 points then good luck.
Replay:
Why Not?
The game only takes a few minutes
to play so its one of those that I bust out of the closet every now and
then.
2
Player: Yep
Donkey Kong has an alternating
two-player option.
Online
Manual?: Yes
http://www.nintendoage.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=NES.Manual&Game_ID=421
Bottom
Line: Just get Donkey Kong Classics
This one started it all for
Nintendo so if you are a big Nintendo fan then this game is a must
have. Also if you like early games
or are curious about early video games then you should pick it up. Of course, you might as well just pick
up Donkey Kong Classics, which contains Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong, Jr.
in one Game Pak.
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