Donkey Kong

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JaySevenZero
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Donkey Kong

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your memories and opinions of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong ‘94’ (for Game Boy) for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

Friendly reminder to all that where feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but self-editing (brevity) is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mainly reading. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
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Alex79
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Re: 375: Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong ‘94’

Post by Alex79 »

I'm pretty good at Donkey Kong. I can't lay claim to any Billy Mitchell-esque high scores, but I'm pretty good at Donkey Kong. It's one of my favorite arcade games of all time. It's simple, fun, and nail-bitingly tense once you've cleared a few rounds and you're down to your last man. It's one of the purest arcade experiences you can have, I think, and really epitomises the golden age of the arcade for me.

THREE WORD REVIEW: Jump! Climb! Jump!

-------------------------------------

Now Donkey Kong '94 was a real surprise. It totally fakes you out with its opening, leading you to believe it's simply a port of the arcade original - but oh no, it's not! What follows is a hugely enjoyable puzzle platformer, interspersed with some equally enjoyable boss fights. As the game progresses it's endlessly inventive, throwing all manner of obstacles and new traversal techniques at you. It really is brilliant from start to finish, never so difficult that you get stuck for long, but not so easy you can first time each level without thinking about it. It's quite obvious that the seeds for the later Mario Vs Donkey Kong series were being sown right here. As I said, a real nice surprise, and I'd never have played it without this podcast, so thanks!

THREE WORD REVIEW: Jump! Climb! Hangonasec.....!
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psychohype
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Re: 375: Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong ‘94’

Post by psychohype »

Donkey Kong ‘94 was a real surprise treat for me when it came out. I would have been 12 years old at the time, and I was just getting into that age where I was starting to appreciate the brief but already established “history” of video games. I knew very little about Donkey Kong at the time, having been a tad too young to grow up in the arcade scene. But I knew it was an important series, so I was curious to give the new Game Boy version a try. I remember picking the game up at Toys R Us that summer it came out. (It was always a thrill buying games at Toys R Us. Instead of pulling a box off the shelf, you had to grab a paper ticket that you would bring up to the special “cage” window where a staff person in a closed off room had access to all the premium items locked away in a kind of video game armory.)

When I got home and plugged in the game cartridge, I was taken aback but strangely delighted by the simple presentation of those first four classic Donkey Kong levels. At this point I assumed it was basically just a Game Boy port of the original game.

On the contrary, after stage 4, there was a cutscene where Donkey Kong snatched up Pauline and hauled her away into a city. That first city level opened up, and suddenly it all made sense. This was the real game. But still, what a clever prologue! Such a great way to pay homage to the past while simultaneously paving the way toward something new.

The rest of the game completely sucked me in. It struck just the right balance of puzzle and platformer. I loved all the acrobatic moves Mario had at his disposal, especially those crazy headstand flips. And with the levels themselves, it was often fun to figure out the right sequence of actions you needed to take to get the key to the exit door.

The fact there were 101 levels was astounding to me. It felt so generous, and it was! I would go on to replay the game multiple times over the years, and while it’s impossible to relive the wonder and surprise of that very first run through, it’s still a fun adventure even today.

3 word review:
Quintessential puzzle platformer
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stvnorman
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Re: Our next-but-one podcast recording (24.6.19) - 375: Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong ‘94’

Post by stvnorman »

Before I was even aware of Donkey Kong, I had a game called Crazy Kong on the VIC-20 which I adored. It was purely down to the box art that I ended up with this relatively decent version because there were several Crazy and Krazy Kongs around of greatly varying quality. Much like Scramble and Skramble too during those wonderful Wild West days, where unfortunately I wasn’t so lucky!

Since then I’ve owned Spectrum version, the NES Classic version on Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Donkey Kong 94 on the 3DS, the NES Classic Mini version, and more recently, the early, later and international arcade versions on Switch, which was my first time playing any variant of the original. .

Regardless of the version, I’m not very good at Donkey Kong. If I’m really lucky I can go around the all screens. I’m sure there’s patterns to the barrels and strategies about mallets and bonus items, but I’ve never been able to fathom them. I just love the pick up and play simplicity of it though, especially when jumping between arcade versions on the Switch release, where I don’t have a favourite but which are all utterly timeless.

I’m not a huge fan of Donkey Kong 94. I’ll play a level now and again when I remember it’s there but I’ve never felt the urge to have a long session or even to try and finish it. I just don’t find the puzzles very engaging and would rather be playing a Game Boy version of the original game like it started with.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (24.6.19) - 375: Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong ‘94’

Post by Simonsloth »

Despite Donkey Kong being so famous it wasn’t until earlier this year I realised I hadn’t played the actual game. I discovered that my childhood memories of Donkey Kong In fact emanated from one of the many knock offs. My Atari owning friend who let me watch him play Rampage was kind enough to let me play Donkey Kong. Instead it wasn’t. Who was I to question why there weren’t any Kongs or even donkeys in it. Instead it featured a portly businessman at the top throwing the barrels with the damsel in distress swapped for a bloke holding a briefcase. When you’re a child you don’t ask why your Superman action figure has yellow eyes and a gun so I didn’t even question if it was indeed Donkey Kong. It was only checking what system I played it on that I realised it was different. It was called Monkey Business. It was rubbish.

I played Donkey Kong earlier this year and admire its place in history and as a high score chasing game it is quite addictive. My main criticism and the reason why I don’t love it is because when you die it’s because of your movement 3 seconds prior. I found I could not make last gasp jumps or dodges due to the speed at which the game chugs along and the slight delay on jumping. Arguably if you’re any good you would be able to make these adjustments and plan ahead but I don’t think I’m prepared to invest the time to grasp it.

Donkey Kong 94 the game boy version however is a game I could not get enough of. Mario zips along and his movement is delightful. There’s more time to correct for errors whereas in vanilla DK you can see death coming from a mile off and can do nothing about it. It took me some time to work out you can fall a short distance as the original taught me otherwise which instantly made the game easier. I loved how it started out like the original game then opened up into nice puzzle game.

This year I’ve played all the Donkey Kong games up to the Wii era. The gameboy entry in my opinion is the peak of the series so far and I would go as far to say it is potentially the best game I have played on the Game Boy.

3 word review: Not Monkey Business
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Mr Ixolite
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Re: Our next podcast recording (24.6.19) - 375: Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong ‘94’

Post by Mr Ixolite »

Donkey Kong 94

For the gameboy podcast, I stated that my ideal handheld game was a 2d platformer, had levels, a distinct presentation and some sort of context. DK 94 may be the platonic ideal of those criteria. In true Mario fashion the game has a seemingly endless supply of ideas, with new enemies and hazards showing up every other level. Despite the limited input options for a gameboy, Marios excellent controls are also present. I eventually found myself hand-standing and backflipping all over the place, sometimes cutting puzzles short as a reward for skilled play. Overall I'm rather impressed how much stuff they managed to cram into one cartridge, including the cute tutorial-like interludes. Theres even a death-animation unique to a single attack of the very final boss. For some reason that stuck with me.
Highly enjoyable.



3 Word Review: adventures in backflipping
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