Donkey Kong
| Donkey Kong | ||||||||||||||
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 Mario's very first game, against the strong ape. | ||||||||||||||
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Donkey Kong (1981) (Japanese: ドンキーコング Hepburn: Donkī Kongu) is an arcade game released by Nintendo in 1981. Donkey Kong is one of the most important games from the golden age of arcade video games as well as one of the most popular arcade games of all time (along with Pac-Man and Space Invaders). The hero and ape later became two of Nintendo's most popular and recognizable characters. It was released for the arcades in 1981, the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1983, the Game Boy Advance in 2004, the Wii's Virtual Console in 2006, the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U's Virtual Console in 2013, the NES Classic Edition in 2016, and the Nintendo Switch in 2018.
Two sequels, Donkey Kong Jr and Donkey Kong 3 were released in 1982 and 1983 respectively.
A Game Boy reboot of the same name (known by fans as Donkey Kong '94), was released in 1994, inspiring the Mario Vs Donkey Kong series.
Plot
In the game, Mario (originally named Mr. Video and then Jumpman) must rescue a damsel in distress named Pauline (originally named Lady), from a giant ape named Donkey Kong.
Why It's Donkey Kong
- This game features the first appearances of Mario, Donkey Kong, and Pauline, all of whom would become iconic characters in gaming. In addition, it also started the Mario and Donkey Kong franchises (or rather, a shared universe between the two), which would later become two of the most popular video game franchises ever over time.
- An early example of the platform game genre, the gameplay focuses on maneuvering the main character across a series of platforms while dodging and jumping over obstacles.
- In fact, Shigeru Miyamoto himself has inspired this game from the Popeye TV show.
- Good music which was really decent for Nintendo's first arcade game.
- Donkey Kong succeeded commercially and critically in North America and Japan. Nintendo licensed the game to Coleco, who developed home console versions for numerous platforms, especially the NES.
- A complete remake of the original arcade game on the Game Boy, known as Donkey Kong '94 contains levels from both the original Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. arcades and included new levels and additions to the game such as upgraded graphics, new music and references to other Mario games.
- Decent ending where Mario rescues Pauline from Donkey Kong with him falling down in a rather comical way.
- The game was the latest in a series of efforts by Nintendo to break into the North American market.
- It also has a Atari 2600 port which is considered unique for having these iconic sound effects that are used in a variety of cartoons.
Bad Qualities
- Due to cartridge limitations, the Famicom/NES port does not include 50m (the second stage of the game). Despite that issue, it is available on the original edition. The worst part is that Nintendo kept releasing this version instead of the arcade version until 2018 where HAMSTER, a publisher that re-release arcade games to modern consoles, made it finally playable on the Nintendo Switch.
- There is a kill screen on level 22 of the original arcade version that only allows four seconds to complete the level due to an integer overflow.
Reception
In 1996, Next Generation listed the arcade, Atari 7800, and cancelled Coleco Adam versions as number 50 on their "Top 100 Games of All Time", commenting that even ignoring its massive historical significance, Donkey Kong stands as a great game due to its demanding challenges and graphics which manage to elegantly delineate an entire scenario on a single screen. The Killer List of Videogames ranks Donkey Kong the third most popular arcade game of all time and places it at No. 25 on the "Top 100 Videogames" list. In February 2006, Nintendo Power rated it the 148th best game made on a Nintendo system. Today, Donkey Kong is the fifth most popular arcade game among collectors.
Trivia
- The game was ported to the Nintendo Switch in 2018 by HAMSTER as part of the Arcade Archives series.
- It was also playable in the game Donkey Kong 64 via Frantic Factory.
- Due to how successful the game was, other companies cloned it and avoided royalties altogether.
- Miyamoto's characters also appeared on cereal boxes, television cartoons (especially Saturday Supercade on CBS), and dozens of other places.
- A lawsuit was brought on by Universal City Studios, alleging Donkey Kong who violated their trademark of King Kong.
- Took inspiration from Popeye, King Kong and Beauty and the Beast (not the Disney movie).
- This was originally meant to be a Popeye game, but Miyamoto wasn't able to acquire the license at the time, thus, the Super Mario/Donkey Kong franchise was born. It was so popular he actually went on to make a different version of the Popeye game later on.