If I'm not mistaken, Nintendo created the first game series compilation with Donkey Kong Classics. Of course, it's not the first NES compilation (Super Mario Bros./Duck Huntis the first, I believe), but it's the first to compile two games of the same series. It was an awesome deal for its day, and it's the only way to go if you want some old-school Donkey Kongaction for your NES. Buying both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr cartridges and switching between them is just plain nutty, unless that's how you get your jollies.
B+
RANDOM THOUGHTS
Despite putting both games on one cart, they still couldn't add the missing factory level to the original Donkey Kong? Were you really that lazy, Nintendo?
How pissed would you be if you bought both the original games, then a mere two years later, Nintendo puts this economical compilation out for a lower price? Gamers became used to this compiling in later console generations (especially this current one), but this was non-existent at the time. Yeah, I would have yelled at the sky.
I think it's kinda lame that Nintendo put an image of Mario circa Mario Bros. 1, as opposed to the original Jumpman image featured below. Other than that, it's classic black-box, baby.
Yeah, that's the gangsta I know and love, holdin' a hammer like it's 1985 or some sh** (thanks to donkeykongmuseum.com for the gif)
This is my favorite level in the original.
I don't know if one can overestimate the impact the original Donkey Kong has had on games. Here's a few facts that most everybody already knows:
Donkey Kong introduced Mario (known at the time as "Jumpman"), Donkey Kong, and the concept of saving a woman to video games. While Pauline is not Princess Toadstool, Daisy or Peach, she is definitely the prototype for the ladies that would later get rescued by Mario.
Donkey Kong essentially created the platform genre, albeit in a very simplistic form. The original arcade game consisted of four entirely different levels, and involved avoiding or destroying enemies with a hammer, collecting items like hats and umbrellas for points, and going from one end of the stage to the other.
Donkey Kong was Miyamoto's third game with Nintendo (the first two were Sheriff and Radar Scope and it was hugely successful in Japan and America.
The success of Donkey Kong (the game made $280 million in two years... in early 1980's money) arguably paved the way for the release of the Famicom and the Nintendo Entertainment System.
So yeah, without Donkey Kong, Mario, platformers, and the console gaming scene as we know it today may have been postponed. I won't say these things would have never happened, as I believe it would have been inevitable, but the release and success of Donkey Kongmade them happen faster.
The game itself is still fun today, although it is very much a product of its time. Jumpman jumps and climbs and maneuvers his way around three very small levels (for whatever reason, the NES release omitted the cement factory level from the arcade game) to reach Pauline at the top. Once you beat these levels – and if you're any sort of gamer, they should only take you about five minutes – you play them again and again and again, with the momentum of the enemies increasing each playthrough. Despite Donkey Kongbeing one of the first examples of a platformer, its identity is still very much tied into the point system of late 70s, early 80s arcade games. The point is to, well, get points, not to reach the end of the game. The problem that I think Donkey Konghas now – and I think Nintendo tried to address by releasing Donkey Kong '94- is that it feels stuck in limbo between a platformer and a points-based game, and it doesn't really succeed well at one or the other. This is not to say that I think the game is bad or that its impact is lessened by this fact. Donkey Kongwas treading new ground and Miyamoto was ahead of his time by trying to throw an honest-to-God story in the game. But playing it thirty years (!) since its release in the arcades, it's very obvious that it's suffering from an identity crisis. Does Donkey Kongwant to be this new adventure-type game that's never been done before or does it want to uphold to the tried-and-true points based method of progression? Let me know in the comments section if you think I'm overstating this or if you think there's merit to my madness.
I'm grateful for the existence of Donkey Kong even if I don't feel that it has aged well. It put Nintendo on the map, and without Nintendo, many of my and millions of others' greatest gaming memories would not have been created. For that, I can only give the maddest of props.
Impact: A+
Actual game: B-
One of my favorite game sound effects of all time is Jumpman when he walks. Priceless.
