Jumpman looks awfully familiar.
The History
It's 1980 and Nintendo were just starting to dip it's toe into the waters of the arcade game industry. Now at this point in time the arcade games available to the public were pretty much of the same style, you shot at things, they shot back, and eventually you were overwhelmed by either sheer speed or numbers until you lost (Space Invaders being a prime example). Then you entered your name in the high-score table and challenged your friends to beat you.
One of Nintendo's first attempts was a game called Radarscope (a game where you shot at things and they shot back and eventual... nevermind) which few people knew about and even fewer people played. It was back to the drawing board for Nintendo. Step forward Shigeru Miyamoto.
Rather than have a bash at improving Radarscope Miyamoto like everybody else ignored it and started a fresh on something new. He had lots of ideas for games but found that unfortunately the corpse that was the Radarscope hardware couldn't handle them, so something simpler was needed. The idea he came up with was that there was a small man with a huge gorilla for a pet (common in the 80's). The giant gorilla hated being under the control of something so puny, so it escaped (again common in the 80's). Then, purely out of spite, the gorilla kidnapped his owner's girlfriend (named Pauline, but you didn't know that), climbed a building, and dared his owner to climb up to him to try to retrieve the girl. All he needed now was a title for the game.
Since the game would be played in English-speaking arcades (and roughly based on King Kong movies), he needed a name for his new creation. Something that described how stubborn and inflexible this gorilla was, something that just wouldn't do what it was told. How about other animals that are known for being notoriously hard to deal with? Mules, camels, donkeys... Hence Donkey Kong was born. The game was a huge success for Miyamoto and Nintendo, but then Universal throw a spanner in the works by claiming that Donkey Kong infringed on its copyright for the character and the name King Kong. So off to court everybody went.
Universal claimed that its copyright was still valid (even though the film was over 50 years old) and that the idea of a man climbing a building to save his girlfriend from a giant ape was the plot of it's movie. Nintendo in defense, argued that King Kong's copyright was outdated and that Donkey Kong didn't resemble the movie in any way. The judge who presided over the case agreed with Nintendo's defense and ruled that Universal no longer had a claim to King Kong and knew this when it filed the suit against Nintendo. So as well as losing the case, Universal had to pay Nintendo a $1.8 million penalty fee for wasting the time of both the court and the video game giant.
So there you have it, the brief history of Donkey Kong. The game that launched Nintendo's rise to where it is today.
The Gameplay
It's a platform game and you control Jumpman (okay it's Mario and he's a carpenter as this point and there's no power up mushrooms in sight) and he can jump, walk left or right, climb ladders and grab items including a hammer (which he can use to destroy barrels). The game had four levels or screens. Level 1 has you avoiding barrels and fireballs and climbing ladders, level 2 is a bit more difficult with moving platforms and melting steel to add to the barrels and ladder climbing, level 3 is even harder still with tougher jumps and with Donkey Kong now throwing I-beams at you instead of barrels (nasty) and level 4 has you triggering weak spots in the foundation of the building so that Donkey Kong would fall on his head with a crash and you do this by you've guessed it ladder climbing.
The Graphics
Baring in mind that this game was created in 1981 the graphics are more than adequate, in fact the Mario sprite would hardly change until he arrived on the Nintendo 64 (and became 3D) and Donkey Kong didn't look much different when he got his own game in Donkey Kong Country.
The Sound
Lots of jingles and effects all add to the gameplay experience.
The Lifespan
Once Jumpman reaches the top of each level, Donkey Kong grabs Pauline and climbs higher up the building and this goes on in cycles of the four levels getting increasingly more difficult until you run out of lives or just get bored.
The Ratings (out of 5)
The Gameplay: 5
The Graphics: 5
The Sound:5
The Lifespan: 5
The Blogger says...
It was the start of a rivalry which still rages today in the form of Mario vs Donkey Kong on the Gameboy Advance, so I'd say it was a success wouldn't you. The reason for this success is that the game is simple, but addictive. You will just have to play one more game and try to beat the hi-score and see how high you can go. It's easy to see how this game influenced the design and gameplay of Super Mario Bros and all the other platform games that followed it.
Overall Score 5
Highly recommended. Another true video game classic.
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