Before he did the whole saving the princess thing, Mario was a carpenter and animal torturer named Jumpman. Tired of all the abuse, Jumpan's pet ape Donkey Kong stole the carpenter's girlfriend Pauline and prompted a chase through a never ending series of identical skyscrapers and
one really great documentary.. It was praised for its great variety and precise platforming and recieved several sequels including but absolutely not limited to
Donkey Kong Jr. and
Super Mario Bros., the latter of which saved the industry in the late 80s. It was the first game directed by Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario, Zelda, Excitebike and Pikmin. Donkey Kong would spend the rest of his life making fourth-wall breaking jokes at the expense of his identically named grandson, the protagonist of Rare's Donkey Kong Country series.
Before his slip into electronic senility,
Donkey Kong received a port on the Nintendo Gameboy, though it took 13 years to get there. That's not the only strange thing about the game, after the original final level is completed, Donkey Kong wakes up and the chase continues through another some 100 levels that are all far more complex and challenging than the original four.
Things start out easy. They don't stay that way.
The 1994
Donkey Kong is actually a puzzle platformer. It focuses on the more precise platforming of the original (as opposed to the faster and more exploration-based Super Mario Bros.) and features an extremely agile Mario with the ability to preform handstands and backflips (the latter of which would later be an important ability in
Super Mario 64 as well). In most levels, Mario needs to find a key and bring it to a door, while every fourth level is a boss fight against Donkey Kong in the style of the arcade game's levels. Although these all fit in to the same basic style, the level design is astoundingly creative and the whole experience finds a great balance between mind-bending puzzle design and addictive platforming, often at the same time.
Nintendo would revisit the formula years later with the GBA
Mario vs. Donkey Kong (Nintendo continued to release some great puzzle games under the banner, but they focused on more Lemming-style puzzles that lacked any platforming) that was another solid title despite a jarringly weird graphical style, but didn't manage to live up the original game, mostly because Donkey Kong 1994 was a refreshing, surprising turn for the carpenter and along with the sublime
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (which was not only a totally solid action-adventure on a handheld, but lived up to its legendary predecessor
A Link to the Past) proved that a handheld game could be just as fully featured and polished as a console title.
I played a lot of this game when I was a kid although I was never any good at it, and now am replaying it on the 3DS's virtual console. It has held up remarkably well and I can heartily recommend it to any puzzle game fan.
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Director of the Department of Orderly Disruptions
[Last edited by Snacko at 08-17-2011 12:19 PM]
