When I was a child, I loved playing this game. I mean I was the definition of a FAN. The reason I’m doing this old school classic first is simple. It’s the first video game I ever owned, it came with the SNES! Check it out-
Awesome right? Anyway when I was in elementary school, coming home to play this was one of the high points of my day, so I took a trip down memory lane to see how well this game had aged and how my pals Donkey and Diddy were doing back in the 2D age.
So lets start with my favorite part of just about anything from television to real life. The story!
IT’S STORY TIME!
The story is simple enough. Basically Donkey Kong wakes up one morning to discover someone has made off with his fabulous banana horde! Now he must team up with his friends and follow the trail to get them back. Immediately you realize that the Kremlings have something to do with this and you go about attempting to discover why. Ok “monkey” loses his bananas seemingly obvious choice for a gorilla based game but that’s the beauty of it. To do more than that would probably have come off as trying to hard, and would detract from this amazing cast of characters that I’ll be introducing to yoouuuuu… now.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Donkey Kong is the main character obviously, and he teams up for cooperative two player with his pal Diddy (nephew). Featured throughout the game as helpers (but not playable) are his cantankerous grandfather Cranky, Candy his girlfriend, and Funky Kong who apparently is just the cool guy who can get his hands on anything. These characters merged seamlessly into the story. Their roles were light but pivotal. Candy saved the game, Funky sent you around the world, and Cranky dispensed advice with his old man “you young whipersnappers are terrible” vibe. The dialogue was often humorous and a nice break from the levels.
GAMEPLAY!
So basically its
D-Pad : LEFT and RIGHT move your guy in the corresponding direction. UP
and DOWN are used to climb vines in the corresponding directions.
SELECT : Used while the game is paused to exit a level prematurely, provided
you have beaten that level previously. It can also be used to tag
in your resting Kong Member (if you have him).
START : Used to choose what play file you want to use, and it
pauses/unpauses the game.
Y Button: This button had a myriad of functions, and they are:
1) If held down, you will run instead of walk.
2) when pressed, you will enter your roll attack.
3) When held, will pick up a barrel.
4) If holding barrel, release to throw barrel.
X Button: No apparent use.
B Button: This will cause you to jump.
A Button: This will tag in your resting monkey (if you have him).
=========================
Special Techniques/Combos
=========================
Roll Jump : To do this useful technique, do the following: roll out over the
side of a ledge, and before you hit anything, press the B Button
to jump in mid-air. Useful for getting over to far away ledges,
and to get items floating over empty pits.
Barrel Drop: While holding a barrel, hold DOWN and release the Y Button.
Your monkey will put their barrel down.
Ground Slam: This is a Donkey Kong exclusive, and it can yield some very
nice banana totals. If you press DOWN and the Y Button, DK
will rear back into a two handed ground slap! This can
unearth bananas as well as killing many enemies. Not an
essential technique, but it is quite fun to use.
o————o
| Diddy Kong |
o————o
D-Pad : LEFT and RIGHT move your guy in the corresponding direction. UP
and DOWN are used to climb vines in the corresponding directions.
SELECT : Used while the game is paused to exit a level prematurely, provided
you have beaten that level previously. It can also be used to tag
in your resting Kong Member (if you have him).
START : Used to choose what play file you want to use, and it
pauses/unpauses the game.
Y Button: This button had a myriad of functions, and they are:
1) If held down, you will run instead of walk.
2) when pressed, you will enter your roll attack.
3) When held, will pick up a barrel.
4) If holding barrel, release to throw barrel.
B Button: jump.
A Button: This will tag in your partner (if you have him).
Special Techniques/Combos
Roll Jump : To do this technique, do the following: roll out over the
side of a ledge, and before you hit anything, press the B Button
to jump in mid-air. Useful for getting over to far away ledges,
and to get items floating over empty pits.
Barrel Drop: While holding a barrel, hold DOWN and release the Y Button.
Your monkey will put their barrel down.
Simple controls, but effective.
I can’t say enough about the diversity in the levels themselves. This adds so much depth to the gameplay. You start off in the forest doing things like jumping on little hamster creatures and Kremlings. Then you move on to a mine, caves, an ice level, shoot out of barrels, jump across ravines with killer bees, and get to use several animal friends to help you, and that’s not even half of it. Honestly a lot of today’s video games could take notes on this as sometimes the same point and shoot things get a little tired out.
GRAPHICS
The first game to utilize pre-rendered CGI 3D graphics. Astonishing for its time and still looks great today. They took a great risk in procuring the equipment for doing this, however it seems that it paid off!
DOES IT STAND OR FALL?
This game definitely stands the test of time. I was playing this game while playing Halo 4. Two different experiences to be sure, however it didn’t feel cheap and outdated. If anything it still had its original characteristics to draw me in while with Halo 4 was just another remake/re-imagining of someone else’s once original idea.
So for the final rating if you haven’t guessed-
FIVE STARS!
Great overall and stands up very well. It is a classic game and well worth recommending to any new gamer.
Last but not least, my ideas on how this game would be received if it were released today, geared toward today’s audience. It’s hard to say but I’d go ahead and guess that if it pushed the limits of today’s consoles as it did the SNES’s limits back in the day. Assuming it’s on wii u. It’d probably help breathe life into that system just as the Donkey Kong remake did with the Wii.
And that’s all I have to say…about that.
Thanks for reading you guys are the best
Sincerely,
A Guy trying to be Wise
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Five stars!
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