It's a cut, condensed and compromised conversion, and its promotion really just needs to stop.Donkey Kong is a remake of the 1981 Atari arcade game with two additional levels. Not the first masterpiece game that established Shigeru Miyamoto's career. On the GBA as part of the Classic NES Series and in Animal Crossing on the GameCube. Books have been written on this subject, I kid you not.īut Nintendo, for whatever reason, has continued to promote this crippled port for years. That's kind of a big deal, since Donkey Kong was the first ever game to contain a full narrative structure, telling a story with a beginning, middle and end. The final scene, with Jumpman rescuing Pauline and DK crashing to the ground below, actually is there. The interstitial animations between stages - removed. Whereas the coin-op original had four full levels of play, the NES conversion only has three - it's only 75% complete.Īnd on top of that, the opening cutscene - where DK climbs the first stage and stomps the girders into place - is removed. This Virtual Console release is of the NES version of the arcade classic, not the arcade classic itself. And looking back on the company's history, Donkey Kong is arguably Nintendo's most important game.ĭon't download it, because this isn't the true Donkey Kong. There's a lot of fun still to be had with this grand gorilla. Playing DK on the VC is a great, nostalgic experience - it controls well with a Wiimote, Cube or Classic Controller, and you can see the excellence of Miyamoto's early work shining through in the smallest details. It introduced the company's most important mascot character, without whom it would never have achieved the success and longevity enjoyed in the ensuing 25 years. It established the company's name and provided their foundation. The character Jumpman was later renamed and is better known today as Mario, a mascot who has gone on to have some moderate level of success for Nintendo himself.ĭonkey Kong was Nintendo's first big hit. Second in popularity only to Pac-Man at its height, Donkey Kong went on to inspire merchandising, sequels and even a cartoon show. Though NOA's employees were skeptical of the game, it installed and modified the Radar Scope cabinets into Donkey Kong machines and the game became a hit. It was like no game to ever come before, and the rest is history. Some of the enviroments even had moving parts - elevators and conveyor belts that added further novelty to the experience. It was a totally fresh experience, guiding the hero along fractured girders and broken ladders, jumping over barrels and wielding a giant mallet to eliminate enemies. Arcades of the day were filled with space shooters or maze chases, but this game was different. And Bluto he changed into an ape - consulting an English-Japanese dictionary to find the right way to say "stubborn monkey," he ended up with the name Donkey Kong.ĭonkey Kong created an all-new genre - the platformer. Popeye became a short and squatty hero in a red cap, called Jumpman. Miyamoto changed his cast - Olive Oil became Pauline, the damsel in distress. Popeye was his inspiration, as he sought to create a game starring the spinach-swallowing sailor saving his sweetheart Olive Oil from the brutish bully Bluto. ![]() Shigeru started from scratch, designing an all-new game that could be installed as a retrofit on the Radar Scope board. He accepted, looked at what he had to work with, and promptly threw it out. Called into the office of President Hiroshi Yamauchi, the young Shigeru was tasked with improving the game. He hadn't been there long, and hadn't had much chance yet to show his quality. It'd have to improve the stinker.Ī young man named Shigeru Miyamoto had been working at Nintendo in Japan. The company would have to use what it had - thousands of machines of Radar Scope. Its bank accounts draining, there wasn't enough time to come up with an all-new product, pack and ship it from Japan. It needed a new game, and it needed it quickly. ![]() It was 1981, and thousands of Radar Scope upright cabinets were being delivered by sea, traveling to the then-headquarters of Nintendo's American arm in New York.Īs they made the journey to and through the Panama Canal, the company was in a quandary. It was sinking NOA's ship - almost literally. Its latest arcade game, Radar Scope, was a flop.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |