| The Games
The games covered here are those dealing
with the original Donkey Kong and its descendants--those games featuring
Donkey Kong and/or Mario. At this point, the three core games are covered:
Donkey Kong (covering Crazy Kong), Donkey Kong Junior, and Donkey Kong 3.
Mario Bros. is given an honorable mention.
These games have a certain collective
feel that has always appealed to me:
- In Donkey Kong, you play Mario and
climb up levels, dodging baddies, to rescue the girl from Donkey Kong.
- In Donkey Kong Junior, you play
Donkey Kong's monkey son and climb vines, dodging baddies, to rescue
Papa from Mario.
- In Donkey Kong 3, you play Stanley
(not Mario), spraying baddies sent down by Donkey Kong, while trying to
drive DK up the vines to the top.
While Mario Bros. is a departure from
this feel, it was a bridge between the classic DK series and the eventual
Super Mario Brothers games--true wonders in their own rights that were not
equaled in all the fancy 3D SMB-related games that have followed. In any
event, Mario Bros. is a fun play, especially for two players, and the
multiple levels on each screen are reminiscent of the platforms on the
other DK games.
Climbing, jumping, avoiding enemies: a
lot of other games have these features; what makes the DK games so
special? Probably the nostalgia factor. In 1981, there were no other games
quite like Donkey Kong--and all the knockoffs later couldn't touch the
look and feel of it. |
