Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong is a single screen platform game. The player controls Mario and must rescue his girlfriend Pauline who has been kidnapped by Donkey Kong. The game consists of 3 levels, and when you beat the third level, the game loops back to the beginning and you play through it again on a slightly higher difficulty. This continues until you lose all of your lives. In level 1, the objective is to reach the top of the screen by climbing ladders up the girders while avoiding the barrels thrown by Donkey Kong. In level 2 the objective is to reach the top of the screen by jumping across a series of platforms, while avoiding moving flames and a bouncing jack. In the third and final level, Mario must remove the 8 rivets supporting the structure that Donkey Kong is standing on while avoiding the moving flames. The gameplay is very basic. Mario can run left or right, he can climb up and down ladders and he can jump. In the first and third levels he can also pick up a magic hammer that makes him temporarily invincible and allows to destroy barrels and flames. The controls feel very responsive. Graphics and sound are solid, not as good as the arcade version but that is to be expected for a first generation NES title. This version is also missing the second level from the arcade version as there wasn't enough space on the NES game pak. Donkey Kong deserves it's place in history as a hugely important game for Nintendo, and for that reason it's worth playing. That said, it's possible to see everything the game has to offer within 15 minutes and while it can provide short bursts of fun, it's simple nature and the fact it only has 3 constantly looping levels, means it soon gets repetitive.