The 1st Chapter - Donkey Kong
Lets take a step backwards and revisit the humble beginnings of Nintendo.
No I don’t mean the baseball cards, I’m talkin bout dis thing right HEE-YUH.
MMMMMM SOOOOON. YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS.
The Nintendo Entertainment System. Your parents help you hook it up.
For some, this is where all their earliest memories lie. One thing I noticed early on with playing through the NES library again is how freakin hard it is (See Also: how much i suck at classic games.)
But we’re gonna dive into one of the first games on the system and it’s earliest chapter. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you...
Not gonna be a whole lot to say about this bad boy. Sure it started in arcades but it soon made it’s home on our consoles. Now we could repeatedly chase that damned monkey up a scaffolding in the comforts of our own home.
Snuggled in our feetsie jammies, bowl of cap’n crunch, in front of our huge 8 inch concrete heavy television sets we set records like none other.
So how did those early stages go again?
The game is established right away.
You’re the fellah in the red overalls.
He’s the fellah in the Monkey suit.
She’s the fellah that’s a womanly fellah.
Giphy has the perfect images for just about anything. Here’s a bite-sized view of the first stage of Donkey Kong. Make it to the top, save the lady. Save the cheerleader, save the world.
There’s obstacles a’plenty in your path to damsel rescuing.Living flames, rolling barrels, Satan’s Springs.
Eventually you reach the top and save the day!
The second stage adds the obstacles of elevator platforms that move either up or down.
Jumping too soon can kill you.
Jumping too late can kill you.
Jumping for them at all can kill you.
You can not ride these elevators. This game hates you me.
These are Paula’s (The girl you’re rescuing) things. She absolutely refuses to be rescued without you collecting them.
They’re designer label, cost more than your car, and she loves them more than you.
They’re also placed in locations you’ll likely die on your first few times trying to get.
Oh, also, she won’t stay your girlfriend after this game.
In the third and final stage, your objective is to walk over spaces holding the platforms together. Getting all of them without dying...
Now you and Paula can live happily ever af-
Donkey Kong is a fun little snippet of the Arcade version. It lacks some of the in between cut scenes, the challenge from DK to chase him up the tower...
As well as a few extra stages...
The funny thing here is that the 1st Chapter of this game, is actually all the content available. Only three stages, and afterwards, you start them over for a higher score.
Game mechanics aren’t super difficult to understand, it’s something of a trial and error.I didn’t mention the super hammer, or how jumping over obstacles give you points...
The music as well isn’t the most ear pleasing either. This was before game OST’s were taken seriously.
Eventually Donkey Kong would branch out into his own, much more sophisticated series... but that’s another review for another time.
The first chapter of Donkey Kong for the NES gets a:
