A revolutionary game with a bit of a clunky feel in hindsight. I don't think it's held up quite as well over the decades as Pac-Man, but it still gets a lot right for an early-'80s game. The four levels all have unique layouts and obstacles, Mario's somewhat slow movement means you have to be careful with your movements, and the game has a bit of challenge while not being too harsh. Comparing it to Super Mario Bros. shows how far platformer design and control would go on to improve over the first half of the '80s.

https://www.retrogames.cz/play_001-NES.php
Donkey Kong 1981 | Arcade
emulador pc

1-interacción: 7
2-mundo/apartado artístico: 8
3-concepto: 7.9
4-puesta en escena: 8
5-narración: -
6-sonido/apartado sonoro: 6
7-jugabilidad: 7
8-historia: -
9-duración/ritmo: 7.4
10-impacto: 7.5

8
8
7.9
7.5
7.4
7

45.8/60pts

76.3 promedio

Y'know, it's really amazing that Nintendo won that lawsuit against Universal.

It seems like this would obviously be trademark infringement. It's a giant ape named "Kong" who kidnaps a woman and takes her to the top of a skyscraper. That just is King Kong.

The defense was brilliant. Nintendo won because Universal themselves argued in an earlier case that King Kong was basically public domain.

That was the moment Nintendo became a serious player in the entertainment industry at large.

i sort of like the restrictive controls because it makes all your movements feel very intentional and almost kind of dramatic. even the tiniest hops have a satisfying weight to them, and when you leap over a barrel you really feel it in your bones. i always instinctively feel like shouting every time i do it, it's really funny.
there's not really much to complain about besides old game weirdness, like walking 2 ft off of a ledge only to die, or the sheer amount of barrels donkey kong can bury you in if you're not quick enough. for the time, i feel the difficulty curve is actually quite nice, and i like how distinct each level feels from one another in both gameplay and visuals; through which the game exudes a lot of it's charm
that being said, i feel the game gets a bit frustrating and repetitive after awhile due to how slow it can be on retries, and eventually i felt like i 'got the jist' so to speak after giving it a swing for awhile.
not bad, not amazing, but you do appreciate for the time frame it was made in.

Pretty interesting to go back to actually playing some of the earlier examples of an actual video game amongst the sea of pretty much a mess of a medium by that time, Donkey Kong is iconic and remembered by many, but does it hold up as A Video Game decades past? Well, kinda...?

Donkey Kong is an arcade game for sure, it is excruciatingly difficult and made to run your pockets at the arcade machines so you'd have to put in coins to get more and more credits, it's a tactic for sure games like these pulled very intentionally and it introduces a very thick layer of competitiveness to go for high scores against others. The game itself is fine, the controls to move Mario (then known as "Jumpman") are very stiff and it has a very unfair fall damage system that requires you to make your jumps precisely as a fall of little height and be game over, but it sorta makes up for the limited variety of levels that make you use them in different ways, some of these are mainstays of gaming even nowadays as they're referenced in Every Pop Culture Thing Ever, so it's nice seeing the source material for an extended period of time.

It gets boring after a few loops, once you've played those four levels you have indeed played 1981's own original Donkey Kong, and that's fine. This game is just fine.

dogshit

well maybe thats a bit too harsh but its insanely hard and BS

shrug

sometimes playing an old game feels like getting the most distilled version of what makes the genre good, but this one is a little tedious to actually play. the jump is a little too unreliable and the obstacles a little too unpredictable in a way that feels tuned to munching quarters. i often found myself just standing still while waiting for an opening, because pushing forward would be too risky. the hammer goes on way too long beyond the point where it served its purpose. it does feel good to learn the game and get better and better at the stages, but i couldn't stop thinking how much i prefer the game boy version of these stages.

In order to beat Donkey Kong 64, beating this is required...twice. I never played the original Donkey Kong to completion. Being born in the mid 90s, I was too young to truly experience the days of arcades. Sure, there are some very "this is an old arcade game" things I don't like about this game, like how falling from a certain height can kill you outright, and 75m was the poster child for dumb deaths like this.

Being patient was a big key to victory in stages like 50 and 100m, and we all know that patience isn't exactly a thing gamers are big on, especially these days. My second run (for the Nintendo Coin) was surprisingly tame, but that may be because I knew what I was up against.

I will admit, I did use save states, but if I were playing on Wii U VC, I'd be doing the exact same thing. This isn't the late 90s, and I was in a hurry to get this and Jetpac done so I can avoid dealing with the Rareware and Nintendo Coins at the end of the game.

In a way, I am glad I got the chance to actually play and beat the original Donkey Kong. At the same time, I still find it very stupid how it's mandatory to beat this twice to beat a totally different game. Why are you such a collectaton hell, Donkey Kong 64?