Recommended by Sonique as part of this list.
It's a name so iconic it's transcended its arcade roots: Donkey Kong. The classic tale of Italian vs Primate, and the shenanigans that ensue henceforth, involving barrels, sentient fireballs and lots of ladders, and for the first four levels of Donkey Kong (94'), you're lead to believe that this handheld replica is more of the same, until DK gets right back up when the game should be over and flees to the big city with Pauline in tow. A single cutscene shows you the bread and butter gameplay loop: bring the key to the door to advance. Thus does 94' reveal itself not as duplication, but as evolution.
The arcade philosophy is one that was largely bred by circumstance, of technological limits and economic goals: to make the most of what you have, you encourage replayability, skill, and mastery above all else. It's a philosophy considered niche by most but lives on in many forms, from character action games to the entirety of the shmup genre, but it has an unlikely relative in the puzzle genre. Puzzles may not have the replayability aspect due to the inherent oneness of the solution, but they emphasize similar values: skill and mastery. Learning Puyo chains in Puyo Puyo, or spacial awareness in Tetris, the idea of having a foundation that requires skill and knowledge for the player to fully expound upon. In this sense, the evolution of Arcade to Puzzle-Platformer in 94' is the best possible step Nintendo could have taken with the idea.
Making a handheld game inherently changes the game design philosophy you approach a project with, and this is where 94's strengths truly shine. The levels are all relatively bite-sized, with time limits rarely going over the three-minute mark, always focused on the main goal of bringing a comically-large key to the locked door in each level to progress, and are always clustered together in groups of 4 (3 regular levels and a fight against DK himself) before allowing you to save your game. Each cluster of levels is capped off with a cutscene that showcases a new mechanic that will be used in the next level cluster going forward, most of which lift directly from older Donkey Kong entries, from the hammers in the original arcade title, to the vine climbing mechanics of Junior (and even the appearance of the little rascal to annoy you from time to time). 94' is always introducing new mechanics, new level structures, new gimmicks to play around with and test your puzzle-solving abilities all the way until the very end, where it unfortunately falters by turning into a precision platformer gauntlet (not an inherently bad idea, Mario controls great and is about as nimble as he would be in 96's Super Mario 64, but it really downplays the strengths exemplified in the earlier worlds).
94' is a masterclass of handheld game design, a prime example of a pick up and play title that would inspire both future series such as the Mario vs Donkey Kong series (an obvious spiritual successor to 94'), as well as other puzzle platformers that would come down the line, and it's clear with titles like Donkey Kong 94' why Nintendo is considered one of the best when it comes to platformer game design.
It's a name so iconic it's transcended its arcade roots: Donkey Kong. The classic tale of Italian vs Primate, and the shenanigans that ensue henceforth, involving barrels, sentient fireballs and lots of ladders, and for the first four levels of Donkey Kong (94'), you're lead to believe that this handheld replica is more of the same, until DK gets right back up when the game should be over and flees to the big city with Pauline in tow. A single cutscene shows you the bread and butter gameplay loop: bring the key to the door to advance. Thus does 94' reveal itself not as duplication, but as evolution.
The arcade philosophy is one that was largely bred by circumstance, of technological limits and economic goals: to make the most of what you have, you encourage replayability, skill, and mastery above all else. It's a philosophy considered niche by most but lives on in many forms, from character action games to the entirety of the shmup genre, but it has an unlikely relative in the puzzle genre. Puzzles may not have the replayability aspect due to the inherent oneness of the solution, but they emphasize similar values: skill and mastery. Learning Puyo chains in Puyo Puyo, or spacial awareness in Tetris, the idea of having a foundation that requires skill and knowledge for the player to fully expound upon. In this sense, the evolution of Arcade to Puzzle-Platformer in 94' is the best possible step Nintendo could have taken with the idea.
Making a handheld game inherently changes the game design philosophy you approach a project with, and this is where 94's strengths truly shine. The levels are all relatively bite-sized, with time limits rarely going over the three-minute mark, always focused on the main goal of bringing a comically-large key to the locked door in each level to progress, and are always clustered together in groups of 4 (3 regular levels and a fight against DK himself) before allowing you to save your game. Each cluster of levels is capped off with a cutscene that showcases a new mechanic that will be used in the next level cluster going forward, most of which lift directly from older Donkey Kong entries, from the hammers in the original arcade title, to the vine climbing mechanics of Junior (and even the appearance of the little rascal to annoy you from time to time). 94' is always introducing new mechanics, new level structures, new gimmicks to play around with and test your puzzle-solving abilities all the way until the very end, where it unfortunately falters by turning into a precision platformer gauntlet (not an inherently bad idea, Mario controls great and is about as nimble as he would be in 96's Super Mario 64, but it really downplays the strengths exemplified in the earlier worlds).
94' is a masterclass of handheld game design, a prime example of a pick up and play title that would inspire both future series such as the Mario vs Donkey Kong series (an obvious spiritual successor to 94'), as well as other puzzle platformers that would come down the line, and it's clear with titles like Donkey Kong 94' why Nintendo is considered one of the best when it comes to platformer game design.
Sonique
1 year ago