how do I make a detailed review about Donkey Kong?

I guess I can start off with the fact that I do have nostalgia for this game as with a lot of other people since a pizza place I used to go to back in the day had an arcade cabinet featuring the game, unfortunately I don't think they have it anymore. I was pretty terrible at this game, I could never get past 25m so my only exposure to the later m's were the Game Boy retelling, the Masterpieces section in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and of course that one annoying ass Spirit battle in World of Light that takes place in the 75m stage (you know the one). years later I'm able to finally play this game on my Switch through Arcade Archives and was able to finish all the m's and finally reach the ending, it would have been cooler if it was on an actual cabinet, but I'll take it. so what do I think about it? idk it's ok

I'm pretty sure this is the first traditional platformer where you have the ability to jump, hence the main character being called Mario Jumpman. so this "Jumpman", why does he jump? well his pet gorilla (don't ask me why he has a pet gorilla) "Donkey Kong" decided to rebel against him and kidnapped his girlfriend "Lady", taking her up to a construction site that Jumpman likely contributed to building since he's a carpenter. now you may be thinking "wow, what a stubborn ape!" but if I told you that there's a potential prequel game named "Donkey Kong Circus" where Donkey Kong is forced to perform circus acts by Jumpman, who laughs at him everytime he screws up, so maybe Donkey Kong is in the right to rebel against this creepy pale dude in red and blue, ignore the face that the game I mentioned didn't even exist yet in 1981. whether or not who you're rooting for, you have to help Jumpman retrieve his girlfriend who has no involvement in this personal debacle. at the end of each m, the two have a brief reunion before Donkey Kong commits a "no u" and takes her higher up in the construction site. once you complete 100m and take off all the girders, Donkey Kong falls down to the ground headfirst as Jumpman and Lady finally get to be together again (the relationship won't last), but don't worry, Donkey Kong will get his revenge in Donkey Kong Jr. with his son coming to his rescue. I think this is the first game to have a story with a proper beginning and end so you have to give some props to that. as for the actual gameplay....I don't have much to say.

he jump over the barrels, he jump over the pies, he don't jump over the springs because they're annoying to deal with but he do jump over the girders. for real though, there's four screens Jumpman must go through to save his girlfriend: 25m where Donkey Kong repeatedly throws barrels down while Jumpman has to avoid them while also climbing ladders, 50m also known as the "Pie Factory", where Jumpman moves through conveyor belts switching between left and right while pies are being loaded onto them, 75m where jacks/springs are constantly bouncing near Donkey Kong that can knock out Jumpman idk who's throwing them probably Donkey Kong Jr., and lastly 100m where Jumpman has to take off the girders to finally defeat Donkey Kong. that's the Japanese order however. when they released the game in America, for some reason they changed the screen order from

25m --> 50m --> 75m --> 100m --> (next Level) rinse and repeat

into
25m --> 100m --> (next level) 25m --> 75m --> 100m --> (next Level) 25m --> 50m --> 75m --> 100m --> (next Level) rinse and repeat

I'm not sure why they made this change, I guess it means overseas people can see the ending faster but now Mario suddenly goes from the bottom screen to the top screen which is a little weird in my opinion. this also means that you can't play the easier variants of 50m and 75m in the overseas version since each Level increases the difficulty in some way such as increasing the spawn rate of Fireballs in 50m or speeding up the elevators in 75m. unless you prefer having a shuffled order for the first two Levels, I'd recommend playing the Japanese version since not only do you get the intended screen order right away, but there's also a trick in 25m where if you're right at the top of a ladder while a barrel rolls nearby, the barrel will never go down the ladder you're on which can make 25m a lot more manageable.

oh yeah each screen has hostile and mobile Fireballs to avoid, though 100m has more dangerous Fires that are harder to jump over, so besides jumping what's the most reliable way to deal with them? Hammers! with the exception of 75m, each screen has two Hammers that you can grab that you can use to smash the Fire/balls as well as the barrels and pies. it does has some big downsides, notably you can't jump while using it and then the hitbox constantly switches from above you to in front of you, which could end up biting you in the back if you're not careful, also from my experience moving with the Hammer seems to shrink the hitbox which makes you more likely to get hit.

now if you've come here expecting some cool tips from me, I'm afraid to say you're talking to the wrong guy, I still suck at this game. I can clear the first Level constantly, but by the time I get to Level 2 75m with the fast elevators and springs, the run falls apart. back when the Arcade Archives version first released back in 2018, I somehow managed to build up a High Score of 057800, while I could only get about up to half with my current attempts, to be fair I was studying a bunch of High Score runs on YouTube during that time so I guess it's expected for me to be rusty. anyway this game's three stars.

the funny thing about Donkey Kong is I find the many outside aspects about it more interesting than the actual game, like how this was originally supposed to be a Popeye game, or how it had a legal case regarding the similar name with King Kong, or how the Atari 2600 version's SFX are always used in television shows whenever a video game is shown, or even how there's a official bootleg Nintendo gave the OK to, only to end with the president of the bootleg's company to get arrested, need I mention Billy Mitchell's entire (sad) existence? despite that I still think the original Donkey Kong's a fine game, even if I like Mario Bros. more as well as a few earlier arcade games like Pac-Man. of course I have to absolutely recommend the arcade version, the NES version gets rid of the Pie Factory and other ports even get rid of 75m as well. although the walking SFX sounds a bit off in the Arcade Archives version, if you can't get an actual cabinet then that's the version to go for. btw if you're a huge fan of OG Donkey Kong, you should check out the Game Boy version that basically turns into its own game, it'd probably be added to Nintendo Switch Online in a couple of months from now. so yeah, not bad.

donkey kong