Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong was released just a couple of months after I was born. As such, it might seem rather antiquated to me. But I do have a certain fondness for it. I didn't always though. I don't even really remember when I first introduced to the game. I feel like my first encounter with Mario was Super Mario Bros SOMETIME after the NES was released. I can't really remember quite when that was. Although I do tie in memories of first playing NES around the time the Ninja Turtles first aired, so let's say it was 1987 then. That sounds about right actually.

At any rate, I'm pretty sure I probably found out that Mario had originally been in previous games about a year later. So probably sometime in 1988 I was introduced to the original Mario Bros and Donkey Kong at a friend's house. And I don't think either really wowed me given that these games felt like steps back from Super Mario Bros.

But over the years I've developed an appreciation for Donkey Kong. It's history is definitely fascinating. And the documentary The King Of Kong did plenty to make the game feel like it had a sort of excitement surrounding it. Of course the even more recent Billy Mitchell drama has made that excitement something even bigger.

That being said, Donkey Kong is definitely one of those games that I fire up every few years and play for like... a half hour. And that's about it. Maybe less. It's a good old school arcade game in that it's fun to "pop a few quarters in" and see if you're still okay at it. Not that I'm great. But I'm alright.

Tonight I decided to play the NES version via the Switch Online app after perusing Nintendo Power's list of their top 285 games. It's fun and all but the NES version is even shorter than the original arcade game as its lacking a level. So I did the first loop on one life no problem. And therein lies the problem for me: it's just a three level platformer. So you just keep doing it over and over. I guess playing for score, but that's not what makes a platformer fun to me. It's not like I'll ever be good enough (or CARE to be good enough) to see a kill screen.

So eh, whatever. I just kind of jplay this every once in a while to see if I can do a quick one-life run of the three base levels and then I feel all set. Maybe I'd be more into it right now had I not just played through the NES Remix levels a couple of months ago which breathed some new life into the game for me as it is.