Yes, after decades of never re-releasing the arcade version of Donkey Kong, spurring many rumors of if Nintendo has the rights to it at all -- because of how Nintendo treated the outside team that did the programming, pretty much -- they... suddenly released it for Arcade Archives on the Switch! That's pretty awesome. I've never really loved the original DK, but still, it's really fantastic that the original arcade version finally, at long last, has an official home console release. It includes the Japanese and International versions of the game, too, which is great. And it was released during E3.
And at the same time, Nintendo also announced that next month they will release the arcade version of Sky Skipper, another arcade game from 1981. The game released in Japan in arcades, and there is a Western-released Atari 2600 version (that I have a copy of; it's not great), but for some reason the Western arcade release was cancelled. Yes, a 2600 version, which is not mentioned in the Treehouse stream video above, was released here, but not the arcade game. How odd. Anyway, this Arcade Archives version is a port of the US arcade version, which Nintendo kept one of in their archives after cancelling it. The cabinet has some pretty neat artwork done by Miyamoto on it, see the video. I haven't played arcade Sky Skipper, but it looks okay based on the video, better than that 2600 version hopefully but not great. Still, it's awesome to see it, and I hope that the classic Nintendo arcade releases continue; they do have more.
The Japanese version (also the earliest release in the US before they made the International ROM) is the better version to me. I don't get much joy out of "unlocking" the later levels by just looping the earlier ones over & over, so I would rather get that variety all up front, then looped.
Don't forget they have released the arcade version twice, first in Donkey Kong 64, then again in the emulated release of DK64 on Wii U. It's kind of obscure perhaps, but once it's unlocked in that game you can play it with the original rules from the mini-game menu at any time.
Well, the DK64 version isn't actually the arcade ROM. It's pretty much identical, but is actually a port apparently and not the actual untouched arcade game. It's redone to fit in a horizontal screen and such, too.
Quote: The Japanese version (also the earliest release in the US before they made the International ROM) is the better version to me. I don't get much joy out of "unlocking" the later levels by just looping the earlier ones over & over, so I would rather get that variety all up front, then looped.
I agree, playing all four stages in each loop makes a whole lot more sense to me than the weird level order of the US version. If I'd grown up playing that in the arcades then I well might think differently, but I didn't, so the Japanese version's definitely the one I'd rather play.
What I've never thought made much sense about Donkey Kong, though, is why you only need to go to the same level as DK in the factory stage, instead of actually needing to get up onto the platform with Pauline like you have to do in the other two stages like that... it's really weird and makes that stage far too easy.
As for the other game, for comparison purposes, here's the 2600 version of Sky Skipper, made by Parker Bros.:
... The arcade version looks a lot nicer graphically, though the core gameplay is mostly similar, though it definitely looks more fun in the arcade going by the video. The 2600 version is slow...