Donkey Kong

[The Former DMiller]

Donkey Kong Review

By Derek Miller

Donkey Kong was my favorite arcade game as a kid and I've loved just about every game in the series. (You know the exceptions.) Donkey Kong for Gameboy is one of my favorites. When it came out it was one of the first games to use the Super Gameboy adapter for SNES and that just heightened my enjoyment of the game. Not only was I playing a great game but it was in color and on my TV! Imagine that!

Graphics

Well it is a Gameboy game but it does look decent. Since it was adapted for Super Gameboy it looks okay on a GBC or GBA. At least better than original Gameboy games.

7.5

Sound

Once again, Gameboy has its limitations so the sound is mediocre. The music can get tedious and the sound effects are almost nonexistent. They will remind you of the original Donkey Kong, though, so that might be a plus.

6.0

Gameplay

Now we're getting somewhere. If you loved the original DK arcade game then you will love this game. It starts off by playing all of the first four levels of DK, and then things get interesting. Donkey Kong takes your girl, and you must chase him throughout different worlds. You go through world after world chasing after Donkey Kong. You must retrieve a key to open the locked door that he goes through in each level. Eventually, Donkey Kong Jr. comes along to give you some trouble. You collect the keys by using the enemies and objects you encounter in standard platform/puzzle fashion. I say standard fashion but don't get me wrong, it is extremely addictive. You will fight against Donkey Kong every few levels and it's a different challenge each time. Just play this game and you'll enjoy it.

9.5

Modern Appeal

Donkey Kong is an addictive game and even after you beat it you will find yourself playing just for the heck of it. You can go to any level you want as long as you've already been to the level. It is definitely my most played original Gameboy game.

Purchase Price

You shouldn't have too much trouble finding this one at a used game store or on eBay. Expect to pay anywhere between $10 - $15 for it.

Total (not an average) : 8.5

[A Black Falcon]

This is a Game Boy game, not a Game Boy Color game. It should be moved to the proper folder... :)

One of the best games on the original GB, though.

[Dark Jaguar]

Movement completed.

[Dark Jaguar]

So it's been a while but I recently played through DK GB again, and I've got a few things to add here.

DMiller, unfortunately what you were seeing wasn't SGB support. The Gameboy Color and GBA (and DS) have NO Super Gameboy support. Instead, that was just a built in palette treating it just like a lot of original GB games.

Now, I have a Super Gameboy (2), and I still use it for the appropriate games. This game is the shining example of what the SGB could do when designed for well. Aside from adding in some sounds using the SNES's sound capabilities (Pauline actually cries for help instead of just a garbled noise, for example, and she sounds kinda like Olive Oil), the game has a built in border that looks like a DK arcade machine.

The coloring is very well done. The still shots of the world maps all are fully colorized, as are the pause screen, score screen, startup screen, and so on. The individual levels each have a unique palette which does a very good job. They actually handicap themselves a little further by only changing two colors in each stage's palette (the other two stay the same so Mario's coloring is consistent throughout the game). However, the colors always match each other very well. Forests are green, cities are grey, oceans are blue, wooden ships are brown. The final battle is also a stationary screen with sections Mario can't go to, so they colorized it surprisingly well as well.

All in all, the colorized look really fleshes out the world and makes everything seem much more "alive". It's the way the game was meant to be played. To this day it's a shame Nintendo has basically decided it's not worth the effort to emulate SGB modes in their rereleases of Super Gameboy games.

As for the gameplay, it's amazing what they could do. Mario can do handstands and u-turn jumps and all sorts of new tricks now, and the stages progress with a more puzzle-like atmosphere than the first 4.