Donkey Kong
Atari 2600
This is a somewhat important review for me, because I consider Donkey Kong for the Atari 2600 to be the very first video game I've ever played. When I go back and scour my earliest video gaming memories, this game is the first thing that comes to mind.
Growing up, my dad had a rec room in the basement with an Atari 2600 and a bunch of games. My first gaming memories were formed with this console. That said, I was not very good at any of the games - this one in particular. I was more interested in grabbing the hammer and smashing barrels than I was with actually making it to the top of the stage. I would play the game off and on over the years, and I got "good" at it, as I was able to pass several levels in a row. It was never my favorite game, though, and I did not put a tremendous amount of time into it. Its gameplay is limited and there is really only so much you can do.
As I started to get older, my attention very quickly turned away from this game and the 2600. Once my family had an NES, I had absolutely no reason to ever play this version of Donkey Kong again. In the ensuing years, I have encountered the arcade game out in the wild, and I always make sure to drop a quarter or two in, because I like it. But the 2600 version? I haven't played it since the 1980s. For context, it is 2024 as I write this.
Time to revisit a piece of my childhood and see if it holds up in the modern day.
Spoiler alert: it does not. Oh boy, it does not.
Story:
Absolutely nothing is explained in the game. From context clues alone, you can deduce that the hero, Mario, (AKA Jumpman) is trying to rescue a woman from the giant ape Donkey Kong. Who is this woman? Princess Toadstool? Peach? I don't know.
Climb to the top of the stage to save her, all while dodging barrels that are being thrown by Donkey Kong. When the next level starts, she is trapped again. You have to knock out a bunch of supports on the tower holding up Donkey Kong this time. When the next level starts, the game begins to loop. You save her at the end of each level, but there is never any ending. You just keep doing it over and over again.
Worth noting is that the arcade version of Donkey Kong is Mario's first video game appearance. That's kind of cool. If this is truly the very first video game I ever played, I am pleased to know that Mario was the first video game character I ever played as, and it took place in his first game! Yeah, I know, this is the 2600 game, not the arcade version. But to me it is close enough.
Gameplay:
This is one of the most simplistic games you will ever play. It consists of two different stages. The first stage, you must use ladders to climb to the top of the stage, while at the same time dodging barrels that are being thrown down at you. You can move left and right, you can go up and down ladders, and you can jump. While this game may be very simple and basic, I do have to say that it handles quite well.
The next stage is where Donkey Kong is at the top of a tower, and you have to knock out supports in the ground by walking over them. There are four on the left side of the screen and four on the right. You have to use ladders to go up and down and get access to these supports. But you have to be careful because these weird, yellow monster things run back and forth on each of these floors. These things probably caused the most deaths for me as I played. They are very unpredictable and can change direction with no warning. If you so much as touch them, you lose a life and have to start the stage over again.
Each stage contains a hammer. In the barrel rolling stage, you use the hammer to crush barrels that are rolling towards you. In the second stage, you can use it to whack one of those weird yellow enemies, but that's it. You can't go up or down a ladder with it. So it is kind of useless.
Once you pass the first two stages, the game begins to loop. You just play the same two stage types over and over again, until you die. The game can't be beaten, you can only play for a high score.
I was pretty bad at this as a kid, and could only pass three or four stages at a time, at the very most. I quickly did much better as an adult. Not every playthrough was great, but once I got the hang of the patterns and how things work, I almost had to go out of my way to lose a life. But in the end one of those yellow things would always change directions unexpectedly and get me.
Graphics:
I did not expect the game to look this bad. It looked "just like the arcade version" when I was five years old. But yeah, this looks nowhere near as good as the arcade. I mean, just look at the screenshots. Donkey Kong looks like a gingerbread cookie man that was drawn by a four year old in Microsoft Paint. If I didn't already know that those things rolling down in the first level were barrels, I would have thought they were those circley pasta noodle things. The background is plain black. The colors are boring. Mario and the princess look as simplistic as can be. The yellow enemies in the second stage? I have no idea what the heck they are even supposed to be. Snakes?
My memory doesn't fail me often, but it sure did with this game. It looks so much worse than I remember.
Sound:
I always forget how so many of these old games do not even have music. It was very jarring playing this game in near silence. The only sounds are the patter of Mario's feet, and the noise it makes when he jumps. There are extra sound effects that play, like when you jump over a barrel, pick up a hammer, or knock out one of the struts. And can't forget the brief sound that plays when you complete a level. It is the closest thing this game comes to music, all comprised of standard 2600 beeps and bloops. But still very charming.
Overall:
I did not spend much time revisiting this game. Once you've passed the first two stages, which takes about three minutes, you've seen everything there is to see in this game. I suppose you can keep going and playing through the loops for a high score. That kind of thing doesn't really appeal to me. This game would have been much better if it had an ending, or perhaps a few more stage varieties (doesn't the arcade version have more stages?).
I suppose it was fun to revisit this for old time's sake. I feel like in my short time revisiting it, I did much better than I ever did as a kid. I learned the strategies and recognized the patterns much quicker. The game handles well, and it is very playable. I guess it has that going for it. And there is no doubt that it is an important piece of gaming history. But at the same time, I can't say the game holds up particularly well. It is far too simple. I began to lose interest not even ten minutes into playing this. I wanted to give it a fair review, so I continued playing for over a half hour. But by the end of that thirty minutes, I was DONE.
It is hard for me to grade this. It's an important game, not only in gaming history - but also to me personally. It is the first video game I ever played, and what kicked off this hobby of mine. I might not be sitting here writing this blog if it wasn't for Donkey Kong. Yet at the same time - the game just isn't that good. I guess I have to give it an honest score, with how it holds up in the present day. I can't let nostalgia cloud me too much. But at the same time I want to recognize its importance as well. I guess I will give it a grade that is representative of being below average, but not terrible.
THE GRADE:
C-
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