Donkey Kong (1983)

Platform: NES -- Developer: Nintendo

The original Donkey Kong gets a lot of things right. The bright reds, blues and oranges against the black background are eye-catching and convey a lot with very little. The strong early sprite work on the titular ape and Jumpman Mario, as well as on the fire sprites and the barrels, complete the visual package — it’s dated but still iconic. Lady/Pauline’s design less so (I think her waist is a single pixel that’s also her arm?), and I’m not sure what the purple springs are supposed to be in the real world.

The music is simplistic and serviceable loops, the standouts being 25m’s five notes, the bass-y game start jingle, the item grab chime’s sweet reinforcement, and the charge of the hammer power. I can’t say the same for the side effects, unfortunately. Mario’s shoes make a grating squeaking noise with every step. The springs get across what they are, but also end up annoying with how repetitive they are.

The gameplay is engaging in its own way. Figuring out which ladders to take, guessing which way a barrel’s going to go, learning to avoid fire sprites instead of jump them. But even on the harder 1-Player B mode, there are only the three stages. This is the first obvious knock against the NES port. Not getting to watch DK drag Lady up the building is a letdown, but you can just watch it somewhere and get the gist. Not getting to play 50m is 25% of your game’s content gone.

It’s also part of what might be the first messy transition in gaming: from arcades to consoles. The arcade-style high score gameplay makes sense in an arcade: there’s a competitive social aspect to it, seeing your name next to other opponents on the leaderboard, practicing again and again and burning quarters to do so. The console version is fine for practicing without shelling out your college fund in quarters, but without an actual arcade with the full version of the game to write your name into, the loop loses its luster.