Random Retro Review: Donkey Kong (Game Boy)

Donkey Kong GB cover art

Time for another retro review, and I've got a good one for you all this time.  This time I chose a game that I had never previously played before the Retro Reviews, and I was shocked with this game.  This game was the puzzle-platformer Donkey Kong for the Game Boy developed by Nintendo EAD.  Nintendo EAD is one of the most popular developers, being known for developing the Mario, Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing,
F-Zero, Star Fox, and Pikmin series.  This instantly made me have a very high expectation.
I honestly hadn't even heard of this game, except for it's previous title of the same name on arcade machines.  I saw it in the Nintendo eShop Virtual Console, and thought "Why not?".

Visuals                                           

The Classic black and white title screen

Visually, this game is pretty good for a Game Boy game.  The screen is a little zoomed out, so you don't get the best sprite of Mario but for the most part, it still looks great.  The game took a bit more of a cartoony look, in comparison to its predecessor.  This can easily be seen by the animations Mario does when he sprints into doors, while he looks for Pauline.  Also Mario looked less like a NES sprite and more like a chubby plumber.  The best part of the visuals, in my opinion, would have to be Donkey Kong himself.  This is mainly due to his enormous size giving him a higher quality sprite.  This let you see his stylized appearance even better.  Donkey Kong no longer looks all pixelated and honestly looks phenomenal in my opinion.  The environments didn't look too bad.  Sure I could be a little nit picky about some of the water and lava sprites, but with the limitations of the Game Boy, it was very acceptable.  What I do feel is necessary to mention is the attention to detail for each areas theme.  Just like the current Mario games, each world was given a type.  There were the basic City, Desert, Jungle, Sky, and Mountain based levels.  The backgrounds were subtly changed to give you a nice sense of ambiance.  Unfortunately they do tend to go unnoticed but if you look at the background intentionally, you can see the detail put into this game. What I find is worth mentioning are the sky levels.  Due to graphical limitations, games couldn't really have a good sprite for wind, but I feel Donkey Kong accomplished this nicely.  In windy levels, there would be nice sprites of clouds occasionally flying past you, making you feel as thought you were literally trying to see the game through the clouds.

Music                                                            

The music was a big step up from its predecessor.  If you have ever played or even seen gameplay from the classic arcade machine, you will know that there is the intro music and the music from when you have the hammer.  The only other sounds you hear are chimes when Jumpman jumped over barrels or a very annoying noise that was supposed to be Jumpman's steps.  Donkey Kong GB decided to keep the most iconic sounds such as the intro, barrel, and hammer music.  This was a great choice because these sounds can easily bring nostalgia to some older players or just sound like classic 8-bit sounds to newer players.  The developers also decided to finally throw in some background music to replace the walking noises which in my opinion was genius   I have actually just stopped playing the original Donkey Kong mainly because the constant sound bits would get so annoying that I would even get a headache.  Luckily that's all gone by some nice tunes.  Unfortunately the music wasn't very memorable, but the inclusion was still nice.

Gameplay                                                     

A city based stage after Mario has left through the door to
follow Donkey Kong and Pauline

This is where the game truly shines.  Just like the original Donkey Kong, you control Mario (previously named Jumpman) and you have to jump across platforms to reach Pauline, a girl who I assume was his girlfriend/fiance/wife but is never really explained.  The big difference though is how you get to her.  With the Game Boy's capabilities, they made this game into a puzzle platformer.  And I bet you are wondering how a game is a puzzle game and platformer at once.  In Donkey Kong GB, a majority of the levels consist of a few basic traits.  Most have the door where Donkey Kong has run with Pauline and a key to open the door.  This makes the gameplay very simple.  The game continually makes the game more and more difficult by throwing in more puzzle features such as certain boxes which allow you to spawn either a spring, a box, a horizontal platform, or a ladder.  Then they kept the hammer power-up from the previous game, but gave it a few more abilities, such as being able to smash particular boxes (and my favorite part is the ability to throw the hammer upwards allowing you to jump and again and possible catch it on a higher floor).  Finally is another huge feature, being Mario's ability to pick up the key and enemies (very similar to Doki Doki Panic or the much more popular Super Mario Bros. 2).  And all that is just the tip of the iceberg, with the game having plenty of environmental interactions and hazards such as using wires to launch yourself, dying from sinking blocks, or even fall damage from falling from very high places.  With all these new abilities, the developers took full advantage and made dozens and dozens of different and unique puzzling levels.

A city based level.  Can you spot all three collectibles?

The developers also threw in the iconic three items from the original, being the parasol, purse, and hat, apparently belonging to Pauline.  This brings me to another giant leap this game made from its predecessor, the amount of levels.  Unlike the original Donkey Kong arcade, this game comes pack with 9 different worlds, each ranging from 4 levels up to 16 levels (having over 100 levels in total).  In my opinion, although I found the first 7 levels to be generally easy, only taking me a maximum of two try to pass a level, the difficulty takes a quick dive and becomes aggravatingly tough.  Now I bet you are wondering how I am connecting the collectibles to the game's difficulty.  But in fact the tie in quite nicely.  In each level (non-boss levels), if you collect all three items, you will be given an opportunities to gain extra lives.  These extra life opportunities come in the form of  a minigame, usually just being a slot machine or variant of roulette.  Honestly, gathering the three items was so easy in almost every level, I had already maxed out my lives by the time I reached world 8.  This doesn't even count the extra lives given to you after each boss level, in which you are given a life for every 100 seconds you had to spare after being the four levels before the boss battle, even giving a life for the remainder.  Speaking of after boss battles, the developers ingeniously made it so that the game teaches you new mechanics without ever directly telling you, such as in the Metroid and Megaman Series.  This one though is a little more upfront by showing you a cutscene of Mario chasing Donkey Kong, showing Mario pass a particular upcoming obstacle using one of his abilities that the player may or may not have discovered on their own.  I must admit, I thought this was a genius way to teach.

A forest based stage where Mario must pass Donkey Kong
and DK Jr's obstacles to reach Pauline

Now this is where the game becomes brutal.  After world 7, the game's difficulty ramps up exponentially.  I had so much trouble beating these levels and only beat about 2 levels on my first or second try.  Luckily they are not cheap difficulties   The game simply overwhelms you be quickly using many of the different puzzles you have previously learned about, and giving you them all at once.  This was nice because, for the most part, I felt like every time I died, it was my fault, whether because I didn't know the stage as well as I thought I did or because I timed my power-ups/jumps wrong.  And fortunately this is where you can see how considerate the developers were.  I felt confident that I wouldn't get a gamer over screen because I had so many lives!  But surprisingly, the difficulty still managed to take most of my lives, making me finish the game with a measly 17 lives over the previous 99.

Now for how the star of the show plays.  I was actually very impressed.  I felt as though I had full control over Mario's jumps unlike many other's jumps from that time.  This is also where I discovered Mario's new found jumping abilities.  Mario was given to basic jumps since his last entry.  He was given the handstand jump and the backflip jump.  The handstand jump, easily the most impressive, allowed Mario to make a little hop and start standing on his hands (very self-explanatory).  In this state, Mario is actually safe from falling items, due to his legs being able to kick them away.  Whenever you jump while you are in a handstand, Mario will to a somersault jump that will send him impressively high.  This was used perfectly for things just as long jumps and gap clearings.  The next, and my personal favorite, was the backflip jump.  I felt this one was the easiest and fasts to pull off, saving you from being cornered by enemies or skipping small ladders.  Overall, for the Game Boy, this Mario truly felt like a great Mario.

Story                   

This, being a game starring Mario, was kind of doomed in the story department.  Mario games having really been known for their stories, and this was no exception.  The manual doesn't really give you much, only that Donkey Kong has kidnapped a girl named Pauline, and Mario has to be the one to save her.  Yeah that's pretty much it.  They don't mention anything about the previous kidnapping in the original, or why Mario has to be the one to save her.  It's a classic story that wasn't really meant to impress.  To help extend the story section, I will mention somethings that help the story a bit, but aren't much.  When Donkey Kong takes Pauline, Mario must first go through the city.  Then Donkey Kong starts making his way to something.  After a few world's worth of running, you can finally reach the destination.  A giant tower with Donkey Kong's face on it.  Why there's a tower like this, I really don't know but it truly helps set the atmosphere for the final battle to save Pauline.  One notable thing that I really enjoyed was the cameo of Donkey Kong Jr.  If you know, the original Donkey Kong also spawned a sequel known as Donkey Kong Jr.  in which Mario is the kidnapper, and Donkey Kong is the victim,  For, what I assumed was, nostalgia purposes, DK Jr. is back and helps his father by providing plenty of obstacles for Mario.  Not to spoil anything, but due to his annoyingly difficult obstacles, when DK Jr. is defeated, they make you beat him using a similar technique used in his game.  And if you had as much trouble with him as I did, It feels so good when you finally defeat him and you know you can proceed in the game without the fear of seeing him again.  And finally, normally I don't like doing spoilers, but I will make a rare exception due to this game having such a huge impact on future Mario games.  After finally defeating Donkey Kong and saving Pauline, Mario is given certain mushroom from Pauline that makes him grow much bigger.  And right next to this event, you can see some iconic boxes with ? on them and a pipe that goes downward.  Does any of this sound familiar?  Maybe this was hinting on how an Italian American plumber made his way to the Mushroom Kingdom.  I saw this and I lost my mind at the shock of this idea.

The colored screen, thanks to the Super Gameboy on the SNES, as
Mario has finally deafeated DK, with some iconic items in the back.

Overview                                                     

This game was a complete joy to play.  It feels like the learning curve is pretty smooth until certain parts but easily makes up for this by providing you with many, many lives to keep you going.  The puzzles were unique and ingenious as well as the teaching techniques.  Though this game wasn't the best sounding as some other Game Boy games, it excelled at the most important part of the game, the gameplay.  I would recommend this to anyone who like puzzle games.  I would also suggest it to anyone who like Mario games, due to them having very similar mechanics, but I know not all Mario fans will love this installment.

Mario and the now free Pauline 

I rate this game a 9.0 DKs out of 10