Well, we just reviewed NES Remix, for the Wii U…and we’re still playing NES Remix,
pretty much nonstop. So we thought, what the hell? Let’s dig into the Wii U’s Virtual
Console, and go back to the originals. To the ones that—for me, at least—were my
introductions to this whole gaming thing. I was already a huge fan of Donkey Kong when
I found out…
The monkey doesn’t fall far from the…bigger monkey.
It’s Donkey Kong, Jr. for the Nintendo Wii U.
Donkey Kong Jr. is one of my favorite games, and especially one of my favorite sequels.
Especially in retrospect. You can see in Donkey Kong, Jr. a lot of the things that would define
the next round of Donkey Kong classics. Specifically, the Donkey Kong Country titles. So it’s
like, Donkey Kong, Jr. is the bridge that connects this franchise’s two very distinct
eras.
And the first way it does that…is by changing the gameplay. In fact, that’s really one
of the coolest things about this game. It only came a year after the original, and yet
Nintendo was already experimenting, and pushing the concept further. That’s crazy. Donkey
Kong was a groundbreaking game, arguably the very first platformer. And for the second
one?
Nintendo was already, like, “Eh, let’s tweak it a bit.”
So where Donkey Kong was primarily about jumping, and really traditional platforming in the
old-school sense…Donkey Kong, Jr. is more about climbing. I mean, it’s still a platform
game, obviously. But it’s an evolution of the concept. So now, instead of jumping from
platform to platform, you’re mostly climbing…from vine to vine, from chain to chain.
This really changes the feel of Donkey Kong, Jr. even though it’s still the same genre,
and it’s still using a very similar blueprint. It’s not a radically different game, but
it feels different enough to be interesting and distinct. Which makes it the perfect kind
of sequel. And again, one of the coolest things about it in retrospect…is the game’s Donkey
Kong Country-ness.
Obviously, that’s due to the efforts of Rare. And how they were able to reinvent the
franchise while also keeping familiar elements in tact. But I think it would’ve been a
lot harder for them to do that without this game’s boldness. Gone is the construction
site, and the steel girders. This one takes the Donkey Kong series to the jungle, which
is where Rare picked it up a decade later. There are those snapjaw sprites, which look
very similar to Country’s klaptraps.
Again, this is all in retrospect, but going to back it…it’s cool how Donkey Kong,
Jr. feels like the fulcrum that balances the franchise. It’s a little Donkey Kong and
a little Donkey Kong Country.
Now, one of the things that made the original game so influential…is that it was the first
video game to really focus on telling a story. And so it only makes sense that story would
be one of the driving elements of the sequel, as well. Donkey Kong, Jr. is perhaps best
known…as being the one that turned Mario heel. Having captured Donkey Kong in the original,
Mario holds him captive. And it’s up to Junior to save his dad from the bad guy. From
Mario.
How cool is that?
And like its predecessor, the story of Donkey Kong, Jr. unfolds with each level. Junior
chases them through the jungle before finally reaching
Mario’s hideout, where dangerous electric traps await him. Once he gets through, his
dad’s cage is in sight. And this is one of my favorite boss levels from any NES game.
You have to push all six keys into the locks to set Donkey Kong free, at which point…happy
ending.
It’s awesome because, like the original, it tells a complete story. But also because…that
boss level condenses all the things that define Donkey Kong, Jr. into one really clever, really
fun level.
To me, Donkey Kong, Jr. has always been a textbook example of how to make sequels, you
know? It’s an extension of the first game, but it’s also different enough to have its
own identity. And it’s amazing to me that, at a time when most sequels were just swapping
pixels for the same gameplay, Donkey Kong, Jr. was this ambitious.
And that music rules.
It’s one of the best Donkey Kong games, one of Nintendo’s most creative early efforts…and
one of my personal favorites. It’s Donkey Kong, Jr. on the Nintendo Wii U.