Thoughts on Donkey Kong for the Game Boy

When I was five years old, I got a Game Boy for Christmas. This was the “big present” of that year, other things being socks and shirts. But the Game Boy stole the show.  It came with copies of Looney Toons and Home Alone, both of which are awful games I’m not sad to have lost over the years.

I distinctly remember not really understanding the entire concept of the device in my hands. I had to ask my mother to help me seat the cartridge in the Game Boy, and both of us managed to get it wrong at least twice (though looking back, I’m not entirely sure how we managed that). But once we got it on… Oh boy. Oooooh boy.

It was like magic. I had never seen a video game before. Ever. The idea that I was controlling the pictures on the screen blew my damn mind.

“Hot damn,” 5-year-old me definitely did not say, “I’m the kid from home alone! Wow! I can grab these pizzas and throw baseballs at bad guys! Ok, I’m done, this game is awful.”

Over the years, I would pick up more and more games for it. Pokemon Blue, Mario Land, Mario Land 2, Star Wars, and Link’s Awakening – most of which I still own or have re-bought for the 3DS. One of my favorite games for the original Game Boy, however, would never be ported to another system. That game was simply called Donkey Kong.

This Donkey Kong had little to do with the modern day incarnation of the great ape. No, it was the official direct sequel to the original arcade game Donkey Kong. You know, this one:

Personally, I can’t stand the original Donkey Kong arcade game. The controls are too stiff, the graphics are boring, and I just don’t find the gameplay rewarding. Donkey Kong for the Game Boy, however, added some massive innovations to the original arcade game’s formula.

Mario has several new movement options: he can backflip, handspring, and even do his now-famous triple-hop. This game was, to the best of my knowledge, the very first game to give Mario an moveset more complicated that “B is run, and A is jump.” You can even swing from ropes, climb vines, throw hammers around, and pick enemies and objects up ala Mario 2 and throw them around. In fact, I think this is the most expansive moveset that a 2D Mario title has ever had. Interestingly, Mario’s trademark fireballs are missing completely.

The game starts off much as the original arcade game did: DK grabs Pauline (yes, that’s Pauline, not Peach – even though at this point peach had existed for years) and drags her up a skyscraper. If you’ve ever played the arcade game, these initial stages will be very familiar. While changed for the Gameboy’s smaller screen, the levels are transplants straight from the original arcade game. Mario climbs up a bunch of I-Beams and hops over barrels to “save” his girlfriend Pauline. I say “save” with quotation marks because, of course, Donkey Kong gets right back up and drags her off again.

This is where the game takes a marked turn away from the original arcade cabinet. Donkey Kong for Game Boy features several worlds and over 100 different levels in which Mario must overcome enemies, obstacles, and puzzles in order to reach – and defeat – the eponymous Donkey Kong. He must trudge through the pyramids of Egypt, harsh island jungles, a pirate  ship’s underbelly, a plane, and of course what appears to be New York, as seen in the film King Kong. (Though, if Mario Odyssey is canon, I guess we call it “New Donk” now?)

Each world introduces new concepts and builds on old ones, in standard video game fare. Donkey Kong, interestingly, is both a platformer and a puzzle game. While other Mario games see Mario dashing to the end of stages and attacking enemies, Donkey Kong has him finding keys to unlock doors, and riding enemies like vehicles.

Mario must find a key, present in every level, and take it to the exit door in order to follow in DK’s footsteps. He can jump on top of enemies and pick them up to throw them around which, as stated before, functions exactly like it did in Mario 2. This time around, though, much like in the original arcade game, Mario has hammers, trash cans, and a few other items he can use to attack enemies with, but these moments lie few and far between. Most levels see the player cooperating with enemies in order to achieve goals rather than fighting them.

When I was a kid, these puzzles were fiendishly difficult. These days, with more gaming experience under my belt, a replay showed me that the game is not nearly as hard as I remember it to be. Most things that pose a danger to Mario are either incredibly telegraphed or completely stationary, such as spikes or enemies that move on the grown slowly with spikes on their backs.

Still, Donkey Kong can prove challenging at times. 1-Ups are easy to come by, being present in nearly every level and often obtained in small bonus minigames, but you might find yourself running low from time to time as Mario dies after taking damage from an enemy or terrain obstacle. Falling from too high a distance will knock Mario out for a few minutes, and falling from an even higher distance will flat-out kill you. The difference between the two is a fine line, and sometimes hard to judge on the Game Boy’s small screen.

The game is interesting because it marks the beginning of what appears to be a failed experiment by Nintendo to create a Mario spin-off franchise with mechanics that more closely align with their original hit arcade title than the classic Mario NES series. The Mario Vs. Donkey Kong series is a direct spiritual successor to this game. I never had the chance to play them, but if that chance should eventually arise I’m sure I would enjoy comparing and contrasting them to their source material.

Is Donkey Kong for the Game Boy fun? I would say yes, but then again, I know that I’m biased. I grew up with this game. I know it’s little tricks, and I remember the correct solutions to probably half the levels. There’s something charming about that little off-character Mario sprite, with his tiny feet and goofy mustache that sticks in my head, I suppose. The game runs extremely cheap on Amazon; If you’ve got five or six bucks and are looking for a fun game to relive some childhood Game Boy memories, you could do a heck of a lot worse than Donkey Kong.

As an aside, I’m excited to see if Mario Odyssey will contain any references to Donkey Kong. It’s not unthinkable; after all, Pauline seems to be making an appearance in Nintendo’s latest installment in the Mario franchise. I would be happy to see Mario jump over a few barrels along the way, just like old times.