Videogame review= Game Boy: Donkey Kong

I recently picked up and beat Donkey Kong for the game boy so I figured I'd share what I thought about it. I'm pretty sure that by now most people have played the original Donkey Kong arcade game which has been ported to the NES, GameCube's Animal Crossing, and Wii's Virtual Console. At the the very least you must, have to have seen a reference or parody of some sort from Futurama. At any rate, Donkey Kong for the Game Boy (a.k.a. Donkey Kong '94) is a sequel or special edition of sorts that got plenty of attention at it's initial release but is fairly forgotten today.

The game begins much as the original did; Donkey Kong captures Pauline and Mario must climb a construction tower to rescue her, all the while dodging Kong's barrels and fighting off living fire. Just like the original, it ends in a showdown where Mario must break the supports of the top floor making Donkey Kong fall, bump his head, and be defeated. Victory for Mario and love from Pauline. At this point, the game would reset and start over on a harder difficulty but for this version, Donkey Kong revives, snatches Pauline, and runs as Mario gives chase. From here on, Mario has to chase down Kong through a series of over 90 different puzzle-action style levels spanning across 9 worlds all leading up to a pretty epic final boss battle.

Most levels have Mario looking for a key, grabbing it, and (without losing it) using it on a door that is the exit of that level. Every fourth level features a boss battle against Kong that requires Mario to repel the barrels thrown at him and thus, throw it back at Kong. The game play is very reminiscent of games like Wario Land in that you'll often need to use the environment and your enemies in order to reach your goal. The boss battles are not bad either and you'll eventually need to make good use out of all the skills you've learned throughout the game. What's most interesting though is that allot of Mario's signature moves debuted here; things such as a triple-jump and side-jump (which returned in Super Mario 64) began here. Other moves were mixed here too like using two vines to climb faster like in Donkey Kong Jr or grabbing enimies and items and throwing them a la Super Mario Bros. 2. There's also handstands, spinning and jumping off wires, and, of course, hammers which can now be thrown and juggled to keep it used past the normal time restriction. This is how all sequels and remakes should be.

The game play and controls are real solid, as is the level design. Unfortunately, the levels aren't that big and most off them wont even scroll off screen. Most levels should take you between one to five minutes before moving on. Maybe ten for the hard ones. The game features a save program which is nice but you probably won't need it since extra lives are virtually limitless and the average gamer should finish it one or two hours. Most boss battles, while fun, are often too similar to be memorable and don't really get good until the last few. You play a bonus game when you pick up three certain items in a stage but all this does is help you get your lives to 99 and keep it there. The music isn't really all that impressive but, then again anything that wasn't Zelda or Kirby back then had a hard time being recognized. Another feature that should have been added is some kinda of replay value. After the game has been completed, you're given no incentive to go back except to beat your own best times. Not even a hard mode or anything. Despite all this though, it's great to go through once.

This game is good. Real good, but not at all great. What it can do is awesome but it gives you too little and too few to work with, not to mention requiring only a day's effort to complete it. All in all, Donkey Kong is worth it at a cheap price (say, five bucks) but keep the receipt and return it when you finish since you won't use it much after.

3/5 AVERAGE