PC and console games

Developer: Pax Softnica	Graphics:
Publisher: Nintendo	Sound:
Year: 1994	Difficulty:
Genre: Platformer	Lastability:
Number of players: 1	Rating:	8/10

I’m writing this page in sync with the release of the film Super Mario Bros (2023). I do love the unwavering plot consistency: the kidnapping and sequestering of some character by another!

Did you know that in the original game Donkey Kong (arcade, 1981), Popeye, Olive, and Bluto were supposed to star? But Nintendo, a small toy company then facing financial challenges, couldn’t secure the rights. What if that license had been granted? Would the Mario franchise exist? Would my colleagues under 40 know Popeye? And would I have dared to use the past perfect subjunctive?
[A greater feat in French. – Ed.]

Instead, Nintendo took inspiration from King Kong, a public-domain story—or so they thought, until they were sued by Universal. Nintendo won the case and, in thanks to one of their American lawyers, John Kirby, gave his name to one of their latest mascots… A certain pink puffball?

Donkey Kong on Game Boy can be seen as an evolved remake of two older arcade games, both later ported to NES:

• Donkey Kong (1981): You control Jumpman, the carpenter, who must climb scaffolding to rescue his love, Pauline, from the clutches of the giant gorilla, Donkey Kong. Pauline’s name was supposedly chosen in honor of Polly James, wife of Nintendo exec Don James.
• Donkey Kong Junior (1982): You play as Junior, Donkey Kong’s son, who must free his father, locked in a cage by… Mario! named after Mario Segale, landlord of a Nintendo warehouse.

Since these two titles had only four levels each, the developers got creative, designing dozens of others (101 in total), progressively introducing new mechanics (as well as Junior, in a secondary role).

I really like the way the game begins, as a faithful adaptation of the original title, showing us the traditional four levels, where Donkey Kong and Pauline await atop a construction site. Then, after a short cutscene, the game veers into a platform/puzzle genre, where this time, the goal is to find a key to open a door and proceed to the next screen.

Every four levels, however, Mario encounters Donkey Kong, in a variation of a classic screen—a mostly vertical course to cross to reach the girl. This is followed by one or two more series of three “key and door” screens, punctuated by a new confrontation with the gorilla. In the final screen (of each world), a one-on-one fight ensues, in which Mario and Kong throw barrels at each other…

Among the incorporated mechanics are classic levers that open or close gates or bridges, which remind me of Benefactor or Bograts; vines from Donkey Kong Junior to grab onto, “movable” items to place wherever you want for a limited time (ladders, platforms, blocks, trampolines); but what makes it stand out from other games of this kind is the range of acrobatics you can do, right from the start and with ease. Mario can walk on his hands, perform backflips and rolls, or swing on a rope; this is what I remembered most from my childhood. I remembered “Mario the gymnast” and had nearly forgotten about the gorilla!

In my memories, the puzzles were a bit more challenging. Replaying it, I found the difficulty increased too slowly, and the screens didn’t become interesting until around the fifth world. Not that there’s anything wrong with that—the game was aimed at children.

Incidentally, it was designed to work with the “Super Game Boy”, an adapter that plugged into the Super Nintendo console, projecting Game Boy games onto a television screen, adding a wider colour palette.

For trivia, if we trust the game manuals and specialized press, it seems that the character called Donkey Kong found in the game Donkey Kong Country (Super Nintendo, 1994) is Donkey Kong Junior’s son, hence the grandson of the original character (renamed Cranky Kong, though I’m not sure which former Nintendo collaborator inspired this name).

To finish, the character of Pauline has absolutely no connection to Princess Peach, whose unique personality is marked by two traits: she wears a crown, and gets kidnapped by a giant turtle.

A sequel will be released on Game Boy Advance in 2004: Mario vs Donkey Kong.