Nintendo's Donkey Kong

Nintendo's Donkey Kong was designed by Sherigu Miyamoto and released in 1981. The games release was an attempt at Japan's efforts to challenge the American game industry. It was designed to redeem Nintendo after their fail attempt at the gaming industry with a game called Radar Scope (1980). Donkey Kong has since then became one of Nintendo's greatest legacy.

The objective of the game is to rescue your damsel in distress from the notorious Donkey Kong. You play as the hero Jumpman (a very creative name when all he does is jump...), who soon becomes known as the legendary character Mario. Though, at the games release, he is Jumpman. You must climb up a series of levels while evading obstacles, which include a series of objects thrown from Donkey Kong himself (which Jumpman must "jump" over), to save your damsel in distress.

You score points simple enough, you jump over objects and you reach the top. Each will add to your total score of the game. Though the finale "screen" of the game is the most fun. This is because the game play is changed a bit. The level is known as "Rivets", and you must force Donkey Kong to fall to defeat him. This gives the player a different challenge instead of just jumping and climbing. Good thing Jumpman aka Mario is a plumber...

The game is, from what I found, to be fun. The game play is simple enough that any one can just pick it up and play it with out having much difficulty. This makes the game fun for all ages and works very well for the time of the games release. Along with that simplicity though is a challenge. The game is not as easy as everyone imagines it to be. The level of difficulty causes gamers to replay multiple times. This worked well for the time of the arcade genre, when more replays equaled more revenue (yay for gaming frustration!). Therefore, the simplicity of the game play with the hard level of difficulty make a perfect combo for the games time of release.

When first playing this game, you hear one of the classic Donkey Kong songs from the games franchise. This instantly sent me back to my childhood when I played Donkey Kong Country for the NES. The music in the game are songs that are known through out video gaming history. Along with the music though are the sound effects that go with the running climbing and jumping of the character. These effects add a sense of joy and fun each time you hear them as they correspond to the game, which help attract gamers. The sounds also become part of the game play, molding the game into one whole. This aslo works very well for the game

My childhood in a song...kinda sad

Donkey Kong was also one of the first games to have a complete narrative story line. This included cut scenes that helped explain that certain moment in the game. This would draw gamers into the game itself, creating an effect to make them play more of the game to see how the story unfolds. This can be seen in many of the games produced today, examples are the story lines in games such as Halo, Modern Warfare, and Mass Effect.

Altogether, The game is a video game classic, and has played a part or influenced every gamer's childhood today.