Lo and Behold, The Glorious Return of the Carpenter ("Let the Sunshine In" Write-off)
Written: Aug 27 '02 (Updated Aug 27 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: An outstanding package in all departments of sound, graphics, and most of all gameplay.
Cons: The Super Game Boy accessory was necessary for the full effect.
The Bottom Line: Although ignored by a large majority of game players, DK94 is a classic game that is as inventive as current games. No wonder it is being updated for the GBA.
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| arada392's Full Review: Donkey Kong for Game Boy Color |
Warning: Very long review ahead!
Our coin-op engineers were really tough, arrogant guys. They didn’t believe anybody made a coin-op as well as they did.
One day they came in and they wanted to take the rights to manufacture a game called Donkey Kong for coin-op in the United States. What that told me, knowing our coin-op people, was that it must have been a hell of a game.
-Manny Gerard, former Vice President of Warner Communications, as quoted in The First Quarter, by Steven L. Kent.
With all the furore surrounding the upcoming Super Mario Sunshine for Nintendo’s GameCube, it seems that many magazines feel the need to celebrate the arrival of the game by revisiting the history of the Mario game series. For example, I recently read an article in NGC magazine that attempted to relate the entire history of the Mario games. The article was typical in its structure: it sang the praises of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario World and derided the various "edutainment" titles involving the famous turtle-battling plumber. As a typical article, then, it was no surprise to find that, among all of the originals, sequels, spin-offs, and alternate series, Game Boy Donkey Kong was not mentioned.
There is nothing new in this, of course, there are always games that are neglected when they do not deserve to be. The concept has even reached hardware proportions: the ill-fated Dreamcast could be called a "forgotten console." However, Game Boy Donkey Kong (or, as fans of the game call it, Donkey Kong ’94) is a special case: although it shares almost none of the characteristics of other forgotten games, the game seems to have mysteriously disappeared from the general consciousness of the videogame community. The game was released for an established, successful platform (the Game Boy), by a popular publisher (Nintendo), developed by an acclaimed and proven developer (Shigeru Miyamoto and his team), received excellent reviews form almost every magazine, and, as the "killer-app" for Nintendo’s Super Game Boy accessory, it sold well.
The only thing that it has in common with other neglected games regards promotion of the game. If there is one thing that DK’94 demonstrates, it is that visibility is an important aspect when trying to make a game memorable in the long term. Of course, portable games are never marketed as heavily as console games, but even then, the fact is that DK’94 was not promoted as much as Tetris or Wario Land II were for the launches of the Game Boy and Game Boy Color, respectively.
DK’94 might have been the "killer-app" for the Super Game Boy, but, apparently, Nintendo was more interested in promoting the ability of the accessory to play Game Boy games on a television screen with color borders and in shades of colors. The gaming press also seemed to concentrate on this fact, and most publications gushed about having a big, almost flicker-free screen on which to play their favorite Game Boy games. Because of this, DK’94 lost its place in the spotlight. A few years later, when the popularity of the SNES –and, by consequence, the Super Game Boy– began to decrease, it was finally pushed off the gaming stage, doomed to be forgotten.
It was peculiar, then, to see the reaction that the GBA update of the game, called "Donkey Kong Plus," received at the 2002 Electronic Entertainment Exposition. To me, news of this update came as a welcome surprise; it was the only thing that stopped the GBA display at the show from being disappointing. Unusually, however, the gaming press seemed genuinely puzzled by it. Many websites were clearly clueless about the game –embarrassingly, they just described it as a substantial extension to the original 1981 arcade game. Most other publications, nonetheless, guessed correctly the origins of the game, but the vagueness found in their descriptions revealed a lacking knowledge of the game itself.
It really is a shame that a game of such high quality has been ignored by the public. DK’94 came at the tail-end of a Golden Age of development for the Game Boy, which saw classic titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land also appear on the scene –much to the delight of Game Boy owners. And everything in DK’94 seemed to reflect this. From the moment you turn on the game and see the title screen, in which Donkey Kong blasts through a wall of bricks to reveal himself in an inflated pose, accompanied by the original "Donkey Kong" theme music, you just know DK’94 is going to be a special game.
At first glance, though, the game seems to be only an updated port of the original arcade game. You begin by playing through the four original levels, (Platform, Pie Factory, Elevators, and Girders) and there is nothing that makes the game seem outstanding except from the slightly-upgraded graphics. However, at the final level, you discover that this early sequence is merely a prologue to the main game.
In a brilliant sequence that makes supreme use of historical surprise, when you finish the level at which point the original game was meant to end –just when Mario is about to be reunited with damsel-in-distress Pauline– there is an unexpected and significant change in the action. With an ominous sound, Donkey Kong recovers from Mario’s trap; disrupts the happy reunion; kidnaps Pauline again; and escapes, all the while being chased by Mario. It is a pattern that is repeated throughout the one hundred stages of the game that involves cities, forests, icebergs, ships, and even airplanes.
However, what makes DK’94 such a brilliant title is that it is not satisfied by just being an item of nostalgia; to only re-tread the ideas of the original in a perfunctory manner. Rather, it is clear that Shigeru Miyamoto (in one of his rare roles as a producer of a Game Boy game) had the goal of re-making and even expanding the ideas of the franchise. Therefore, the actual stages of DK’94 are more complex than the ones of the original. Instead of making the rest of the game a straight platformer, the goal of each stage is more puzzle-based: you have to get a key that has been put in the level somewhere and open the level exit into which Donkey Kong took Pauline.
Admittedly, it is not an original premise per se, and it sounds too trite and simple, but in practice it proves to be incredible fun that balances both cerebral and cerebellar action incredibly well. DK’94 makes this look easy, but in reality, many other platform games with similar characteristics –including Nintendo’s own Wario Land series– usually fall short on this aspect.
The added complexity of the gameplay comes with the extreme expansion of the Donkey Kong universe, In DK’94, there are more items other than conveyer belts, fires, ladders, springs, and barrels with which you must contend. Taking inspiration from Donkey Kong, Jr., added to these are a multitude of new enemies, switches, items, power-ups, and even environmental hazards. But the most noticeable change comes in Mario himself. For DK’94, he was given a barrage of new moves –and not only through the use of new items. Two years before the groundbreaking Super Mario 64, Mario had a substantial variety of special jumps, most of which were incorporated into the N64 game. To top things off, the game even keeps a record of your stage times, which adds an addictive Time Trial option to the main game. The combination of all these aspects results in levels that are bigger and much more ambitious in design. Everything is handled wonderfully, and it is a testament to Miyamoto and his team that the ideas in the game seem fresh and extremely playable in these modern times.
The remarkable gameplay of the game is backed by an unbelievable presentation as well, for its time. By the standards of those days, the graphics and sound were already fantastic; the music, by Taisuke Araki, deserves special mention in my opinion –the catchy tunes and jingles still remain in my head to this day. However, both aspects were emphasized even more by the Super Game Boy, and DK’94 displayed the capabilities of the accessory very well. (Although, admittedly, perhaps not to the extent that future titles, like Survival Kids, would be able to do.)
DK’94 made sure to emphasize this at every opportunity: the title and map screens were filled with color, the sound was in stereo and featured vocal samples, and even a picture of the original arcade cabinet was put in the borders of the Super Game Boy screen. The stages themselves were not so carefully done, but the specially-made color "filters" for each stage –a feature akin to what was done in many early black-and-white films– set a certain mood for each stage; this is an aspect that I fear will be lost in the full-color GBA adaptation.
Admittedly, though, it is perhaps in this latter aspect that DK’94 has aged somewhat. Many black-and-white Game Boy games suffer when played on modern portables like the Game Boy Color and the Game Boy Advance, but games that were geared specifically for the Super Game Boy for full effect, like DK’94, suffer especially. Even when played on the original Game Boy, or the Game Boy Pocket, DK’94 looks good, but on the more advanced hardware it loses some of its charm. I was especially disappointed to find out that the GBA does not emulate the color functions of the SGB: all you are left with is a version of the game with no added improvements save for a color palette that does not look quite right.
Nevertheless, the gameplay remains as modern as ever, and this is the element that counts the most. There are many, many other great platform games, but DK’94 is truly exemplary: I always find myself returning to it to replay my favorite levels and improve my times for each stage. The game exudes a charm that few other titles on any platform can match.
Currently, there is a large collective of GBA owners who are clamoring for an original Mario game for the portable. Ironically, most of them will probably get their wish with the update of DK’94, given the general unawareness about the game. And I could not be happier to see a new generation of game players exposed to the brilliance of the title –maybe now it will finally get the recognition it deserves.
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About This Review
This review was written for the "Let the Sunshine In" write-off that has been organized by rader6795. The aim of the write-off was to celebrate the release of the eagerly-awaited Super Mario Sunshine for the GameCube by rejoicing in all things Mario-related. Please make sure you read all of the other contributions by the fine writers involved in the write-off:
rader6795
BaronSamedi3
chris_billings
jeremy1456
pavona21
Rock_On
search66
StarSoldier1
tanta07
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
arada392
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Member: David Teixeira
Location: Dunedin, Otago
Reviews written: 32
Trusted by: 24 members
About Me:
What do you think of me, that I am a chiaus?
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