020 - DONKEY KONG 3

DONKEY KONG 3

Episode 020

SHOW NOTES

DK3 Saturday Supercade Episode | Stanley trophy in Melee | Donkey Kong 3: The Great Counter Attack

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OUR THOUGHTS

MIKE

Donkey Kong 3 is such a disappointment for me. This game should have been the final chapter in the Donkey Kong Trilogy by finally allowing us to play as the giant Donkey Kong. Miyamoto wanted to do this in DK Jr. but said that the technology wasn't there. I'm not saying that the tech was ready by DK3, but they totally should have waited until it was. Instead, DK3 wound up being something so different and off base in design that I really don't think about this game alongside the first two. It feels more like a seperate game that was having development issues and thus they decided to include Donkey Kong to salvage it. I explain better in the episode why I think this game is a mess, but I think any fan of DK and DK Jr. know that this just doesn't hold a candle to those two.

SEAN

And so the perplexing decline of the Donkey Kong franchise brings us to the messy Donkey Kong 3. This game shares so little with its forebears that it may as well be a Gaiden game, or of a different series entirely. The only connecting thread is the appearance of the titular Donkey Kong, who doesn't seem to be himself. The once menacing antagonist, former kidnapper, and proud father has descended into a pit of psychosis as he seems to have unwittingly trapped himself in a greenhouse as it's getting fumigated by a kid named Stanley. He never seems to be aware of whats going on, shrieking and thrashing about with confusion as he's sprayed by the noxious fumes, saved only at times by the aggressive insects that also inhabit the space. His life is constant anguish.

Mario, with his newfound rock star status, was smart to avoid an appearance in this game, possibly sensing that something was amiss when his rival began to behave so erratically. Our fitting replacement, Stanley, has no heroic traits. He is simply the confused little man whose sad life was interrupted by an equally bewildered giant gorilla. We are watching tragedy unfold.

The gameplay is a pedestrian knockoff of Space Invaders without any particularly new ideas. It feels okay at first, but quickly devolves into a frantic mess, without any moments of feeling accomplished. 

"We are trapped in the belly of this horrible machine. And the machine is bleeding to death."

JOE

The trend of DK games changing up the gameplay continues. This time it is almost a complete departure from any gameplay elements of it’s predecessors. Despite how different they made it they still managed to nail the same idea of making the game painfully short. I think where I take issue with these games is that they were made as arcade experiences but I am viewing them as something you would buy to play in your home. As an NES game, like the other DK games, it feels disappointingly short. If you don’t already have a special place in your heart for this game from your days in the arcade, I think you’ll feel the same. And if you are looking to recapture the experience you had with one of the earlier games, look elsewhere.

SAM

Donkey Kong 3 comes out of left field. You don’t play as Mario. You don’t play as Donkey Kong Jr. You’re not even rescuing anyone. You don’t have anyone in your life that you care about that Donkey Kong can steal away or Mario can lock up. But you do have plants. And you will die for your plants.

In Donkey Kong 3, you are thrust into the shoes of Stanley, an avid gardener and owner of an enormous 4 story greenhouse where he keeps his five flowers. After breaking out of prison with the help of his son, Donkey Kong raids Stanley’s greenhouse to wreak havoc. He hits beehives to get them to attack the poor gardener, and even tosses coconuts at him. As Stanley, you must use your trusty pump-action pesticide to fend off the bees trying to steal your flowers, while also forcing Donkey Kong to move higher and higher to breathable air until he gets his head stuck in a beehive. This is not what I was expecting Donkey Kong 3 to be like.

Like the previous games, there are four levels to play through before they repeat, increasing in difficulty each cycle. However, I felt like the difficulty doesn’t scale well in this game. I was able to breeze through the first three levels, got a little tripped up on the fourth, the first level of the second cycle wasn’t bad, but the second level of the second cycle was brutal. I felt like there were so many enemies on the screen at once that I couldn’t move into a position where I could attack them without hitting one. And it’s not so much that this is frustrating, but this difficulty spike seemed to come out of nowhere. I wasn’t thrilled at the level variation either. Not a lot changes from level to level, but the small changes do affect your mobility, and your ability to hit Donkey Kong. I think it could have benefited from more dramatic level changes to vary the gameplay. Maybe you’re firing sideways in one level?

I will say I like the mechanics of this game much more than Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. Firing the pesticide at Donkey Kong and the bees is weird and fun and so different than anything I imagined would be in a Donkey Kong sequel. That said, this game doesn’t feel like a Donkey Kong sequel at all, and I’m not exactly sure why it isn’t just it’s own thing. It feels like a platform-based Space Invaders that always has a boss on the screen, and that’s cool!

THE VERDICT - NOT ESSENTIAL

Stanley waits for his prey...

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019 - DONKEY KONG JR.

DONKEY KONG JR.

Episode 019

SHOW NOTES

 Donkey Kong JR TV Show | The Kongfounding case of DK JR | Mario Tennis

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OUR THOUGHTS

MIKE

Donkey Kong Jr. is a fun spin on predecessor, but ultimately falls short for me. The first level has this personality and charm to it, but the other three feel so generic. Climbing vines doesn't feel as good as jumping and I don't think the level design compliments that particular mechanic. All that said, I think Donkey Kong Jr. is on the right path for a sequel, changing enough about the gameplay to be something different, yet still resembling its familiar roots. As a side note, I do enjoy Donkey Kong Jr. as a character and mained him in Mario Tennis for N64

SEAN

Donkey Kong Jr is a peculiar game. It has given Mario, their carefully groomed mascot, a face-heel turn just months after his breakout hit in Super Mario Bros. It has completely emasculated the original game's namesake, and placed him in a cage. Mario throws snakes at you. You're a baby gorilla.

 Donkey Kong Jr showed us that Nintendo wanted to deliver new things with their sequels, and not just "more Donkey Kong". They remixed several mechanics and ideas that made Donkey Kong great and gave us something... perfectly okay. While these levels don't quite live up to the iconic originals, it's a valiant effort to keep the budding franchise fresh.

JOE

I was surprised at how different they made the actual gameplay from it’s predecessor. Personally I think it actually benefits from that. Maybe it’s because the original DK is tired for me but I actually prefer this sequel over the original. It also has a great variety in it’s level design, an asset that is completely undermined by the fact that the game only has four levels. Donkey Kong Jr. is similar to the original in that they are both short fun but nothing mind-blowing by todays standards.

SAM

I like that Nintendo took the game in a few different directions from the first one. Instead of having Donkey Kong come back to take more women, we're hit with a curveball: he has a son. Donkey Kong Jr. is alone in this world and needs to stop the evil Mario who locked away his father. I think the shift in perspective makes for some compelling storytelling that you wouldn't expect from an arcade game. Nintendo understands that the world isn't black and white. Donkey Kong is a devastating kidnapper but he's also a loving father. Mario is a hero who let power get the best of him, and now deploys "snapjaws" to try to kill Donkey Kong's son. DK Jr. is the bastard son of a criminal who understands that nudity is sin and that he must clothe himself to preserve what little purity he has left before he KILLS Mario by dooming him to fall in an ironic homage to the first game. Not really crazy about the gameplay though.

THE VERDICT - NOT ESSENTIAL

Mario must feel like a real idiot for leaving all those keys dangling...

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018 - DONKEY KONG

DONKEY KONG

Episode 018

SHOW NOTES

Mario Name origin | Cement Factory Level | Baby Pac-Man | King of Kong | Saturday Supercade | Donkey Kong TV Show | Donkey Kong JR TV Show | Donkey Kong GB | Donkey Kong lifetime Gross | King Kong Lawsuit | Kirby named after John Kirby | Kelp instead of Help | Crazy Kong

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OUR THOUGHTS

MIKE

Donkey Kong is still one of my favorite arcade games of all time. There's something so vibrant and energizing about playing it. I didn't grow up with the Donkey Kong Country games so for me this is what I thought of Donkey Kong outside of his random appearances in Mario Party and other sports games. It's really crazy to me how much Miyamoto gets right in his very first attempt at designing a video game. It's nowhere near perfect, but clearly demonstrated that he had a vision for the future of gaming.

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JOE

Looking at this game through the lens of the 1980’s, it’s easy to see why it was so popular. You had a human character, and a basic plot: save your girlfriend. The controls are simple to pick up and overall I can see it being pretty addictive especially if you were competing for a high score.On a personal level, I was never in love with the Donkey Kong games. Maybe it has to do with the way they have aged but if you take away any nostalgia, the game doesn’t hold a candle even to a lot of other NES games when it comes to the feel of the controls. That combined with how short the overall experience is keeps it off of my essential games list. It’s definitely great for it’s time, and you probably won’t regret revisiting it, just don’t let the hype get your expectations too high.

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SEAN

If you don't have access to an original Donkey Kong cabinet at your local bar or arcade, the NES version should scratch that itch. It's incomplete; only three of the four stages are included; but the actual gameplay is essentially the same. Other shortcomings include the lack of intro sequence, in which Donkey Kong wrecks the construction site that becomes Stage 1 (25m), and a shortened version of the "ending" in which Mario and Pauline live happily ever after until the next level, where (spoiler) she has been kidnapped again. This game still has enough character to be enjoyed today, but specifically the NES version isn't special enough to be essential. However, if you're in any way interested in videogame history, playing the game in a cabinet certainly is essential.

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SAM

Donkey Kong is a charming game that you can fully experience in one sitting. My opinion of this game has been tainted by bad the experiences I had playing it in Donkey Kong 64.* This simple arcade platformer is pretty barebones. Jump Man's jump feels ok. It's not great, but no jump will be until Super Mario Bros. I thought it was pretty frustrating that Jump Man instantly dies from any fall that's higher than one of his jumps. I found that the hammer upgrade is a bit annoying. You basically become limited-mobility Pac Man - enemies turn blue and you can smash them with your hammer if they run into you. You can't really chase after them because you can't jump or climb, so you're pretty much just hoping they'll run at your hammer.

All in all, I don't like this game. Finishing a level gives me less of a sense of accomplishment, and more of a sense that I just completed an errand. Not quite "grocery shopping" levels of trivial, more "scooping out the dead fish from the tank and flushing it down the toilet." I can understand why a lot of people have attachments to this game from when they were younger. It's got some platforming, a little music, a little story, one powerup that turns you into a mobility-challenged Pac Man, and levels that change and scale up in difficulty when you replay them. But people also have strong attachments to their fish from when they were younger. And like a fish, this game just doesn't do a lot. 

*Each time you lose you are taken out of the game, forced to pull a lever using an animation that takes too long to complete, then given a prompt to go back to playing the arcade game. This happens every. time. you lose. You don't have the opportunity to get better because you spend most of your time trying to get back into the game! This is literally the reason I never beat Donkey Kong 64.

THE VERDICT - NOT ESSENTIAL (BUT PLAY THE ARCADE CABINET IF YOU CAN)

Shortly after, Mario would never speak to Pauline again...

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Special - Best of 1985

NEStalgia has finished 1985 and we're celebrating with a special recap episode and OUR TOP 5 GAMES ON THE NES...so far! This episode is full of fun little anectodes so stick around until the end!

TOP 5 GAMES OF 1985

#5 - Excitebike

We can safely say that for any fan of racing games, Excitebike is still fun. The gameplay is simple, but rewarding. You control your racer through a series of obstacles as you compete for a faster time. This is a game anyone can finish, but few will master. What it lacks in stages, "races" and 2 player,  it totally makes up for with the unique concept of the design mode. To see this on an NES launch game is just incredible. Game design at the time was the furthest stretch away from possible for a hobbyist forget about an 8-year old. And yet, with Excitebike we have endless replay value from the ability to design our own courses. Imagine this feature if Super Mario Bros. was packed with a design mode. It took Nintendo another twenty-one years to bring Mario Maker to Wii U.

Designed by Nintendo Legend Shigeru Miyamoto and the prestigious R&D1 team, in hindsight it's easy to think that Excitebike would be a success. But this is an NES launch game and by no means was the name, "Miyamoto" considered praise worthy yet. Excitebike launched a series of Excite games, but that alone is not enough to say it's important. What makes Excitebike important is the ability to design your course and put an emphasis on game design at a time where that was not a concept kids were thinking about.

#4 - KUNG-FU*

In Kung Fu, you play as Thomas, a man well versed in kicks and punches, on his way up a 5 story building to rescue Sylvia from Mr. X and his many minions. It’s never quite explained what Thomas’ relationship with Sylvia is, and she isn’t even shown until after the second floor, but hey it’s still a semblance of a story!

There’s a modest but still surprising amount of variety in Thomas’ moveset, with high and low kicks as well as jump kicks thrown in for good measure. While the hitboxes are a little smaller than one might intuit initially, the player can get the hang of them after they try and fail to play through the first level a few times. There’s also a good amount of variety in the enemies and obstacles you fight through over the course of the game. Knife throwers and grippers (I prefer the term “snuggler”, but I digress) dominate the first floor, while snakes and hallucinatory fire breathing dragons make up the bulk of the second. Each floor concludes with a one-on-one fight with a unique boss. One carries a stick, one has the ability to lose and regrow his head. I’d say that’s all fun stuff.

#3 - DUCK HUNT

There is no doubt about it, almost thirty-five years since it’s release, Duck Hunt is still a blast today! Offering multiple game modes, it can be played for hours with a friend and never feel boring.  While the “One Duck” mode can be a bit slow to start, it improves vastly after round ten, especially when you realize that a second player can control the ducks!  “Two Duck” mode offers a more challenging (and more fun) version of the first mode, the ducks move faster and appear two at a time, which causes the rounds to go by more quickly.  The third mode, “Clay Shooting”, offers something entirely different, launching clay pigeons for target practice.  There’s nothing more satisfying than zeroing in on a shrinking target, and hitting your mark.  With a little practice, this game makes you feel like a sharpshooter.

Many games today are tossing aside the conventional controller in favor of using the player’s real world actions to control the game.  When we see this level of imersion we think of how far video games have come.  It’s easy to forget that Nintendo was already doing this way back in 1984.  It’s safe to say that Duck Hunt laid a concrete foundation.  It helped to establish Nintendo’s reputation as the company that seeks to deliver a unique playing experience.  It wouldn't be surprising if Nintendo references the success of Duck Hunt frequently when pitching new and unique ideas.  Duck Hunt is not only important as a great game of the past, but also as one that still holds up, over three decades later.

#2 - GOLF

The first question you have to ask yourself, was golf ever fun? If you answered no then pack it up right now because this game is not going to change your opinion in any way. If you've liked the yearly PGA tour games than Golf is the incredibly minimalist, but fully functional version of that series. I can't stress enough how much you have to "like" the idea of playing golf to enjoy this or any of the NES golf titles. One thing I appreciate about this game is that very little comes down to chance in this game. The biggest variable is wind, but anything under 10m isn't likely to change your approach that much.

Please look at a manual before you give up on Golf for the NES. It explains a lot about the clubs in the game and even informs you how far each club will drive on the green and in a bunker. Combine that knowledge with the distance to the hole and you have a much better idea at how to approach a course. Without the manual, you're in for a rough time of guessing what might work and then resetting when it doesn't. There are five factors in your control and two outside of your control. These seven features make up nearly the entire game and it's kind of beautiful that Golf could be that simple while offering a lot of variety. You control your club, your swing, the force of your swing, and your putt. The game controls the wind and the obstacles (courses). Again, it's simple, but beating your high score is rewarding.

Two other golf games came out in Japan around the same time. While both of those options are less optimized than Nintendo's version it is suspect that they all use an identical approach to simulating golf in a video game. The important thing about Golf on the NES is that it was the most successful title of the three and paved the way for all future 2D golf games. And while Golf has moved on to bigger and better things in the 3D space, the core concepts of what should matter in Golf (Club, Swing, Force, Wind, and Putt) have all carried over and with very little change. That's quite a notable difference compared to how drastically different 10-Yard Fight is to Madden '18. Also, we have to note that legendary composer Koji Kondo (Legend of Zelda Series) and Shigeru Miyamoto (Super Mario Bros. and Legend of Zelda) were both the composer and designer respectively on Golf.

#1 - SUPER MARIO BROS.

I worry for the day when specifically children no longer find Super Mario Bros. fun. There is a timeless quality of exploration, wonder, and challenge packed alongside simple and thoughtful controls that allows Super Mario Bros. to still shine today. Obviously gaming has come a long way since Super Mario Bros. in more ways than just graphics, but it would be foolish to say to say that every AAA release today is better than Super Mario Bros. The game is carefully planned to continue to innovate and introduce new concepts to the platforming genre on every single level. Stomping on a goomba, axing a bridge, and finding a warp zone are all still fun to this day

The genius in Super Mario Bros. is all about the design of the jump. Depending on how far you have ran, how hard you push 'A', and what direction you're tilting your D-Pad at any particular point all play a part in the length and trajectory of Mario's jump. It's such a satisfying jump that the games that came before it (like Ice Climber and Donkey Kong) just couldn't get quite right. Super Mario Bros. might be a bit frustrating with it's life system and later dungeons, but the game is by no means impossible by today's standards.

This is a rare case where this game will never not be important to the medium. Similar to how people talk about Citizen Kane in the film industry, Super Mario Bros. is very well regarded today because of all the ways it changed the industry. Going back to play it now, you might have criticism about the jump, the life system, the timer, and the number of levels, but you'll also need to remind that many of the gameplay elements of Super Mario Bros. were presented for the first time on this release. More so, this game takes many elements that define a good game and makes them work in harmony. That's where the Citizen Kane parallel begins, they might be harder to watch or play today, but their impact and contributions are undeniable for the time.