Video: Donkey Kong Jungle Climber
I'm not sure what has happened to the Donkey Kong franchise. For a while there, things were looking up. I remember some great platforming challenging fun when Rare first took over on the SNES. Seriously, some of my fondest (and most enraging) video game memories revolve around that beautiful and beastly Donkey Kong Country and it's sequel.
And then they made that crappy DK racing game, although I must admit that it wasn't exactly crappy more than just a complete replica of Mario Kart. And now, that noble gorilla is being pawned off on odd party and throaway games! There was the whole drumming game, that actually looked kind of fun but was about a half an hour long altogether, and now this!? Repeatedly pressing the left and right shoulder buttons to "climb" through the jungle and past barrels. I'm sorry, but this does NOT look fun. Someone please convince me otherwise. Or at least help DK to destroy his captors and climb on top of a large tower screaming his injustice.
Pirate Prince
Posted to Video Games, Videos on 1 August 2007
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: donkey kong jungle climber, ds, paon corp., tv ad, video
Funny, to me it was Donkey Kong Country where Nintendo seriously misstepped with the franchise, and it hasn't ever really recovered.
The first Mario vs. DK was sort of okay, the bongo game was fun for a couple hours with my young nieces but a total drag when I took it back home, and this looks, well, a little interesting, I guess.
But in the end, Donkey Kong needs to be kidnapping Mario's girlfriend du jour and making him climb and jump around a lot to get her back. He doesn't need to be fake-3D-rendered, he doesn't need to wear that dumb tie, he doesn't need to take toy factories hostage, he doesn't need to attack gardeners with trained insects, he doesn't need to drive a cart that you have to mime hitting bongos to control, and he definitely, certainly, ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT NEED HIS OWN RAP. He needs to get back to his roots of thinly veiled sexual assault.
The pinnacle of the franchise, in my view, was the Game Boy version of Donkey Kong, sometimes called "Donkey Kong '94". I didn't discover it until I got a GBC, but wow, what a great game.
" I mean, look at Donkey Kong here. Have you smelled his loin cloth lately?"
I liked the original DK Country, it was a good last hurrah for side scrolling platforms. I think DK, much like Sonic The Hedgehog, was a product of it's original consoles generation. Mario is the only character I know of who has maintained popularity after 3d became so prevalent. Oh, and possibly Shamus. All the others, Earth Worm Jim, Sonic, Mega Man, etc. are either a thing of the past or clinging on by a bunch of crappy games.
I say quit trying to translate what worked into something else. Keep making classic sidescrollers and leave beloved characters in the format that they were popular, I still enjoy playing them but no one seems to want to make them any more, save for a bit of nostalgia like with The New Super Mario Bros.