The Super Game Boy came out in 1994 and finally the world of Game Boy was opened up from its black and white monochrome prison, into a world of colour, well kinda. With the Super Game Boy, you were still limited to only 4 different colours on screen at once, still it was better then nothing. So why am I talking about the Super Game Boy when I should be talking about what is the most amazing Game Boy platformer ever made? Well the 2 seem to stick in my mind together. I think that’s because when the Super Game Boy came out, this game was pushed as a killer app for it. At least that’s how I recall it being in issues of NMS. Another thing I recall about this game is that I had no interest in it at all. When I looked at the pictures of it, I scoffed at it for being nothing more then just a portable version of the original arcade Donkey Kong. So I never got the game I had more important things to play like Secret of Mana, Illusion of Time, Ghostbusters 2 and so on. I had no time for some boring old remake of an old game. Man I so want to go back and hit the 12 year old me on the back of the head, I was a stupid kid sometimes.
 


I could review this game in 8 words. This Game is amazing, go buy it now. And that would be that, there isn’t honestly anything else I need to say, its as simple as that. Its an amazing game and everyone needs to play this just to understand why it is. I don’t know why it took me 15 years to finally get around to playing. Maybe it has part to do with the fact that Donkey Kong is not one of my fav Nintendo characters. I was never too big on the Donkey Kong Country games, and I dunno barring the Game & Watch games I had never played a lot of games with the Big Ape. This game got a pretty big spread in NMS when it came out, its not like I didn’t know this game was good, I just didn’t think it was for me (again I was a stupid kid). Fast Forward a few years and I was looking online for information regarding a PC game I had played once called VGA Trek. It was an awesome little Star Trek Sim I had played when I got a PC and I enjoyed it, was trying to find any info on it. I found a Youtube review of it by a guy called Frankomatic, I liked his style so I subscribed to him. And thought nothing of it. A few months later he started doing a Long Play series for Donkey Kong, I watched one and was hooked from there, I had to get the game.
 


I picked the game up a few months back when the Game Boy’s 20th birthday was upon us. From the first moment I put this in my Game Boy I was not able to take it out or put it down. I was transfixed by this little gem of a game. So enough about me and unto the game. The game itself takes the core elements of what made the original Donkey Kong an amazing game and builds upon it. In the original you had only 4 levels to move Mario around in, this time you have over 101 levels spread over 9 different worlds. Each world has its own themes ranging from in the City, on a Mountain, Ice level to even a level set on the outside of a Jumbo Jet (which is amazing). Each new set of stages brings in a new element into the game to make things fresh. The Ice stages as you would assume make things all slippery. The stages on the Jet are awesome in that now you have to deal with wind which moves you around and really makes you think hard about your jumps (think about Tornado Mans stage in Mega Man 9).
 


Each area is broken up into a block of 4 levels at the end of the 4th level you have a quick showdown with DK which will usually see you just trying to reach the top of the screen with Pauline almost in your reach only to have DK grab her and go off to the next level. After every 4 stages you’ll be greeted with a nice little animation that will be introducing a new gameplay element, such as the above mentioned windy stages or a new enemy who will try and impede your progress across the stage such as Donkey Kong Jnr or that you can do a handstand to do a really high jump and so on. As the game goes on it will keep mixing up the various elements making it so each stage feels fresh and new. At the end of every area you have a battle against DK which involves you using the Barrels he hurls at you as a weapon to be thrown back to him after you’ve hit him the required 3 times off he goes with Pauline and the chase continues.
 


The goal to pass each stage is to grab a key located somewhere in the stage and then carry the key to a door on screen that will give you access to the next stage. Once you pick up the key its yours to carry around and you can throw it as a weapon should any of DK’s minions try and stop you. However when you let go of the key you will only have a few seconds to go and pick it up again before it vanishes back to where it came from. This brings about some very interesting puzzles such as ones that require you to throw the key onto a conveyor belt where it will go under some spikes that will kill you if you touch it, so you have to hurry from one side of the screen to the other and grab the key on the other side of the screen before it vanishes. The level design in the game  is without a doubt the best I have seen in any 2d platformer, every level is well thought out and feels unique while not feeling repetitive at all. But its not just all good level design thats makes a good platformer, oh no the controls are incredibly tight and just what you expect from something from the house of Mario. Mario feels like a cross between the way he played in Super Mario Bros 2 and Donkey Kong. Not too stiff but just fluid enough. The game looks amazing on the original Game Boy, but honestly if you want the best effect you need to play it on one of the later Game Boy systems or even the Super Game Boy. Its one of those original Game Boy games that if you plugged into a Super Game Boy it would get colourized, to a degree anyway. Man if only this had gotten a GBC remake, all the more colours to flesh out the game, wow. This is Shigeru Miyamoto at his god damn finest. Donkey Kong on the Game Boy is 2d platforming puzzle solving action at its finest, there is simply put no better game in the genre then this.



Part of me is annoyed I overlooked this when it came out, its an amazing little game. Looking back now I think I would of not picked this up due to maybe paying more attention to Donkey Kong Country and at the time this looked like a step back. But this game holds up a lot more now over its Super Nintendo counter part. Sometimes its good to miss out on the great games when they come out. Had I played this when it came out I don’t think I would have had the joy of discovering it now. And to be honest I don’t think at the age of 12 I would have been ready to play this game, I was not the more calmer gamer I am now days. I needed action and adventure and excitement, I need games like Street Fighter, Zelda, Wolfenstien and so on. But I’m older now and my tastes have matured and I can truly enjoy this game for what it, one of the greatest handheld games ever made. If you’ve not played this game before, check it out, you can pick up a copy rather cheaply on ebay, you will be in for a truly amazing experience. I dunno what I’m gonna do for the next game, maybe something RPG related, oh well see ya next time.