Donkey Kong

About This Game

Gameplay

Following 1980's Space Panic, Donkey Kong is one of the earliest examples of the platform game genre,#cite_note-Chris_Crawford-23): 94 #cite_note-24) even prior to the term being coined; the U.S. gaming press used "climbing game" for games with platforms and ladders.#cite_note-25) As the first platformer game to feature jumping, Donkey Kong requires the player to jump between gaps and over obstacles or approaching enemies whilst Donkey Kong "Donkey Kong (character)") throws barrels at the player, setting the template for the future of the genre.#cite_note-GamesRadar-26) With four unique stages, Donkey Kong was the most complex arcade game of the time, and one of the first arcade games with multiple stages, following games such as 1980's Phoenix and 1981's Gorf and Scramble.#cite_note-Arcade_Fever-27): 66 In addition to the goal of saving Pauline, the player has a score. Points are awarded for the following: leaping over obstacles; destroying objects with a hammer power-up; collecting items such as hats, parasols, and purses; removing rivets from platforms; and completing each stage according to a steadily decreasing bonus counter.

History

Further information: Radar Scope Nintendo of America was founded in 1980 with minor success at importing its parent's arcade cabinets from Japan. In early 1981, its president Minoru Arakawa bet the small startup company on a major order of 3,000 Radar Scope games.#cite_note-Game_Over-38): 103–105 #cite_note-History_of_SMB_at_IGN-32) Its poor reception in America filled a warehouse with 2,000 unsold Radar Scope machines, so Arakawa requested that the parent company president (and his father-in-law) Hiroshi Yamauchi send a conversion kit of new game software. Yamauchi polled the company's entire talent pool for fresh game design concepts to save the distressed startup.