Donkey Kong Jr. (1982, Game & Watch)

Format: Game & Watch
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: October 26, 1982
Playtime: 23 minutes (played on easy (game A); unlocked Donkey Kong with all four locks then played until I ran out of lives)

Donkey Kong Jr. for the Game & Watch is an exercise in frustration. Even though this is similar to the arcade game it is actually a new game rather than a port (hence why I'm reviewing it here). Just like the arcade game you play as Donkey Kong's son as you have to rescue your dad from Mario. In the game there are two types of enemies: snappers and nitpickers. The snappers come from Mario and move across the top before dropping down and moving along the bottom row of the screen. They come across the ground. The nitpickers are basically birds and come in waves from time to time. They cover the air in the bottom row and never go up to the top row.

The first thing that stood out to me was just how hard this game is. The snappers come in very quick succession and when they are dropping down from the top it is literally impossible to climb up. Due to this I often got stuck having to jump over six snappers in a row while waiting for an opening to climb to the upper level. In addition to jumping over them you can also jump onto a vine and wait on it for an opening. However, whenever the nitpickers would come I would almost always lose. I would have to get off of the vine to avoid the nitpickers but jumping down to the ground would cause me to land directly on a snapper which would make it impossible for me to survive.

Once you finally reach the top you can hit the fruit. If it hits an enemy you get a few bonus points. Nothing too special. At the top you have to jump and grab the key. This will automatically unlock one of the four locks and start you at the bottom again at a higher speed. Once you unlock all four then it shows a very short cutscene before looping over again. It honestly took me quite a while to figure out how to use the key. If you miss the jump to grab it then you lose a life and start at the bottom again. You have to position yourself to the right of the key then press up and jump at the same time when the key is to the left. It took me a while to figure this out.

Even more frustrating, this game is very glitchy. Multiple times the game locked up on me while waiting to jump for the key. My controls wouldn't work (so I couldn't move) and even though the game kept going the enemies would go right through me. This required me to reset the game which was really obnoxious as one or two times I was close to success. Most of the time success in this game is luck based as every once in a while you will get a decent opening with no snappers or nitpickers at which point I just made a run for it. I think I won mostly due to luck rather than actual skill.

In addition to tracking down an original Game & Watch (which are expensive) this game has been remade in Game & Watch Gallery 3 for Game Boy Color and Game & Watch Gallery 4 for Game Boy Advance. From what I can tell both the original version and remakes are included in these titles. Hopefully the remakes are better.

Overall, this is a really hard game. It is much harder than the previous Game & Watch game. Most of your gameplay is luck based as it is difficult to move without getting killed. Due to the game's high difficulty and it locking up on me a few times I would not recommend it. Game & Watch games have not aged particularly well and from what I can tell this is not one of the best. The visuals are good by Game & Watch standards but otherwise go play something else.