Customer Reviews

Donkey Kong (Atari 2600)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nintendo was about to go bankrupt, but then Miyamoto was tasked to create an arcade game. That arcade game is Donkey Kong. It became as big as Pac-Man (Okay, maybe not as big) and lived up to even today. The Atari 2600 port was a good game. There was one major flaw though: 2 levels are missing. So you only get to play through 2 levels.

However, the game is still great to play.

In the early 1980s, it seemed every company was making it big in the arcade business. Nintendo wanted to do the same thing, and how did they do it? They released on the market a game known as Donkey Kong.

Immediately Donkey Kong was a smash hit. It was the first popular platform game, meaning a game with jumping and climbing, and it included plenty of lovable and/or interesting characters.

Of course fans of video games wanted to be able to play Donkey Kong at home, and since the Atari 2600 was the most popular home video game system, it was a natural that Donkey Kong would eventually find it's way to the system.

Coleco was the company who gained the rights to release home game versions of Donkey Kong, and they wasted no time putting out a version of the game for the Atari 2600.

Unfortunately, some gaming lovers were less than impressed. The graphics for the Atari version weren't nearly as good as those of the arcade game, and there were only two different screens as compared to the four in the arcade game. Fans weren't completely disgusted, as they would be with the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man, and fortunately most of them realized the at-home systems of the day were quite limited compared to the arcade games.

Personally, I think Donkey Kong for the Atari 2600 is a pretty solid game in its own right, and it's held up decently over the decades. Sure, it's not the same as the arcade Donkey Kong, but it doesn't have the worst graphics I've seen for a 2600 game and it does have pretty good sound and excellent gameplay.

If you're a collection of retro video games, you deserve to have an Atari 2600. And if you have an Atari 2600, you've got to own a copy of Donkey Kong by Coleco. Why? Because it's a classic game on a classic system.

I remember this game fondly. We were having a garage sale and I was making some money and someone said a store had Donkey Kong for Atari. I was like...what?!?!? For Atari?? Sure enough, they had it. But I was $5.00 short in getting it. So, I went down to a neighbor and asked if I could mow his lawn...he said he would give me $5.00 and I did it and had my parents take me to the store and I got my copy of the game. I however did such a rush job on his lawn, that I noticed it, went back and did it again for free. Early life lesson...but on to the game!

I put it in my console and I was like "eeeeee"...what is this? Without even starting the game, I was horrified at the sight of the Kong and Mario. When I started playing it, I was equally horrified. It just didn't look or feel like the arcade game. Both the graphics and game play seemed rushed. But, to be fair, the more I played, the more I liked. Though it didn't seem fair that we didn't even see Donkey Kong fall on his head and it only had two screens, but it was fun anyway.

The strangest thing about this game is that the sound effects, as bad as they were, still show up on commercials, movies and tv-shows.

All in all, I believe Coleco did the best they could do with the 2600 version and still made it playable.

*please note that i have played the arcade version of this game, and i am reviewing the atari 2600 version*

you couldnt imagine my excitement when this game came! i ran into my room, grabbed my atari 2600 in all of its wood covered goodness plugged it into my tv and bam, i knew i was in for a fun time, some common complaints against this game is that for one thing, there are only 2 stages, well again, i MASTERED the arcade version as a kid and i only remember 3 stages in that, and then people feel they need to point out that the graphics arent as good as the arcade and all i have to saay to that is, duh! if you want to worry about graphics go buy a ps3! this game is just as fun as the arcade, mostly because its the same game, you jump over barrels and save the girl trapped by the big ape known as donkey kong all while trying to get a high score (like all arcade games), and as a side bonus donkey knog was the first game to feature the world famous mario. personally this is my faveorite atari 2600 game (yeas even better than pitfall and berzerk) i highly reccomend this if you have an atari 2600 and want a fun game for it, and while your at it get mario bros. on atari 2600 too!

the conversion from arcade to 2600 was pretty good, considering the fact that the 2600 can barely handle a game of this nature. the graphics is the only thing that is hard too look at. donkey-kong is just a brown bare looking thing, but other than that the actual gameplay plays very well.