Customer Reviews

Jenga Donkey Kong

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Jenga and old school Donkey Kong. Two things you wouldn't necessarily associate with one another, but they go together perfectly!

The game comes with your regular, wooden Jenga blocks, but each is dyed black with red scaffolding painted on either side and holes drilled in each end. You can play standard Jenga with this set, or play with the DK rules. Each player is given a colored Mario player piece, and the wheel is spun to decide how many pieces must be removed, and how many scaffolds Mario may climb on that turn. Pieces are moved to the top of the stack, making it harder and harder to reach Daisy with every turn. The first player to reach the top wins, or the highest player on the tower before it falls. It's Jenga. People get it by now. It's just as much fun, and as maddening as ever.

The downside... Your Mario pieces have a little post on them that must be inserted into the Jenga blocks as you move up the tower. The holes are a little too tight, so you risk toppling the tower just by advancing your piece. Like most Jenga sets, it needs to be worn in to really be fair and fun. The blocks are also a little rough and can catch on each other. Both aspects can be frustrating until the set is worn in.

This really is a brilliant idea for a piece of retro gaming merchandise, and a solid game to boot.

The idea is great. However, the blocks are painted, which creates two problems: 1) the plastic Mario pieces don't fit in the holes as they should because the holes are too tight, and 2) the blocks are very wobbly because they are not level like the classic Jenga blocks.

Avoid this one and buy the original. Very disappointed.

This is a LOT of fun! I'm 25 and my friends enjoy this. It's annoying that the spinner isn't more durable. The Mario pegs don't fit in all the holes initially; you merely have to break the set in. It's worth doing so.

Purchased this as a gift for someone who is a fan of old arcade games and board games. The product is cute, but not ready to play. The holes Mario is supposed to fit in as he climbs the tower are not fully drilled out, making this aspect of the game unplayable. Sadly for the price you would expect better quality.

The "Donkey Kong" variant of the game is marred by a fatal flaw. The drilling of the holes in the game pieces is so uneven that it makes moving your little Mario guy almost as dangerous as removing blocks from the tower.

We pretty quickly abandoned the giant monkey for "standard" Jenga, which was fun, but whether due to our inexperience with the game, a less-than-perfectly-stable table, or the blocks themselves, the tower was always *very* rickety. We never got anywhere close to the tower depicted in the picture here before toppling it.

I've never actually played the "traditional" Jenga, but I suspect we would have been better off with it, and that unpainted wood pieces would make for a less inherently wobbly tower.

My friends and I picked this up immediately upon seeing it at our local bookstore, took it home, and started playing. Two hours later, we were still laughing our heads off. And we're all 25+ years old. Jenga has not and will not get old, and I love the spin that this version puts on the classic formula.

The blocks (renamed "girders") are painted black with pink scaffolding on the sides. The game comes with four Mario/Jumpman pieces and a Donkey Kong & Daisy piece that sits at the top of tower, giving you something else to balance. The object this time around is to maneuver your Mario piece up the tower one girder at a time while removing blocks (movement and the number of blocks to be removed each turn are determined by a spinner, which is thin cardboard that feels less than sturdy). The first one to reach DK & Daisy or whoever is highest up the tower when another player knocks it down wins. It's simple but insanely fun.

The only negative thing I can say about this game is that it can be somewhat difficult to determine where exactly you should be moving your Mario piece because only the blocks that are on the outside of the tower count as blocks that Mario can "stand" on. Since your place on the tower is always changing through making your movements every turn and having your girder pulled out from beneath you by other players, this problem arises a lot. My friends and I found ourselves making up some "house rules" as we played to counter this issue, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just something to know about.

Overall, this game is a blast to play. Classic Jenga with a classic video game twist; you can't go wrong.

This game has Mario pieces that are placed on the sides of the tower by means of holes drilled into the block ends. The pieces have plastic posts that are supposed to slip into the holes. The problem is, the holes are not milled large enough for the plastic posts to slip in and out easily. I found I could not make the posts fit into a few of the holes at all, but at least half you have to apply pressure to make the post fit. This is so annoying. If you chose to hang Mario on a loose block in the case of the tight holes, the block shifts out, if you chose a snug block in this case, the balance of the tower shifts. Also, the spinner is poorly crafted and very hard to spin smoothly. This game is a little more expensive than regular Jenga. Clearly the added margin on the price goes to Nintendo licensing, not quality design.

Disclaimer--I love retro game looks-- so this game jumped out at me right away due to the original Donkey Kong and Mario appearance.

My wife bought me this game for my birthday 2 days ago and my 14 year old, 10 year old and I have played it a dozen times since then. There are alternate directions for the Donkey Kong portion of this game. Included are a spinner, 4 Mario game pieces and a Donkey Kong and Pauline piece. The spinner is broken into two colored sections, one tells you how many "girders" you are to move and the other how many spaces up your Mario moves on your turn. This adds a new and fun twist since pushing the Mario into the girders can also un-balance the tower and cause a fall. In the alternate rules, you win by either having your Mario reach the top first or having the highest Mario when the tower topples. Almost needless to say, you can always play by the original Jenga rules. I think the pink girders on the black pieces is a great look to the game. The only weakness i see is that the Mario pieces may be a bit "fragile." For any regular game, the square token with a plastic peg backing would be fine, but the nature of Jenga is that the pieces fall and bang against each other...which may lead to a broken Mario peg after some time.

All I have to say is that Christmas 08 and New Years 08-09 was extra fun thanks to Donkey Kong Jenga. It was even more fun later on in the late hours for those holidays when everyone had more drinks in them. Great product.

This game abslutely useless. The mario pieces do not fit properly in the holes therefore making the game unusable.