Welcome to Dissection, where we dig into the design of classic games in an attempt to find out what makes them so good in the first place. I’m your host, mightynifty and the game on my table today is… Donkey Kong! (play DK Rap) Yeah, that Donkey Kong. A gaming icon. And while his more recent endeavors put him into the hero role, today we’re going to take a look at the arcade classic that introduced him, back when he was stealing women and climbing construction sites. And if there’s one thing above all else that this game does right, it’s building tension. Getting the player’s adrenaline going with gameplay and nothing else. Today we’re going to take a look at how such a simple game inspires such stiff competition. So let’s cut it up and see what’s inside.
For those of you who, like me, were born after the big guy put on a tie and fought crocodiles, let’s have a quick history lesson. While I’m sure most of you know about Donkey Kong itself, in order to properly talk about its past we have to go back to a lesser-known game, Radar Scope. You see, Nintendo wanted to bring its games into the North American markets, so they sent over a ton of machines with Radar Scope on them to be distributed amongst the American arcades. Unfortunately for them, while the game was successful in Japan, it kinda tanked in the US, so with all of these leftover machines and nothing to do with them they turned to the man himself, Shigeru Miyamoto, for help designing a new game for the old machines. But this time, they wanted to make sure the game would be a hit.
And what better way to ensure financial success than to use an already established franchise? So they asked Miyamoto to create a game based on the Popeye comic strip. At some point during development, Nintendo lost the rights to use Popeye characters in their game, but rather than scrap the project altogether, Miyamoto decided to keep the game and change the characters around. That’s right, Donkey Kong is actually based on Bluto, Pauline is based on Olive Oil, and Mario (known as Jumpman at the time) is based on Popeye! Finally, DK was originally supposed to be called Monkey Kong as a parody of king kong, but due to a mistranslation we have the ape we know to this day!
Donkey Kong was released in Japanese arcades on July 9th, 1981 and this simple ape soon became a phenomenon inspiring a lot stiff competition for the ever elusive high score. It even got to the point where there was a documentary film made about two guys competing for the highest score called King of Kong.
Now onto the game. And much like other early arcade titles, the plot is simple. Donkey Kong has kidnapped Jumpman’s girlfriend Pauline and our hero has to ascend to the top of construction site to save her, dodging obstacles along the way. The arcade version had 4 levels and once completed, the game would start over at a slightly increased difficulty each time, but today we’re looking at the NES version, which has lower quality graphics and audio, shorter cutscenes, and it’s missing level 2. I’d like to say it’s because I want this episode to be simpler and more accessible, but really it’s because this is the version I already had from the Wii’s virtual console.
Anyway, for those of you who don’t know, Donkey Kong is actually the first ever platforming game. As in, the first game in which players could jump! In terms of controls, Jumpman can run left to right, jump, and climb ladders. He can also grab a hammer to help destroy enemies for a limited time. The goal of the game isn’t just to ascend, but to get as many points as possible in while doing so and obtain the high score. With that in mind, Jumpman can also gain a sweet bonus to his score by grabbing the purse or the umbrella, jumping over obstacles, and hitting enemies with the hammer. There’s also a time bonus at the end of every level rewarding players who speed to the end. Hit an enemy or an obstacle or fall from too high up and you lose a life. Lose all of your lives and it’s GAME OVER.
And that’s pretty much it. So with such a simple concept at its core, how can Donkey Kong be such a gaming classic? To begin to answer this question, let’s put ourselves in the mindset of someone back in 1981. You just barely got over the mind-blowing experience that was Pac-Man and so far, every game you’ve played, if you’ve played any at all either takes place in a void or in space. There’s no such thing as physics. And here comes this game, the first EVER platformer, the first game in which you can jump and your mind is blown yet again. So let’s pretend you’ve never played the game before and see from this mindset why this game is so well designed.
So we start the game. There’s first a little cutscene showing DK taking Pauline to the top of the first level, and Jumpman at the bottom. So you’re starting to get your bearings by looking around the screen when all of a sudden DK drops a barrel towards you and if you don’t get out of the way… you die. Okay, one life lost, no big deal. This time I guess I’ll just move over here. Now I’m safe and from the barrel, but… ooookay. Note: barrels make fire guy appear at the bottom of the screen. Okay, there are these ladders here, so let’s get away from the fire guy by going up and THEY CAN CLIMB LADDERS?! Oh great! Now there’s a fire guy chasing me up and barrels falling down with Jumpman stuck in the middle.
Did you notice something? Every time the player feels safe from one threat, another comes to face them. Stay still for too long in this game and you WILL die. Not only that, but if you thought you could just sit around and jump over barrels to get your score up, you can’t. You also die when the timer goes down, meaning it’s most advantageous to get to the end as soon as possible, maybe busting a few barrels for extra points in between. In addition to this, since the player can also die from fall damage if trying to jump down to a previous level, the game is always preventing the player from going back and in turn, always pushing the player forward. This causes a great deal of tense excitement from new players and old. While veterans might consider the first few levels easy, there’s still that sense of being pushed with the possibility of death hanging over the player’s head at all times.
Now the player comes face-to-face with the barrels. They can’t run past them and eventually won’t be able to climb around them, so after a couple of deaths they decide to press the only other button on the machine and do something never done in a game before- they jump. And after only a few jumps they realize exactly how precise they have to be in order to clear the barrels. And for returning players the barrels are randomized so you never know what ladder they’re going to fall down, making each new playthrough unique and preventing the player from becoming bored.
Not to mention if the player is climbing a ladder and a barrel rolls overhead there’s always the possibility that they’re about to get squashed like the little plumber bitch that they are. All of this puts pressure on the player while still remaining fun and engaging, causing them to become more invested in the experience. And it all pays off when they finally reach the top, but before they even have time to celebrate DK takes Pauline up to level 2.
On level 2, there are a lot of big changes that keep the player on their toes. First, there’s much less room on the ground, making falling deaths a much greater threat. While you could make the argument that Jumpman dies too easily, it does mean that every jump needs to be precise. One wrong move and you’re done for. This level also gives the player something level 1 didn’t have- options. Sure, you could stay low and climb the steps on the right, but you could also ride the elevator upwards and jump across. These choices have to be made quickly for the player to get a high score, so it adds in the element of heat of the moment decision-making.
Finally, once the player reaches the top, they’re faced with an even more nerve-wracking fact: the hardest part of the level, the easiest place to die, is at the very end. It’s a hail Mary run to the finish that ends exactly like the first level, with DK leading you to the third and final level. But after having the gameplay change so drastically last time, it leaves the player feeling both satisfied in their accomplishment and nervous about the potential danger ahead.
Level 3 is a bit different. It starts by lulling the player into a false sense of security. What? Only one enemy, and it’s one I’ve seen twice already? Psssh, this is nothing! So they climb the ladder, get to the top, and… nothing happens. So naturally they walk towards Pauline and realize this level is different. That in order to win, they have to remove all of the rivets, and not just get to the top. So they look down, thinking it’ll be easy to finish the job and realize they’ve made a terrible mistake. That one enemy has multiplied itself and they’re probably going to die if this is their first time playing.
This gives the player two more important realizations- first, that they have to beat a level in a way that’s unfamiliar to them and second, if they don’t do it fast enough it’s only going to get harder from there. Eventually, after putting in a lot of effort and even more quarters, they complete the level. They feel good for a second, satisfied in beating the game, but then start the process all over again at a higher difficulty to try to claim that elusive spot at the top of the high score screen.
Now, while the level design is certainly the main aspect that makes this game a classic, I think it’s also important to take a look at one specific gameplay element that also plays a big role in contributing to the tense atmosphere: the hammer. The hammer is important to this game because from a design standpoint it adds so much depth.
First, it gives the player some variety on a second playthrough. On the first playthrough, most players will probably just be happy to just reach the end of the stage, but after a few tries this would probably get boring. So the hammer was thrown into level 1 so that more experienced players don’t feel as though the first few levels are just a slog to get through since they can always use their experience and skill to net them some extra points.
When the player first grabs the hammer, they have no clue what’s going on. They try to jump, but can’t. Eventually, they’ll be forced to hit a barrel. And they’ll destroy it. This gives the player a sense of power. Power to turn the table on the obstacles they could only dodge moments earlier. And as a bonus, they’re able to get more points for every barrel destroyed! Unfortunately for most players, the hammer’s power will end soon before they hit a barrel, leaving them with little time to react before getting hit.
This is the genius of the hammer. The player can completely avoid it and just try to finish the level or use it to add to their score, but unless they know the timing of the song by heart, unless they had it to the frame, there would eventually come that moment when the player has to make a choice- go for the kill or run to safety. This crossroads is the perfect time to bring the player out of their fantasy and drag them back into the tense gameplay. Also notice how level 2 does away with this feeling of empowerment by not having any hammers, making the player feel as though their safety net has been taken away.
In the end, all of these factors come together to create a tight gaming experience that keeps the player feeling invested throughout their playtime. Sure the game is simple, but the way in which that simple gameplay is used to make a player feel anxious, excited, angry, successful, relieved, and engaged is what makes Donkey Kong a true classic. And that design philosophy of tight, tense gameplay continues in the Donkey Kong series to this day.
Of course this game can’t be reviewed, so I’ll take this time to put Donkey Kong on the MightyNifty Must-Play List. And with that being said I hope you enjoyed the video. If you did, leave a comment down below telling me which game should be dissected next and be sure to subscribe for more dissections, mighty reviews and to see next week’s nifty recipe based on this game. And as always, have a mighty nifty day today!