Granny Vinnie Reviews

7800 Rank: 34th Genre Rank: (Classic Arcade) 10th Awards: 10th Worst Graphics DK, Still Without Pants Pros: All levels are included Cons: Poor graphics/ tinny audio Jr. at Least has the Decency to Wear a Jumper

Overview: Donkey Kong, Jr. (which literally translates in Japanese as "My stupid son the ape") has to go down as one of the best sequels in video game history. Although, the game Donkey Kong is more enjoyable to me, the kid's game is totally revamped in the area of gameplay, and for the most part, it was a huge success. Yes, the premise, as with daddy's game, is still climbing absurd structures to rescue someone. But this time, we take the role as the monkey, rescuing pop from the evil Mario. Or maybe Donkey Kong Junior is evil, and Mario is truly good. Hmmmmmmmm... who knows? That would be an interesting debate. But, I am not here to debate monkey politics, I'm here to debate the 7800 version's worth to human beings...so here goes.

Graphics: From the menu, to the characters, to the boards, the game's flat and unimpressive graphics are very reminiscent with the 7800's version of Donkey Kong. In fact, the graphics in Jr. aren't even as impressive as DK's. In certain animations, the kid looks just plain odd. When climbing two vines at once, he looks like he has four eyes. Mario is also curiously bland, and many enemies are flat and just plain ugly. In the second board, just like with DK's game, the board is really poor looking. There is even a bird on that level that drops what could only be described as horrendous white excrement. I'm sure this is supposed to be fruit or something, but this particular item looks 2600 quality, and can only be described as poop. A few boards are OK, but mainly the colors are just bad throughout. The only thing that is very good about the graphics is that Donkey Kong's genital region isn't as disturbing as in his game. Thank heaven for small miracles.

Sound: Like in DK, there are plenty of background noises and music clips, but sadly, they suck as bad as Daddy's game. Again, everything is very shrill, but to make things worse, the irritating climbing noise is more apparent because our hero is a monkey. DK Junior climbs and climbs and climbs. So much so, you will be turning down the volume soon. The menu music sounds like stuff that deaf idiots would listen to. Seriously, it's like Satanic circus music. Who wrote this crap, and why are they still alive? As an interesting side note, the computer sound effects from Impossible Mission makes a cameo in this game as the DK, Jr. walking effects. Excited yet? Oh well.

Gameplay: Well, thankfully for Junior fans, the programmers removed their collective head from their buttocks and included ALL four screens in the game, as opposed to only three from the original Donkey Kong. Now the question is, how good does it play? Well, in many ways, not great. Collision detection is off on some parts, for one. When the aforementioned bird drops the horrendous excrement towards Junior, it sometimes whizzes past it's head and for some reason, supposedly contacts Junior and knocks him out. Very irritating. Also, the jumping in this game feels awkward and uncontrolled. But, there are good touches too, that remain faithful to the arcade version. For example, when the kid climbs with one hand, he is much slower than when he climbs with two. That is a nice touch that could have been easily left out. Fans of the game must be ecstatic about the inclusion of all four boards. The final "key" board is tied with Donkey Kong's first screen as my favorite two levels of the two DK games on the system. Not too hard, and its fast and fun.

Interpretation: I believe the inclusion of all four boards hurt the graphics and gameplay a little because of memory issues, but it is real nice to be playing all four. If you can look past a few of the visual whoas and programming stinkers, DK Jr. isn't a terrible conversion. The only area where the 7800 developers dropped the ball was on screen order. But that should not bother anyone but Donkey Kong Junior purists.

Value: Just like Donkey Kong, there are no bonuses, extra modes or anything fancy added to this game. It's just purely DK, Jr, baby. And while all of that is good, I just feel Donkey Kong Junior is not a really exciting game to play. It kinda feels like a controlled car crash.

Overall: Whether or not you enjoy "Junior" basically comes down to whether or not you can forgive the cart's sins in the areas of graphics, sound and gameplay. Wait a minute....was else is there? All joking aside, the graphics are bearable and gameplay is close enough to the original to keep casual fans of the game happy for a little while. The good thing about this cart and the original Donkey Kong is that they are both available on ebay frequently at a cheap price. That way, you can afford to pick them up and "MONKEY" around with them! Get it? Monkey around? HA HA HA!!! MONKEY! HA HA!!! MONKEY........er.......sorry, folks. I guess that was "Donkey".
For those of you not in the "know", the word Donkey in Japan means "Stupid". I wonder how donkeys feel about this over there.....probably like Jackasses...



Other Reviews:
Video Game Critic: B+
CV's Atari 7800 Panoramic Froo-Froo: 3.0 out of 5.0 (Fair)
The Atari Times: 5 out of 10


Additional Info: I would like to take this time to thank Mitch Orman, owner of The Atari 7800 Page for allowing the use of his screenshots for this review.

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