The Gamer's Quarter

JamesE · Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:17 pm Post subject: Donkey Kong 94

Donkey Kong 94 is a good game. Discuss pixelated monkey-bashing frolics in this thread!
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showka · . Joined: 11 Nov 2005 Posts: 70

It's easily the second best game for the monchrome GameBoy. I was always sad that it came out so soon before Rare's 3D re-imagining of Kong. I really would've liked to have seen a sequel, in the same style, where DK Jr went after a powered up Super Mario, but even in my idealistic youth knew it would never happen since that would involve Nintendo trying to market games with two different depictions of DK.

TOLLMASTER · nippon ichi PR man Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 187

I had a dream, once, as a kid where Super Mario World 3 was released and it was one giant castle, each room with a puzzle that Mario had to figure out. Years later, I would play Donkey Kong 94 and get to play that Super Mario World 3 I had dreamt about, with the loss of color, of course.

I always felt kind of limited, however--the aerobics of Mario made me wish that he could have had some more room, like in Super Metroid. Not the level setup, but that weird clash between claustrophia-inspired caverns and wide open rooms.

Gouki · . Joined: 25 Nov 2006 Posts: 32 Location: Australia.

My friend had a copy of this, we'd chuck it in the Super Gameboy and would play it for hours on end. We never managed to beat it, so after a while we went outside and used sticks at lightsabers and hit each other. We came back to it, though, but I'm pretty sure we never managed to beat it before most of our Gameboying became about Pokemon.

I really should track down a copy for cheap. Or get the ROM. Whichever one's easier, really.
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... Maybe Later.

dessgeega · Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:17 pm Post subject:

i picked up donkey kong the day it was released, along with the super gameboy. it definitely seems like the real sequel to doki doki panic. the boss stages in particular are wonderfully inventive.

james, i like your column so far. before it i'd never played batman, which reminds me a lot of the shooting stages from super mario land. it makes me want to put online the gameboy thread i managed to save before insertcredit went down.

i'm starting to feel like gamesetwatch's continuously-rotating staff of columnists might be its greatest strength.
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Pijaibros · Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:42 pm Post subject:

You should, thanks to that thread I managed to track down Ultima: Runes of Virtue II. The Black Knight is such a charming villain.

Also Bubble Ghost is good fun! Tough stages and such an awesome little sprite.

That thread gave me great vigor and tracking down many of the games I had missed in that generation! I lived for those threads

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

You know Rare's redesign of Donkey Kong is based on drawings Shigeru Miyamoto did in 1992? The Donkey Kong in Donkey Kong '94 is so much better an interpretation of those drawings than Rare's coconut-headed douche it's almost sad. He's got so much personality and charm in '94, it's almost a crime that Rare's version of him is still the standard Donkey Kong model.

Isfet · . Joined: 27 Oct 2006 Posts: 107 Location: A New York

i had bought this when it came out with the Super Gameboy as well. the game is really fantastic, and even holds up today, i think. it had the right combination of Mario games, Donkey Kong games and some puzzle elements. it also felt absolutely huge, and the pacing was pretty stellar.

i'd like to make a case for the idea that Mario's acrobatics in 64 were orginally laid out in this game.

dessgeega · Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 9:21 pm Post subject:

here's the ic gameboy thread, all zipped up. donkey kong is mentioned no later than the very second post. lots of good stuff in here.
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Lockeownzj00 · . Joined: 16 Aug 2005 Posts: 214

Ooh, I have a lot of good memories with this game. Especially on long car rides. I played this thing to death. Fucking brilliant. I think I'm gonna go grab it now, actually.

B coma · . Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Posts: 279

Probably my favorite GB title next to SML. I remember getting really, really, really pissed during the final battle, which I believe had exclusively to do with that snarky grin on his huge monkey face.

and gee, that music (both parts of the fight) was so damn awesome. the GB sound chip might be my favorite one from around that era.

a_plus · . Joined: 09 Jan 2006 Posts: 252 Location: olympia

oh god, i love the old 4-color game boy. wonderful icon, b coma.

one year, my sister asked santa for this game, and i asked for... i dunno, mario land 2? we got our wishes, and all was great.
the next year, i think i asked for donkey kong LAND. this was the monocrhome game boy version of donkey kond country for the snes -- while the game on the snes was pretty great graphically, getting that down to the game boy was pretty amazing for me. i also didn't have an snes at the time and everyone was all about that game, and so i felt i needed it.
my parents, in their benevolent misguidance, got me a second copy of dk'94, and i really got to loving it then.

i do have donkey kong land 1 and 2 here now. acceptable platforming, i guess. come to think of it, my sister tended to get some prety decent games as gifts when we were young. i played her copy of super mario land 3: wario land more than she ever did.