Nerd Mentality

End Boss Month: Day 26 (Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong '94)

Posted June 26th 2005 by Stephanie DeSiena.

Donkey Kong makes his rounds once more in Donkey Kong '94 stealing damsels and what-not. This time he goes after the lovely Pauline again, kicking it in a way he hasn't kicked it for 12 years.

I distinctly remember when this game was released. It was being shoved down my throat in Super Game Boy ads as being one of the first games to have this feature enabled. When I was younger I figured with the technological limitations of the Game Boy cart, how could they possibly fit so much more information such as colors into that small game pack?

Then I scored one for the modest price of $80, and found out that the Super Game Boy just added its own bland color schemes. It was quite underwhelming.

Still, some games had borders exclusive to their game packs. Donkey Kong '94 replicated the old Donkey Kong cabinet, and I remember wanting to get it just for that. I was still quite young at the time, but I had gotten a few rounds of Donkey Kong under my belt in the arcade down the street. That place was hardcore, and having said you got to play the original Donkey Kong was the hardest of cores. Either that, or it just drew blank stares because no one in grade 2 knew what you were talking about.

Donkey Kong '94 was riding on the coattails of Donkey Kong Country's hype machine, although it probably would have sold well on its own merit. Back in those days, all retro collections would still be able to hold their own because there wasn't nearly as much of a range of IP as there is now. There may have been quite a bit of IP, admittedly, but if you walk up to someone today and go, "Dude, do you remember Aero the Acrobat?" you'd probably get as many blank stares as I did with Donkey Kong.

I mean, I don't even remember Aero the Acrobat, and I'm the one writing this article right now.

Posted in: Features

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