Super Donkey Kong

Origin: Thailand
# of Games: 1
Type: Famicom Game Cart

Another Day, Another Donkey Kong Country Pirate… Or Is It?

I knew from the very start that this was not going to be a typical Donkey Kong Country pirated port.

The balls – the titanium steel balls of pirate game company Hosenkan Electronics to claim a copyright on their cheap knock-off of Rare/Nintendo property. “For a pirate company to want their game protected, this has to be something good,” I thought to myself.

Three minutes later: “Goddamn your proprietary information and your prior written consent! To the Internet to post a review I go!“

The game isn’t so hot, but I soon found out that at least this pirate attempted something original by porting the Game Boy version, Donkey Kong Land, instead of the Super Nintendo title. The changes are not many between the GB and SNES versions, but still, the levels are arranged differently and so it’s a nice change to play something new in the crowding pirate market.

On the bright side, I was impressed with the pirate’s soundtrack. David Wise’s memorable Donkey Kong Country score is emulated fairly well onto the NES. Have a listen to one of my favorite tracks to get an impression of the music quality:

The rest of this port, however, is shoddy at best. There are only five stages to the game that loop again and again (there is no ending to speak of); the controls are mind-numbingly poor; and the graphics (save for the title and game over screens) are not nearly as impressive as the other Super Donkey Kong pirate games sold. Also, extra lives are difficult to obtain as the banana items collected in one stage cannot be carried to the next. Question: What is the point of bananas if there are fewer than a hundred in a single stage and there is no way to accumulate more in future stages? Answer: Just to piss the gamer off.

Walkthrough

The first stage is on a pirate ship. Take notice of the smiling clouds in the sky. Makes me want to turn on the black light and mellow out to some Pink Floyd, man.

There is no fanfare or victory dance at the end of stages. Donkey (or Diddy) Kong merely strolls off stage and you are taken back to the map and to the next stage.

The Kremlings in this game walk lamely; the poor things have limp legs. I just can’t bring myself to jump on the crippled bastards.

About halfway into stage three the developers put in a little easter egg / glitch. One wise Kremling, in the words of Billy Joel, is movin’ out – he walks straight out of the game. How I envy you, green Kremling.

Quick: what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you see the background clouds? I am not sharing mine, but let me tell you, it wasn’t bananas.