Why Donkey Kong ’94 is one of Nintendo’s hidden gems

Just a few weeks back, Nintendo added Donkey Kong to the Game Boy division of Nintendo Switch Online for the first time. It was previously available on the 3DS’ Virtual Console back in 2011, and it’s taken well over ten years for us to see the game again. Every time Nintendo has released or re-released Donkey Kong for the Game Boy, it’s pretty much flown under the radar despite including some of their most iconic characters. So today, we’re taking a look at what makes this game so fun even in the modern day. It’s aged very well!

When you first boot up Donkey Kong for the Game Boy (it doesn’t even have an official unique name!), it gives the impression that it’s a simple port of the arcade original. And in a way, it is – you start out on the same three levels present in the arcade and NES versions of Donkey Kong. But after you reach Donkey Kong in the fourth level, you’ll learn that it’s actually a fake-out. From there, the real game begins. This isn’t a simple port of the arcade classic at all, as it turns out, because from here there are over 100 new levels to play across nine different themed worlds. Not to mention the world themes are plenty unique – you do have your typical forests and deserts, but there’s also an airplane world, a big city world, and a shipyard world.

Donkey Kong 94’s levels aren’t just jumping over barrels, though. Basically, every level has a key that you have to pick up and use to unlock the exit door. It’s never that simple, though, because there are collectibles along the way plus plenty of challenges to get in your way. In this game, Mario can do much more than just jump. He can perform a handstand, launch himself off of wires, do backflips, and more. So even though he moves rather slowly in this game, you have a ton of mobility options at your disposal and all of them are required to clear certain levels. There are also quite a few unique death animations for Mario, too, so you may at least get a little chuckle out of his misfortune whenever you lose a life. As you might expect, the starting levels are very easy, but toward the end of the game the standard levels feature some surprisingly challenging puzzles. Donkey Kong ’94 also includes plenty of boss battles. Most of these are easy and simple, but a few of them are interesting and fun — Donkey Kong Jr. appears in some of them, which is rare to see considering the character has been completely discontinued in the modern day. The game’s final boss is creative and fun, too, and there are often three or more boss battles per world to add some variety.

The game isn’t perfect, but it’s very, very good. There’s some minor lag here and there when lots of enemies are on-screen, which is the slightest bit annoying but it’s also par for the course for Game Boy games. Some of the later levels also have invisible exit doors; when you start the level, you have to pay attention for the first two seconds to see where it is, or else you’ll have to aimlessly wander around holding the key until you happen to remember where the door is. It’s also a shame that Nintendo didn’t give the option to play the Super Game Boy version of the game, which has better colors than the Game Boy Color version.

But these flaws really don’t hold Donkey Kong back all that much. There’s an absolutely huge amount of content on offer here for a Game Boy game, and it must’ve been a great experience to take a game like this on the go back in the day. Even given its age, it’s a fun and accessible title even when played today. Aside from a couple of tricky levels, you’ll never need a walkthrough for this one – it’s very easy to pick up and play in short bursts, and so it comes highly recommended. It’s actually rather strange that this game isn’t discussed more – it’s probably because it’s only been re-released on Nintendo platforms twice, and one of those times was at the very beginning of the 3DS’ life span. Maybe it got overshadowed by all of the 3DS’ signature games that released soon after?

In any case, what are your thoughts on Donkey Kong ’94? Have you already played it, or are you giving it a shot for the first time soon? Let us know in the comments down below, and if you want to learn more about the standard Nintendo Switch Online subscription that lets you play this game, you can do so over at the official site.