Have you ever heard anyone under 40 tell you they're a fan of Donkey Kong Jr? They're full of it.

There's superficial reasons to be fond of Jr, clearly. The "Junior" sequel concept is a charming piece of 80s ephemera, and it's arguable that there was no better mark of Miyamoto's early success than when his concept had a direct influence on the franchise he was initially inspired by. It's also more Donkey Kong, and it plays similarly to the first game. You can picture the arcade scene as Donkey Kong veterans developed techniques and shared strategies. That was an era when hard games were in vogue. I remember the old guard's lukewarm response to Sonic 1 because it didn't take a full week of retries to get through Scrap Brain Zone. Of course they liked Donkey Kong Jr.

The thing is, Jr isn't nearly as coherent as Donkey Kong. You can look at a Donkey Kong screen and intuitively know what to do. Even the Pie Factory doesn't take much trial and error to figure out. In Junior, everything moves constantly. So much of this lush, natural jungle is operated on conveyor belts and pulley systems. You'll lose so many Credits as you figure out the routes and precise timing required to get through each screen. Just be glad Mario is a hero these days. He makes quite a vindictive villain.

I think the central hook of Donkey Kong Jr. are the vines. They're fun to work with. Hold one and you'll climb half-speed, while climbing with one in each hand gives you twice the speed while making you vulnerable to twice as many Snapjaws. They feel like the game's core innovation. I kind of wish they had a little more focus here, though. This was still the age of QIX and Pipemania. Simple games with one core mechanic that could be explored through increasingly challenging levels in a snappy, satisfying little game. Tying this to Donkey Kong comes with the expectation of variety though, and no other idea in the game is nearly as much fun to work with. Most of the time, it feels like Ice Climber horseshit. There's a good chance this game will remain a struggle for you well after your tenth playthrough.

They became one of the most reliable publishers in the industry immediately afterwards, but a Nintendo success in the early 80s was a rare gem. Try five random pre-Super Mario Bros titles from them, and feel your respect for Balloon Fight grow immeasurably. Alongside Clu Clu Land and Urban Champion, you can see why Donkey Kong Junior used to be one of the safest Famicom purchases. If you learn all the tricks, you might appreciate the higher difficulty. Once you become familiar with the original game, you can play through its three or four levels over and over again without trying. Its algorithms are too predictable, and your strategies become iron-clad. Junior has bullshit with a moving vine that's only graspable for a split-second, and Nintendo's worst trampoline ever.

Of course, it's fair to have affection for Donkey Kong Junior. We all like seeing him driving a funny little car in Super Mario Kart. It doesn't live up to the original, though. It's easy to see why Nintendo were so eager to run away from it once its original generation of arcade fans grew bored of it. Mario Bros has become the real sequel, and it's a far superior platformer, exploring the potential of running and jumping far more compellingly. These days, Mario is nice, Donkey Kong is nice, Nintendo make good games. Let's just forget this ever happened.

Honestly I kinda like this one even if it took a couple of rounds to really have it click with me. The vine climbing mechanic is an excellent way of de-emphasising the really janky jumping controls that continue over from the original Donkey Kong, and the spots where they have to be used feel a lot more fair due to the way it's all telegraphed significantly more clearly than before. My favourite thing here really is the level design and the way they're each able to accomplish such different things that all play into the nuances that even a game this simplistic can have, taking full advantage of every capability of the player in the higher difficulty levels especially. There doesn't feel like a waste of space on that front this time around where a single level will feel like a pointless time sink or something relatively redundant, each bringing their own unique challenges to the table.

The first stage does a great job at setting the game up for the player, requiring them to fully utilise and understand the limitations of their mobility while also needing to properly understand the patterns of the small crocodile things. Meanwhile, the 2nd level's greater focus on more precise, timing based sections is an amazing example of risk-reward, not just with a nicely timed spring jump allowing you to skip half the level, but with the entire final section being one you can either take methodically or make it through guns blazing if you pick the right moment. The final 2 levels are really chaotic but in a way that plays to the strengths of the game mostly, with the platforming challenges of level 3 being ones that are telegraphed and predictable, but often balanced the out by having a lot going on in order to force the player to pick the right moment and pay constant attention. This feels significantly better compared to the more reaction focused gameplay that dominated the original Donkey Kong's core experience, as the entirely committal jump arcs and the generally sluggish, clunky movement made it pretty frustrating to die to something that you could only see becoming a problem a split second ago.

This more reaction-heavy gameplay is instead reserved for the final level and its big focus on the climbing mechanics, which I personally find to be a really fun experience in comparison due to the way it all works. The completely frantic nature of having to be dodging so many birds while constantly making decisions about whether holding onto two vines for better upward climbing speed or whether you instead want to sacrifice this for a quick drop down to avoid something is a neat dynamic that is really engaging once you become experienced enough at the game that the slightest daunting situation is no longer instant death. I think it would have been cool to see a game on the NES that took from this vine climbing gameplay style but applied it to the conventions of a home console experience as opposed to an arcade one, because I feel like there was some decent potential here to craft some more intricate, long levels to elevate the systems at play here that the arcade structure does not accomplish. I'd have also liked this even more if there weren't a couple of spots that felt like pretty consistent run killers for frustrating reasons, the little runways at the end of the first 3 stages especially, where the precision you required to get over the enemies felt a bit too much. Still, pretty pleasantly surprised with this one, definitely a fun game to put on for about an hour once in a while even if I also find it to get a bit overly repetitive pretty quickly too.

Donkey Kong Jr. feels like the one that's easy to pick on. Maybe it depends on the person but as someone who likes to watch people do Youtube videos on old games, I usually see this one not praised much.

I can totally see why though, if there's one thing DK Jr. suffers from is the fact that the levels aren't too creative and have a path you usually always go through. I will say the mechanics for the game are pretty good and a great way to differentiate from the first game.

Despite some of the hate I've seen, I still enjoy it. In fact I'd say I like it more then the first DK game on the Famicom. I think a big reason for it is because this game's port actually keeps all four levels which makes it feel more complete to me. I've also just always felt more satisfied playing this one. The vine movement is pretty good and it's way better then Mario's slow ladder climbing.

Of the three launch games of the Famicom, this has to be my favorite. While it's barely higher then the original DK game for me, it's still a game I rather replay to get a high score for if I was given the chance. It's a shame Junior wouldn't find too much success after this game. He's only in like four other games on the top of my head and three of them are spinoffs.

Oh ho ho, getting slightly better there DK arcade games.


I mean it’s an improvement from the first one, there’s a bit more to the controls, general platforming has some more unique things to it and HOLY MOLY THERE’S 4 LEVELS INSTEAD OR 3.
Aside from that stuff though, yeah it’s still pretty barebones, but this doesn’t have as much of an excuse because it didn’t really revolutionize games kinda like the original did.


Onto Donkey Kong 3……….I’ll see y’all again in like 15-20 minutes.