I've already written at some length about the NES version of the original Donkey Kong, and I won't waste space rehashing those ideas here, but suffice it to say that while I appreciate a great deal about this game, it's not one for which I'm overly reverent. It was, in my estimation at least, simply the first domino in Nintendo's long history of producing games that were ultimately much better than Donkey Kong. But still, that's a pretty important position to occupy -- making it all the weirder that Nintendo has such a spotty history when it comes to preserving this game.
For reasons unknown, the 1983 Famicom release (and 1986 NES release) excised the second stage of the arcade version, which features treadmill-like conveyor belts that can fling uncareful players off the edge of the map. Perhaps the variable player speed created by the conveyor belts caused issues on the home console. Perhaps, as Nintendo has claimed, there wasn't enough space on the cartridge for the entire game. (This claim strikes me as dubious, given that Donkey Kong Jr. boasted the same file size and had no levels cut. It was released on Famicom the same day as Donkey Kong.) Perhaps Nintendo simply wanted to make home-console gamers feel there was still a good reason to play Donkey Kong at the arcade. Who knows?
At any rate, Nintendo decided to finally make the game available in its original version with Donkey Kong: Original Edition on 3DS. Surely this would be the definitive home release, right? Well...
The good news is that stage 2 is back in the game. But unfortunately, most of the animations and interstitial scenes cut from the NES version -- such as the pre-stage image of an orangutan-looking version of DK who asks, "How high can you get?" -- are not. From watching videos of the arcade original on YouTube, it's clear that item and enemy placements are different here as well. By all appearances, this game is simply a romhack of the NES port as opposed to an earnest attempt at emulating the arcade version. Pretty disappointing!
For reasons unknown, the 1983 Famicom release (and 1986 NES release) excised the second stage of the arcade version, which features treadmill-like conveyor belts that can fling uncareful players off the edge of the map. Perhaps the variable player speed created by the conveyor belts caused issues on the home console. Perhaps, as Nintendo has claimed, there wasn't enough space on the cartridge for the entire game. (This claim strikes me as dubious, given that Donkey Kong Jr. boasted the same file size and had no levels cut. It was released on Famicom the same day as Donkey Kong.) Perhaps Nintendo simply wanted to make home-console gamers feel there was still a good reason to play Donkey Kong at the arcade. Who knows?
At any rate, Nintendo decided to finally make the game available in its original version with Donkey Kong: Original Edition on 3DS. Surely this would be the definitive home release, right? Well...
The good news is that stage 2 is back in the game. But unfortunately, most of the animations and interstitial scenes cut from the NES version -- such as the pre-stage image of an orangutan-looking version of DK who asks, "How high can you get?" -- are not. From watching videos of the arcade original on YouTube, it's clear that item and enemy placements are different here as well. By all appearances, this game is simply a romhack of the NES port as opposed to an earnest attempt at emulating the arcade version. Pretty disappointing!