Released in the arcades in 1981, Donkey Kong was not only Nintendo's first real smash hit for the company, but marked the introduction for two of their most popular mascots: Mario (originally "Jumpman") and Donkey Kong.

Donkey Kong is a platform-action game that has Mario scale four different industrial themed levels (construction zone, cement factory, an elevator-themed level, and removing rivets from girders) in an attempt to save the damsel in distress, Pauline, from the big ape before the timer runs out. Once the rivets are removed from the final level, Donkey Kong falls, and the two lovers are reunited. From there, the levels start over at a higher difficulty.

Along the way, Mario must dodge a constant stream of barrels, "living" fireballs, and spring-weights. Although not as powerful as in other future games, Mario can find a hammer which allows him to destroy the barrels and fireballs for a limited amount of time. Additionally, Mario can also find Pauline's hat, purse and umbrella for additional bonus points.

Donkey Kong is also notable for being one of the first complete narratives in video game form, told through simplistic cut scenes that advance the story. It should also be noted that in versions of the game for early 1980's consoles, Donkey Kong only used 2-3 of the original levels, with the cement factory usually omitted.

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Alternate Titles

"Donkey Kong-e" -- e-Reader Title
"DK" -- Common Abbreviation
"Crazy Kong" -- Donkey Kong's name in Japan
"ドンキーコング" -- Japanese Spelling

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Part of the Following Groups

Merchant	Title
	Donkey Kong
	Donkey Kong
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User Reviews

A pale imitation, but there's still some fun to be had.	Atari 2600	Bob Montgomery (457)
You Can't Go Wrong With Donkey Kong, But....	Game Boy Advance	Guy Chapman (1718)
Great Graphics Don't Make Up For Horrible Gameplay	Atari 2600	Mu77etOfDeath (613)

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The Press Says

Computer Games	Atari 8-bit	Feb, 1984	A	100
The Video Game Critic	ColecoVision	Mar 12, 2000	A-	91
The Video Game Critic	Atari 7800	Jan 26, 2000	B+	83
VideoGame	Atari 2600	Jun, 1991		80
Game Freaks 365	Atari 2600	2000	7 out of 10	70
The Video Game Critic	Atari 2600	Jul 14, 2001	B-	67
Cheat Code Central	Game Boy Advance	2004	2.5 out of 5	50
Abandonia	PC Booter	Apr 15, 2008	2 out of 5	40
Jeuxvideo.com	Game Boy Advance	Jul 13, 2004	5 out of 20	25
The Video Game Critic	Intellivision	Sep 17, 2000	D-	16

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Trivia

The arcade version of Donkey Kong released in 1981 originally featured four levels. Due to memory limitations on the NES version pak, the pak had led to the removal of the Pie Factory level (which would have been level 2).

Today the only way to play the game with the four levels is to play the game in its old arcade form. However the game can also be played as one of the challenges in Donkey Kong 64.

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This entry was contributed by Corn Popper (66128), Trixter