Kong

The Good
The sound effects are good. I quite liked the startup sound that plays. Also, when the game loads up, the high scores are displayed, and the list of controls are handy. Keyboard and joystick is supported. The standard VIC-20 text is double-heighted, and this also looks good.

The Bad
The cover is poorly designed, with a bland title to kick it off; it looks like someone designed this in the Seventies. I also have an issue with the gorilla. He looks like he doesn’t belong in the game at all. His right fist, in which he is holding ”Mario’s” girlfriend, is sticking out of his chest instead of being separated from him.   Gameplay wise, the first thing I noticed is that the sprites don’t look like what is on the front cover; “Mario” and the princess look exactly like each other, and the gorilla doesn’t look aggressive at all. The whole game is choppy, and there are hardly any animations. “Mario” doesn’t even turn right when he holds the hammer.

As far as the levels are concerned, the first two are the same, except the platforms are different colors. There is a lift on level three, but it is quite difficult to get on and off without falling down and losing a life. I can’t comment on the remaining levels, as I didn’t get beyond level three.

The Bottom Line
When Nintendo’s popular game hit the arcades in the early Eighties, smaller companies like Anirog scrambled to make unofficial versions before actual ports were released on a multitude of platforms, and these unofficial versions went under strange names. Krazy Kong is one of these and it is a poor attempt at Donkey Kong, featuring a bad-looking cover, poor graphics, and no animations. Its behavior resembles that of Coleco's handheld version, and its only saving grace is the sound and the information screens at the beginning. If you want a real DK port, you might as well save your money up and buy the actual arcade machine.