Crazy Kong

The Good
Donkey Kong was Nintendo's popular arcade game from the early Eighties. My first glimpse of the game was not from the coin-op, but from the miniature version that you can place on a table and play. As with popular arcade games of the time, minor companies began to produce unofficial versions for home computers, and some of them were absolute crap, including this one from Interceptor Software.

This version looks, feels, and plays like DK, except that you have to collect all the diamonds as you make your way to the top. Otherwise, you lose a life and have to try again.

The Bad
The characters are drawn badly. Kong, for example, looks as if he is wearing a tight gym outfit. Meanwhile, your character cannot turn left or right, so he is facing you the entire game. Also, he acts as if he's stepping on hot coals. Also, colliding into any hazard results in your character being an corrupted mess. Get the hammer (which doesn't look like a hammer at all), and it is likely that you can reach the top platform with it, even if you get one from the starting platform.

Missing girlfriend aside, almost every level in the game also presents their fair share of problems. In level two, tiny barrels roll off the top platform down toward you, but some appear to go left or right along the conveyor belts; and in level four, you have to use an elevator to get to the other platforms. Unfortunately, you have to jump on it from a certain distance, otherwise you just fall through it an die.

The sounds? Well, they are uninteresting, to say the least. Seems that the best way the author can award the player for getting a high score or complete a level is to play a single note in increased pitches, as well as flashing colors in someone's face.

The Bottom Line
Crazy Kong is just an awful DK clone. The graphics and sound are bad, and the horrendous gameplay is so difficult that it is likely that you will lose a life trying to complete a level. With Interceptor bringing out excellent clones of Frogger and Apple Panic, they could have done better here. Avoid.