User:Czar/drafts/DK94

Donkey Kong '94, officially titled without the year, is a puzzle video game remake of the 1981 Donkey Kong for Nintendo's Game Boy handheld console.

Gameplay
The game's first four levels are the same four from the original 1981 arcade game, but after those ten minutes, instead of repeating the loop of four stages at a higher difficulty, the game opens up to a map of new stages with similar gameplay mechanics but a heavier emphasis on puzzles. There are over 100 levels that introduce new obstacles and more challenging means for reaching Donkey Kong. Nintendo enhanced Mario with skills that had been associated with his character in the decade since his introduction in the original Donkey Kong. Mario was more athletic. The character could withstand longer falls, toss barrels, and perform handstands and handsprings to reach new heights. The player could throw Mario's hammer airborne, climb to a new platform, and catch the hammer to continue hitting barrels. He could also carry items, as in Super Mario Bros. 2.

Development
The Nintendo EAD team developed the game. Donkey Kong had not been featured in a game since the 1983 Donkey Kong 3, despite a tease of 1987 vaporware Return of Donkey Kong.

Nintendo's motivations for making the game are not publicly known.

The game was released in June 1994.

Legacy
Retrospective reviewers noted their surprise at seeing new levels beyond the original four.

Parish: "masterpiece"

Jeremy Parish (USgamer) wrote that when remaking the decade-dormant franchise, Donkey Kong '94 served as a counterpart to Donkey Kong Country, as the latter updated the franchise with cutting-edge visuals while the former presented a "faithful remake". Donkey Kong Country received far more promotion and proved more consequential for Nintendo's business. Parish wrote that the game was "doomed to obscurity". He described the Game Boy as using technology a decade out of date by 1994, and said that the game "looked even more primitive" than the 1981 original, especially as it appeared to have identical gameplay. The game included the cement factory level once cut from the original NES release, but Parish noted that it wasn't a strong selling point. He wrote that while extra Donkey Kong stages would have been more compelling in the 1980s than in the 90s, the puzzle additions "hid big ideas beneath a deceptively humble façade". Parish noted that some of Mario's new skills would resurface in the 1996 Super Mario 64. But writing 20 years after Donkey Kong '94 release, Parish acknowledged that the lesser known game "played as brilliantly as ever" while time revealed Donkey Kong Country to be an "unexceptional platformer".