It's Double Vision time again! Now that we're done with the Intellivision, it's time for the Colecovision!
We start off with what is probably one of the most faithful home adaptations of Donkey Kong. But does better graphics mean a better experience?
In case you've never picked up the game, here's the story: a giant ape named Donkey Kong has kidnapped Mario's girlfriend Paulina, and Mario has to get her back. On his quest, he'll have to jump over barrels, avoid fireballs, take down barrels and fireballs with hammers, jump from one platform to another, and try not to get killed by enemies or jumping from too high a height. You should also avoid the tops and bottoms of elevators (in the third stage) as well as touching Donkey Kong himself.
Your object is to reach Paulina. When you do, Donkey Kong just takes her away. On the steel girder stage where Donkey Kong stands at the top and just does nothing, you'll be dealing with fireballs while pulling out the rivets that hold the girders together. This is usually the last stage where Donkey Kong falls and hurts himself, and Mario and Paulina are reunited before the game restarts at a slightly harder difficulty than before.
Unlike most of the home ports, the Colecovision version has three levels: the first stage, the final girder state where you pick up all of the rivets that hold the platforms together, and then the third stage involving the elevator platforms and the springs that takes place before the finale.
The first thing you'll notice is that the graphics are really good for a Colecovision game, especially one that is a home port of an arcade game of the times. Mario looks just like he does in the arcade version, and while Donkey Kong doesn't look exactly the same, he has the same color scheme as his coin-op counterpart.
The collision detection on the hammers is really iffy. You have to jump at them from an angle in order to grab them, and you can fall through them even when Mario's head clearly goes through it. Unlike the arcade version, where a barrel can touch Mario while he has the hammer and still kill him, the barrels simply disappear when they touch Mario and not the hammer. This is extremely noticeable when you're holding a hammer in the girder stage and one of the fireballs disappear as soon as it touches Mario's feet. This takes some getting used to.
Another thing worth noticing is that the special animations for reaching the end of the first level, dying and beating the rivets stage are gone. Also, the animations from whenever a fireball or barrel is destroyed with a hammer are also gone. Instead, whatever you whack simply disappears.
In the third stage, the springs that usually hop onto the stage from behind Donkey Kong, go right and drop off the platform are gone. I guess they couldn't program them in correctly...who knows?
When you beat the third stage, you'll keep getting the three stages in random order until the game ends, with the rivet
Anyway, do I recommend this game? Well, it's pretty good. There are the issues involving the hammer, and climbing the ladders as climbing them is pretty slow at times. Also, the cement factory stage (the true second stage) isn't available, but other than the arcade-perfect version in Donkey Kong 64 as well as the NES version-based "Original Version," when isn't it available?
Anyway, it's a solid port. Pick it up if you see it. You won't regret it, especially when there are versions of the game that are much worse.
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