Around fifty years after its birth, an American classic movie from the 30's, King Kong, becomes alive in the small arcade monitors all over the world... Lots of Japanese culture experts say Japanese have a strange attitude: importing things and facts from the "western" culture and... improve them! Who would ever figure that someone in the Far East would grab such an old black & white movie and use it to bring an extremely innovative concept to life?

Time is 1981. At Nintendo's they were great experts in producing playing cards, and they were trying to enter the videogames industry: that was future knocking on a 100 century years old factory's doors. The idea is to take the old American classic, add a few platforms, a funny-looking hero and a beautiful girl to save... and that's it: the game's ready! ...and in a while they are alive: a few characters who will change the videogames history once and forever. There's a true storyboard (for the first time in a videogame) where characters fight one each other, and the story continues in further videogames/chapters of the saga.

Lots of things have been done about the kong's name. Donkey Kong... how could an ape be called like a donkey? Few people hold that it was a mistake made by Nintendo of Japan's marketing empolyees. By the way, the name and its story have become such popular as Mario's.

And here's what's happened. A really huge kong kidnapped Pauline, a pretty blonde, took her to the tallest skycraper in New York City and then begun throwing oil barrels down... poor Mario, an Italian brave guy who worked as a carpenter, accepts the challenge and goes hunting the kong in order to save Pauline and knock the Kong down.

That's all folks... the plot might look very trivial but... do any of you remember any videogame from 1981 having a plot? I don't think there are any... And this is a great innovation: the videogamer feels like being a moustached, fat carpenter trying to climb the scycraper.

The game takes place on four different kind of stages: in three of which you have to climb up all platforms and reach for the imprisoned girl - who keeps on shouting for help. The final stage is a sort of "last battle" where our hero finally frees Pauline and conquers her heart.

The first stage consists of climbing a group of oblique beams, connected through ladders, and filled with rolling oil barrels which Donkey Kong throws down vigorous. He sometimes throws blue barrels moving as if they were crazy which fall down as fast as light to the bottom of the skycraper and catching fire as they hurt a flaming oil tank. An animated flame comes out and starts climbing the skycraper in seek of Mario!

In stage "type two" Mario has to climb platforms by the aid of elevators going up and down... beware of not falling down! Also a couple of hunter flames make this stage very hard... and what about Donkey Kong? He can't stand still there, and throws jumping iron beams against Mario! This is probably the hardest stage of all.

Stage three takes place in a furnace with conveyor belts taking pies back and forth (pies... pies inside of a skycraper?!?). The furnace is a true danger for Mario, since he runs the risk of falling inside of it. There are also plenty of hunter flames and be also aware of not stumbling in the pies. Also, the topmost platform is accessible through moving ladders, and Donkey Kong moves left and right on it, making it quite hard to reach.

And we're finally there... the final act when Mario has to clear eight hooks holding four platforms where Donkey Kong stands. Hunter flames are everywhere now, and they are also very quick! All Mario has to do is climbing ladders up and down and grab both hammers and... the ape will finally fall down and Pauline will thank Mario in a very special way. Now it's time to start again at a higher difficulty level! An important difference between American and Japanese versions of the game is that levels are ordered in a completely different way.

Stages are enriched by a few peculiar items, among wich hammers are the most important of all: they allow young Mario to smash objects in front of him for a limited time (around 30 seconds). But beware: he can't climb ladders while holding a hammer in his hands! Other items as purses, umbrellas and hats have been left on the way by Pauline, and they provie nothing but bonus points. More bonus points are provided by smashing or jumping barrels, pies and flames, and an additional bonus is given at every time a stage is completed, depending on time left.

Tecnically speaking, the product is well refined: sprites, items, background musics and sound effects, the characters niceness bring such a high quality to this game, it became a model for the whole generation of further videogames. Also, each time you complete a stage, a screen appears showing how many metres you made Mario climb, from 25 to 150... that's a small touch of class contributing to create such a great atmosphere!