We’ve actually got two games for the Virtual Console this week. One features one of Nintendo’s biggest mascots, while the other is a non fighting Neo*Geo game. Let’s take a look at the Kliq’s thought on Donkey Kong 3 and Ninja Commando!
Donkey Kong 3
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Genre: Platformer
Original Release Date: 07/04/1984 (1983 for the Arcade Version)
Cost: 500 Wii Points:
Guy Desmarais:
In my opinion (and probably everybody else’s), it’s the worst Donkey Kong game of all time. I don’t know how I am supposed to be entertained by blowing bug spray up a gorilla’s ass until he shoves his head in a bee’s nest, but apparently, the designers had a good enough time with it to justify a worldwide release. When compared to the original Donkey Kong as well as to the absolutely exquisite Donkey Kong Jr., DK3 looks even worse than it would on its own, because it makes you realize how badly they screwed up a sequel that had two great games to build on. It’s as if after releasing the first two Star Wars, Lucas decided that Luke Skywalker was to stop using his lightsaber and instead try to tickle Vader and Palpatine until they threw themselves down the pit on the Death Star. There’s no reason why you should be buying this, unless you have a weird fetish for pumping fumes into an ape’s bum.
Mark B
Donkey Kong 3 is a very interesting game; after the original saw Jumpman-nee-Mario jumping and climbing a building to save his girlfriend Pauline, and the sequel saw Junior trying to save his dad, now you’re a gardener named Stanley who’s trying to chase Donkey Kong out of your greenhouse with a bug sprayer.
Yeah.
The game plays okay, and it’s cute, but it just doesn’t feel like Donkey Kong, as it’s less “platformer” and more “shooter”, leaving it to feel something like Space Invaders with a giant ape. It’s still cute and fun, though, so if you’ve never played it, it’s not a bad VC game to download.
Chris Bowen
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Wait, they’re serious? Ah, figures, these are the same people that thought Donkey Kong Jr. Math would be a fantastic download. Either way, this is a shooter masquerading as something it’s not – IE, a Donkey Kong game – and the one memorable moment from the arcade version – all the bugs swarming on your character’s body as he gets waxed and leaving nothing but his spray gun – was censored from the NES version, so this one gets a pass from me.
Nate Birch
Huh, I’m actually kind of surprised Nintendo hadn’t squeezed this one out onto the VC yet. It kind of tells you how well this game is regarded when Donkey Kong Jr. Math got released before it.
I actually don’t hate DK3. It’s fun, but it’s also perhaps the 2nd shallowest title Nintendo ever made next to Urban Champion.
Alex Lucard
Never liked it. Never will. Boring, repetitive and utterly uninteresting.
Ninja Commando
Publisher: SNK
Developer: SNK
Genre: Action
Original Release Date:05/29/1992
Cost: 900 Wii Points
Alex Lucard
Oh yeah baby. It’s still pretty after all these years. This is a nice little run n’ gun ala Ikari Warriors, Contra and the like. It’s got amazing graphics for the time period, a lot of fast paced action, and it’s near Metal Slug quality. I’m glad to see this is released, but hey, Japan got SHINING FORCE II and SPLATTERHOUSE II. Why aren’t we getting those?
Mark B.
Ninja Commando is a case where all you want to say is “THANK GOD” because it’s not on the SNK Arcade Classics Collection, and thus it might be worth paying money for. It’s not bad, either; it’s basically Ikari Warriors with ninjas, and while it’s not as amusing as something like Shock Troopers, and while it’s not a perfect game (it shows its age and has some control oddities, we shall say), for $9 it’s pure fun that’s amusing to play and lets you blow up stuff with friends, and as such, it’s entertaining.
Chris Bowen
Well, at least it’s not on the damned compilation. Either way, this is a rarity: a Neo-Geo game I wholeheartedly recommend. As Lucard noted, it’s a great little run-‘n-gunner that will remind first-glancers of Shock Troopers, one of my favourite Sh’mups of all time. Easily worth $9.
Guy Desmarais
Wow. Never knew there was a game featuring a Ninja ALSO being a commando AT THE SAME TIME. I would have worked much harder selling lemonade as a kid to get that.
Nate Birch
And Nintendo continues to blow, blow, BLOW OUT their stock of Neo*Geo games where you kick and punch things.
Closing
As we see, neither game truly wowed us here at DHGF. At least some of us liked Ninja Commando when it first came out, but I was surprised that everyone shared my disdain for Donkey Kong 3.
It’s been a bit of a drought as of late. Hopefully next week we can get a game that the majority of us thinks is a must buy.
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