Year released: ? (Arcade), 1985 (NES)

Number of Players: 1-2 taking turns

Donkey Kong has Mario's love... help the construction worker defeat his pet!

Graphics: The black background never fails to be bleak, and all of the sprites are horridly simplistic. However, I can't deny that this was acceptable at the time. There's even a bit of quaintness in such simplicity.

Play control: If you've ever played another Mario game, forget it. Mario has zip jumping ability and is kinda slow, which is especially troublesome for some of the jumps required. This just gives the game more challenge, though, and it's quite easy to get used to this older scheme. Just don't forget that if you fall too far, you die!

Sound: The sound that Mario's footsteps make is almost humorous. Other than that, it's boring bleeps and bloops. Oh, yeah, you might recognize the music that plays when Mario gets the hammer from its more recent appearance in the Super Smash Brothers games.

Challenge: Mario has almost no ability, so going up against a huge ape with the workings of a construction site (and some fireballs) on his side is pretty hard. Once you beat it once, though, you can probably snap your fingers just as fast as you can beat it again. Not to mention that there are only four stages.

Gameplay: As mentioned above, you're not playing as the Mario we all know and love, but rather, a normal guy. This makes gameplay really awkward until you get fully used to it. Nothing really spectacular here... just a few obstacles and then you're out of there. You don't even fight Donkey Kong, you just disassemble a construction site which he stands on. Pretty shallow stuff.

Bottom line: Don't expect anything that can grab your attention for a while like Pinball, but rather, something you can just pull out when you have a few minutes to kill.

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