The History of ‘Donkey Kong’ Ports is the History of the Gaming Industry

When Shigeru Miyamoto created “Donkey Kong,” he not only inadvertently created a reliable mascot for his parent company in the then-unnamed “Mario” (“Jumpman”). He produced another flexible character — the titular Kong — who would go on to shift roles from villain to kidnappee to hero across four decades of games. Titles starring the simian and his kin would prove foundational to another practice as old as video games themselves: porting a pre-existing game to another console.

[PhoenixUp]

I’m kind of disappointed this article didn’t bring up the Donkey Kong Land series at all or even the GBA ports of the DKC trilogy.

[FallenAngel1984]

“But more interesting are those ports that result in fundamental changes to the game itself, providing new life to what had become just another old thing on the growing heap of history.”

What’s not interesting is when ports of years old games get sold for full price when they don’t offer much over the original version. It’s truly appalling when after you see Ratchet & Clank, Crash Bandicoot, Shadow of the Colossus, & Spyro the Dragon receive remakes that are built from the ground up with massive overhauls yet be sold for $40 each while DKC: TF which doesn’t add much outside of an easy mode gets sold for more than what the original costed. Speaking of the original it’s even more shady it got delisted from the eShop.

“But it does fall in line with the character’s, and his company’s, long history of bringing the dead back to life.”

Nintendo does have a habit of doing that. Golden Sun, Kid Icarus, Metroid, Pikmin, Star Fox, Mother, Punch Out, Sin & Punishment are examples I canclidy off the top of my head. Wonder what other dormant IP of theirs could get revived next.