Donkey Kong Jr.

About Donkey Kong Jr.
When Donkey Kong Jr. showed up in the arcades in 1982, it demonstrated Shigeru Miyamoto's ability to not only create a sequel in terms of game play, but a spiritual successor in terms of story. Donkey Kong Jr. wasn't a traditional follow up to other popular arcade games that featured the same play with some enhancements. Jr. told the next chapter in the ongoing saga between Mario and Donkey Kong, and introduced Kong's son as the new hero. With four new diverse settings, Donkey Kong Jr. expanded the Mario universe in a harmonious way.

Story
This time around, Mario is not the hero but the would-be villain (although you can't blame good hearted Mario for being upset with Donkey Kong for trying to steal his girlfriend.) Once Mario caught Donkey Kong, he imprisoned him in a cage. Whatever he is planning on doing with him, Donkey Kong Jr. must rescue his father before he finds out. Climbing from the bottom of each stage to top before time runs out, while Mario keeps Donkey Kong just out of reach until Jr. can find a way to free papa once and for all.

Donkey Kong Jr.
You play as Donkey Kong's son, Junior. You control Junior with the direction pad. Pushing left and right will make Junior run left or right, and also allows him to grab on to nearby vines or chains and shimmy over to them. Pushing up or down allows Junior to climb up vines or chains, or drop down from them. Junior climbs up vines faster when he holds a different one in each hand as opposed to same vine, but he drops down faster when he only holds on to one. Pushingthe A button causes Junior to jump. He can jump straight up, or do a running jump in either direction. If there is a vine above him, he will grab on to it. If Junior ever touches a fruit, either by climber, or jumping, he will cause it to drop straight down, taking out any enemies below him for an increasing number of bonus points.

Donkey Kong
Here is your humbled father, once the proud pillager of beautiful carpenters' girlfriends, now captive in Mario's cage. Junior must reach the key at the top of the first three stages in an effort to rescue him, but only by pushing all the keys in to their locks in the final stage can Junior ultimately free his father.

Mario
In his only recorded appearance as a villain, Mario's second game pits him against the player by spawning enemies that track Junior down, or run interference on Junior's way to rescue his father. Mario has a wide arsenal at his disposal, but other than pushing Donkey Kong out of Junior's reach, he remains fairly passive throughout the game.

Snapjaw
These are the first dangers that Junior will encounter. Red snapjaws are intelligent but slow, patrolling their given area and refusing to fall off of vines to their doom. Blue snapjaws on the other hand are quick but dumb, following one path until they drop off the bottom of the screen. Touching one is lethal to Junior. His only alternatives are to jump over them, drop a fruit on them, or avoid them entirely.

Nitpicker
Like the Snapjaws, Nitpickers come in two flavors. The smaller Nitpickers show up in the second stage and the large Nitpickers show up in the final stage. Nitpickers fly away from Mario and swoop down one level to attack Junior. Small Nitpickers choose one of three altitudes to fly at and fly off the screen while Large Nitpickers zig zag their way down to the bottom of the screen before disappearing. Small Nitpickers occasionally take the opportunity to drop an egg on the lower level of the stage that must be avoided.

Sparks
Sparksappear in the third stage,Mario's electrical hideout. Red sparks carefully follow the circuits they start on and never venture from their loop. Mario sends blue sparks after Junior which follow the alternate electrical paths down to the bottom of the screen. They will randomly choose one of the four pathways from the top of the stage, so beware. Touching a spark results in the lose of Junior's life, so jump over them but pay attention to the sparks flying overhead.

Stage 1 - Vines
In the first stage, Junior starts out in the lower left corner and must make his way to the vines on the far right side of the screen before crossing over the branch back to the left. To start out, Junior must grab the vines above him, and climb up to one of the two ledges to his right. He can jump to the next vine from either ledge, where he must fall down to the tree top below. Carefully jump right from one tree top to the next before grabbing the fourth vine from the right. Climb up above the right ledge and maneuver Junior over to the far right vines. Climb up and on to the branch above. Jump over any snapjaws that pose a threat and leap up to the higher section of the branch before leaping for the key and ending the stage. Along the way, the pear and apple fruit prizes should be plucked with ease, and if you have time, it pays to eliminate any of the red snapjaws since they won't come back. The banana is in a precarious position and should only be plucked if time and safety permits.

Stage 2 - Springboard
This stage earns it's name by hosting a springboard at the bottom of the screen. It's purpose is to provide Junior with a shortcut. Ordinarily, Junior must jump on the springboard to reach the tree top on the opposite side. Then he must ride the moving platform to the right and climb up the chains beneath the pulley. He must step on to a ledge which is placed directly beneath the point that small nitpickers like to lay eggs, so watch out. Then he must jump to the left to reach the first hold. When the small platform is beneath him, he must drop down and let it carry him to the next hold which rises and falls. If Junior uses the springboard as a shortcut, he can move directly from the start to this small ledge by pressing the jump button at precisely the moment when he hits the springboard, and he will launch up to the small platform immediately. Junior can only jump up and grab the second hold when it is in it's lowest position. Once he safely has it, he must reach left and grab the chains that extend below the pulley line. After pulling himself up, he must navigate through the gauntlet of small nitpickers to reach the chains on the right side, where he must climb up a little further to reach the branch. Jumping over the gap in the branch, and timing his jumps to ensure that he doesn't collide with any birds, he can reach the key and end the stage.

Stage 3 - Mario's Hideout
The layout of this electrically filled chamber is substantially simpler than the previous stages, but it poses an even greater threat. Not only are sparks a danger to Junior's feet on the ground, they also pose a danger when they pass over head. A nervous player may anxiously jump over a spark only to realize too late that a spark was headed Junior's way above him. The route is simple, from the start, cross over to the right, climb up, cross back over to the left, climb up, cross once more to the right, climb up again, and finally back to the left in an effort to reach the key. While the red sparks remain in their loops, the blue sparks move from the top of the screen to the bottom, taking the blue vertical pathways along the way. In the beginning, the blue spark with randomly choose one of the four pathways beneath Mario, so cross below Mario with care. The fruit are easily plucked on each level, but nailing sparks with them will take extra timing, and may put you in a bad position if you're not aware of your surroundings.

Stage 4 - Chains
This is Junior's last chance to save his father, so it's now or never. Donkey Kong's cage is positioned above a set of locks, and the keys to those locks are located on chains directly below them. All Junior has to do is push those keys up in to the locks and grant Donkey Kong his freedom. Blocking his way will be stubborn red snapjaws and large nitpickers that Mario sends after Junior. The nitpickers will fly from one end of the screen to the other before swooping down a level and reversing direction. Obviously it is faster for junior to push up keys two at a time when the chance is available, but that exposes Junior to twice the danger as red snapjaws could be located on either chain at any given moment. So proceed with caution, and try to save the apples for the moments when the red snapjaws are located beneath them and can be done away with for bonus points. Once junior unlocks every lock, Donkey Kong will come tumbling down and mighty Junior will catch him before the game starts all over again from stage 1 at a more difficult level.

Arcade Differences

 * Since all four stages made it in to the Famicom and NES versions of the game, very little was left out of the game. The only obvious omissions are of the introduction that features two Marios (or possibly Luigi dressed up like Mario) pulling Donkey Kong's cage up to the top of the screen before running away with him, and the intermission scene shown here to the left between the second and third stages.
 * The arcade sprites were not altered to a great degree, except for the snapjaws who were made much thinner than their arcade counterpart.
 * The orientation of the screen was more tall than wide in the arcade, resulting in some of the stages looking stretchedon the console version.