The Best Games You’ve Never Played – Donkey Kong

As you all know, Donkey Kong is one of my favourite games, but while I love the Arcade version, I adore the Gameboy version! I’m not sure whether you would call it a remake or a sequel but it is truly amazing. The game starts with the original four levels from the original Donkey Kong, filled with retro goodness, but after these few minutes of gameplay the real game begins. 97 brain scratching action-puzzling levels await you after the original as you chase DK through a variety of environments. Rather than just climbing to the top, levels see you navigating through the screens in order to find a Key and carry it to the door that DK and Pauline have escaped from.  Combined with levers, switches, ladder building and hundreds of other mechanics to create a variety of fun and challenging levels.

Donkey Long also saw Mario’s first leap into his acrobatic form. This game introduced backflips, tripple jumps, handstands, flinging yourself from wire pole to wire pole and much more. These add a lot of depth to the levels as they opened up a wide variety of ways that you can tackle each level. For example, do you take the ladder on the right and take the moving platform to the top, or do you use a tripple jump onto the first platform grab onto the wire pole fling yourself into the air grab the end of the moving platform and backflip into the exit? This brings me to another point, the openess. Theres many puzzle games out there that look big and open, but really lead you down one path at the end of the day. You really are left to go whichever way you want in Donkey Kong, and every time I play I complete the level in a completely different way.

As well as these great action puzzler games, theres also a wide selection of boss levels which play more like the original game. These ones basically consist of you trying to make your way past obsticles and DK’s attacks to reach the top. You also get some interesting combat battles where your goal is to avoid DK’s attacks and throw his barrels back toward him. These are great for breaking up the gameplay and also remain great fun!

Donkey Kong provided me with a great mix of puzzling and action which quickly took it’s place as one of my most favourite games of all time. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone as it is far too much fun for it’s own good

The Best Games You Never Played – Pac-Man Vs

Anyone who knows me knows i’m a big Pac-Man fan and out of all the Pac-Man remakes and spin offs, there’s only one that holds up with the original. That game is a small title for Gamecube and DS called Pac-Man Vs.

Originally developed by Miyamoto through the Triforce Project, Pac-Man Vs. was created to show off the Gamecube’s connectivity with the Gameboy Advance. It did this by taking the Pac-Man we know and love and putting your best mates in control of the ghosts. With a limited view the ghost players had to hunt down Pac -Man and avoid his power pellet death sprees. Meanwhile, one player would be holding the trusty GBA and controlling Pac-Man, doging his friends and chomping pellets. The player conrolling Pac-Man would gain points for every pellet eaten and if he was caught, the successful ghost would take their place as Pac-Man in a new round. It was a mad dash to 5000 for the title of Pac-Champ. It was such a simple idea but one that worked so damn well…

While it was brilliant fun, it wasn’t exactly the easiest fun to be had. Firstly you had to actually find a copy of the game (which was no easy feat) then grab four mates around your Gamecube and a Gameboy Advance (with the necessary cables). all these factors meant that very few people were able to enjoy it’s brilliance. Luckily, the game saw another day of light in Namco Museum for Nintendo DS, where it was added as an extra. This mode saw wireless connectivity as well as more stages to enjoy, and was the version which I instantly fell in love with. Many an hour was lost during my free periods at college as I wiped the floor with my Pac-Munching skills, clearing the round in a flawless victory and I had equally as much fun trapping my friends in a corner as a ghost, only to have someone else steal my kill from before me. It’s one of those games that never really gets boring and screams for one more go.

If you see a copy of Namco Museum I highly recommend you pick it up. As well as this brilliant lost gem you also get seven classics, such as Pac-man, Mappy, Galaga and Dig-Dig 2. Until then I leave you with the brilliant Pac-Man Fever.

Snail Maze

Ah Snail Maze, the Master System game that frustrated all who played, and all who didn’t know how to play it.

Snail maze was a hidden game on the Master System I consoles, accessed by pressing 1, 2 and Up on your controller while no game was inserted. The game featured a snail in a blue maze racing to reach the goal before the time runs out. It gets incredibly hard incredibly quickly, but remains one of my top games

You can play a flash remake of the game here