Game Appraisal 3 Donkey Kong

GAME 100 EXPLORING GAME WORLDS – VIDEOGAME IN-CLASS APPRAISAL TEMPLATE


Student Name___________Daniel Zamora__________


Today’s Date____________January 29, 2010___________


Game Title Examined_________Donkey Kong_______________


Year of Publication_________________1981________


Game Publisher_________Nintendo____________


Game Developer __________Nintendo_________________



Game Genre (e.g. shoot-em-up, racing, sports, puzzle, MMORPG, ‘sandbox’, music sequence following game (e.g. DDR, guitar hero)

Platform





Type of game ‘world’ or environment (e.g. flat environment, puzzle/maze space, 3D world?)

Flat enviroment




Perspective taken by player (e.g first person, third person perspective, top down, isometric) in relation to main player controlled character.

Side Scroller


Gameplay – what does the player have to do?
The player has to save the princess from the gorilla, while avoiding barrels and fire balls.







Is the gameplay intuitive? (i.e. is it easy to understand what to do without instructions?) describe.
It's pretty self explanatory. You jump over things that can kill you, and you push your character in the direction that gets you to the princess










Is the gameplay patterned (game does the same thing over & over) or is it random (happens differently every time?)



From what I see the barrels and fireballs have a pattern that they follow. You can handle every level in a few different ways, especially later on when you reach the elevators.



What does the type of graphic approach used as well as the audio tell you about the limits of the technology at the time the game was published?


I can definitely tell by the graphics that this game was made in the 1980s. The visuals and audio were as good as they could be considering the time and technology




Describe your views about the game from the point of view of


a. ease of play


Maybe it's just because I havent played Donkey Kong in a long time, but I gave up trying to beat the first level after dying 3 times. i felt as if jumpman (mario) was moving slower than usual, or at least not being able to jump as high as I remember. (always gotta blame the lag)




b. enjoyability

I got over the game pretty quick. I know that it has a lot of history with gamers, but I wouldnt see myself playing donkey kong for a long period of time



c) level of engagement/immersion

Because i gave up on the game really quick, I wasnt able to get that immersed into it


Had you played this game prior to this time? If so, when?

Yes, Ive played it a couple of times before maybe 8 years ago





Describe other games it reminds you of. How does it do this?
It reminds me of Donkey Kong and Mario, probably because they go off to have their own series of games