Donkey Kong: Colecovision Vs Atari 7800

[VideoGameCritic]

A while back there was a discussion about the better version of Donkey Kong and DK Jr.: Colecovision or Atari 7800.  I made a mental note of that and last night I had my two friends Steve and Chris (who are Donkey Kong experts) help me rank these games.

Donkey Kong on Colecovision is impressive, but the 7800 version is clearly more playable.  The animation is smoother and the controls are tighter.  Same thing with DK Jr.  My friends though the 7800 games were in the A range, while the Colecovision games were high Bs.

Next Chris said we should take a look at the NES versions of these games.  They are pretty spectacular - probably the best renditions you'll find.

Anyway I'm thinking about revising all these reviews to include some additional details we noted while playing.

[soporj1]

How does the "new" Donkey Kong Arcade on the Intellivision stack up compared to the Colecovision, Atari and NES versions?

[snakeboy1]

When I first played the Colecovision version of Donkey Kong, I was pretty impressed with it.  But in the end, I thought the game was a little too much on the easy side.  The elevator level in particular is lacking in challenge thanks to the fact that the spring is missing. 

Still a good game, but not quite on the level of the NES version.  Never played the Atari 7800 game. 

[Adamant1]

[QUOTE=snakeboy] But in the end, I thought the game was a little too much on the easy side.  The elevator level in particular is lacking in challenge thanks to the fact that the spring is missing.  

 [/QUOTE]

I disagree. When the top level of the spring stage has two fireballs, reaching the goal is really troublesome, and the lack of two ladders on the top level of the first stage makes it a really narrow fit to get up there.

Both these features are more "annoyingly hard" than "challenging", though, and to of my biggest issues with the game. I'm unfamiliar with the 7800 port, but the Colecovision port is rather lacking - pretty shameful for the pack-in game of a system that both promised and delivered extremely high-quality arcade ports. While it's not a bad port by any means (and certainly the best on the market in its time, so I certainly understand it moved systems), it both could and should have been better. It's way below Coleco's standards.

[txsizzler1]

I, too thought the DK version on the CV was lacking. But, they made up for it with the excellent DK JR. Still an awesome play to this day!

[Ikaris1]

I think that Colecovision Donkey Kong is a gem, yes it's too easy (even on level 4) but it has its own personality: the cute attitude, the double-touch way to climbing stairs, its own patterns in (no)spring stage and of respawnig flames/fireballs in rivet stage, and so on. Great graphics and sound, and no discussion about its historical value: it's also evident its influence on the other home versions, specially for the colors' palette.
The Atari 7800 version is good, but it's a poor Nes port, and it has unbearable sound... it makes you want to play the Nes port instead of it!
Speaking abut DK Jr, the Colecovision version is very good and playable, but it has only three screens (if we're not talking about Super DK Jr) and it's quite different from the arcade, specially in the jump control. The Atari 7800 version is, again, a poor Nes port, but in a better way than Donkey Kong: good graphics and sound (for that console's potentiality), the control is less smooth than the Nes version but it's still quite good.
In conclusion, I prefer Atari 7800 DK Jr over the Coleco one, I'd give A- to Atari and B+ to Coleco.
For Donkey Kong, I consider the Atari 7800 version "useless" and I'd rate it C+/B- because of the sound, while I'd give to Coleco DK B+ or A- depending on the value you want to give to the historical importance of a game when reviewing it.