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Donkey KongThe original arcade smash Donkey Kong put Nintendo on the map in the world of video games, so you'd think that the home conversion of the game for the company's own Nintendo Entertainment System would be as close to the arcade version as possible.  Unfortunately, technical constraints of the day forced the removal of a lot of the game's personality as well as one entire level.  Now after all these years the company has fixed that mistake by releasing a special version of Donkey Kong in its original NES variation for the Wii that includes the missing factory level.  The catch?  It's only available in Europe as part of a promotion meant to sell Wiis.  Check out the new version in action:

So why did Nintendo choose now to remedy this dusty issue?  The commenters over at Tiny Cartridge are having a field day with this news and are speculating over why this all happened now and, furthermore, how it was done.

I'm guessing that Nintendo already wrote the coding for the complete 4 level version of Donkey Kong on the NES back in '85 but pared it down to fit on a smaller rom chip to make it cost viable. That would explain why they didn't re-add in the "How High can you get?" screen, the climbing animation, and perhaps a savable score. - Hughor

I really hope they put this on the US/JP VC at some point. I know it's not the arcade version, but I'd still like to own it/play it. After all, gameplay- and graphics-wise the NES version of DK was remarkably close to the arcade original. With these changes, all the NES version would be missing is the "how high can you get?" screen and the level progression (1-2-1-2-3-1-2-3-4) of the original. - thegaygamer

I'm not impressed. There's still a lot missing, like the "How high can you get?" intermissions between rounds and the opening scene where Donkey Kong takes Pauline. Nintendo had done a re-release of the original Mario Bros. back in the 1990s and it was more faithful to the arcade game, with nearly EVERYTHING included.  The real question is this: why didn't they just include an emulation of the arcade game? Surely the Wii has the juice to handle it. - manekineko

To be honest, while I appreciate all that Donkey Kong has done for Nintendo and the video game industry in general, it's not a game that I want to replay very often.  At least, not in its original arcade form.  The 1994 Game Boy take on the idea spoiled me with its enhanced gameplay and one hundred levels (including the original four stages).  While it would be neat to have this revised NES version of Donkey Kong, I can't say that I'd go out of my way to acquire it.  However, I am glad to know that it exists.

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