Play Donkey Kong online

Some sounds stick with you forever, and Donkey Kong pounding his chest is one of them. Every arcade had a kid sweating in front of this cabinet, trying to get past the barrel stage while a crowd behind him offered “helpful” advice.

Now you can take another shot at it on UsuArcade. Open the arcade in your browser, sit down at the Donkey Kong machine and hit INSERT COIN. It's free, there's nothing to install, and the big guy is still waiting for you at the top.

History

Nintendo released Donkey Kong in 1981, and it was the company's first huge arcade hit. Shigeru Miyamoto designed it around a simple story with real characters: an ape kidnaps a woman named Pauline, and a hero climbs up to save her. That hero was called Jumpman, and before long the world would know him as Mario.

It was one of the first games with real jumping between platforms, and it put Nintendo on the map worldwide years before the NES showed up. Decades later, its world record is still one of the most hotly contested in classic gaming.

How to play

You move Jumpman left and right, climb ladders and jump with a single button. Your goal is to reach the top, where Donkey Kong is holding Pauline. On the first stage he rolls barrels down the girders at you; jump them for points or duck out of the way on a ladder.

Grab a hammer and you can smash barrels and fireballs for a few seconds, but you can't climb while you're swinging it. Later stages change things up with elevators, conveyor belts and a final screen where you pull out the rivets until the whole structure comes crashing down. Keep an eye on the bonus timer: the faster you get there, the bigger the payoff.

Fun facts

• In the arcade original, the hero was called Jumpman. The Mario name came later.
• It was one of the first games to tell a story with little cutscenes between stages.
• Fall from too high and you lose a life, even if it's just a slightly too-long drop.

In the arcade

Donkey Kong was a take-turns game, and that's how it plays on UsuArcade, just online: invite your friend to your cabinet once they're in the lobby and trade turns, each on your own phone or PC. While one plays, the other watches live.

Nothing to install: it runs in your browser, gamepad supported, and every game starts with INSERT COIN, free. Everyone else in the lobby can watch and chat, and scores go up on the arcade's high score board.

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