Post by I.M.Gibbon on Nov 26, 2016 19:35:24 GMT
So in 1986, King Kong Lives hit screens, a sequel to the 1976 remake of the original King Kong.
It flopped.
It flopped so hard one of the principal actors got a whole twelve cents in his residuals cheque.
The film was also released in Japan, under the title King Kong 2.
And can I just say, that that is one bitchin movie poster? As part of that release, Konami made two video-game tie-ins; one for MSX, and one for the Famicom. The Famicom release let you play as the mighty Kong himself on a quest to rescue his Lady from the evil clutches of the military. And dragons and giant squids and stuff. You know, movie monster shit.
That game was King Kong 2: Ikari no Megaton Punch!
This game was never released outside of Japan, but by all rights is an entertaining little title.
Around this same time, Nintendo announced in their Official Nintendo Player's Guide of 1987 that a game title "Return of Donkey Kong" was coming out for the NES sometime soon. In Japanese, the title would be "Kaettekita (かえってきた) Donkey Kong". This game, however, never came out. Instead, a few years later, we got the half-hearted "Donkey Kong Classics" which consisted of the NES ports of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior on one cartridge.
So you're Nintendo in the late eighties, and you're in a situation where you have announced the first new Donkey Kong game since 1984, but nothing to show for it, and a licenced property game about a heroic gorilla rescuing his lady friend from the forces of evil that the licensee likely doesn't give a shit about due to the state of the property. A licensee you've already won a lawsuit against in regards to ripping off this particular property, to boot.
What I want to make here is the obvious solution that for some reason never actually happened in reality. It wouldn't even have been such a stretch, having turned the Japanese-only Doki Doki Panic into a Mario title for American audiences around the same time.
The obvious answer I am speaking of is, of course, to do a little reskinning, and release King Kong 2: Ikari no Megaton Punch in the United States as The Return of Donkey Kong.
As the saying goes, if you want something done right, do it yourself.
That being said, I'm still not entirely sure how much I want to change.
Something to keep in mind: I don't want to do a bunch of forward referencing to the DKC series or later games. I kind of at least want to pay lip service to the idea that this could have come out in '88 or so.
Beyond the title screen, there's not actually a lot I think needs adjusting. Mainly some powerups and mayhaps some enemies.
Health is hearts, and I think that's fine for this, so no need to adjust there.
The Speed Potion can probably stay as is. Mysterious yellow tinctures are no stranger to the Donkey Kong series as it is. Similarly, the invincibility-granting Star Rock can probably go mostly unchanged, as Nintendo players will already be familiar with a star power-up granting that power.
The Hyper Bomb, that kills all enemies on screen upon pick-up I was planning on turning into a POW block.
The Rock / Boulder is the basic projectile of the game. They occasionally drop from defeated enemies or destroyed environmental set-pieces, and you can stock up a decent amount to chuck around at enemies.
The Rock Case increases the amount you can carry. The Power Rock increases the damage output of your flung boulders.
I was considering changing these to variations of barrel, but I think I'm going to leave the boulders as boulders. The Power Rock sprites do double duty for various traps and enemies, so aren't really adjustable.
Also in the game are Konami's hidden Moai statues, which grant an extra life, and hidden Konami emblems, which summon a Konami Man, who will flying upwards across the screen. If caught, he fully replenishes Kong's health.
I actually think I'll leave this stuff as is, in deference to Konami. King of like Rare staples showing up in the DKC games, really.
As far as enemies go, I'm not really sure much needs to be changed. The vast majority are animals (many of which breath fire for some reason), but some rather common ones are military vehicles of various sorts. Since the game was basically a hack of The Legend of Zelda in the first place, a lot of the enemies are just reskins of octorocks and moblins and shit anyway. Might turn some of them back into Zelda enemies, turn some of them into Mario enemies of the age, and put in some snap jaws or something. Plus add Mario-style eyes to the slimes and stuff heheh.
Also, apropos of nothing, I like to think that Lady Kong is Wrinkly in her younger days:
ANYWAY, that's the plan.
I promise nothing in the way of concrete progress, as this is just something I tool around with in my free time occasionally.
It flopped.
It flopped so hard one of the principal actors got a whole twelve cents in his residuals cheque.
The film was also released in Japan, under the title King Kong 2.
And can I just say, that that is one bitchin movie poster? As part of that release, Konami made two video-game tie-ins; one for MSX, and one for the Famicom. The Famicom release let you play as the mighty Kong himself on a quest to rescue his Lady from the evil clutches of the military. And dragons and giant squids and stuff. You know, movie monster shit.
That game was King Kong 2: Ikari no Megaton Punch!
This game was never released outside of Japan, but by all rights is an entertaining little title.
Around this same time, Nintendo announced in their Official Nintendo Player's Guide of 1987 that a game title "Return of Donkey Kong" was coming out for the NES sometime soon. In Japanese, the title would be "Kaettekita (かえってきた) Donkey Kong". This game, however, never came out. Instead, a few years later, we got the half-hearted "Donkey Kong Classics" which consisted of the NES ports of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior on one cartridge.
So you're Nintendo in the late eighties, and you're in a situation where you have announced the first new Donkey Kong game since 1984, but nothing to show for it, and a licenced property game about a heroic gorilla rescuing his lady friend from the forces of evil that the licensee likely doesn't give a shit about due to the state of the property. A licensee you've already won a lawsuit against in regards to ripping off this particular property, to boot.
What I want to make here is the obvious solution that for some reason never actually happened in reality. It wouldn't even have been such a stretch, having turned the Japanese-only Doki Doki Panic into a Mario title for American audiences around the same time.
The obvious answer I am speaking of is, of course, to do a little reskinning, and release King Kong 2: Ikari no Megaton Punch in the United States as The Return of Donkey Kong.
As the saying goes, if you want something done right, do it yourself.
That being said, I'm still not entirely sure how much I want to change.
Something to keep in mind: I don't want to do a bunch of forward referencing to the DKC series or later games. I kind of at least want to pay lip service to the idea that this could have come out in '88 or so.
Beyond the title screen, there's not actually a lot I think needs adjusting. Mainly some powerups and mayhaps some enemies.
Health is hearts, and I think that's fine for this, so no need to adjust there.
The Speed Potion can probably stay as is. Mysterious yellow tinctures are no stranger to the Donkey Kong series as it is. Similarly, the invincibility-granting Star Rock can probably go mostly unchanged, as Nintendo players will already be familiar with a star power-up granting that power.
The Hyper Bomb, that kills all enemies on screen upon pick-up I was planning on turning into a POW block.
The Rock / Boulder is the basic projectile of the game. They occasionally drop from defeated enemies or destroyed environmental set-pieces, and you can stock up a decent amount to chuck around at enemies.
The Rock Case increases the amount you can carry. The Power Rock increases the damage output of your flung boulders.
I was considering changing these to variations of barrel, but I think I'm going to leave the boulders as boulders. The Power Rock sprites do double duty for various traps and enemies, so aren't really adjustable.
Also in the game are Konami's hidden Moai statues, which grant an extra life, and hidden Konami emblems, which summon a Konami Man, who will flying upwards across the screen. If caught, he fully replenishes Kong's health.
I actually think I'll leave this stuff as is, in deference to Konami. King of like Rare staples showing up in the DKC games, really.
As far as enemies go, I'm not really sure much needs to be changed. The vast majority are animals (many of which breath fire for some reason), but some rather common ones are military vehicles of various sorts. Since the game was basically a hack of The Legend of Zelda in the first place, a lot of the enemies are just reskins of octorocks and moblins and shit anyway. Might turn some of them back into Zelda enemies, turn some of them into Mario enemies of the age, and put in some snap jaws or something. Plus add Mario-style eyes to the slimes and stuff heheh.
Also, apropos of nothing, I like to think that Lady Kong is Wrinkly in her younger days:
ANYWAY, that's the plan.
I promise nothing in the way of concrete progress, as this is just something I tool around with in my free time occasionally.
