Wii Virtual Console - NES - Donkey Kong

 When the Wii launched it included Donkey Kong on the list of lauch Virtual Console Games.  This classic game was the biggest hit in it's prime.  This game still provides tremendous replay value.

The eponymous Donkey Kong plays the game's de facto villain. He is the pet of a carpenter named Jumpman (along the same lines as Walkman and Pac-Man, later renamed Mario). The carpenter mistreats the ape, so Donkey Kong escapes and kidnaps Jumpman/Mario's girlfriend, originally known as the Lady, but later renamed Pauline. The player must take the role of Jumpman/Mario and rescue the girl. This was the first occurrence of the damsel-in-distress scenario that would provide the template for countless video games to come.

The game uses graphics and animation as vehicles of characterization. Donkey Kong smirks upon Jumpman/Mario's demise. The Lady/Pauline is instantly recognized as female from her pink dress and long hair, and "HELP!" appears frequently beside her. Jumpman/Mario, depicted in red overalls and cap, is an everyman character, a type common in Japan. Graphical limitations forced his design: Drawing a mouth was too difficult, so the character got a mustache; the programmers could not animate hair, so he got a cap; and to make his arm movements visible, he needed white gloves and colored overalls. The artwork used for the cabinets and promotional materials make these cartoon-like character designs even more explicit. The Lady/Pauline, for example, appears as a disheveled Fay Wray in a torn dress and stiletto heels.

Donkey Kong is the first example of a complete narrative told in video game form, and it employs cut scenes to advance its plot. The game opens with the gorilla climbing a pair of ladders to the top of a construction site. He sets the Lady/Pauline down and stamps his feet, causing the steel beams to change shape. He then moves to his final perch and sneers. This brief animation sets the scene and adds background to the gameplay, a first for video games. Upon reaching the end of the stage, another cut scene begins. A heart appears between Jumpman/Mario and the Lady/Pauline, but Donkey Kong grabs the woman and climbs higher, causing the heart to break. The narrative concludes when Jumpman/Mario reaches the end of the final stage. He and the Lady/Pauline are reunited, and a short intermission plays. The game then starts over at a higher level of difficulty.
 

NES - Donkey Kong Gameplay 

Donkey Kong is an early example of the platform genre (it is sometimes said to be the first platform game, although it was preceded by Space Panic and Apple Panic).[7] Winning the game requires patience and the ability to accurately time Jumpman's ascent.[2] In addition to presenting the goal of saving the Lady/Pauline, the game also gives the player a score. Points are awarded for finishing screens; leaping over obstacles; destroying objects with a hammer power-up; collecting items such as hats, umbrellas, and purses (presumably belonging to the Lady/Pauline); and completing other tasks. The player receives three lives with a bonus awarded for the first 7500 points.

The game is divided into four different one-screen stages. Each represents 25 meters of the structure Donkey Kong has climbed, one stage being 25 meters higher than the previous. The final screen occurs at 100m. Later ports of the game omitted or changed the sequence of the screens; the original arcade version includes:

    * Screen 1 (25m)—

Jumpman/Mario must scale a seven-story construction site made of crooked girders and ladders while jumping over or hammering barrels and oil barrels tossed by Donkey Kong. The hero must also avoid flaming balls, which generate when an oil barrel collides with an oil drum.

    * Screen 2 (50m) —

Jumpman/Mario must climb a five-story structure of conveyor belts, each of which transports pans of cement. The fireballs also make another appearance. This stage is sometimes referred to as the pie factory due to the resemblance of the cement pans to pies.

    * Screen 3 (75m) —

Jumpman/Mario rides up and down elevators while avoiding fireballs and bouncing objects, presumably spring-weights. The bouncing weights (the hero's greatest danger in this screen) emerge on the top level and drop near the rightmost elevator.

    * Screen 4 (100m) —

Jumpman/Mario must remove eight rivets, which support Donkey Kong. The fireballs remain the primary obstacle. Removing the final rivet causes Donkey Kong to fall and the hero to be reunited with the Lady/Pauline. This is the final screen of each level.

These screens combine to form levels, which become progressively harder. For example, Donkey Kong begins to hurl barrels more rapidly and sometimes diagonally, and fireballs get quicker. The victory music alternates between levels 1 and 2. The 22nd level is unofficially known as the kill screen due to an error in the game's programming that starts the clock with far less time than is necessary to complete the stage. At four screens, Donkey Kong at its debut was the biggest video game ever produced. In fact, the only use of multiple levels to precede it was Gorf by Midway Games.