Kong Strikes Back
But Julie , you hated Donkey Kong , you did a whole page moaning how you could never play it! Well folks, this is isn't Donkey Kong, it's Kong Strikes Back and this game I did enjoy. It has taken me months to find this one, all I could remember was a man running around a roller coaster, for some reason the Kong bit of the game had escaped me.
The game screen of this just screams ZX Spectrum. The green, green grass and that cyan sky. I can't remember the first day I loaded this up as a child, I'm afraid it may have got lost in the Atic Atac and the Sabre Wulf days. But somewhere in the back of my mind all these years has been this fairground and it's little rollercoaster cars. I freely admit to having a great interest in fairgrounds and just the loading screen caught my attention.
The idea of the game is simple, dodge the obstacles, collect the bonus (try and time collecting the bonus with the flashing letter of the word 'bonus' ) throw bombs and rescue the gal. So what's the difference between this and Donkey Kong ? It really is just the same game with the barrels replaced by cars. I have to think it is the visual layout that makes this so appealing to me and the fairground connection. Where as in Donkey Kong I couldn't even get halfway up the screen , in this game I was zooming along up and down ladders bombing cars and on to the next level.
Each screen the tracks got more and more convoluted , reminding me more and more of the Scalextric set that I had always wanted for Christmas but being a girl never got! This game was just so much fun and had so many positive associations for me. To this day I really can't quite put my finger on why this game just makes me happy. Perhaps it is a little easier than Donkey Kong , perhaps it's the satisfaction of bombing the cars (that does sound a little wrong doesn't it!) Again this became one of my special games I kept to myself, I don't think I ever loaded it up when friends came over or let my father play this game. It was my little secret, in the way that not being able to play Donkey Kong was also my little secret.
Even after all those years going back to play this game still makes me happy. It's still addictive, it's graphically simple, which I think is another reason perhaps I enjoy playing it. It may not be in everyone's Top 10 gaming memories but to me this game is special.
It taught me not to judge a gaming theme by just one game. Just because I couldn't jump barrels didn't mean I couldn't play Kong.
I just had to find the Kong that suited me, somewhere there's a special Kong for each of us!
It taught me not to judge a gaming theme by just one game. Just because I couldn't jump barrels didn't mean I couldn't play Kong.
I just had to find the Kong that suited me, somewhere there's a special Kong for each of us!