As
with many things in life, we Europeans are deprived of many good things
from the US, and have to do with weird alternatives. These alternatives
can make life more colorful and interesting at times though, and one of
these things is CRAZY KONG.
Way more popular than the original Donkey Kong, Crazy Kong ruled many arcades, snack bars and swimming pools here, around 1981. Many versions of Crazy Kong were in distribution, but one stands out, as it comes in it’s own beautiful dedicated cabinet (opposed to the Royal Video generic coin-ups), and was the only legit, licenced version, by Falcon. Other boards are clones from this one, some with weird names like “Monkey Donkey” and “Congorilla”. The name Crazy Kong was also use for a handheld released by Grandstand
Apart from the frightening side-art (a giant rabies-infested ape) and other art, the art inside the game is different as well. Colors are different, and some sprites seem to have been altered. The Ape is slightly bigger. The start-up screen reads ”Crazy Kong part II”. One major difference is the order of levels: the last (or fourth) level in DK is the second one in Crazy Kong, and vice versa. The game play is the same, with one slight difference: don’t touch anything! One other oddity is the fact that there are two different dedicated cabinets. Both have the same physical form, feature totally different silk-screened artwork. In 1982, Falcon released a successor, Crazy Kong Jr., indeed a clone of DK Jr.
ROM dumps of Falcon’s Crazy Kong as well as its bootleg versions are available for MAME here and in the US as well.
