Tie Me Kangaroo DownKangaroo. In 1982 a small Japanese company(at the time) called Sun Electronics, later Sunsoft, saw all of the success that Nintendo was having with Donkey Kong and decided to enter the fray themselves. Their contribution : Kangaroo. Drawing on a similar theme, it's basically a platformer rescue game in the same vein as the aforementioned title. In this scenario, the Monkeybiz Gang have kidnapped your baby and you must face an obstacle course of crazy monkeys, big apes, and falling apples in order to complete the rescue. I remember first playing this at my local bowling alley, Bowl-Aire Lanes. They always had the newest, best arcade releases. It was the first place I would ever see or play Super Mario Brothers a few years later. And Gauntlet. And Super Off-Road..et cetera. Nowadays the parking lot is overgrown with weeds and it sits empty. Time marches on..
GRAPHICS for many games released around the same time were really just starting to come into their own. And for the time it was released, these are pretty decent. They can seem a bit grainy at times and once in a while you may catch a little flicker when it gets really busy on screen, but it's nothing that detracts from the overall game I don't think. The characters are colorful and decently rendered plus there are a good variety of objects represented in the game so it doesn't get too dull. Compared to other classic gems released the same year like Donkey Kong Jr, Dig Dug, Ms Pac-Man, and Robotron, the graphics stand up quite well I would say. And the fruit bonuses that your Kangaroo can snag for extra points look delicious. :) I give it a 9/10,
SOUND for games in 1982 was really hit or miss. At the time still, most arcade games didn't really have much of a soundtrack. Kangaroo never quits. The in-game music is pleasant and is taken from an old marching tune originally written for piano. When you complete a level you hear a rendition of Oh Susanna, and when the bells ring they play 'Westminster Quarters'(think grandfather clock). Another 9/10
ADDICTIVENESS is an attribute that Kangaroo has plenty of as well. It's an easy enough game to figure out, but a challenging game to master. There are four unique levels that loop with increasing difficulty, but the fact that there are different obstacles to overcome on each keeps it fresh. You need a different strategy for each level. And, after the levels loop, you can throw those out the window because you'll have to come up with new ones to combat the increased difficulty and different placement of the enemies. An 8/10 is my verdict..
STORY may be an area where Kangaroo suffers a little. I mean, monkeys kidnapped your baby and you have to duck and jump over obstacles while traversing platforms and climbing ladders to get to the top and complete the rescue. Sounds a little familiar. You're never told what would actually motivate chimps to kidnap a baby kangaroo but I guess you just have to use your imagination on that one. Ransom maybe? There is a big ape who also wears boxing gloves that will appear from time to time. His goal is to try to steal the kangaroo's boxing gloves unless you can punch his lights out first so maybe there's some sort of rivalry going on there but it's never explained. There is a story, albeit a very contrived-seeming one, only a 5/10.
DEPTH is a solid 8, You have four levels of play. On the first, second, and fourth, You must avoid or punch monkeys and flying apples to get to the top and progress to the next level. On the third however, your baby is being held up by monkeys in a cage. In a race against time you have to punch all the monkeys out of the way to lower the cage so you can save your baby. If you take too long, after five monkeys climb to the top they will unleash a virtual avalanche of apples onto our gloved hero. On each level there are bonus fruit positioned throughout. After you collect them, you can ring a bell by jumping into it and cause the fruit to re-spawn as different fruit worth more bonus points.(even though I always thought that the second one looked like a tomato, maybe it is?) As the monkeys climb up and down their tree they'll step out onto the limbs(platforms) and attempt to hit Kangaroo with an apple that they hurl at you. You have to be able to recognize whether it's coming at you high or low to decide whether you must either jump, duck, or try to punch the apple. If you can get to them before they can manage to get a throw off though, you can punch their lights out too. But if you take too long the big ape appears. He can't kill you but he can steal your gloves, which leaves you at the mercy of tossed apples for a few seconds. If you can manage to get behind him though you can send him flying off the screen with a good one and rack up nice bonus points...He always comes right back for more however.
DIFFICULTY I will put at an 8 as well. There really is a lot going on in this game. You need to punch, jump, duck, and climb without much room for error really to achieve success. I would really compare it to it's contemporaries like Donkey Kong, and Donkey Kong Jr in that respect. Hard enough to kill you. A lot, when you first start playing. After you begin to be able to anticipate what the monkeys will do it becomes easier though. But as soon as you become comfortable the game speeds up again. The one MAJOR drawback for me with this game is the fact that the same action is used to jump as is used to climb. Up on the joystick. Occasionally I find myself jumping on accident and getting killed. Thankfully on Vizzed I can configure my controller to make it a separate button push. I would recommend anyone else do the same.
OVERALL I score the game an 8.5. It was right on par with other games of the same genre and era. It's a fun, challenging, pleasant, gaming experience in my opinion. You may have never heard of it but it did actually have it's own short-lived cartoon and was ported to the Atari 2600 and 5200 but that was it. You never know though. The monkeybiz gang may yet return some day to harass innocent marsupials once more. Thanks for reading. How 'bout them apples?
Graphics
9 Sound
9 Addictive
8 Depth
8 Story
5 Difficulty
8
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