Monday, March 11, 2013

A Really Cool Dad Hacked 'Donkey Kong,' Making Mario the Damsel in Distress

Posted By on Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 1:46 PM

Today in Awesome Hacks of Classic Video Games, programmer/cool father Mike Mika reprogrammed Nintendo's classic Donkey Kong, switching the roles of the game's protagonist, Mario (then known as "Jumpman" for all you gaming history nerds), with his damsel-in-distress, Pauline. Above is gameplay from the first four levels of the revised DK, culminating in Pauline besting the big ape.

From Polygon:

"My three year old daughter and I play a lot of old games together," Mika wrote in the video's description. "Her favorite is Donkey Kong. Two days ago, she asked me if she could play as the girl and save Mario. She's played as Peach in Super Mario Bros. 2 and naturally just assumed she could do the same in Donkey Kong. I told her we couldn't in that particular Mario game, she seemed really bummed out by that."

So Mika put in the time to draw and insert new frames and swap the characters out. The result: a kick-ass, gender-equality statement—or, his daughter's new favorite heroine.

That's Gaming Dad of the Month material right there.

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