Donkey Island - Review english

Donkey Island

Release date Germany: 1995
Developer: Pterodon Software
Publisher: Epic Megagames / Romware
Game language: German
(also released in Czech language)
Boxshots
Walkthrough German

A review by Elaine 11th August 2002

Who has the feeling, that the title of this adventure game may sound familiar, is right: the similarity of "Donkey Island" to the legendary Monkey Island is absolutely no coincidence, on the contrary: Donkey Island comes as persiflage to the original.

The programmers were inspired by the locations (islands are particularly well suitable as closed areas) and also from the sense for humor and irony.

The hero of the game Kay-Bush Triphut, whose name reminds afar of the hero of Monkey Island, Guybrush Threepwood, has trouble with the zombie pirate LeCheck, whose name reminds afar of the ghost pirate LeChuck from Monkey Island.

Graphically seen, gamers may however not expect any better than Monkey Island one (honestly said it's in my opinion even worse). However the many small animations are in contrary to the rather raw graphics really detailed and lovingly done - a nice surprise.

Hardly any music sweetens the game pleasure, only during the intro a really not toppable lame melody mewls from the speaker. Donkey Island comes with very poor music if you compare it to the beautiful Reaggey rhythms from Monkey Island.

Story & puzzles

Aim of the game is, in a few words, quit the island and get rid of the zombie pirate LeCheck. This of course can only be done after solving a bunch of puzzles. Also in this adventure game you've got the classic task to get three more or less important objects (and the items are described really fabulous; had anybody of you ever heard of the "smell of the jungle", the "death of the seas" or the "glamor of the seas"?)

The story and also the solution of the puzzles are actually (mostly) quite logically developed, yet one can relatively easy be stuck, because you often can't continue without a certain object (or a smart idea). But at one or two points of the game plain despair let me find the correct solution rather than logic; but that were exceptions, as I said.

This wouldn't be too annoying, wouldn't the method of try and error be absolutely unsuitable for this game, because unlike Monkey Island is the in-built ability of the hero (or the human, who sits behind) to cut a caper. In each and every possible or impossible situation Kay-Busch can get into dead ends, because he uses inventory objects too early, he combines them in the wrong way or simply forgets to do something important. Invidiously these errors at the beginning of the game can lead to consequences at the very end. That reduces the fun and cuts the game flow, because you never know whether you are straight on the wrong track or anything will go awry.

In the sense of Roberta Williams and all King's Quest games I must say here honestly that it is very recommendable in this game to save often and never delete an already saved game, which is not exactly made more easy by the only 5 saveslots.

However I must say that the many breakdowns and errors, which can happen, are also funny and very likable presented. So it even sometimes makes sense to reach intentionally into the loo in order to look, which interesting things might happen.

Controls/handling

What made the way around the island to an ordeal (at least on my computer), are those yaaaawning slow movements and the partial somewhat jolty control. Despite point&click Kay-Busch sometimes goes his own ways. An interesting quirk you have to get used to during the game is, that some objects on the screen can't be looked at but nevertheless can be taken! A bit strange, isn't it?

Result

For everyone, who has enjoyed Monkey Island and still would like another, I can recommend Donkey Island, despite the lacks. The self irony of Kay-Busch, the story, the nice puzzles, the pretty animations and the humor of the programmers make it good again.

My rating: 61%

Adventure-Archiv-rating system:

80% - 100% excellent game, very recommendable
70% - 79% good game, recommendable
60% - 69% satisfactory, restricted recommendable
50% - 59% sufficient (not very recommendable)
40% - 49% rather deficient (not to be recommended - for Hardcore-Adventure-Freaks and collectors only)
0% - 39% worst (don't put your fingers on it)

Minimal system requirements:

386er
IBM PC or compatible
DOS 5.0 and higher
CDROM-drive
4 MB RAM
Hard disk with 4 MB
Mouse
VGA graphic card

Played on:

Windows 98
Pentium 133 MHz
48 MB RAM