One thing I never understood about Nintendo was their lack of expanding some franchises. Take the original Donkey Kong, the single screen arcade game with Donkey Kong throwing barrels at you as you progress up the girders. Why Nintendo did not expand on this, especially for home releases, in a vertical scrolling level (not quite endless runner, though that would be cool too). Well, again fans are doing what corporations didn’t (unless Nintendo did do this and I just missed it over the years). Double Baboon Ninja is basically the first Donkey Kong games turned into vertical scrolling action games, minus the giant throwing things at you. It just got a demo release for the Commodore Amiga too.
Doing What Companies Won’t
Will Nintendo be shaking in their boots over this? Nah, not likely. Fans though, fans will want to check out Double Baboon Ninja for themselves. It runs on more common configurations of the Commodore Amiga (or just emulate it) and supports one or two button controllers.
I haven’t played Double Baboon Ninja myself as emulating the Commodore Amiga has consistently given me a hard time. Based on the screenshots and the videos available, it appears to be a smooth experience with plenty of obstacles and enemies to deal with.
Improvements Galore
The developer behind Double Baboon Ninja, Danlabg over on itch.io is not sitting around. They are actively improving their game; the demo features the more recent version with more enemies and action onscreen at once.
Backgrounds feature more animation, sprite/water collision has improved, levels feature new gameplay elements and there are new bosses for levels 2 and 3. Plus, you get a sneak peek at level 4 in this demo.
The next demo will feature level 4 according to the itch.io page.
If you are a fan of Donkey Kong and wanted more out of the action then check out Double Baboon Ninja for the Commodore Amiga.