Before the NES got really big, Nintendo still had to win their fans over a quarter at a time, and consequentially Donkey Kong Jr. has a lot of that old-timey arcade feel. Mario, as the game's villain, stands at the top of each level with Donkey Kong caged nearby, dropping enemies to stop the player from reaching the top. Players, as Junior, have to climb vines and jump platforms in the quest to free DK and topple Nintendo's otherwise hero.  

The preserved simplicity of Donkey Kong Jr.'s technology and gameplay is both a boon and a drawback. Donkey Kong Jr. is understandable, accessible, and nostalgic, but it only offers a very narrow experience. Since the routes players take through each level are practically linear, the game's stages can feel more like puzzles than action set-pieces. And since Donkey Kong Jr. has only four levels, players may soon feel they already know all the answers. Of course, it requires discipline to adapt to the more difficult timing and patterns on repeated play-throughs, but by then a lot of the game's mystery will likely have disappeared.  

Donkey Kong Jr. is faithful to its era and, with a hefty dose of retro nostalgia to overlook its limitations, the game is still something Nintendo should be proud of. But if you set aside historical and sentimental evaluations, Donkey Kong Jr. is very much an artifact of a bygone age.