Donkey Kong Jr.

Donkey Kong Jr. is the arcade sequel in which you play the villain's son, climbing and swinging through a jungle to free his caged father from Mario - making it one of the very few games of its era in which the player and the antagonist have swapped places.

The design change that comes with that is vertical movement. Junior climbs two ladders at once, hangs from vines that move on their own, and can drop from a vine to a lower one in a single motion, so the game is about managing position rather than about jumping gaps. Mario releases creatures from a cage at the top and they descend toward you, which means the threat is always coming from above. It is a harder and more inventive game than the first Donkey Kong, and its two-screen structure keeps the pressure constant.

• ▸Play as Donkey Kong's son, rescuing him from Mario
• ▸Dual-ladder climbing and self-moving vines as the core movement
• ▸Threats released from above rather than encountered on the way up
• ▸Two-player alternating play