Donkey Kong (Arcade) ARCADE

Donkey Kong is Nintendo’s 1981 arcade platformer, directed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo’s first major original hit outside of its earlier electronic-toy business. You climb a construction site across four increasingly difficult stages as Jumpman — later renamed Mario — to rescue Pauline from the giant ape who’s been throwing barrels down at you the whole way up.

It’s a foundational game in more ways than one: it introduced Mario (under his original name), established the jump-based platforming that would define Nintendo’s biggest franchise, and used cutscenes between stages to tell a story in a way few arcade games of the period attempted. Its commercial success in the US helped establish Nintendo there as a serious arcade developer, ahead of its later console business.