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Run
Survival
Kids
Adventure
I clicked on Donkey Kong Run expecting a casual nod to the old-school platformer I grew up with. What I got instead was a nonstop, high-speed, one-button challenge that had me jumping over spikes, dodging enemies, and failing a lot more than I'd like to admit. It's not deep, it's not fancy - but it definitely has that "just one more try" energy. This isn't the barrel-throwing ape from the arcade days. This is Donkey Kong in running shoes, sprinting through levels like he's late for his own anniversary party, and honestly, it's more fun than it has any right to be. The controls couldn't be simpler - your character runs automatically, and all you do is tap to jump. Sometimes once, sometimes twice, sometimes you just pray the timing works out. And while the first few jumps lull you into a false sense of confidence, the game ramps up fast. Suddenly you're bouncing off platforms, timing double jumps over fire pits, and trying to grab bananas mid-air without smashing into an enemy. You die a lot. Sometimes it's your fault. Sometimes it feels like the platform moved out of spite. But every time, you restart instantly - and that's what makes it addictive. The levels are short, the pace is quick, and the margin for error is laughably thin. You're either in the zone, or you're in a pit. What makes Donkey Kong Run work isn't complexity - it's rhythm. You fall into a pattern, learn to anticipate the next spike, the next ledge, the exact frame to jump from. It turns into this twitchy dance between memory and instinct. Sure, the graphics are basic and the sound effects are retro filler, but that kind of fits. It doesn't try to modernize Donkey Kong - it just strips him down to his movement, momentum, and a few good bananas. And weirdly enough, it's enough. Whether you play for five minutes or twenty, you'll probably spend half the time telling yourself, "Okay, last run." And then - oops - you're still going. That's Donkey Kong Run: simple, fast, slightly infuriating, but hard to quit. Just like the classics.
