In today’s discussion, we’ll be taking a look at the Popeye video game from the arcade and it’s NES and Atari 2600 ports. So, grab your spinach and a Wimpy burger, because we’re going to look at the game should have been Donkey Kong!
Lots of us will know how the legend goes. Once upon a time, when the video game business was still young, Nintendo were still primarily a company that produced playing cards and toys. But seeing the world taken a storm by Pong, Nintendo decided it was time to get into the video game business.
Nintendo, in the early days released the TV Color Game systems, and these were simple Pong clones with either six or fifteen games built in. In the arcades, Nintendo released their first arcade game in Radar Scope, and when this wasn’t the hit Nintendo had hoped for, they set about coming up their next concept and hopefully, their first major hit.
Their big idea was to release a game based on Popeye the Sailor Man, the long running cartoon series. But Nintendo couldn’t secure the rights to Popeye and so they ended up making a game with their own original characters.
This game, of course turned into Donkey Kong. And when you look at the game Donkey Kong was, it’s easy to see how this would have been the same thing with Popeye characters. Mario of course would have been Popeye. Donkey Kong would have been Bluto, and Pauline would have been Olive Oyl. You can even look to Mario picking up the hammer and then being able to take on and defeat any bad guys as Popeye picking up spinach and then having the strength he gets with his favourite can of vegetable mush.
Well, this is a case of a blessing in disguise for Nintendo as not getting the rights to Popeye for the game that would become Donkey Kong couldn’t have worked out better for them. Imagine how video games would be different if Donkey Kong had been released as Popeye. You have to assume that the game would have still been a hit. The Popeye license would have got it some attention and when people discovered the gameplay, it surely would have still been a big success.
I guess there’s a chance that Donkey Kong as it was may owe some of its success to the big gorilla and the name Kong attracting people to it if they knew the King Kong movie, but truthfully I don’t think it having the name Kong would have brought it too many more players compared to if it was a Popeye game. And maybe having the Popeye name would have been an advantage, but maybe not, as I’m not sure Popeye was at the height of his popularity either.
But if the game had been Popeye there would have been no creation of Donkey Kong, no Pauline, and especially no Jump Man, which everyone and their cat knows is now known as Super Mario. So yeah…blessing in disguise.
But whilst over the coming years Nintendo would put Mario into games left, right and centre, with him popping up in Wrecking Crew, Game Boy Tennis, and acting as the referee for Punch Out, Nintendo were still up for getting the Popeye license when it was later granted to them.
In 1982, Nintendo released Popeye, and whilst they could have just made a game exactly like Donkey Kong with the Popeye license slapped on, they instead made a game that almost exactly like Donkey Kong…but worse in most ways. The differences between the two are only a few, but they are significant. Instead of there being an end point to a level that you have to reach like on Donkey Kong, each of the stages has you tasked with collecting a number of things to finish the level. This includes musical notes and hearts that Olive Oil is sending out for Popeye to collect.
The game starts with both Bluto and Popeye declaring their love for Olive. Whilst Bluto clearly gets down on one knee, Popeye just offers a flower. Clearly Olive Oyl was after just a fling and not ready to settle down then.
Olive then starts to throw love hearts down on the first stage and you have to collect them whilst dodging Bluto, who is something of a pain. He’s almost like the earliest version of Nemesis from Resident Evil as he’s an unkillable threat who is much larger than you and will stalk you around the level trying to punch you. This makes Bluto much more part of the action than Donkey Kong, who famously will throw barrels at you in the iconic first level of his game and then kinda sit there and do nothing in every other level. Play the game again if you don’t believe me. He doesn’t even throw the springs at you that bounce towards you in one of the other stages. They just bounce past him.
Otherwise, the game still kinda plays like Donkey Kong. It’s like Nintendo were like “ok we’ve finally got the Popeye license. Let’s not just make Donkey Kong again, but find the minimum ways possible to change the style of gameplay.”
The main difference really just is that Bluto, unlike Donkey Kong, will run around the eve after you. It’s a shame really that this was wasted on the ultimately forgettable Popeye game, as this would have been much more interesting as a sequel to Donkey Kong. This time…Kong strikes back!
There are some old women who throw things at you. I’m not sure if this is a Popeye character or if it’s just a random woman. I like to imagine that she is Bluto’s true love and that she is attacking Popeye to prove herself to Bluto…although stopping Popeye in theory would send Olive Oyl into Bluto’s arms…so maybe my theory doesn’t hold up.
The game also has cameos from Wimpy and Pee Wee. Wimpy is on a see saw that will spring Popeye back to the start of the second level and Pee Wee helps catch you.
Another difference is that Popeye can’t jump. They saved the jumping for Jump Man. He can still go up and down stairs and climb ladders, but no jumping.
The good news is that you can find spinach on each stage and use this to have the strength to knock Bluto as far down the level as possible. If there’s also any enemy birds, you’ll knock these away also with a mighty punch. You don’t need the spinach to take care of the birds, just Bluto, but you’ll only get him off your back for a few seconds and then you’re done with spinach. Truthfully there should have been multiple chances to pick up spinach and maybe it appear in random places for a few seconds so you have to dash after it when it shows up before it disappears.
The game is ok, but lacks the excitement of Donkey Kong. The issue is that the gameplay to collect the things you need is all a bit samey. You will end up just hovering around one main area to collect hearts and grabbing them as they filter down. You’ll only deviate from this if an enemy is near.
I think it could have been fixed if the things you need to collect would show up at random places around the level and only stay on screen for a limited time and you’d have to chase around to pick them up. I said this would have been good for the spinach, but actually, thinking about it, it would have generally made the whole game better. This would mean you’d have to learn the best ways to run around each of the levels and not just have the whole thing be about dodging Bluto for a moment and returning to the same spot.
I do sometimes find a couple of design choices frustrating. There’s usually one level on the screen where you can run off one side and appear the opposite side of the screen. I think there should have been these on more than one level of the stage as you can often feel trapped at the bottom. And with stairs rather than ladders for the most part, the angle you run up them means you have more chance getting hit as sometimes you can see that you’re heading into danger rather than away from it.
Whichever version you’re playing, you will either get the women throw what look like bottles at you. On the NES these are skulls which is cool, and there are no women enemies on the Atari version and just random dots fly at you. On the Atari version these are hard to punch out the air, but easy on the others.
The third level sees Olive kidnapped by a vulture…why not Bluto? But you’re on a pirate ship by the looks of it. Or just a ship. Popeye is a sailor man after all. And you have to collect the letters of the word ‘help’ to build a ladder to reach Olive to beat the game.
The game did get versions on a variety of platforms including the NES and Atari 2600. These keep the same basic idea of what you do on the game, but aren’t as hard as the arcade version…not that the arcade version is hard.
Truthfully this is almost as good a game as Donkey Kong, but it’s not as good. It’s probably a game that would be more fondly remembered if it had been another Donkey Kong game, but with the license, it’s meant that it’s one that has been mostly lost to time. It’s just amazing to think that if the original Donkey Kong had been the Popeye game, it would have probably disappeared into obscurity due to keeping up the license. And as it is, the game that would come out as a Popeye game feels like a worse sequel to Donkey Kong in terms of gameplay and has all but never been seen again.
What are you memories of the Popeye game? Did you play it at the arcade, or do you still have it for your Atari, NES, or perhaps another system it was ported to? As always, let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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