Conina said:
I'm pretty sure, they would exist without Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong wasn't even the first platformer game. Space Panic (which was released 8 month earlier) already had a lot of Donkey Kong's game elements. The character of Space Panic couldn't jump... but do you really think, that no game designer in the whole world would have added that jumping feature soon? Already five months after the Donkey Kong release, Jump Bug gave its debut... with jumping on and over objects and with smooth side-scrolling (four years earlier than Super Mario Bros.).
Pitfall (released 9 months after Donkey Kong) is another platformer, which probably would have been developed without Donkey Kong's existence... at least David Crane claims, that his Pitfall idea is from 1979. |
Eh, neither of those were as impactful as Donkey Kong.
