This Week In Retro: Kangaroo (Patreon)

January 1982: Women be hoppin'

by Diamond Feit

We've arrived in 2022, a year that is rich with major anniversaries to remember together. 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 25 years ago…pick a number, there'll be great moments in pop culture to reflect upon. Yet for me, the most interesting time zone to dial back to is 40 years ago, 1982.

Video games had crawled into mass-market relevancy in the late 1970s, and with the dawn of the 1980s, the medium planted its flag on global consciousness with hits like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong. By 1982, the secret was out: Video games are big business and everybody had their eye out for the next pixelated phenomenon. As a young arcade goer, I was spoiled with choices every time I got my hands on a quarter.

For my first column of 2022, I'm casting my gaze at an arcade game I put many hours (and coins) into 40 years ago. Unlike other This Week In Retro candidates, it's not a title likely to emerge on any "best game ever" list. Even if we restrict ourselves solely to "best games made in 1982," I don't think this one makes the cut. Yet it lives rent-free in my head, as the saying goes, and I don't have a good explanation as to why. Perhaps it was just the right machine in the right place at the right time.

Kangaroos are underutilized in the video game world. They're quite humanoid in their appearance, they're good at jumping, and they have a big pocket. Theoretically, they'd fit right in to just about any platformer, action game, or even an RPG (free inventory space!). Considering how often we see cats and dogs get anthropomorphized so that they can believably become a hero, why are kangaroos so often overlooked? Is it an anti-Australian thing? Are games secretly in the pocket of Big Kiwi?

The answer might be simpler than that, for what if the very first game to star a kangaroo was deemed the zenith for that particular species, and we as a society collectively decided there would be no second chances. 40 years ago this month, Kangaroo hopped into arcades where it did indeed offer players a chance to control their very own upright marsupial on the purest adventure of all: They must rescue their offspring from the clutches of monkeys. Notably, the young joey calls out for "MOM," making Kangaroo one of the earliest games to feature a female protagonist.

Based on the information I've already given you, I think you can surmise that Kangaroo is based closely on the Donkey Kong experience, right down to the enemy primates. The mother kangaroo, who is never given a name, jumps and climbs her way across platforms and ladders to reach her child at the top of the screen. There are no rolling barrels or fireballs to worry about, but the monkey clan has plenty of apple cores and they're eager to toss them directly at her or drop them from above.

Madam Kangaroo is a natural athlete who excels at jumping, making her far more agile than stodgy Mario. She's also taller than the famous everyman, so the programmers included a much-needed crouch feature to better dodge obstacles aimed at her head. Kangaroo is a one-button game, and in a twist, that button is not for jumping but for punching; the lady has no need for any hammers, as she is already equipped with a pair of boxing gloves and she knows how to use them. Neither the apes nor their leftovers are a match for her fists

No jump button means that the joystick must suffice for all movement, and thankfully Kangaroo doesn't skimp out with a 4-way stick. Mama cannot crawl but she can leap to the left or right as well as in place. Sadly, she's no better at landing than Mario is; despite her longer legs, she cannot afford any missteps off any edge or she plummets to the ground and loses one life.

Kangaroo successfully mimics most of what made Donkey Kong a popular arcade game, but it lacks the finer points that turned Mario and company into international sensations. It plays well enough—pressing up to jump works better than I expected—but the graphics and sound effects lack any appealing qualities. Donkey Kong doesn't have much music, but the game is awash in alluring sounds, from the squeaks that accompany every move Mario makes to the chimes that indicate a successful jump over a barrel. Kangaroo borrows music from the public domain, scoring points for recognizability but accomplishing nothing in the charm department.

Judging by the arcade flyers, it would appear Kangaroo was, at least in the United States, marketed as a family-friendly game appropriate for all ages. With all that it borrows from the Donkey Kong formula, there is little challenge to a game where the hero is perpetually powered-up compared to her foes. The stages likewise lack variety; there are four total screens in Kangaroo, but only one offers any fundamental play differences.

Out of all the arcade games I got to enjoy in 1982, why does Kangaroo stick with me all these years later? I was the prime age to enjoy a kid-friendly arcade game for sure, and even though I was well-familiar with Donkey Kong at the time, I doubt I was savvy enough to recognize how much Kangaroo derived from Nintendo's flagship title.

I believe Kangaroo's lasting legacy in my mind comes down to the first three rules of real estate: Location, location, location. Unlike a lot of games which I could only play in dedicated spaces like the local bowling alley or a roller-rink, Kangaroo was a fixture in a fried chicken restaurant that we frequented. Whenever we stopped in for a meal or to pick up a bucket to go, I always asked my parents for change and did my best to rescue the baby. That means Kangaroo didn't have to be engrossing or captivating, it just had to be there…and it was.

Kangaroo bore the Atari brand name in the United States, but the truth is it was designed in Japan by Sun Corporation, a company we now know as Sunsoft. Just last month, the official Sunsoft Twitter account reached out (in English) asking fans what games in the company's back catalog should be remade. At the time, I asked for an updated Fester's Quest that includes proper save points, but I should have asked about Kangaroo. The 1982 version of the game is primitive by any standards, but those kinds of projects are often the best ones to revisit.

After all, 40 years later, we're not exactly drowning in kangaroo-based action games, let alone ones starring a mother looking for her child. Maybe a new Kangaroo is the antidote for our current plague of sad-dad video games; no gritty reboot, please, just let me hop around and punch monkeys and feel the warmth of my kin against my bosom.

Diamond Feit lives in Osaka, Japan but is forever online, sharing idle thoughts on Twitter and playing games on Twitch.