the cutting room mirror

Donkey Kong Jr. Math

Donkey Kong Jr. and Pink Donkey Kong Jr. teach math in Donkey Kong Jr. Math, one of two educational titles based on a previous game of Nintendo's, though it's also the only one to leave Japan, releasing overseas as the sole title of the NES' "Education Series" label.

Despite its nature, it still found rereleases through Animal Crossing, Virtual Console, and the Nintendo Classics NSO library of Famicom/NES titles.

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Unused Graphics#

A duplicate of the apple used to show the number of wins in Calculate mode.

Japanese text. Part of the second group of text is used, but the rest isn't. Only present in the Japanese version.

Three different-colored squares. These may have been used as placeholders during development.

Some font characters.

Donkey Kong Jr. Leftovers#

Most of the game's CHR ROM was directly copied from Donkey Kong Jr. As a result, a large chunk of that game's graphics go unused.

Various Mario sprites (including the ones scrapped from the NES Donkey Kong Jr.). He doesn't play any role in this game.

Raise 'a roof!

Junior with his hands up, originally used when catching his father.

A sprite of Donkey Kong (and an extra set of face tiles). Unlike all of his used sprites in this game, he is not shown holding the sign.

Some of the unused tiles for Donkey Kong's caged sprite from the original game. While most of the tiles are overwritten here, they were both intact and used in the prototype.

The fruits, also not found anywhere. The oranges were partially overwritten.

Nitpickers flying downward. Only their horizontal sprites are used.

The Sparks from Stage 3 of the original game.

Snapjaw, another enemy from the original game that isn't used.

The graphics used when an enemy is defeated in the original game.

Various objects from Level 2 of the original game. The springboard graphics were partially overwritten.

The entirety of Level 3's tileset from the original game is still present (aside from the left half of Mario's lever), but it goes completely unused.

A handful of tiles from Level 4 of the original game.

The keys from the original game. The edges of the second sprite are used for a different key that has a question mark on it.

A vine. Everywhere vines could be used, chains are used instead.

Point numbers. The way points are given is different than the original game, leaving these unused.

Yes, there's two Vs.

Various font characters.

Most of the tiles for the original game's title screen. These were overwritten by the new title screen graphics in the International version.

Regional Differences#

Japan

International

The Japanese version has a rather primitive-looking logo, using the same style as the one seen in its sister game Popeye no Eigo Asobi. The international version is far more detailed and colorful, with the new graphics overwriting some of the Donkey Kong Jr. leftovers.

As with Popeye no Eigo Asobi, the Japanese title screen doesn't use the full name of the game for whatever reason, simply reading Sansuu Asobi.