Steering Down the Broken Ladder(s)! (SDTBL)

[marinomitch13]

One of the most important aspects of completing the barrel boards is being able to progress up the screen as quickly as possible. One of the biggest obstacles to this is having numerous barrels blocking your path at the top of ladders. Much of this can be alleviated by steering down the two long broken ladders (one connecting the 3rd girder to the 4th girder on the left side, and one connecting the 4th girder to the 5th girder on the right side).

If you are stuck on the 3rd girder, simply steer barrels down the left broken ladder as best as you can while waiting near the middle ladder until an adequate space in the barrels opens up. Likewise, you can do the same thing to go from the 4th to 5th girders. If you practice this skill, it will soon become second nature. In general, steering down these ladders (as opposed to simply ladders that are close to you) helps give you even more space between the barrels above you. Realizing that you have significant power over barrels -no matter if they are on the other side of the screen or even levels above you- will allow you to feel as though you have complete control over the game.

By the way, you can even steer barrels down these broken ladders while you are climbing on another ladder; this allows you to scale the stage even more seamlessly! When you aren't playing a serious game, it is very helpful to practice coordinating several different methods of steering the barrels from several different positions on the screen so that they become second nature and you may perform them at will without any fear.

Good luck!

(P.s. Allen Staal, if you read this, read it 8 more times^!!!!)

[Chuckie egg]

I shall ask a stupid question then
How do you steer them ?

[marinomitch13]

Simply run towards a ladder you want them to go down right as they are passing over it. It doesn't work 100% of the time, but the deeper into the game and the longer you've been on a screen will generally make them more steerable (there's kinda complex programing behind how steerable they actually are, but I don't have time to type it all up right now). Here is a good link about it though:

http://donhodges.com/Controlling_the_barrels_in_Donkey_Kong.htm

[ChrisP]

To paraphrase and simplify what's in the article:

25%, 50% or 75% of the time, depending on "internal difficulty" (level and/or timer status), if the barrel is to the left of jumpman and his joystick is pushed to the left, then the barrel will take the ladder  If the barrel is to the right of jumpman and the joystick is pushed to the right, then the barrel will take the ladder.

Two important things to remember:

1. Steering can work whether you and the barrel are approaching one another from opposite directions, or both moving in the same direction. All that matters is whether or not the barrel is on the same side of Jumpman (left or right) as the direction in which the joystick is being pushed (left or right).

2. The barrel doesn't care whether you're moving our not. In other words, steering also works when you're jumping or on a ladder.