Donkey Kong

Rare rendered DKC's sprites as 3D models on silicon graphics workstations and squeezed them onto 16-bit cartridges — a generational shock in 1994 that helped the ageing SNES hold the line against the PlayStation. It sold over nine million copies, so loose is trivial; a high-grade WATA sealed first print is the late-SNES collectible anchor and reached the low five figures at the 2021 peak.

The 1981 arcade game was Shigeru Miyamoto's first hit and the debut of 'Jumpman' — the carpenter who became Mario. The NES home version (released in the West as a black-box launch-era title) is the console object that carries that history: the single most important origin story in the medium, on a cartridge.

Rare's 1999 3D platformer shipped bundled with the N64 Expansion Pak — the game required it. A complete-in-box copy means the Pak, the bundle box and the inserts; a sealed first print is the centrepiece of an N64 Donkey Kong shelf and the swansong of Rare's Nintendo era.

The 1995 sequel is, for most of the hobby, the best of the Rare trilogy — sharper level design, a darker world, and the deepest secret-hunting in the series. A first-print sealed copy without the 'Player's Choice' banner is the connoisseur's SNES Donkey Kong.

Retro Studios' 2014 Wii U entry is widely held to be the finest 2D platformer of its generation — and it launched on Nintendo's worst-selling console. The Wii U first print is already the scarce one; the Switch re-release is the common copy. A modern first-print story in real time.