The Donkey Kong Competition Cartridge is a special timed version of the game where you have five minutes to collect as many points as possible. Once the time runs out, the game physically freezes (probably so the score could be recorded), and the game then needs to be reset.
It was first used in the finals of Powerfest ’94, a week before the official release of the game and then in the Blockbuster World Video Game Championships II in 1995 as a qualifier.
After the competition ended, the carts were sold through Nintendo’s Super Power Supplies Catalog. They came in a plastic green rental-style box which states that the high score from the Nintendo pros was 3641. The box also says only 2500 copies were made, making this one of the rarest official SNES releases. The cart label itself looks pretty much like the normal game, except the corner has a display saying “Competition Cartridge” and the top of the label states “Resale/Rental of the Game Pak is Prohibited!”.
It will be interesting to see if the new Donkey Kong game may bump the interest / price in this one a bit.
Over the past year the complete copy has sold for up to $1200, and loose cartridges for around $650.
(Thanks Jess and SNES Central!)
Link (Currently $535.00)
All currently for sale shown below.
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