25 years later it's still suprisingly addictive
Donald Duck's Playground (C64) was developed by Al Lowe and released back in 1984, it is what you would call today a mini-game collection for kids. You play as Donald Duck who has to make money to buy toys for his nephews. This is done by playing one of four jobs, each presented by a short mini game. One job has you catching and sorting vegetables, another has you sort cargo at an airport, one has you place toys into a self and the final one has you navigate a train around a simple track. The better you are at a game, the more money you make. The money in turn can then be used to buy one of 15 toys which can be played with on the playground.
This simple premise however turns out to be quite addicting, as the game manages to have a good work/reward pacing. A few minutes of work will give you enough money to buy and try another toy, which in turn gives you a few moments to play around with it until you are up to another job to make more money for more toys. The game also maintains a high level of interactivity, as you actually walk around between shops and work, instead of just selecting stuff from a simplistic menu. Money in this game is also interesting, as it is actually represented properly in the form of coins and bills, which you have to drag&drop around when you wanna buy things and get your change.
The playground allows you to place each of the toys on one of its three floors, you can also use this to chain toys together. For example you need a ladder to reach another floor of the playground, can place slides in such a way that they connect and a few other things. Actually playing with the toys is done by his nephews, to which you automatically switch when entering the playground.
The background graphics in this game tend to be a bit blocking in a few spots, but Donald, Mickey, Mini and Goofy are easily recognizable. The input can be a little unresponsive, while it works fine in the mini games itself, placing items on the playground via drag&drop seems to miss button presses when you don't hold the button down long enough.
Overall this isn't the most complex game in the world, there no way to fail at it and you will have probably seen everything the game has to offer in an hour, as it doesn't take all that long to make enough money to buy all the toys there are, but that hour will be spend well entertained.