Huge thanks to Pangburn for helping me revise and hash this out, alongside being a great source to bounce ideas off of. This review went through several drafts and was easily one of the most challenging write-ups I've ever attempted, and none of this would be possible without his invaluable assistance.
Donkey Kong Country is a shining example of how to create depth through simple yet cohesive design principles, refusing to lose momentum thanks to its constant movement. Throughout its several hour run-time, Rare engages the player with organic challenge by creating a deep learning curve through obstacle escalation, resulting in a tight gameplay loop that demands increasing execution and climaxes with sheer satisfaction. A lot of people thoroughly discuss the (rightfully) praised graphics and soundtrack, but in this review, I’d like to shine a light upon the often underappreciated mechanical and level design.
Donkey Kong Country’s controls are simple, with the basic movement consisting of a tight jump and a roll/cartwheel serving as an attack and a quick burst of speed. The depth comes from successfully mixing rolls alongside jumps, for jump-cancelling the roll not only allows you to maintain horizontal momentum but also jump out of the roll in mid-air to span larger gaps. That said, there’s a catch: coming to the end of the roll animation at any time results in your character abruptly stagnating for a solid second or two, leaving you vulnerable to attack while destroying any momentum you had. However, the ability to barrel into consecutive enemies and chain speed boosts makes this risk very much worth the reward. Thus, learning when to chain bounces off of enemy clusters versus quickly somersaulting into them to speed up the Kongs requires not only good recognition, but also tight execution, and mastering this toolkit remains key to developing player growth and adapting to Donkey Kong Country’s scaling level challenges.
Picture each individual level as a mini-marathon, with their own set of intensity swells. Levels often start out simple, with important level features or gimmicks slowly introduced fairly early on. Then, the difficulty begins to ramp up, with the prominent level features taking up a more active role while punishing more heavily for missed inputs or slow reactions. As the level progresses, these elements intertwine with previously introduced dangers from past levels; these new combinations force further adaptation. Finally, the level comes to its denouement and throws the final gauntlet of variations at you, ending with a quick cooldown section (sometimes with rewards) and perhaps one final “gotcha” moment to seal the deal. This learning curve of slowly picking up the pace and reacting on the fly to increasingly demanding variations upon variations of different obstacles makes the victory lap that much sweeter when you finally break through the crash course, ready to proceed to the next lesson.
As part of this design philosophy, Donkey Kong Country emphasizes usage of moving parts to force specific execution tests; these parts include barrel cannons, swinging ropes, tire swings, and even steel kegs thrown against walls that the Kongs can ride. Furthermore, these passive elements are aided by potentially hazardous obstacles that constantly push players forward and hold them accountable, for stagnation or sloppy inputs will result in quick deaths. For example, Temple Tempest is filled with oversized beavers in millstones that chase you down like a boulder in an Indiana Jones film, while Misty Mines is filled with infinite enemy spawners that threaten to overwhelm you with a flurry of snakes and armadillos. These traversable interactables and constant sources of danger are a fundamental component of the obstacle escalation; they limit your available options and create situations where you must account for and effectively utilize all present elements.
To illustrate the previous points, let’s consider Oil Drum Alley, the first level of Krem Kroc Industries. Oil Drum Alley starts with a simple flaming oil drum atop a gap that’s easily avoided. Inquisitive players may also notice the single banana beneath the drum, implying that there’s a secret to be found. Furthermore, these players can unearth a TNT barrel nearby by recognizing the tells of a dangling rope over a buried object. It then follows that this TNT barrel has some association with the oil drum, and in fact, you’re encouraged to throw the barrel to destroy the oil drum, exposing the secret area below. As such, this single condensed opening segment in Oil Drum Alley both introduces you to the main hazard of the level while providing a hint on how to deal with it.
As you move further through the level, the level begins to test you more and more. First, it starts throwing in enemies between the flaming oil drums such as these leaping Kritters to force you to react to disposing or avoiding these foes. Then, you’re introduced to the first twist of the level after the Continue Barrel: the oil drums can flare on and off. This becomes important because you’re soon forced to use the oil drums as platforms to progress; meanwhile, you also have to now contend with these Lanky Kongs chucking barrels at you. Finally, you reach the climax of the level: platforming on oil drums set on a cycle of two quick burns and an extended burn, over thin air with tire platforms inbetween. As you clear this last segment, you’re met with one final “twist” and reward: the collectible letter “G,” should you choose to unearth it by jumping from the last oil drum.
Admittingly, it would be quite difficult to fit in thirty levels of varied platforming without some degree of repeating elements or compromising in design depth. However, Rare tackles this challenge in two ways. Firstly, Rare is extremely thoughtful at adding subtle wrinkles between similar levels. For example, Forest Frenzy requires players to cling to vertical ropes as an aid to cross vast expanses of abyss while carefully slinking up and down to dodge aerial enemies. However, Slipslide Ride, while also heavily utilizing ropes, plays with this idea by transforming the ropes into the main obstacle. Now, ropes automatically slide the player up or down, and as a result, players must often fight back against the natural flow, jumping to and from various slippery ropes to avoid both falling to their doom and getting spiked at the ceiling. In a similar fashion, Trick Track Trek first introduces the concept of the singular moving platform odyssey, daring the player to survive waves of goons that drop onto the platform from the rafters like a classic elevator defense stage. Conversely, Tanked Up Trouble turns this concept on its head by forcing the player to constantly travel beyond the moving platform, scouring nearby ledges while dodging Zingers to collect fuel cans and keep the platform running, lest it fall out of the sky after exhausting its gas.
Secondly, Rare understands how to cleverly disguise its use of similar elements through theme and interchanging other level assets. A great example here can be found between the second level Ropey Rampage and the Gorilla Glacier stage Ice Age Alley; while both stages heavily rely upon timing jumps between cliffs and swinging ropes, Ice Age Alley innovates upon this by utilizing slippery ice surfaces to punish complacent players while also giving players an opportunity to outright skip the rope swinging if they stumble upon Espresso the Ostrich to flutter over the large gaps. The dynamic set design also plays a huge part in differentiation: weather elements such as rain and snow as well as the changing night/day cycles while progressing through outdoor jungle levels further help sell the varied exotic environments of Kong Island’s wilderness. As such, it’s through these subtle design decisions that each individual level can begin to stand out on its own.
Rare further stratifies its levels by translating these ideas to two different separate settings. The first example comes in the form of two minecart levels. Instead of trekking on the ground, you’re now controlling a constantly moving vehicle in an auto-scroller. At their core, these levels are still classic 2D platforming, just now taking place on rails that require the Kongs to quickly react to hazards in order to precisely time jumps over gaps in the rails as well as various flying foes and overturned minecarts. The second type of variation occurs in the underwater levels, where the players must tap A to doggy paddle (an analog for underwater jumping) while quickly reacting to threats such as pearl spitting clams and whirling Croctopi. Adapting to these levels requires a fundamental understanding that “gravity” and jump limits do not apply in the same manner, and in fact, holding down on the D-pad to quickly descend is just as important as carefully tapping A to maintain your vertical position.
As a final strategy for creating depth within levels, Rare made sure to insert plenty of hidden secrets and surprises as part of the core exploration loop. Scattered around the various levels are tons of bonus areas, often indicated by stray bananas or seemingly out-of-place enemies. They’re usually not too far off the beaten path, as most of these secrets are just a well timed roll-jump or enemy bounce away, or hidden in a nearby breakable wall. These rewards don’t exclusively have to be bonus areas; well-timed execution or careful sleuthing can also result in collecting goodies in the form of animal tokens (for bonus stages to gain even more lives), KONG letters, banana bunches, and extra lives balloons. Even more rarely, this can result in finding shortcuts such as special Warp Barrels to the end of the stage or sequences of automated Barrel Cannons that let you skip difficult cannon timing sections. Having said that, while Rare was able to lay down solid framework for secret discovery, they would greatly improve upon rewards (beyond extra lives and fulfillment) in future iterations.
Despite all my praise, Donkey Kong Country is not perfect; there are aspects that the game fails to imbue with the depth of its standard platforming, such as its boss fights. All of these fights follow the same pattern of attack, dodging while the boss is invincible, attacking again, and repeating (often with a lot of waiting in-between attacks) until the boss is finished. Moreover, two of the bosses (Really Gnawty and Master Necty Snr) are just juiced-up versions of previous bosses (Very Gnawty and Master Necty, respectively) with similar attack patterns. The third boss, Queen B., can be easily dealt with by having Diddy hold the barrel in front of him and waiting for the boss to run into the barrel, and the fifth boss, Dumb Drum, is just a minion rush with plenty of waiting between minion waves. Even the final boss, King K Rool, features plenty of standing around while players wait to dodge the next line of cannonballs. It is a shame that for such an engaging and fine-tuned game, Donkey Kong Country’s bosses unfortunately feel rather un-interactive and one-dimensional.
Regardless, Donkey Kong Country is the epitome of successfully rebooting a beloved franchise and establishing a tough yet fair and fulfilling platforming game loop thanks to its thoughtful obstacle escalation providing an approachable and deep mechanical challenge. While the intimidating learning curve and short run-time may turn off some players, the varied and engaging level designs, distinctive visuals, immersive soundtrack, and high skill ceiling make Donkey Kong Country not just an icon of its era, but also a beloved classic worth revisiting time and time again.
Donkey Kong Country is a shining example of how to create depth through simple yet cohesive design principles, refusing to lose momentum thanks to its constant movement. Throughout its several hour run-time, Rare engages the player with organic challenge by creating a deep learning curve through obstacle escalation, resulting in a tight gameplay loop that demands increasing execution and climaxes with sheer satisfaction. A lot of people thoroughly discuss the (rightfully) praised graphics and soundtrack, but in this review, I’d like to shine a light upon the often underappreciated mechanical and level design.
Donkey Kong Country’s controls are simple, with the basic movement consisting of a tight jump and a roll/cartwheel serving as an attack and a quick burst of speed. The depth comes from successfully mixing rolls alongside jumps, for jump-cancelling the roll not only allows you to maintain horizontal momentum but also jump out of the roll in mid-air to span larger gaps. That said, there’s a catch: coming to the end of the roll animation at any time results in your character abruptly stagnating for a solid second or two, leaving you vulnerable to attack while destroying any momentum you had. However, the ability to barrel into consecutive enemies and chain speed boosts makes this risk very much worth the reward. Thus, learning when to chain bounces off of enemy clusters versus quickly somersaulting into them to speed up the Kongs requires not only good recognition, but also tight execution, and mastering this toolkit remains key to developing player growth and adapting to Donkey Kong Country’s scaling level challenges.
Picture each individual level as a mini-marathon, with their own set of intensity swells. Levels often start out simple, with important level features or gimmicks slowly introduced fairly early on. Then, the difficulty begins to ramp up, with the prominent level features taking up a more active role while punishing more heavily for missed inputs or slow reactions. As the level progresses, these elements intertwine with previously introduced dangers from past levels; these new combinations force further adaptation. Finally, the level comes to its denouement and throws the final gauntlet of variations at you, ending with a quick cooldown section (sometimes with rewards) and perhaps one final “gotcha” moment to seal the deal. This learning curve of slowly picking up the pace and reacting on the fly to increasingly demanding variations upon variations of different obstacles makes the victory lap that much sweeter when you finally break through the crash course, ready to proceed to the next lesson.
As part of this design philosophy, Donkey Kong Country emphasizes usage of moving parts to force specific execution tests; these parts include barrel cannons, swinging ropes, tire swings, and even steel kegs thrown against walls that the Kongs can ride. Furthermore, these passive elements are aided by potentially hazardous obstacles that constantly push players forward and hold them accountable, for stagnation or sloppy inputs will result in quick deaths. For example, Temple Tempest is filled with oversized beavers in millstones that chase you down like a boulder in an Indiana Jones film, while Misty Mines is filled with infinite enemy spawners that threaten to overwhelm you with a flurry of snakes and armadillos. These traversable interactables and constant sources of danger are a fundamental component of the obstacle escalation; they limit your available options and create situations where you must account for and effectively utilize all present elements.
To illustrate the previous points, let’s consider Oil Drum Alley, the first level of Krem Kroc Industries. Oil Drum Alley starts with a simple flaming oil drum atop a gap that’s easily avoided. Inquisitive players may also notice the single banana beneath the drum, implying that there’s a secret to be found. Furthermore, these players can unearth a TNT barrel nearby by recognizing the tells of a dangling rope over a buried object. It then follows that this TNT barrel has some association with the oil drum, and in fact, you’re encouraged to throw the barrel to destroy the oil drum, exposing the secret area below. As such, this single condensed opening segment in Oil Drum Alley both introduces you to the main hazard of the level while providing a hint on how to deal with it.
As you move further through the level, the level begins to test you more and more. First, it starts throwing in enemies between the flaming oil drums such as these leaping Kritters to force you to react to disposing or avoiding these foes. Then, you’re introduced to the first twist of the level after the Continue Barrel: the oil drums can flare on and off. This becomes important because you’re soon forced to use the oil drums as platforms to progress; meanwhile, you also have to now contend with these Lanky Kongs chucking barrels at you. Finally, you reach the climax of the level: platforming on oil drums set on a cycle of two quick burns and an extended burn, over thin air with tire platforms inbetween. As you clear this last segment, you’re met with one final “twist” and reward: the collectible letter “G,” should you choose to unearth it by jumping from the last oil drum.
Admittingly, it would be quite difficult to fit in thirty levels of varied platforming without some degree of repeating elements or compromising in design depth. However, Rare tackles this challenge in two ways. Firstly, Rare is extremely thoughtful at adding subtle wrinkles between similar levels. For example, Forest Frenzy requires players to cling to vertical ropes as an aid to cross vast expanses of abyss while carefully slinking up and down to dodge aerial enemies. However, Slipslide Ride, while also heavily utilizing ropes, plays with this idea by transforming the ropes into the main obstacle. Now, ropes automatically slide the player up or down, and as a result, players must often fight back against the natural flow, jumping to and from various slippery ropes to avoid both falling to their doom and getting spiked at the ceiling. In a similar fashion, Trick Track Trek first introduces the concept of the singular moving platform odyssey, daring the player to survive waves of goons that drop onto the platform from the rafters like a classic elevator defense stage. Conversely, Tanked Up Trouble turns this concept on its head by forcing the player to constantly travel beyond the moving platform, scouring nearby ledges while dodging Zingers to collect fuel cans and keep the platform running, lest it fall out of the sky after exhausting its gas.
Secondly, Rare understands how to cleverly disguise its use of similar elements through theme and interchanging other level assets. A great example here can be found between the second level Ropey Rampage and the Gorilla Glacier stage Ice Age Alley; while both stages heavily rely upon timing jumps between cliffs and swinging ropes, Ice Age Alley innovates upon this by utilizing slippery ice surfaces to punish complacent players while also giving players an opportunity to outright skip the rope swinging if they stumble upon Espresso the Ostrich to flutter over the large gaps. The dynamic set design also plays a huge part in differentiation: weather elements such as rain and snow as well as the changing night/day cycles while progressing through outdoor jungle levels further help sell the varied exotic environments of Kong Island’s wilderness. As such, it’s through these subtle design decisions that each individual level can begin to stand out on its own.
Rare further stratifies its levels by translating these ideas to two different separate settings. The first example comes in the form of two minecart levels. Instead of trekking on the ground, you’re now controlling a constantly moving vehicle in an auto-scroller. At their core, these levels are still classic 2D platforming, just now taking place on rails that require the Kongs to quickly react to hazards in order to precisely time jumps over gaps in the rails as well as various flying foes and overturned minecarts. The second type of variation occurs in the underwater levels, where the players must tap A to doggy paddle (an analog for underwater jumping) while quickly reacting to threats such as pearl spitting clams and whirling Croctopi. Adapting to these levels requires a fundamental understanding that “gravity” and jump limits do not apply in the same manner, and in fact, holding down on the D-pad to quickly descend is just as important as carefully tapping A to maintain your vertical position.
As a final strategy for creating depth within levels, Rare made sure to insert plenty of hidden secrets and surprises as part of the core exploration loop. Scattered around the various levels are tons of bonus areas, often indicated by stray bananas or seemingly out-of-place enemies. They’re usually not too far off the beaten path, as most of these secrets are just a well timed roll-jump or enemy bounce away, or hidden in a nearby breakable wall. These rewards don’t exclusively have to be bonus areas; well-timed execution or careful sleuthing can also result in collecting goodies in the form of animal tokens (for bonus stages to gain even more lives), KONG letters, banana bunches, and extra lives balloons. Even more rarely, this can result in finding shortcuts such as special Warp Barrels to the end of the stage or sequences of automated Barrel Cannons that let you skip difficult cannon timing sections. Having said that, while Rare was able to lay down solid framework for secret discovery, they would greatly improve upon rewards (beyond extra lives and fulfillment) in future iterations.
Despite all my praise, Donkey Kong Country is not perfect; there are aspects that the game fails to imbue with the depth of its standard platforming, such as its boss fights. All of these fights follow the same pattern of attack, dodging while the boss is invincible, attacking again, and repeating (often with a lot of waiting in-between attacks) until the boss is finished. Moreover, two of the bosses (Really Gnawty and Master Necty Snr) are just juiced-up versions of previous bosses (Very Gnawty and Master Necty, respectively) with similar attack patterns. The third boss, Queen B., can be easily dealt with by having Diddy hold the barrel in front of him and waiting for the boss to run into the barrel, and the fifth boss, Dumb Drum, is just a minion rush with plenty of waiting between minion waves. Even the final boss, King K Rool, features plenty of standing around while players wait to dodge the next line of cannonballs. It is a shame that for such an engaging and fine-tuned game, Donkey Kong Country’s bosses unfortunately feel rather un-interactive and one-dimensional.
Regardless, Donkey Kong Country is the epitome of successfully rebooting a beloved franchise and establishing a tough yet fair and fulfilling platforming game loop thanks to its thoughtful obstacle escalation providing an approachable and deep mechanical challenge. While the intimidating learning curve and short run-time may turn off some players, the varied and engaging level designs, distinctive visuals, immersive soundtrack, and high skill ceiling make Donkey Kong Country not just an icon of its era, but also a beloved classic worth revisiting time and time again.
This is a true story.
I was about 7-years-old when Donkey Kong Country came out. It looked insane, and more than any other game for the system, it was the one that left me the most jealous of SNES kids. I needed to play it, but the only one I knew who had a copy was a boy on my block who I didn't get along with. I tried to suck up to him, but he knew I had a Genesis. He saw through my deception.
One day while riding my bike, I saw him run out of his garage to go over to a friend's house. With the garage door still open, I saw a golden opportunity... And so I snuck into his home and made my way to his bedroom, popped in Donkey Kong Country, and started playing. From the hallway, I could hear his mother approach, asking him a question that I cannot recall, clearly assuming her kid decided to stay indoors. As she turned the corner and peered into his room, she saw me on his bed playing the Super Nintendo. I'll never forget how loud she screamed as she chased me around his house and out into the street.
Just me doin' a little B&E because I love Donkey Kong Country so much.
I was about 7-years-old when Donkey Kong Country came out. It looked insane, and more than any other game for the system, it was the one that left me the most jealous of SNES kids. I needed to play it, but the only one I knew who had a copy was a boy on my block who I didn't get along with. I tried to suck up to him, but he knew I had a Genesis. He saw through my deception.
One day while riding my bike, I saw him run out of his garage to go over to a friend's house. With the garage door still open, I saw a golden opportunity... And so I snuck into his home and made my way to his bedroom, popped in Donkey Kong Country, and started playing. From the hallway, I could hear his mother approach, asking him a question that I cannot recall, clearly assuming her kid decided to stay indoors. As she turned the corner and peered into his room, she saw me on his bed playing the Super Nintendo. I'll never forget how loud she screamed as she chased me around his house and out into the street.
Just me doin' a little B&E because I love Donkey Kong Country so much.
WHY IS THE OST SO COOL WHAT THE FUUUUUUUCK IM GOING CRAZY WHO COMPOSED THIS YOU DESERVE A KISS fr when I got to the first water level I was like jesus fuck christ lord why the fuck every platformer gotta have some shit ass water levels THEN I listened to the song and I was literally astounded by how beautiful it was this game is unreal
Um clássico que envelheceu perfeitamente bem.
Esse daqui entra para lista de "Jogos clássicos que envelheceram igual vinho". O level design de "Donkey Kong Country" é uma aula de como prender o jogador pela gameplay (A fase dos barris beira o satisfatório de tão bem feita). As fases do game tem segredos em cada cantinho. Barris pode quebrar paredes, podem revelar pneus que servem de molas e podem impulsionar os macacos para lugares altos e escondidos.
As diferenças dos dois protagonistas são bem legais como todo o mundo do jogo (Acho genial, por exemplo, o DK ser mais pesado e mais forte, conseguindo derrotar inimigos mais robustos que o Diddy não consegue).
A trilha sonora do jogo e efeitos de som são um show a parte. Todas as músicas são clássicas, desde a musiquinha alegre do mapa até a canção das fases aquáticas.
Não seria nenhum pouco exagero colocar esse game num top jogos de plataforma da história.
PRÓS:
- Aula de level design.
- Co-Op.
- O game continua desafiador até hoje (quase 30 anos depois do lançamento).
CONTRAS:
- Sistema de "ganhar" itens um pouco fraco.
Esse daqui entra para lista de "Jogos clássicos que envelheceram igual vinho". O level design de "Donkey Kong Country" é uma aula de como prender o jogador pela gameplay (A fase dos barris beira o satisfatório de tão bem feita). As fases do game tem segredos em cada cantinho. Barris pode quebrar paredes, podem revelar pneus que servem de molas e podem impulsionar os macacos para lugares altos e escondidos.
As diferenças dos dois protagonistas são bem legais como todo o mundo do jogo (Acho genial, por exemplo, o DK ser mais pesado e mais forte, conseguindo derrotar inimigos mais robustos que o Diddy não consegue).
A trilha sonora do jogo e efeitos de som são um show a parte. Todas as músicas são clássicas, desde a musiquinha alegre do mapa até a canção das fases aquáticas.
Não seria nenhum pouco exagero colocar esse game num top jogos de plataforma da história.
PRÓS:
- Aula de level design.
- Co-Op.
- O game continua desafiador até hoje (quase 30 anos depois do lançamento).
CONTRAS:
- Sistema de "ganhar" itens um pouco fraco.
I can't articulate fully why I enjoy donkey Kong Country so much. Part of me feels like the reasoning falls under the shallow lens of being on the SNES and having a unique graphical style that perpetuated the otherworldly feeling this game possesses. Upon reflecting more on how I truly feel about this game, I've come to realize why I love it as much as I do.
Donkey Kong Country is simple, making simple games sounds like a criticism, but it's far from that for me. Making something simple and engaging is not easy, because basic mechanics are paramount to setting the standard and can ultimately make or break a game, an example of this would be jumping. So when a game like Donkey Kong Country excels at the fundamentals of the platforming genre, such as movement, jumping, and level design meticulously designed to fall in line with these controls, it has to meet the same standards that were set by its genre defining predecessors, like Mario. It does this so well, in contrary to a series like Mario that takes it a step further with power-ups like the Tanooki Leaf or Cape Feather to enhance all aspects I just mentioned, Donkey Kong Country is so confident and sound with its basic fundamentals and level design, power-ups are not present, at least not in a traditional sense. Barrels are essentially your "power-ups", most of which you throw to dispatch enemies and reveal secrets, some have interesting properties such as the metal barrel you can jump onto while it's rolling to move faster and plow through enemies with no effort. Similarly to power-ups, these capabilities do not last forever, however Donkey Kong Country ensures their limitations unlike Mario, because every barrel is a one-time use thing, whereas someone could keep their powered up form throughout the entire game in Mario, albeit unlikely. Animal friends also serve as power-ups for certain levels, and can be used for the entire level if you're good enough, but even then you lose them as soon as the level ends, unlike Yoshi from Super Mario World, though Yoshi also has specific restrictions to be used such as Ghost Houses and Castles. The point is, Donkey Kong Country seems lacking compared to other platformers, with no power-ups and your skill not being graciously rewarded for not losing your animal friend throughout the level. Yet the fundamentals like moving and jumping are so high and polished, it stays on par with Mario and fulfills the standards of the platforming genre perfectly.
The most important aspect of Donkey Kong Country's simple design however is in the two controllable characters, Donkey Kong, and Diddy Kong. Donkey Kong is a heavier, much larger character who's platforming capabilities aren't nearly as strong as Diddy Kong's, but is much easier to use for dealing with enemies, he does have a decent movement option with his roll as well, there's even some enemies only Donkey Kong can deal with. Donkey Kong also has a slam move that can reveal secrets. Diddy Kong is much lighter and faster, capable of speeding through levels with ease along with his amazing cartwheel which deals with almost every obstacle without even having to think, but if you try to defeat specific enemies as Diddy, he might just bounce off them and get killed. While the favorability of these two seems one-sided, it's what the two characters represent that's most important, the slow methodical style, and the fast reactionary style, the two extremes of how people might play platformers are embodied by the two playable characters. This is important because it's going back to one of the most important standards in platforming, which is level design. Since you can lose either Kong at any time, the developers had to make sure both characters could clear the level by themselves if they had to. Yes, some levels are easier with Diddy, some are easier with Donkey, but you can still complete any level in this game with either character, which means the developers took the slow methodical style, and fast reactionary style players might prefer into consideration when designing every level because those styles are Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong. It's honestly pretty genius and made creating these levels so much easier. You could argue specific levels like the minecart levels and even some levels near the end of the game are very fast and dependent on your reactionary ability, which you are correct. For Minecart levels, all control is taken from you except jump, and your Kong of choice doesn't matter, it's all about jumping at the right time. Later levels get pretty extreme with tough platforming while juggling another mechanic alongside it, some levels are even catered toward certain Kong's but is still beatable with either.
A lot of the gimmicks introduced with Donkey Kong Country became mainstays for the series and platformer staples overall. Minecart levels I already touched on is the evolution of the auto-scroller from past platformers. The cannon barrel sections and levels test your timing skills and are very tricky to figure out, but extremely rewarding and surprisingly doesn't feel like lazy or bad design, it's engaging and gives this game that little something other games don't have. Water levels are few and far between, but honestly aren't annoying, they're very manageable and the controls are good. Rope sections to me are definitely the worst sorts of levels to me, but even then they present interesting patterns you learn to weave through and is enticing to learn rather than feel like a chore overall even if I suffered a few annoying deaths. Boss fights are simple, they provide a nice change of pace though I'm not exactly ecstatic about any of them. And finally, the secrets, to me this is why you replay Donkey Kong Country. Secrets contribute to your percent completion on your file, so you have to find them all to achieve 100%. I love this idea because when you finish the game, you'll want to go back to find those secrets you missed out on. Sure the secrets themselves don't offer much in rewards, but finding them inside these beautifully designed levels is always a ton of fun to me, since it just reinforces the idea that the developers really put a lot of thought into everything.
As I mentioned at the start, the graphics for this game are unique to say the least. Computer generated graphics scaled down to fit on a SNES cartridge was honestly a brilliant idea. Sure, the character and enemy models look pixelated now, but there was nothing like this before, or ever again really from memory. It creates a very specific vibe that this game only has which helps to prop up the profound atmosphere and environments this game has to offer. Which is something else I've only really felt with this game, putting everything together really feels like you're in a uncharted tropical island filled with so many unknowns it compels you to go forward and see what lies ahead.
Donkey Kong Country's story is absolutely minimal at best. Donkey Kong's banana horde is stolen by the Kremlings and he has to go all around the island to retrieve them. That's it, it's a fine setup for a platformer at this time, so I'm not going to criticize it, but there's nothing to say about it. The original soundtrack composed by David Wise is an absolute masterpiece. Every single song has stunning instrumentation and atmospheric ambience baked into the tracks to really encapsulate every area and make them feel alive and special. DK Island Swing, Life in The Mines, and Aquatic Ambiance are by far my favorites, they're absolutely mesmerizing in ways I cannot explain, all I can say is David Wise has unprecedented talent like many video game composers before and after him, and it's an absolute joy to listen to.
I love Donkey Kong Country, it might not be one of my favorite games ever or anything, but I highly respect its craft and how much was put into it. I do think the game gets a little too hard near the end, and there's some jank here and there, but really most of this you can chalk up to when it came out. Again, not even one of my favorite platformers, but after playing so many, this game feels so refreshing since it lacks a lot of what platformers had back then and today, it'll always have some presence and discussion on it. You can get Donkey Kong Country on SNES, Wii U/3DS eshop (make sure to do so before March 27th 2023), the easiest way to play it right now though is through the Nintendo Switch's SNES library. All 3 games are available on there actually, so give the trilogy a try! I actually have yet to play the 2nd or 3rd entries myself, which I want to get to this year and may or may not write a review on. Until next time!
Donkey Kong Country is simple, making simple games sounds like a criticism, but it's far from that for me. Making something simple and engaging is not easy, because basic mechanics are paramount to setting the standard and can ultimately make or break a game, an example of this would be jumping. So when a game like Donkey Kong Country excels at the fundamentals of the platforming genre, such as movement, jumping, and level design meticulously designed to fall in line with these controls, it has to meet the same standards that were set by its genre defining predecessors, like Mario. It does this so well, in contrary to a series like Mario that takes it a step further with power-ups like the Tanooki Leaf or Cape Feather to enhance all aspects I just mentioned, Donkey Kong Country is so confident and sound with its basic fundamentals and level design, power-ups are not present, at least not in a traditional sense. Barrels are essentially your "power-ups", most of which you throw to dispatch enemies and reveal secrets, some have interesting properties such as the metal barrel you can jump onto while it's rolling to move faster and plow through enemies with no effort. Similarly to power-ups, these capabilities do not last forever, however Donkey Kong Country ensures their limitations unlike Mario, because every barrel is a one-time use thing, whereas someone could keep their powered up form throughout the entire game in Mario, albeit unlikely. Animal friends also serve as power-ups for certain levels, and can be used for the entire level if you're good enough, but even then you lose them as soon as the level ends, unlike Yoshi from Super Mario World, though Yoshi also has specific restrictions to be used such as Ghost Houses and Castles. The point is, Donkey Kong Country seems lacking compared to other platformers, with no power-ups and your skill not being graciously rewarded for not losing your animal friend throughout the level. Yet the fundamentals like moving and jumping are so high and polished, it stays on par with Mario and fulfills the standards of the platforming genre perfectly.
The most important aspect of Donkey Kong Country's simple design however is in the two controllable characters, Donkey Kong, and Diddy Kong. Donkey Kong is a heavier, much larger character who's platforming capabilities aren't nearly as strong as Diddy Kong's, but is much easier to use for dealing with enemies, he does have a decent movement option with his roll as well, there's even some enemies only Donkey Kong can deal with. Donkey Kong also has a slam move that can reveal secrets. Diddy Kong is much lighter and faster, capable of speeding through levels with ease along with his amazing cartwheel which deals with almost every obstacle without even having to think, but if you try to defeat specific enemies as Diddy, he might just bounce off them and get killed. While the favorability of these two seems one-sided, it's what the two characters represent that's most important, the slow methodical style, and the fast reactionary style, the two extremes of how people might play platformers are embodied by the two playable characters. This is important because it's going back to one of the most important standards in platforming, which is level design. Since you can lose either Kong at any time, the developers had to make sure both characters could clear the level by themselves if they had to. Yes, some levels are easier with Diddy, some are easier with Donkey, but you can still complete any level in this game with either character, which means the developers took the slow methodical style, and fast reactionary style players might prefer into consideration when designing every level because those styles are Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong. It's honestly pretty genius and made creating these levels so much easier. You could argue specific levels like the minecart levels and even some levels near the end of the game are very fast and dependent on your reactionary ability, which you are correct. For Minecart levels, all control is taken from you except jump, and your Kong of choice doesn't matter, it's all about jumping at the right time. Later levels get pretty extreme with tough platforming while juggling another mechanic alongside it, some levels are even catered toward certain Kong's but is still beatable with either.
A lot of the gimmicks introduced with Donkey Kong Country became mainstays for the series and platformer staples overall. Minecart levels I already touched on is the evolution of the auto-scroller from past platformers. The cannon barrel sections and levels test your timing skills and are very tricky to figure out, but extremely rewarding and surprisingly doesn't feel like lazy or bad design, it's engaging and gives this game that little something other games don't have. Water levels are few and far between, but honestly aren't annoying, they're very manageable and the controls are good. Rope sections to me are definitely the worst sorts of levels to me, but even then they present interesting patterns you learn to weave through and is enticing to learn rather than feel like a chore overall even if I suffered a few annoying deaths. Boss fights are simple, they provide a nice change of pace though I'm not exactly ecstatic about any of them. And finally, the secrets, to me this is why you replay Donkey Kong Country. Secrets contribute to your percent completion on your file, so you have to find them all to achieve 100%. I love this idea because when you finish the game, you'll want to go back to find those secrets you missed out on. Sure the secrets themselves don't offer much in rewards, but finding them inside these beautifully designed levels is always a ton of fun to me, since it just reinforces the idea that the developers really put a lot of thought into everything.
As I mentioned at the start, the graphics for this game are unique to say the least. Computer generated graphics scaled down to fit on a SNES cartridge was honestly a brilliant idea. Sure, the character and enemy models look pixelated now, but there was nothing like this before, or ever again really from memory. It creates a very specific vibe that this game only has which helps to prop up the profound atmosphere and environments this game has to offer. Which is something else I've only really felt with this game, putting everything together really feels like you're in a uncharted tropical island filled with so many unknowns it compels you to go forward and see what lies ahead.
Donkey Kong Country's story is absolutely minimal at best. Donkey Kong's banana horde is stolen by the Kremlings and he has to go all around the island to retrieve them. That's it, it's a fine setup for a platformer at this time, so I'm not going to criticize it, but there's nothing to say about it. The original soundtrack composed by David Wise is an absolute masterpiece. Every single song has stunning instrumentation and atmospheric ambience baked into the tracks to really encapsulate every area and make them feel alive and special. DK Island Swing, Life in The Mines, and Aquatic Ambiance are by far my favorites, they're absolutely mesmerizing in ways I cannot explain, all I can say is David Wise has unprecedented talent like many video game composers before and after him, and it's an absolute joy to listen to.
I love Donkey Kong Country, it might not be one of my favorite games ever or anything, but I highly respect its craft and how much was put into it. I do think the game gets a little too hard near the end, and there's some jank here and there, but really most of this you can chalk up to when it came out. Again, not even one of my favorite platformers, but after playing so many, this game feels so refreshing since it lacks a lot of what platformers had back then and today, it'll always have some presence and discussion on it. You can get Donkey Kong Country on SNES, Wii U/3DS eshop (make sure to do so before March 27th 2023), the easiest way to play it right now though is through the Nintendo Switch's SNES library. All 3 games are available on there actually, so give the trilogy a try! I actually have yet to play the 2nd or 3rd entries myself, which I want to get to this year and may or may not write a review on. Until next time!
I bought a Super Famicom recently. Got a good deal, came with twelve games, and pretty much all the big ones you'd really want to have - Super Mario World, Tetris Battle Gaiden, the heavy hitters. It also came with a certain trilogy of funny monkey games, and while I don't like re-reviewing stuff I've logged, this isn't Donkey Kong Country... This is SUPER Donkey Kong.
Perhaps that's some unnecessary justification to talk about one of my favorite games again, but you must understand the significance of no longer needing to break into people's homes to play Donkey Kong Country. At last, the DKC Prowler's criminal career comes to a close, and a happy one no less as I can now play Donkey Kong Country at my leisure. My childhood dream of having a Super Nintendo right next to my Genesis - like all the spoiled brats of the 90s - has finally been fulfilled nearly 30 years later, and though my tour of service in the console wars ended when Sega bowed out of the hardware market, I feel I can now truly put old allegiances behind me and admit I fought that fight because I didn't have Donkey Kong.
Hyperbole aside, this last playthrough ofDonkey Kong Country Super Donkey Kong really did feel like closing the loop, even if I can't understand a single thing Funky Kong is trying to tell me when I visit his shop. It is a bit weird that the credits are all in English, including Cranky's boasts of beating the game with one life in under one hour, but Super Donkey Kong is easy enough to play despite the language barrier. Bounce on Kremlins and jump in barrels. I've done this all before and it feels just as good as it always has, perhaps even better. This might be due in part to the easier nature of the Japanese release, which adds a number of extra lives and makes other small tweaks to smooth out the difficulty.
Of course, playing it on real hardware for the first time since my hoodlum youth no doubt played a role in making this a special experience, too. I've found going through these old games the "legitimate" way and cutting the save state safety net often results in a greater feeling of engagement. Not that there's anything wrong with filling your quick save slots up and hammering through something. Any method is valid, but I have my preference. Likewise, Super Donkey Kong's unique graphical style doesn't hold up quite so well when viewed as raw pixels, but the smoothing effect of a CRT makes all the difference here. I already gave this a 4.5/5 and won't be updating my rating, but this last playthrough was a solid 5/5.
Cutting through the water on the back of Engaurde while the calming tones of Aquatic Ambience pipes through the aged speakers of my 100+ pound big boy Toshiba left me thoroughly drenched in nostalgia, and I don't even care. It's nice being able to play DKC this way once again, only with the added benefit of not needing to look over my shoulder.
Your boy finally got his Donkey Kong.
Perhaps that's some unnecessary justification to talk about one of my favorite games again, but you must understand the significance of no longer needing to break into people's homes to play Donkey Kong Country. At last, the DKC Prowler's criminal career comes to a close, and a happy one no less as I can now play Donkey Kong Country at my leisure. My childhood dream of having a Super Nintendo right next to my Genesis - like all the spoiled brats of the 90s - has finally been fulfilled nearly 30 years later, and though my tour of service in the console wars ended when Sega bowed out of the hardware market, I feel I can now truly put old allegiances behind me and admit I fought that fight because I didn't have Donkey Kong.
Hyperbole aside, this last playthrough of
Of course, playing it on real hardware for the first time since my hoodlum youth no doubt played a role in making this a special experience, too. I've found going through these old games the "legitimate" way and cutting the save state safety net often results in a greater feeling of engagement. Not that there's anything wrong with filling your quick save slots up and hammering through something. Any method is valid, but I have my preference. Likewise, Super Donkey Kong's unique graphical style doesn't hold up quite so well when viewed as raw pixels, but the smoothing effect of a CRT makes all the difference here. I already gave this a 4.5/5 and won't be updating my rating, but this last playthrough was a solid 5/5.
Cutting through the water on the back of Engaurde while the calming tones of Aquatic Ambience pipes through the aged speakers of my 100+ pound big boy Toshiba left me thoroughly drenched in nostalgia, and I don't even care. It's nice being able to play DKC this way once again, only with the added benefit of not needing to look over my shoulder.
Your boy finally got his Donkey Kong.
David Wise really put his heart into some absolutely transcendental pieces of this soundtrack. I cry every time, 4/5.
Yet another SNES era platformer based on a cartoon that doesn’t do the original justice
Can’t believe they didn’t include Bluster Kong, the most important character
Can’t believe they didn’t include Bluster Kong, the most important character
I have a question for you: Do you have a "happy place" game? When you have had a bad day, nothing's gone right, and you feel dead to the world, do you have a game that you just turn on and suddenly everything suddenly feels like it's going to be okay? Donkey Kong Country is that game to me. Every Donkey Kong Country has that effect on me, but it's most keenly felt with this one.
The story is pretty simple. One dark and stormy night, King K. Rool has stolen Donkey Kong's banana hoard and locked Diddy Kong in a barrel. It's your job to save Diddy and the banana hoard. It is admittedly light on story, but most of the game's emotions are carried in the moment to moment gameplay. This is an incredibly challenging game for first-timers. Sure, I can beat it now no problem, but that's because I have over 20 years of experience playing it. Its difficulty actually enhances the quest. With how high stakes the atmosphere of the levels make it, combined with David Wise's frankly haunting soundtrack, it really feels like a quest into danger more than a simple platforming romp. Some nights, I will just put on Aquatic Ambience from the soundtrack and just contemplate my place in the world. The music and atmosphere of this game make me feel wonderful things that I am not sure I can even put into words.
The platforming itself is a ton of fun. An incredibly high skill ceiling means that it is always engaging, and there is enough mechanical variation to keep you entertained through the whole journey. The same can arguably not be said about the stage variety. They could have called this game "Donkey Kong Cave" for how much time you spend in them. This is one aspect where its sequels have it beat admittedly, but it never really bothered me personally. The same can be said of the bosses. Of all the various bosses in the game, only King K. Rool himself stands out as memorable. Fortunately, the final fight with him is arguably one of the best the Super Nintendo has to offer.
It should also be noted that this game arguably saved the Super Nintendo from losing to the Genesis in North America. While the Sega Genesis did still beat the Super Nintendo in sales in 1994 and 1995, it would prove to be the years that a Sega console would ever be on top in the region. Sega would move on to the Saturn in 1995 in America, more or less abandoning the Genesis, allowing the Super Nintendo to catch up and eventually surpass it in sales globally. The Donkey Kong Country games were a major reason why, and it all began with this one. This game would prove to be the second best-selling game for the SNES, with Donkey Kong, for a few years at least, supplanting Mario as Nintendo's most popular character. A lot of that had to do with the graphics. No one had ever seen graphics like this before. When you play this game on a CRT TV now, they still hold up. With the right filters on an emulator, you can get a similar effect.
This game was a risk that paid off. I am not sure modern Nintendo would trust a third party to handle one of their biggest IPs in such a way. Perhaps they should. With its colorful graphics, interesting and challenging platofrming, excellent animation, and amazing soundtrack that elevates the whole experience into something that is emotional and poignant, Donkey Kong Country is simply one of the finest platforming games ever made, and my "happy place" game. Give it a shot and who knows? It just might become your "happy place" game, too.
The story is pretty simple. One dark and stormy night, King K. Rool has stolen Donkey Kong's banana hoard and locked Diddy Kong in a barrel. It's your job to save Diddy and the banana hoard. It is admittedly light on story, but most of the game's emotions are carried in the moment to moment gameplay. This is an incredibly challenging game for first-timers. Sure, I can beat it now no problem, but that's because I have over 20 years of experience playing it. Its difficulty actually enhances the quest. With how high stakes the atmosphere of the levels make it, combined with David Wise's frankly haunting soundtrack, it really feels like a quest into danger more than a simple platforming romp. Some nights, I will just put on Aquatic Ambience from the soundtrack and just contemplate my place in the world. The music and atmosphere of this game make me feel wonderful things that I am not sure I can even put into words.
The platforming itself is a ton of fun. An incredibly high skill ceiling means that it is always engaging, and there is enough mechanical variation to keep you entertained through the whole journey. The same can arguably not be said about the stage variety. They could have called this game "Donkey Kong Cave" for how much time you spend in them. This is one aspect where its sequels have it beat admittedly, but it never really bothered me personally. The same can be said of the bosses. Of all the various bosses in the game, only King K. Rool himself stands out as memorable. Fortunately, the final fight with him is arguably one of the best the Super Nintendo has to offer.
It should also be noted that this game arguably saved the Super Nintendo from losing to the Genesis in North America. While the Sega Genesis did still beat the Super Nintendo in sales in 1994 and 1995, it would prove to be the years that a Sega console would ever be on top in the region. Sega would move on to the Saturn in 1995 in America, more or less abandoning the Genesis, allowing the Super Nintendo to catch up and eventually surpass it in sales globally. The Donkey Kong Country games were a major reason why, and it all began with this one. This game would prove to be the second best-selling game for the SNES, with Donkey Kong, for a few years at least, supplanting Mario as Nintendo's most popular character. A lot of that had to do with the graphics. No one had ever seen graphics like this before. When you play this game on a CRT TV now, they still hold up. With the right filters on an emulator, you can get a similar effect.
This game was a risk that paid off. I am not sure modern Nintendo would trust a third party to handle one of their biggest IPs in such a way. Perhaps they should. With its colorful graphics, interesting and challenging platofrming, excellent animation, and amazing soundtrack that elevates the whole experience into something that is emotional and poignant, Donkey Kong Country is simply one of the finest platforming games ever made, and my "happy place" game. Give it a shot and who knows? It just might become your "happy place" game, too.
I am possessed of the unshakeable belief that one can tell exactly how good a platformer will be by simply pressing the jump button, but ignoring that test and pushing onward in Donkey Kong Country ultimately proved that I am infallible
The 4th game in my DK marathon and it’s the first one that actually feels like an actual video game
Donkey Kong Country is a short but ultimately super satisfying platformer, I love the gameplay itself, DK has so much weight to him and it adds a sense of realism to this game that other platformers lack, it also helps that this game just looks incredible, the use of silicon graphics here is superb, it gives the game this unique style and couple that with how expressive every enemy and character is, it just really makes it feel alive.
The bosses admittedly are very ok, most of them are just bigger versions of regular enemies, the big death barrel boss was kinda funny but nothing much beyond that, however despite that, the final boss against King K Rool is great, he does more than just one attack in the fight, it’s the one arena that isn’t just a giant banana pile, his animations are really well done, it’s all around just a great final fight, and a nice way to end the game.
The big thing that really elevates this game above a lot of platformers is the atmosphere and the soundtrack, holy fucking shit, the atmosphere is insane for an SNES game, I thought nothing could rival Super Metroid but I mean, here we are, and the soundtrack god damn, the soundtrack is the nice as hell icing on the cake, the one thing that fully rounds out the levels in the game, and makes this game a near masterpiece, it is legitimately one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard in a video game, and I got multiple games with a similar soundtrack to get through, hell yeah.
Overall DKC is an absolute classic, and I loved it dearly.
Now onto DKC 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest
Donkey Kong Country is a short but ultimately super satisfying platformer, I love the gameplay itself, DK has so much weight to him and it adds a sense of realism to this game that other platformers lack, it also helps that this game just looks incredible, the use of silicon graphics here is superb, it gives the game this unique style and couple that with how expressive every enemy and character is, it just really makes it feel alive.
The bosses admittedly are very ok, most of them are just bigger versions of regular enemies, the big death barrel boss was kinda funny but nothing much beyond that, however despite that, the final boss against King K Rool is great, he does more than just one attack in the fight, it’s the one arena that isn’t just a giant banana pile, his animations are really well done, it’s all around just a great final fight, and a nice way to end the game.
The big thing that really elevates this game above a lot of platformers is the atmosphere and the soundtrack, holy fucking shit, the atmosphere is insane for an SNES game, I thought nothing could rival Super Metroid but I mean, here we are, and the soundtrack god damn, the soundtrack is the nice as hell icing on the cake, the one thing that fully rounds out the levels in the game, and makes this game a near masterpiece, it is legitimately one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard in a video game, and I got multiple games with a similar soundtrack to get through, hell yeah.
Overall DKC is an absolute classic, and I loved it dearly.
Now onto DKC 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest
"The ape is back, in his first action game ever: Donkey Kong Country. What makes this game so remarkable is that it's the first game created with fully-rendered graphics. What the heck is "fully-rendered"?
To put it in a nutshell, fully-rendered means that the characters and all other graphics were created by computer modeling from all sides and angles of the object. Thus animation is totally complete and uninhibited using any view of the object. The technology is not incredibly different than that which was used to create the dinosaurs of Steven Speilberg's "Jurassic Park", or the wonders of "The Mask".
One of the best examples of the 3D rendering in this game is the water level. The shark also known as "Chomps Jr." is an INCREDIBLE sight. The animation of everything in the game as well as all the backgrounds were created with rendering techniques on the silicon graphics computers.
This amazing new technology, discovered at Rare by Nintendo's Tony Harmon will be the next standard in video game animation and graphics. This technology marks a new era.
The programmers of Donkey Kong Country were able to stretch their creative minds since Donkey Kong doesn't have a particularly detailed history. The main idea of the story is that you're trying to get back the bananas that were stolen from your stockpile. Kong, Diddy are the main monkey characters, but throughout the travels on the island of Donkey Kong Country, you will encounter several characters that are extremely diverse in personality.
From an ostrich named "Expresso" to a rhino named "Rambi" the game is endless thrills and is certainly destined for greatness. Cranky Kong, the star of the original game and also DK's grandfather, will give you advice throughout the game. He thinks you need it!
Hundreds of bonus levels result in a game that will never be boring. The music also adds a lot to the game. PLAY IT LOUD IN STEREO DUUUUDE!!!!! You can buy the music on CD from Nintendo, if your Nintendo isn't hooked up to a stereo system. Cranky Kong remembers music in the old days. But Donkey Kong is TRULY with the times (so to speak). His music is great for listening, just pause the game to hear the music without the game's sound effects.
Speaking of sound effects, you'll notice the quality of the echoes in the caves and Donkey Kong's ape noises.
Donkey Kong Country is TRULY perfect. If you do not get this amazing new generation of Donkey Kong madness, YOU ARE STUPID! Yes, I know: that's insulting, but it's also the truth! If you are a true video game fan, you'll not hesitate in the slightest bit to buy this remarkable piece of video game history!
Bottom line: get it NOW! The graphics are an example of a revolution. Play control is very responsive and monkey-feeling. The challenge is high, because you must often pass several hard levels to reach Candy's save point. The 2-player game option is AWESOME. Since you can press A to let another player play. What's even cooler, is the way the game lets the next player pick up where the last player died without interrupting gameplay. If you want the other player to play, just press A. These features and so much more make Donkey Kong Country the game of the decade!"
To put it in a nutshell, fully-rendered means that the characters and all other graphics were created by computer modeling from all sides and angles of the object. Thus animation is totally complete and uninhibited using any view of the object. The technology is not incredibly different than that which was used to create the dinosaurs of Steven Speilberg's "Jurassic Park", or the wonders of "The Mask".
One of the best examples of the 3D rendering in this game is the water level. The shark also known as "Chomps Jr." is an INCREDIBLE sight. The animation of everything in the game as well as all the backgrounds were created with rendering techniques on the silicon graphics computers.
This amazing new technology, discovered at Rare by Nintendo's Tony Harmon will be the next standard in video game animation and graphics. This technology marks a new era.
The programmers of Donkey Kong Country were able to stretch their creative minds since Donkey Kong doesn't have a particularly detailed history. The main idea of the story is that you're trying to get back the bananas that were stolen from your stockpile. Kong, Diddy are the main monkey characters, but throughout the travels on the island of Donkey Kong Country, you will encounter several characters that are extremely diverse in personality.
From an ostrich named "Expresso" to a rhino named "Rambi" the game is endless thrills and is certainly destined for greatness. Cranky Kong, the star of the original game and also DK's grandfather, will give you advice throughout the game. He thinks you need it!
Hundreds of bonus levels result in a game that will never be boring. The music also adds a lot to the game. PLAY IT LOUD IN STEREO DUUUUDE!!!!! You can buy the music on CD from Nintendo, if your Nintendo isn't hooked up to a stereo system. Cranky Kong remembers music in the old days. But Donkey Kong is TRULY with the times (so to speak). His music is great for listening, just pause the game to hear the music without the game's sound effects.
Speaking of sound effects, you'll notice the quality of the echoes in the caves and Donkey Kong's ape noises.
Donkey Kong Country is TRULY perfect. If you do not get this amazing new generation of Donkey Kong madness, YOU ARE STUPID! Yes, I know: that's insulting, but it's also the truth! If you are a true video game fan, you'll not hesitate in the slightest bit to buy this remarkable piece of video game history!
Bottom line: get it NOW! The graphics are an example of a revolution. Play control is very responsive and monkey-feeling. The challenge is high, because you must often pass several hard levels to reach Candy's save point. The 2-player game option is AWESOME. Since you can press A to let another player play. What's even cooler, is the way the game lets the next player pick up where the last player died without interrupting gameplay. If you want the other player to play, just press A. These features and so much more make Donkey Kong Country the game of the decade!"
why did dk and diddy start beating the fuck out of each other during the credits why are they evil in nature
DONKEY KONG COUNTRY REVIEW
Let me start off by being completely transparent. I am most definitely one of those people who have a lot of nostalgia attached to the SNES, and Donkey Kong Country is one of those (along with a lot of the old Marios, The Legend of Zelda, Paperboy, and The Lion King.) While visiting family, I decided it was high time to pull out the old system and play some of my childhood favorites again. There was no doubt in my mind which would be first - of course it would be DKC. Out of the games I had at my disposal, it was the one I expected to hold up the best.
I went in with very high hopes. Besides my own fond memories of it, it is considered a classic by many others. I even told people I was sure it would live up to my expectations. But the question remains... Does it?
Well, kind of. My opinions here ended up being a lot more nuanced than I thought they would.
Let me start off by saying that I DID enjoy it overall, despite my issues. It's also only fair for me to point out that I ruined the experience for myself slightly by crunching for 101%. See, DKC is at its best when you're playing it after school with other kids, taking turns to beat difficult levels and look for secrets. It's not built for 2000s completionists who will cram it into a few afternoons, like I did. I just don't have the time (or monumental patience) required to search for all of the bonuses myself. A lot of them are ridiculously well-hidden - like, "impossible to find without a guide" well-hidden. 101%ing it inorganically ended up taking away a lot of the magic, unfortunately. Instead of enjoying it at a natural pace, taking my time to explore and search, I was left glancing back and forth between a guide and the screen. That's not to mention the annoyance of dying and replaying the same levels again and again, either. It's not nearly as satisfying of an experience as progressing naturally - but because of the impossibility of 101%ing it in a reasonable amount of time that way, completionists (like me) are left in the dust.
This is why I think the game is better left for occasional, casual play on your own time. If you pick it up, don't worry about finding everything like I did. Get to the end (if you're enjoying yourself enough), then continue playing it to search for things if you WANT to.
SHORT REVIEW
Visuals: 4.5/5
Sound: 5/5
Gameplay: 3/5
Worldbuilding: 4/5
Replayability: 1.5/5
Overall score: 3.5/5
IN-DEPTH REVIEW
Visuals:
DKC is, undeniably, a technical marvel for its time. The visual style and pre-rendered graphics were a big reason why it became such a huge success in the 90s. Even in 2021 it looks impressive.
I particularly love the color usage. There's beautiful sky backgrounds, lush green jungles, snowy white peaks, and much more. A good handful of levels feature rain or the aforementioned snow to add to the ambience, too.
The colors, of course, are given their chance to shine because of the diversity in environments present. On top of those jungles and glaciers, there's factories, temples, caves, and more (including a unique setting for the final battle!) It's amazing to see so many radically different places in a platformer this old.
The character design is pretty decent. There's cool little character animations to add to their personality. That's nice.
I don't know why, but I particularly really like Diddy Kong. His design is cute to me, which is funny, because I hate monkeys (and gorillas.) Other than that, they range from average to bad for me personally. Funky Kong and Cranky Kong are okay. Not a big fan of Donkey Kong. I hate Candy Kong with a burning passion, awful female character design, but what do you expect from the 90s?
If you really want to be picky, the graphics ARE a little dated by today's standards. Still, it doesn't take away from how revolutionary DKC was in this regard when it was first released; nor does it denote that it manages to hold up to this day.
(Unfortunately, my copy for the SNES is a little glitchy, leaving it very static-y. Still, I fully enjoyed looking at the game.)
Overall, 4.5/5.
Sound:
On top of the beautiful visuals, DKC boasts a gorgeous soundtrack that is touted by many as one of the best to this day. It really is amazing. Before this playthrough, I could still recall some of those tunes - which I think says something, given I last played it when I was around 11. The amount of atmosphere the music provides in-game is undeniable. This is definitely another reason DKC is still so iconic.
Ice Cave Chant is the most underrated track.
I also absolutely love the sound effects. I don't know why, but they're all incredibly satisfying. It's one of my favorite things about the game as a whole. I love the sound of Rambi hitting enemies head-on, and the clacking of Klaptrap's teeth.
Overall, 5/5.
Gameplay:
A lot of people will probably disagree with me on some of my points in this section, and that's okay. It's important to be thorough, though. Buckle up.
There's good stuff here, but I also think there are flaws that make playing DKC really frustrating.
Let's talk about the good first. I actually believe the idea of the 'life' system is great on paper; you basically have two lives, one with each Kong, which can be replenished by the DK barrels seen throughout levels. I like that, and I'm fine with the added difficulty in this regard.
I also love how, on top of the diverse environments, each and every level is unique in its mechanics. Many of them have things that only appear in the entire game once, or at most a handful of times. It keeps it fresh. There's a good variety with the bonus level minigames, so none of them get old, either.
Another big plus is that each level eases you into whatever you'll be dealing with next - it'll usually have one easy obstacle before getting into the more taxing stuff, as a sort of small tutorial. I'm a big fan of that.
As for the actual controls, despite their burden in execution, a lot of them are actually really simple. You just have to learn the timing. Now, I don't think simple OR complicated controls are automatically good or bad; it depends on the execution in both regards. In the case of DKC, it definitely benefited from simplicity. With how tough everything else is, convoluted controls would make DKC unplayable.
All of this SHOULD add up to exceptional gameplay, but it doesn't. The life system, the unique mechanics, and the deceptively easy controls get exasperating when the game insists on being way too harsh in every other regard. The hitboxes are janky, and it requires way too precise platforming at points for that to be excusable. The levels can begin to drag on, because you have to replay the same parts over and over again. The devs seemed like they WANTED to make children's lives miserable, with how often they put a single obstacle right before exits that you probably won't avoid first time through.
Again, there's a lot of good here. Yet, I cannot excuse the ridiculous difficulty present in this game, and how frustrating it is. It becomes a slog when you have to repeat things that are often very slow and unreliable. It's possible to learn how to flow through levels - and I'll admit, it is satisfying when you occasionally do - but it takes a lot of time and practice. I just didn't enjoy DKC enough to get that good at it.
Like I said before, this might not be such an issue if you play at a slow pace. Don't binge it to 101% in three days like I did.
Overall, 3/5.
Worldbuilding:
DKC has absolutely fantastic environmental design. The settings are all super memorable, with unique music, enemies, and color palettes to make each one stand out. Even when you go back to familiar places you've already been, it doesn't feel repetitive!
There are some charming characters, too. I particularly find Cranky Kong to be delightful. He's very funny, and I love his role - nagging on his grandkid who has taken his place, complaining that he was a better hero (he talks about the game being a game! It's very meta, I love it.) And like I said, I really like Diddy Kong!
Overall, 4.5/5.
Replayability:
There's definitely an addictiveness to DKC that pushed me to 101% it - and the presentation alone makes it a game worth coming back to every now and then. Still, my problems with the gameplay leave me doubtful that I'll pick it up again any time soon. I think it's best left for casual afternoons every few months or so. Otherwise, it'll become frustrating rather than fun.
Overall, 1.5/5.
Overall game score: 3.5/5. I was hoping to come out of this giving DKC a better score - at least a 4 - but I'm still pretty satisfied with what I got out of it. It's solid enough, with particularly beautiful visuals, sound design, and environmental design. However, it is also extremely frustrating and overly difficult in the gameplay department - though there are pros there, too (like the game's simplicity in controls and ability to keep things fresh.) I still wouldn't really recommend DKC to people outside of those nostalgic for it, or people interested in older games. It's an undeniable piece of gaming history, though, and remains a classic. A good way to kick off 2021.
"I gave it a 4/5 because of the hardness, and the experience and gameplay." - My 9-year-old brother's much more concise review.
Let me start off by being completely transparent. I am most definitely one of those people who have a lot of nostalgia attached to the SNES, and Donkey Kong Country is one of those (along with a lot of the old Marios, The Legend of Zelda, Paperboy, and The Lion King.) While visiting family, I decided it was high time to pull out the old system and play some of my childhood favorites again. There was no doubt in my mind which would be first - of course it would be DKC. Out of the games I had at my disposal, it was the one I expected to hold up the best.
I went in with very high hopes. Besides my own fond memories of it, it is considered a classic by many others. I even told people I was sure it would live up to my expectations. But the question remains... Does it?
Well, kind of. My opinions here ended up being a lot more nuanced than I thought they would.
Let me start off by saying that I DID enjoy it overall, despite my issues. It's also only fair for me to point out that I ruined the experience for myself slightly by crunching for 101%. See, DKC is at its best when you're playing it after school with other kids, taking turns to beat difficult levels and look for secrets. It's not built for 2000s completionists who will cram it into a few afternoons, like I did. I just don't have the time (or monumental patience) required to search for all of the bonuses myself. A lot of them are ridiculously well-hidden - like, "impossible to find without a guide" well-hidden. 101%ing it inorganically ended up taking away a lot of the magic, unfortunately. Instead of enjoying it at a natural pace, taking my time to explore and search, I was left glancing back and forth between a guide and the screen. That's not to mention the annoyance of dying and replaying the same levels again and again, either. It's not nearly as satisfying of an experience as progressing naturally - but because of the impossibility of 101%ing it in a reasonable amount of time that way, completionists (like me) are left in the dust.
This is why I think the game is better left for occasional, casual play on your own time. If you pick it up, don't worry about finding everything like I did. Get to the end (if you're enjoying yourself enough), then continue playing it to search for things if you WANT to.
SHORT REVIEW
Visuals: 4.5/5
Sound: 5/5
Gameplay: 3/5
Worldbuilding: 4/5
Replayability: 1.5/5
Overall score: 3.5/5
IN-DEPTH REVIEW
Visuals:
DKC is, undeniably, a technical marvel for its time. The visual style and pre-rendered graphics were a big reason why it became such a huge success in the 90s. Even in 2021 it looks impressive.
I particularly love the color usage. There's beautiful sky backgrounds, lush green jungles, snowy white peaks, and much more. A good handful of levels feature rain or the aforementioned snow to add to the ambience, too.
The colors, of course, are given their chance to shine because of the diversity in environments present. On top of those jungles and glaciers, there's factories, temples, caves, and more (including a unique setting for the final battle!) It's amazing to see so many radically different places in a platformer this old.
The character design is pretty decent. There's cool little character animations to add to their personality. That's nice.
I don't know why, but I particularly really like Diddy Kong. His design is cute to me, which is funny, because I hate monkeys (and gorillas.) Other than that, they range from average to bad for me personally. Funky Kong and Cranky Kong are okay. Not a big fan of Donkey Kong. I hate Candy Kong with a burning passion, awful female character design, but what do you expect from the 90s?
If you really want to be picky, the graphics ARE a little dated by today's standards. Still, it doesn't take away from how revolutionary DKC was in this regard when it was first released; nor does it denote that it manages to hold up to this day.
(Unfortunately, my copy for the SNES is a little glitchy, leaving it very static-y. Still, I fully enjoyed looking at the game.)
Overall, 4.5/5.
Sound:
On top of the beautiful visuals, DKC boasts a gorgeous soundtrack that is touted by many as one of the best to this day. It really is amazing. Before this playthrough, I could still recall some of those tunes - which I think says something, given I last played it when I was around 11. The amount of atmosphere the music provides in-game is undeniable. This is definitely another reason DKC is still so iconic.
Ice Cave Chant is the most underrated track.
I also absolutely love the sound effects. I don't know why, but they're all incredibly satisfying. It's one of my favorite things about the game as a whole. I love the sound of Rambi hitting enemies head-on, and the clacking of Klaptrap's teeth.
Overall, 5/5.
Gameplay:
A lot of people will probably disagree with me on some of my points in this section, and that's okay. It's important to be thorough, though. Buckle up.
There's good stuff here, but I also think there are flaws that make playing DKC really frustrating.
Let's talk about the good first. I actually believe the idea of the 'life' system is great on paper; you basically have two lives, one with each Kong, which can be replenished by the DK barrels seen throughout levels. I like that, and I'm fine with the added difficulty in this regard.
I also love how, on top of the diverse environments, each and every level is unique in its mechanics. Many of them have things that only appear in the entire game once, or at most a handful of times. It keeps it fresh. There's a good variety with the bonus level minigames, so none of them get old, either.
Another big plus is that each level eases you into whatever you'll be dealing with next - it'll usually have one easy obstacle before getting into the more taxing stuff, as a sort of small tutorial. I'm a big fan of that.
As for the actual controls, despite their burden in execution, a lot of them are actually really simple. You just have to learn the timing. Now, I don't think simple OR complicated controls are automatically good or bad; it depends on the execution in both regards. In the case of DKC, it definitely benefited from simplicity. With how tough everything else is, convoluted controls would make DKC unplayable.
All of this SHOULD add up to exceptional gameplay, but it doesn't. The life system, the unique mechanics, and the deceptively easy controls get exasperating when the game insists on being way too harsh in every other regard. The hitboxes are janky, and it requires way too precise platforming at points for that to be excusable. The levels can begin to drag on, because you have to replay the same parts over and over again. The devs seemed like they WANTED to make children's lives miserable, with how often they put a single obstacle right before exits that you probably won't avoid first time through.
Again, there's a lot of good here. Yet, I cannot excuse the ridiculous difficulty present in this game, and how frustrating it is. It becomes a slog when you have to repeat things that are often very slow and unreliable. It's possible to learn how to flow through levels - and I'll admit, it is satisfying when you occasionally do - but it takes a lot of time and practice. I just didn't enjoy DKC enough to get that good at it.
Like I said before, this might not be such an issue if you play at a slow pace. Don't binge it to 101% in three days like I did.
Overall, 3/5.
Worldbuilding:
DKC has absolutely fantastic environmental design. The settings are all super memorable, with unique music, enemies, and color palettes to make each one stand out. Even when you go back to familiar places you've already been, it doesn't feel repetitive!
There are some charming characters, too. I particularly find Cranky Kong to be delightful. He's very funny, and I love his role - nagging on his grandkid who has taken his place, complaining that he was a better hero (he talks about the game being a game! It's very meta, I love it.) And like I said, I really like Diddy Kong!
Overall, 4.5/5.
Replayability:
There's definitely an addictiveness to DKC that pushed me to 101% it - and the presentation alone makes it a game worth coming back to every now and then. Still, my problems with the gameplay leave me doubtful that I'll pick it up again any time soon. I think it's best left for casual afternoons every few months or so. Otherwise, it'll become frustrating rather than fun.
Overall, 1.5/5.
Overall game score: 3.5/5. I was hoping to come out of this giving DKC a better score - at least a 4 - but I'm still pretty satisfied with what I got out of it. It's solid enough, with particularly beautiful visuals, sound design, and environmental design. However, it is also extremely frustrating and overly difficult in the gameplay department - though there are pros there, too (like the game's simplicity in controls and ability to keep things fresh.) I still wouldn't really recommend DKC to people outside of those nostalgic for it, or people interested in older games. It's an undeniable piece of gaming history, though, and remains a classic. A good way to kick off 2021.
"I gave it a 4/5 because of the hardness, and the experience and gameplay." - My 9-year-old brother's much more concise review.
Gangplank Galleon is awesome and you should play this game
love how every boss in this game just kinda sucks ass. rare just said fuck it and made an oil drum sentient
At this point in time, Rare didn’t necessarily have the best track record when it came to their releases. Sure, they did have the Battletoads franchise, which mostly managed to have pretty solid games, and they had developed several other games that hold up relatively well, but most of the rest of the games that they have developed were either uninteresting, forgotten, or just straight up terrible. It was enough for them to stay in the business for as long as they had been, but not to the point where they could reach the same level of success and notoriety as other developers, like Capcom, Squaresoft, or Konami. That is, until they were approached by Nintendo who, after seeing what they could pull off with games on the SNES using pre-rendered graphics, decided to give them a shot at developing a brand new game in a similar style so they could compete with what games like Aladdin were doing on the Genesis. They were given the reigns to make a new game in the DK franchise, which, aside from the Game Boy game that had been released earlier in the year, hadn’t really seen any major attention in nearly a decade, and thus, Rare went on to not only make a new game to reintroduce DK to modern audiences, but to also completely re-invent the character and his world, changing both DK and Rare's reputation forever. This would result in what would become the start of one of the best sub-series that DK would ever be a part of, Donkey Kong Country.
I have had quite the history with the DKC series over the years, with my first proper introduction to the series being with DKC Returns back in 2010, when I was still a dumb kid, and I had no clue as to what a Super Nintendo or a Rareware was. Eventually, I would discover the wonders of what we refer to as “retro gaming”, and it would lead to me getting my hands on a SNES for myself, with this being one of the first games that I had ever gotten with the system. I don’t think I had ever heard of the game beforehand, so needless to say, I was excited to try it out, and naturally, I ended up loving it. So now that I am playing it again after all this time, I can say that it holds up extremely well, being pretty basic for a platformer, but having some of the best design, personality, and fun challenges from any platformer of this era, and it successfully managed to reinvent DK into what he would be to this day.
The story is pretty simple, where the villainous King K. Rool steals Donkey Kong’s banana hoard with the help of his Kremlings, which makes DK very sad, so he then sets out with his nephew Diddy Kong to go beat them up and get his bananas back, which is a very silly premise, but one that fits perfectly for this series, and I am all here for it. The graphics are pretty good, not only having a pretty unique style for a SNES game at that point, but also holding up extremely well, with all of the different models for the characters, enemies, and bosses looking very charming, and the environments look just as great right alongside them, the music is fantastic, with there being plenty of different tracks that I still love to listen to to this day, such as the final boss theme, the theme for the first level, and my favorite track in the whole game, the underwater level theme (if I drowned IRL while this music played, I would be going out happy), the control is pretty great, with both DK and Diddy having the proper weight to them, and each action they can perform feels just right on a SNES controller, and the gameplay itself is pretty basic for the genre it takes on, but it still manages to be a solid experience all the way through, and I would rather a game be simple yet solid rather than experimental yet flawed.
The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of either Donkey Kong or Diddy Kong, go through many different worlds, each one containing their own set of levels that will challenge you in plenty of different ways, defeat many different enemies and Kremlings along the way while gathering plenty of bananas, collectibles, and power-ups to assist you on your way, find many of the other members of the Kong family such as Funky Kong, the coolest motherfucker on the planet, Candy Kong, the Kong who made a lot of kids question themselves when they were younger, and Cranky Kong, the Kong who resembled everybody’s grandparents in one way or another, who will each help you out in their own way (except for Cranky, who just says you suck and makes you depressed), and take on plenty of bosses that will prove to be quite the “challenge” to overcome to get your precious bananas back. A lot of it is pretty standard for a platformer, and some who aren’t new to the genre may question why you would bother playing it with plenty of other options out there, but not only does the graphical and musical style help give this game its own unique identity that holds up extremely well to this day, but it also still manages to be a fun game all on its own, with many ways it changes up the formula and keep you going.
For every single level in the game that you go through, there is always something new and exciting waiting for you, even if the changes may not be as big as others. You start out going through a pretty typical platformer level, nothing too exciting for you to see or do, but then you get to levels where you will be going through ancient temples, fighting different foes, finding different animal buddies that can help you take out enemies and give you more momentum, and there are even extreme cases of changing up the gameplay, such as levels where you are riding minecarts, ones where you are grabbing fuel for a conveyor belt you are riding on, and ones where you are turning on the lights to keep the Satan crocodiles from waking up. While some of these gimmicks are definitely preferable over others, each one is very fun to go through and experience, all while the game makes you think more and more about what to do in each situation, even if the goal is obvious.
What also helps keep this game fun and fresh throughout the entire journey would be in terms of its difficulty. For those of you who have played this game, you know it isn’t easy in the slightest, and while I wouldn’t say it is as hard as other platformers out there like Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden, there are still plenty of the moments where the game will test your skills in pretty extreme ways, such as with precarious platforming in plenty of levels, adding gimmicks like wind and barrels you need to shoot out of, timing your jumps on minecart segments effectively, and so many more examples. However, despite how hard it can be, it never feels unfair. There is always a chance for you to figure out what to do, how to overcome these challenges, whether it be through simple trial and error, or just by taking your time, and even if you do manage to fuck up and get a game over, if you have been using save points properly, then you shouldn’t be sent too far back to where it discourages you from continuing forward. Not to mention, it feels immensely rewarding whenever you do conquer some of the challenges in this game, managing to make it to the next save point so that you can press on towards whatever challenge may lie ahead.
For those of you wanting a little more out of your platformers though, fear not, because this game isn’t just a simple “run to the end and you win” kinda deal… or at least, it doesn’t have to be, anyway. Throughout each of the level, there are plenty of different bonus areas that you can access, each one giving you some kind of bonus, whether it be with extra lives, or even by sending you to this bonus area where you can collect all of these golden tokens as one of your animal buddies for even more extra lives! Not only do they help you prepare for the journey ahead, but each one does add to your percentage total, and it can even change the ending that you get if you manage to find everything… which isn’t much different then the normal ending, but it will keep Cranky Kong from complaining too much, fucking old-ass prick. They are pretty fun to go for, not just for the sake of completion, but they can be pretty tricky to find to, making you really look around every corner to see what walls or floors are breakable, and where else you could look just in case you end up missing something along the way.
So yeah, most of this game is a blast from start to finish, but there are some gripes that I have with it that do keep it from being a perfect game in my eyes. For one thing, the boss fights FUCKING SUCK, not because they are too hard, but moreso because they are uncreative and boring. Most of them consist of just bigger versions of enemies that you fight in the regular levels, with some of these even being repeated as the game goes on, and while some of them try to mix things up a bit, it’s only methods of doing so is by either giving you a different weak spot to hit, or just by taking on an enemy gauntlet, which isn’t exactly fun to deal with. The only good boss in the entire game is the final one against K. Rool, because not only does the foe you fight actually put up a fight, but the ways in which he does and when you can hit him is pretty creative, and it keeps you on your toes.
Secondly, while most of the elements in this game are pretty fair, and you can get through a lot of the challenges easily, there are some things that were put into this game that I am just not a fan of. There’s one example of this that sticks out to me as clear as day, and that is with one of the bonus areas that you find in Oil Drum Alley. Whenever you go into one of the other bonus levels in the stage and clear it out, you have to take the barrel that you get and throw it ABOVE the wall that you would normally hit in order to clear it out, which will grant you access to another bonus area you need to go through. If you don’t know about this on your first go, and you end up missing it, you cannot go back and try getting it again, making it so that, if you are going for 101% completion, you are FUCKED. That’s not necessarily that bad for those who just wanna go through the game normally, and I myself have never had this happen to me, but the fact that it can happen at all is pretty shitty, and I’d imagine there is at least one person out there who didn’t know about it, figured out what they was missing, and had their day ruined because of it.
Overall, despite the terrible bosses and some secrets having strict punishments for not finding them, the original DKC is still a fantastic game after almost 30 years, having very fun platforming challenges, wonderful visuals and music, and plenty of things to do for those that wanna go the extra mile that you usually wouldn’t go for in a platformer like this. I would highly recommend it for those who are fans of Donkey Kong, as well as those who love 2D platformers in the first place, because while this certainly isn’t my favorite game in the series, it is still one of the best platformers you can play on the SNES, and one that would launch an equally fantastic series that would continue to get installments for years to come…………. at least, until 2014, that is. Seriously, Nintendo, bring back Donkey Kong in a brand new game already! And maybe also try to bring back the Kremlings while you’re at it, too. That would be nice.
Game #532
I have had quite the history with the DKC series over the years, with my first proper introduction to the series being with DKC Returns back in 2010, when I was still a dumb kid, and I had no clue as to what a Super Nintendo or a Rareware was. Eventually, I would discover the wonders of what we refer to as “retro gaming”, and it would lead to me getting my hands on a SNES for myself, with this being one of the first games that I had ever gotten with the system. I don’t think I had ever heard of the game beforehand, so needless to say, I was excited to try it out, and naturally, I ended up loving it. So now that I am playing it again after all this time, I can say that it holds up extremely well, being pretty basic for a platformer, but having some of the best design, personality, and fun challenges from any platformer of this era, and it successfully managed to reinvent DK into what he would be to this day.
The story is pretty simple, where the villainous King K. Rool steals Donkey Kong’s banana hoard with the help of his Kremlings, which makes DK very sad, so he then sets out with his nephew Diddy Kong to go beat them up and get his bananas back, which is a very silly premise, but one that fits perfectly for this series, and I am all here for it. The graphics are pretty good, not only having a pretty unique style for a SNES game at that point, but also holding up extremely well, with all of the different models for the characters, enemies, and bosses looking very charming, and the environments look just as great right alongside them, the music is fantastic, with there being plenty of different tracks that I still love to listen to to this day, such as the final boss theme, the theme for the first level, and my favorite track in the whole game, the underwater level theme (if I drowned IRL while this music played, I would be going out happy), the control is pretty great, with both DK and Diddy having the proper weight to them, and each action they can perform feels just right on a SNES controller, and the gameplay itself is pretty basic for the genre it takes on, but it still manages to be a solid experience all the way through, and I would rather a game be simple yet solid rather than experimental yet flawed.
The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of either Donkey Kong or Diddy Kong, go through many different worlds, each one containing their own set of levels that will challenge you in plenty of different ways, defeat many different enemies and Kremlings along the way while gathering plenty of bananas, collectibles, and power-ups to assist you on your way, find many of the other members of the Kong family such as Funky Kong, the coolest motherfucker on the planet, Candy Kong, the Kong who made a lot of kids question themselves when they were younger, and Cranky Kong, the Kong who resembled everybody’s grandparents in one way or another, who will each help you out in their own way (except for Cranky, who just says you suck and makes you depressed), and take on plenty of bosses that will prove to be quite the “challenge” to overcome to get your precious bananas back. A lot of it is pretty standard for a platformer, and some who aren’t new to the genre may question why you would bother playing it with plenty of other options out there, but not only does the graphical and musical style help give this game its own unique identity that holds up extremely well to this day, but it also still manages to be a fun game all on its own, with many ways it changes up the formula and keep you going.
For every single level in the game that you go through, there is always something new and exciting waiting for you, even if the changes may not be as big as others. You start out going through a pretty typical platformer level, nothing too exciting for you to see or do, but then you get to levels where you will be going through ancient temples, fighting different foes, finding different animal buddies that can help you take out enemies and give you more momentum, and there are even extreme cases of changing up the gameplay, such as levels where you are riding minecarts, ones where you are grabbing fuel for a conveyor belt you are riding on, and ones where you are turning on the lights to keep the Satan crocodiles from waking up. While some of these gimmicks are definitely preferable over others, each one is very fun to go through and experience, all while the game makes you think more and more about what to do in each situation, even if the goal is obvious.
What also helps keep this game fun and fresh throughout the entire journey would be in terms of its difficulty. For those of you who have played this game, you know it isn’t easy in the slightest, and while I wouldn’t say it is as hard as other platformers out there like Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden, there are still plenty of the moments where the game will test your skills in pretty extreme ways, such as with precarious platforming in plenty of levels, adding gimmicks like wind and barrels you need to shoot out of, timing your jumps on minecart segments effectively, and so many more examples. However, despite how hard it can be, it never feels unfair. There is always a chance for you to figure out what to do, how to overcome these challenges, whether it be through simple trial and error, or just by taking your time, and even if you do manage to fuck up and get a game over, if you have been using save points properly, then you shouldn’t be sent too far back to where it discourages you from continuing forward. Not to mention, it feels immensely rewarding whenever you do conquer some of the challenges in this game, managing to make it to the next save point so that you can press on towards whatever challenge may lie ahead.
For those of you wanting a little more out of your platformers though, fear not, because this game isn’t just a simple “run to the end and you win” kinda deal… or at least, it doesn’t have to be, anyway. Throughout each of the level, there are plenty of different bonus areas that you can access, each one giving you some kind of bonus, whether it be with extra lives, or even by sending you to this bonus area where you can collect all of these golden tokens as one of your animal buddies for even more extra lives! Not only do they help you prepare for the journey ahead, but each one does add to your percentage total, and it can even change the ending that you get if you manage to find everything… which isn’t much different then the normal ending, but it will keep Cranky Kong from complaining too much, fucking old-ass prick. They are pretty fun to go for, not just for the sake of completion, but they can be pretty tricky to find to, making you really look around every corner to see what walls or floors are breakable, and where else you could look just in case you end up missing something along the way.
So yeah, most of this game is a blast from start to finish, but there are some gripes that I have with it that do keep it from being a perfect game in my eyes. For one thing, the boss fights FUCKING SUCK, not because they are too hard, but moreso because they are uncreative and boring. Most of them consist of just bigger versions of enemies that you fight in the regular levels, with some of these even being repeated as the game goes on, and while some of them try to mix things up a bit, it’s only methods of doing so is by either giving you a different weak spot to hit, or just by taking on an enemy gauntlet, which isn’t exactly fun to deal with. The only good boss in the entire game is the final one against K. Rool, because not only does the foe you fight actually put up a fight, but the ways in which he does and when you can hit him is pretty creative, and it keeps you on your toes.
Secondly, while most of the elements in this game are pretty fair, and you can get through a lot of the challenges easily, there are some things that were put into this game that I am just not a fan of. There’s one example of this that sticks out to me as clear as day, and that is with one of the bonus areas that you find in Oil Drum Alley. Whenever you go into one of the other bonus levels in the stage and clear it out, you have to take the barrel that you get and throw it ABOVE the wall that you would normally hit in order to clear it out, which will grant you access to another bonus area you need to go through. If you don’t know about this on your first go, and you end up missing it, you cannot go back and try getting it again, making it so that, if you are going for 101% completion, you are FUCKED. That’s not necessarily that bad for those who just wanna go through the game normally, and I myself have never had this happen to me, but the fact that it can happen at all is pretty shitty, and I’d imagine there is at least one person out there who didn’t know about it, figured out what they was missing, and had their day ruined because of it.
Overall, despite the terrible bosses and some secrets having strict punishments for not finding them, the original DKC is still a fantastic game after almost 30 years, having very fun platforming challenges, wonderful visuals and music, and plenty of things to do for those that wanna go the extra mile that you usually wouldn’t go for in a platformer like this. I would highly recommend it for those who are fans of Donkey Kong, as well as those who love 2D platformers in the first place, because while this certainly isn’t my favorite game in the series, it is still one of the best platformers you can play on the SNES, and one that would launch an equally fantastic series that would continue to get installments for years to come…………. at least, until 2014, that is. Seriously, Nintendo, bring back Donkey Kong in a brand new game already! And maybe also try to bring back the Kremlings while you’re at it, too. That would be nice.
Game #532
I fucking hate U.S. imperialism
Rare took the funny barrel throwing monkey from an old ass arcade game and said "fuck it, here's the most beautifully ambient game on the system."
It's a fun game with great graphics and a memorable soundtrack. I would have enjoyed it more if the game wasn't so hard to get through with the random traps they throw at you, but I'll let it slide because Diddy Kong exists.
Zombies Ate My Neighbors basically had me at the end of my rope yesterday. I was annoyed about ditching it so close to the finish line but I really don't think I could take anymore. Instead of taking a break like a normal person would and should, I figured I should replay something I know I enjoyed, and it turned out I played the first Donkey Kong Country so long ago (january 2021) that the ROM wasn't even on my current computer. My memory was hazy, it was on the GDQ schedule, and I figured now would be a good time to check it out again.
I think I appreciate it more this time. It's got bad screen crunch at times, the bosses are humdrum (all of them), and a lot of enemy models aren't near as appealing as the more detailed ones like Donkey's and Diddy's, but that's really all I can think of for negatives. It's a lot more fun than I remember and also a lot better looking than I remember, and with greater knowledge of the SNES library than I had three years ago, I can now further appreciate its significance both overall and for the time.
The soundtrack remains the true highlight in my opinion, though. Everybody loves Aquatic Ambience of course, seriously incredible for a game OST back then, but my personal favorite makes its debut a few stages later, in the form of Life in the Mines. I have a lot of silly memories relating to Simian Segue as well due to its inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which I owned as a kid and made lots of joke levels in the stage builder with my brother that used aforementioned song. We thought it was funny as fuck back then for some reason.
DKC1 is great stuff all around. I vividly remember 2 being better, but I'm very glad I revisited this. Definitely revisiting 2 soon as well.
I think I appreciate it more this time. It's got bad screen crunch at times, the bosses are humdrum (all of them), and a lot of enemy models aren't near as appealing as the more detailed ones like Donkey's and Diddy's, but that's really all I can think of for negatives. It's a lot more fun than I remember and also a lot better looking than I remember, and with greater knowledge of the SNES library than I had three years ago, I can now further appreciate its significance both overall and for the time.
The soundtrack remains the true highlight in my opinion, though. Everybody loves Aquatic Ambience of course, seriously incredible for a game OST back then, but my personal favorite makes its debut a few stages later, in the form of Life in the Mines. I have a lot of silly memories relating to Simian Segue as well due to its inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which I owned as a kid and made lots of joke levels in the stage builder with my brother that used aforementioned song. We thought it was funny as fuck back then for some reason.
DKC1 is great stuff all around. I vividly remember 2 being better, but I'm very glad I revisited this. Definitely revisiting 2 soon as well.
Life Could Be A Dream
A historia se resume em macaco feliz, macaco quer comer, macaco não tem comida, macaco vai atrás do maluco que roubou a comida dele, uga uga banana.
A gameplay de primatas no jogo é muito intuitiva e as fases criativas junto com as músicas só melhorou ainda mais esse jogo que foi perfeito na época e também usa uma tecnologia de transformar gráficos 3d em 2d para o SNES (nem preciso dizer que foi revolucionário), sinceramente tá pelo menos no top 15 jogos de SNES por conta disso tudo e do Diddy que é o melhor macaco. 9/10
A historia se resume em macaco feliz, macaco quer comer, macaco não tem comida, macaco vai atrás do maluco que roubou a comida dele, uga uga banana.
A gameplay de primatas no jogo é muito intuitiva e as fases criativas junto com as músicas só melhorou ainda mais esse jogo que foi perfeito na época e também usa uma tecnologia de transformar gráficos 3d em 2d para o SNES (nem preciso dizer que foi revolucionário), sinceramente tá pelo menos no top 15 jogos de SNES por conta disso tudo e do Diddy que é o melhor macaco. 9/10
As the new year approaches, I felt the need to beat at least one more game before the clock strikes 12 here. I decided to give Donkey Kong Country another playthrough, but with a twist. I played through it using this MSU mod, which not only replaces the song that plays in each stage with a unique remix, but also shuffles the overworld music between multiple overworld remixes. Needless to say, it was a feast to the ears that kept fresh throughout the playthrough.
Speaking of the playthrough, man, the back half of this game is rough. They sure were cooking something when they decided that the player should beat 5 ice world levels before getting the chance to save! DKC isn't an easy romp, but despite that it's still a great time. The graphics look good, the game feels great, and even without the mod the music is stellar. You're missing out of you don't give DKC a shot at least once in your life, even if you don't beat it.
END OF YEAR RAMBLINGS BELOW THIS POINT! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
I wasn't expecting this to be the last game I beat before 2024 but here we are, I guess. At the start of this year, I had only just gotten really into using this site. Since then, I've grown to really like this place. Writing reviews has been a fun way to express myself, and seeing what other people have to say on this site is always a treat. I'm looking forward to writing more stuff in 2024, all while tackling my backlog, getting used to the married life, and taking on whatever other challenges and changes life throws my way. I hope everyone has an exciting 2024 full of fun games and good times!
Speaking of the playthrough, man, the back half of this game is rough. They sure were cooking something when they decided that the player should beat 5 ice world levels before getting the chance to save! DKC isn't an easy romp, but despite that it's still a great time. The graphics look good, the game feels great, and even without the mod the music is stellar. You're missing out of you don't give DKC a shot at least once in your life, even if you don't beat it.
END OF YEAR RAMBLINGS BELOW THIS POINT! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
I wasn't expecting this to be the last game I beat before 2024 but here we are, I guess. At the start of this year, I had only just gotten really into using this site. Since then, I've grown to really like this place. Writing reviews has been a fun way to express myself, and seeing what other people have to say on this site is always a treat. I'm looking forward to writing more stuff in 2024, all while tackling my backlog, getting used to the married life, and taking on whatever other challenges and changes life throws my way. I hope everyone has an exciting 2024 full of fun games and good times!
🎈That Balloon pop sound gives me PTSD 20+ years later 🎈
Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo is an absolute classic that stands the test of time. Its addictive gameplay, quickly became one of the most beloved platformers for me almost superseding Super Mario. From its stunning visuals using pre-rendered 3D graphics, the game boasts charm and vibrant colors, and often overlooked character animations that were not present much in SNES games but Rareware were the top dogs in the 90s.
DKC solid gameplay always had me coming back for more. Being both Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong offered a extra layer of gameplay without you ever realizing it as DK is more Brute and Diddy is fight and fast. As I navigated through the in game world "DK Island" It provided alot of challenging levels filled with enemies, obstacles, and secrets to discover. As I played this game so many times I am always learning new things and locations about the levels. Which brings me to the level design; It is top notch. Each level has its challenge or gimmick but just amps up the difficulty just enough that players of all skill levels can enjoy the game. Also adding a two-player co-op mode adds another layer of gameplay that really makes you work together to beat each level as each Kong is controlled by a different person.
The music in this game is top tier! It perfectly complements the action on screen, immersing you in the world and also giving each world and level its own identity.
Now while the game is excellent, it is not without its drawbacks. Some people that are not familiar with these types of games may experience frustrating difficulty spikes While the game generally strikes a good balance in challenge, there are a few levels that can feel unfairly difficult, leading to frustration for some players. The usual consensus is "git gud" when this happens but some people may be turned off due to some unfairness which doesn't really relate to skill IMO. Another drawback I had was the variety in Boss Battles. While each boss are fun and memorable, there isn't a huge variety in the types of bosses you face often repeating enemies you have already seen. Many of them follow similar patterns, which can make them feel repetitive after a while. In retrospect it makes the them easier than the levels themselves.
Overall, I think Donkey Kong Country holds up as one of the greatest platformers ever made. It's a timeless classic and really accessible if you have the Nintendo Switch Online. Give it shot you will not be disappointed. Donkey Kong Country is an absolute must-play for anyone.
Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo is an absolute classic that stands the test of time. Its addictive gameplay, quickly became one of the most beloved platformers for me almost superseding Super Mario. From its stunning visuals using pre-rendered 3D graphics, the game boasts charm and vibrant colors, and often overlooked character animations that were not present much in SNES games but Rareware were the top dogs in the 90s.
DKC solid gameplay always had me coming back for more. Being both Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong offered a extra layer of gameplay without you ever realizing it as DK is more Brute and Diddy is fight and fast. As I navigated through the in game world "DK Island" It provided alot of challenging levels filled with enemies, obstacles, and secrets to discover. As I played this game so many times I am always learning new things and locations about the levels. Which brings me to the level design; It is top notch. Each level has its challenge or gimmick but just amps up the difficulty just enough that players of all skill levels can enjoy the game. Also adding a two-player co-op mode adds another layer of gameplay that really makes you work together to beat each level as each Kong is controlled by a different person.
The music in this game is top tier! It perfectly complements the action on screen, immersing you in the world and also giving each world and level its own identity.
Now while the game is excellent, it is not without its drawbacks. Some people that are not familiar with these types of games may experience frustrating difficulty spikes While the game generally strikes a good balance in challenge, there are a few levels that can feel unfairly difficult, leading to frustration for some players. The usual consensus is "git gud" when this happens but some people may be turned off due to some unfairness which doesn't really relate to skill IMO. Another drawback I had was the variety in Boss Battles. While each boss are fun and memorable, there isn't a huge variety in the types of bosses you face often repeating enemies you have already seen. Many of them follow similar patterns, which can make them feel repetitive after a while. In retrospect it makes the them easier than the levels themselves.
Overall, I think Donkey Kong Country holds up as one of the greatest platformers ever made. It's a timeless classic and really accessible if you have the Nintendo Switch Online. Give it shot you will not be disappointed. Donkey Kong Country is an absolute must-play for anyone.
This game has made me clinically insane.
pretty fantastic, pretty brutal, pretty monke
Recently, I had a thought that is purely speculative. It feels to me that anyone who will tell you they love a specific SNES game will also follow that up with "And it STILL HOLDS UP!" Like, think about it, if anyone you know talks about Mario World, they'll likely add "And I 100%'d it during lockdown and you know what? Still holds up!"
Anyway, I don't feel like I've ever heard anyone say that about Donkey Kong Country! I've never played DKC, so I thought I'd play it to see if, well, it holds up.
It does not.
I played through this on my Miyoo Mini, which obviously allows for save states. I'm not one of these cunts that says "Ah, but if you used savestates/rewinds you didn't really beat the game" because I've known satisfaction in my life from things that aren't video games. However, because I was specifically trying to see if it felt fun to play in 2023, I tried to play it "legit". No save states or rewinds. Fuck me what a slog. Just a horrid experience.
Anyway, I don't feel like I've ever heard anyone say that about Donkey Kong Country! I've never played DKC, so I thought I'd play it to see if, well, it holds up.
It does not.
I played through this on my Miyoo Mini, which obviously allows for save states. I'm not one of these cunts that says "Ah, but if you used savestates/rewinds you didn't really beat the game" because I've known satisfaction in my life from things that aren't video games. However, because I was specifically trying to see if it felt fun to play in 2023, I tried to play it "legit". No save states or rewinds. Fuck me what a slog. Just a horrid experience.
In this game is my absolute favorite enemy/obstacle in the history of video games, the Mincers aka "the fucking monster truck tire with the fucking spikes on it".
I bet you didn't know it was called Mincer! I wouldn't blame you, because for some idiotic reason Rareware didn't put them in the enemy roll call at the end. Don't give me that "it's an inanimate object" bullshit, because then what the hell is Boss Dumb Drum? 80% of the jobbers in that fucking roll call wouldn't even be fit to clean the toilet for The Fucking Monster Truck Tire, let alone polish its shoes (assuming it wore them). The only ones allowed to even play cards with it at the table are Krusha and the adorable little shark. The only way you would know its official name is if you figured out who the fuck was "Mincer" in the stage name Manic Mincers. Fuck Rare for denying their lordship entry into the roll call. "Mincer" doesn't do it justice, it's peak enemy design, I'm calling it by its true name of which I have known it by throughout my life.
All hail the King and Queen of All Enemies and Dangerous Objects, their majesty The Fucking Monster Truck Tire With The Fucking Spikes On It.
Other quick random bullshit for an actual review if you really want it:
The animal buddy bonus stages suck, they're boring and interrupt the gameplay flow too much.
Chimp Caverns is an underwhelming last world.
Donkey Kong himself sucks ass, it's baffling how much better Diddy is in this game.
Boss reuse stinks, but I do like calling him "Really Gnawty Rampage".
Yes, I do know where all the bonus stages are. Yes, I know about the bonus stage hidden within a bonus stage in 5-1. Yes, I know about the bonus barrel camouflaged at the very bottom of the screen in 3-3 while you're avoiding the buzzards on the rope. Why yes, there are indeed five bonus levels in Orange Tang Gang. Yes, I learned about all of those via gamefaqs guide.
Top Three Favorite Musics:
1. Life in the Mines
2. Fear Factory
3. Gangplank Galleon
I bet you didn't know it was called Mincer! I wouldn't blame you, because for some idiotic reason Rareware didn't put them in the enemy roll call at the end. Don't give me that "it's an inanimate object" bullshit, because then what the hell is Boss Dumb Drum? 80% of the jobbers in that fucking roll call wouldn't even be fit to clean the toilet for The Fucking Monster Truck Tire, let alone polish its shoes (assuming it wore them). The only ones allowed to even play cards with it at the table are Krusha and the adorable little shark. The only way you would know its official name is if you figured out who the fuck was "Mincer" in the stage name Manic Mincers. Fuck Rare for denying their lordship entry into the roll call. "Mincer" doesn't do it justice, it's peak enemy design, I'm calling it by its true name of which I have known it by throughout my life.
All hail the King and Queen of All Enemies and Dangerous Objects, their majesty The Fucking Monster Truck Tire With The Fucking Spikes On It.
Other quick random bullshit for an actual review if you really want it:
The animal buddy bonus stages suck, they're boring and interrupt the gameplay flow too much.
Chimp Caverns is an underwhelming last world.
Donkey Kong himself sucks ass, it's baffling how much better Diddy is in this game.
Boss reuse stinks, but I do like calling him "Really Gnawty Rampage".
Yes, I do know where all the bonus stages are. Yes, I know about the bonus stage hidden within a bonus stage in 5-1. Yes, I know about the bonus barrel camouflaged at the very bottom of the screen in 3-3 while you're avoiding the buzzards on the rope. Why yes, there are indeed five bonus levels in Orange Tang Gang. Yes, I learned about all of those via gamefaqs guide.
Top Three Favorite Musics:
1. Life in the Mines
2. Fear Factory
3. Gangplank Galleon
finally got this damn game out of my system and on my gamer card
amazing presentation and cool controls, not so amazing level design. obscene screen crunch here imo
amazing presentation and cool controls, not so amazing level design. obscene screen crunch here imo
A few years ago I bought my dad a Super Nintendo Classic for Christmas. I knew he had played Master System as a kid and had played Nintendo 64 when I was young, so I figured he probably had some memory of the 16-bit period in between. I showed him several of the games on it, but only one caught his eye enough for him to play it on his own time. Donkey Kong Country is still a genuinely captivating game even more than 25 years after its original release.
In some ways I genuinely consider Donkey Kong Country to be a more true successor to Super Mario Bros. than any of the actual Mario sequels (perhaps excluding one or two of the New Super Mario Bros. games). Super Mario World, for example, is absurd: there are powerups that will allow you to completely bypass certain levels, and many levels present little interesting mechanical challenge. In many ways Super Mario World is more of a playground than an obstacle course, which works both against it and in its favor. For the mostpart, Donkey Kong Country continues the original Super Mario Bros.' trend of having a character with a simple, clear moveset, and building courses which thoroughly explore and test those capabilities. The secrets are also very well placed, with the presence or absence of certain in-game objects effectively communicating to an astute player that there's more than meets the eye.
It's a shame though that there are still a number of levels which instead rely on some gimmick or a fairly lazy type of challenge. Clam City features wide rectangular spaces full of haphazardly placed swarms of enemies, punctuated by thin corridors lines with projectile spewing turrets. The barrel-focused levels are unbearably tedious when lining up the cycles of your aim and the enemy positions, and the actual required timing of the button press is so precise that it's borderline unplayable with any degree of input latency. I probably wasted about 30 lives on Snow Barrel Blast before I found the shortcut that skips the most difficult section.
The subtle differences between the two playable characters are interesting, and usually without interrupting normal gameplay. Diddy's barrel holding hitbox is generally favorable to Donkey's, who holds them above his head rather than in front. However, being without Donkey Kong in later levels can be frustrating, as the game starts to employ more of the larger enemies that Diddy can't jump on. As odd as it may seem that Donkey Kong isn't playable in the sequels, I think it makes sense: Rare redesigned Donkey Kong with the goal of making him more compact, as you generally want a platformer character to be as round as possible, but during certain animations he still sprawls out across nearly a quarter of the screen.
I'm not terribly interested in Game Theory-tier readings of this game which declare it to be allegorical for western imperialism or literal banana republics. However, I do find it interesting that one of the first games where every object in game was rendered in 3D, creating such an aesthetically realized sense of place, presents itself as a struggle between nature and industry, apes against lizards, the animal against the alien.
I think this particular contrast is the most singular defining element of the game's surface. We see these detailed characters and environments, but all of it is mediated by the limitations of much weaker hardware than that which was used to create it. We can barely perceive what Donkey Kong Country was to the people who made it, and that makes it all the more beautiful. I think that's why fan "remasters" of these games seem hokey to me, and why I think the newer Retro Studios games have a kind of cartoonish crass feeling. They are simple, open, and truthful about what they are, in a way that isn't as poetic as the SNES games' decrepit ambiguity.
The soundtrack needs no introduction, though I think there are some interesting choices to note. The overworld theme is pleasant, bouncy; despite K. Rool's presence, this place is still Donkey Kong Country, it's home. Bonus rooms have a light-hearted tone, unlike the frenetic music found in the later games. This is probably because there aren't collectables here as there are in the sequels, so there's less pressure, nothing to miss. The palette swapped water levels in World 5, which alter the textures of the environment to look like a toxic waste dump, recontextualize the more electronic sounds and industrial percussion of the soundtrack. The song takes on a feeling both of wonderment in the early levels, of the magnificence of undersea life, and of crushing melancholy at its pollution.
Compared to the later games this one does lack some polish. Early levels themes like the jungle and water stages feature a lot of impressive effects, with both several parallax layers and line-scrolling to simulate a great sense of space. By World 3 most of the new themes that are introduced are rather static by comparison. Sometimes the visuals don't seem to line up particularly well with the actual hitboxes, the frog animal buddy sticks out as particularly odd.
King K. Rool is not a character I have as much fascination with as others, I was rather nonplussed by his addition to Super Smash Bros. That said, he has a kind of Rankin/Bass sort of charm to his visual design. His final boss fight isn't very fun; there's a lot of delay between his attacks, in particular the one that reveals his weak point, which makes the battle primarily a test of patience.
And I guess that's how I would sum up the game as a whole. It has a lot of charm, and has fun moments throughout, but its most interesting moments are a bit frontloaded, becoming more and more of an endurance test as it goes on. Even using the BARRAL cheat code to start with 50 lives, I ran out right after the final save point. Probably more than half of the lives I lost were depleted across only a few particularly egregious levels. If you can put up with these occasional roadblocks, Donkey Kong Country is a genuinely good game with a unique sense of real artistry behind it.
In some ways I genuinely consider Donkey Kong Country to be a more true successor to Super Mario Bros. than any of the actual Mario sequels (perhaps excluding one or two of the New Super Mario Bros. games). Super Mario World, for example, is absurd: there are powerups that will allow you to completely bypass certain levels, and many levels present little interesting mechanical challenge. In many ways Super Mario World is more of a playground than an obstacle course, which works both against it and in its favor. For the mostpart, Donkey Kong Country continues the original Super Mario Bros.' trend of having a character with a simple, clear moveset, and building courses which thoroughly explore and test those capabilities. The secrets are also very well placed, with the presence or absence of certain in-game objects effectively communicating to an astute player that there's more than meets the eye.
It's a shame though that there are still a number of levels which instead rely on some gimmick or a fairly lazy type of challenge. Clam City features wide rectangular spaces full of haphazardly placed swarms of enemies, punctuated by thin corridors lines with projectile spewing turrets. The barrel-focused levels are unbearably tedious when lining up the cycles of your aim and the enemy positions, and the actual required timing of the button press is so precise that it's borderline unplayable with any degree of input latency. I probably wasted about 30 lives on Snow Barrel Blast before I found the shortcut that skips the most difficult section.
The subtle differences between the two playable characters are interesting, and usually without interrupting normal gameplay. Diddy's barrel holding hitbox is generally favorable to Donkey's, who holds them above his head rather than in front. However, being without Donkey Kong in later levels can be frustrating, as the game starts to employ more of the larger enemies that Diddy can't jump on. As odd as it may seem that Donkey Kong isn't playable in the sequels, I think it makes sense: Rare redesigned Donkey Kong with the goal of making him more compact, as you generally want a platformer character to be as round as possible, but during certain animations he still sprawls out across nearly a quarter of the screen.
I'm not terribly interested in Game Theory-tier readings of this game which declare it to be allegorical for western imperialism or literal banana republics. However, I do find it interesting that one of the first games where every object in game was rendered in 3D, creating such an aesthetically realized sense of place, presents itself as a struggle between nature and industry, apes against lizards, the animal against the alien.
I think this particular contrast is the most singular defining element of the game's surface. We see these detailed characters and environments, but all of it is mediated by the limitations of much weaker hardware than that which was used to create it. We can barely perceive what Donkey Kong Country was to the people who made it, and that makes it all the more beautiful. I think that's why fan "remasters" of these games seem hokey to me, and why I think the newer Retro Studios games have a kind of cartoonish crass feeling. They are simple, open, and truthful about what they are, in a way that isn't as poetic as the SNES games' decrepit ambiguity.
The soundtrack needs no introduction, though I think there are some interesting choices to note. The overworld theme is pleasant, bouncy; despite K. Rool's presence, this place is still Donkey Kong Country, it's home. Bonus rooms have a light-hearted tone, unlike the frenetic music found in the later games. This is probably because there aren't collectables here as there are in the sequels, so there's less pressure, nothing to miss. The palette swapped water levels in World 5, which alter the textures of the environment to look like a toxic waste dump, recontextualize the more electronic sounds and industrial percussion of the soundtrack. The song takes on a feeling both of wonderment in the early levels, of the magnificence of undersea life, and of crushing melancholy at its pollution.
Compared to the later games this one does lack some polish. Early levels themes like the jungle and water stages feature a lot of impressive effects, with both several parallax layers and line-scrolling to simulate a great sense of space. By World 3 most of the new themes that are introduced are rather static by comparison. Sometimes the visuals don't seem to line up particularly well with the actual hitboxes, the frog animal buddy sticks out as particularly odd.
King K. Rool is not a character I have as much fascination with as others, I was rather nonplussed by his addition to Super Smash Bros. That said, he has a kind of Rankin/Bass sort of charm to his visual design. His final boss fight isn't very fun; there's a lot of delay between his attacks, in particular the one that reveals his weak point, which makes the battle primarily a test of patience.
And I guess that's how I would sum up the game as a whole. It has a lot of charm, and has fun moments throughout, but its most interesting moments are a bit frontloaded, becoming more and more of an endurance test as it goes on. Even using the BARRAL cheat code to start with 50 lives, I ran out right after the final save point. Probably more than half of the lives I lost were depleted across only a few particularly egregious levels. If you can put up with these occasional roadblocks, Donkey Kong Country is a genuinely good game with a unique sense of real artistry behind it.