It's no bonafide replacement for DKC on SNES, but it's pretty nifty all the same. Rare did a decent job bringing their smash hit to GBC. It's rough around the edges, sure, but all the solid level design is brought over & the music is on par with DK Land. I didn't have an SNES till I became a game collector as an adult, so this was my intro to the series. It's not amazing, it's not abysmal ---- it's just a cool way to have DKC on the go.
Frankly, it's just as good as the SNES original. Any downgrades in screen resolution and visual fidelity is made up for by the extra content and portability. Turn of the century Rare was just built different.
It's obviously not the real deal, but impressive they managed to fit the og DKC into a GBC cartridge.
[GBC Version] Much better than Land, because the levels are good (and because they are just the same levels from DKC instead of new ones) but the movement still feels off. So stages where you have to swing on ropes, or the minecart levels, or the barrel blasting levels don't feel right. I would have loved to have had this as a kid, instead of the dogshit GBC games I did have.
Pros: The entire SNES game, demade for the 8-bit Game Boy Color system. Every level, plus a new one even! All the animal buddies, items, gimmicks, everything is here, but squished and fudged to make work, and it mostly works! The physics are a bit different, timing of things changed, and some mechanics had to be altered (like, you transform into animal buddies now, instead of riding them)... But, because of the power of the Game Boy Color, we could finally have red, green, and blue 1-up, 2-up, and 3-up balloons, respectively! Heh...
There are a ton of fun little bonuses and extras in here too. Two new minigames, Crosshair Cranky, a shooting gallery game of sorts, it's fine, and also Funky's Fishing. Yep, this game has fishing, like all good games do! It's kinda addicting, at least, I remember getting hooked on it... hah. DK's on Enguarde with fishing rod, and Diddy on a boat, and you hurl up a hook with as much fish you can snag along the way, and have them land in the boat. Simple. Catching multiple fish of the same color with one reel would grant you combo points, somethin about it tickled my fancy, alright! Another extra I loved was the gallery/album, where, just like in Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, you could unlock official art, renders, an entire character based alphabet, and more, and could then print them out using the Game Boy Printer! It was a cool lil doodad of that generation, somehow I got all the right games to get the most out of the thing!
Cons: The phsyics and movement aren't better in this, and the lower screen resolution makes some stages incredibly tough, like the Minecart stage. One could even call it "jank".
What it means to me: Of course, it's a handheld version of my favorite video game, kid me LOVED this game. I even remember one day thinking about wanting such a game, prior to it being revealed, now that it was possible thanks to the Game Boy Color, since they could finally have all three balloon colors, something they couldn't do in the Land titles on GB! Yeah, heh, that was the deal breaker for me. And hey, I got it! Nowadays it's not worth going back to, DKC SNES is perfectly accessible on any handheld Nintendo system, but the novelty of an 8-bit demake is still a fantastical curiosity, and I do appreciate its existence... More than the GBA port even.
There are a ton of fun little bonuses and extras in here too. Two new minigames, Crosshair Cranky, a shooting gallery game of sorts, it's fine, and also Funky's Fishing. Yep, this game has fishing, like all good games do! It's kinda addicting, at least, I remember getting hooked on it... hah. DK's on Enguarde with fishing rod, and Diddy on a boat, and you hurl up a hook with as much fish you can snag along the way, and have them land in the boat. Simple. Catching multiple fish of the same color with one reel would grant you combo points, somethin about it tickled my fancy, alright! Another extra I loved was the gallery/album, where, just like in Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, you could unlock official art, renders, an entire character based alphabet, and more, and could then print them out using the Game Boy Printer! It was a cool lil doodad of that generation, somehow I got all the right games to get the most out of the thing!
Cons: The phsyics and movement aren't better in this, and the lower screen resolution makes some stages incredibly tough, like the Minecart stage. One could even call it "jank".
What it means to me: Of course, it's a handheld version of my favorite video game, kid me LOVED this game. I even remember one day thinking about wanting such a game, prior to it being revealed, now that it was possible thanks to the Game Boy Color, since they could finally have all three balloon colors, something they couldn't do in the Land titles on GB! Yeah, heh, that was the deal breaker for me. And hey, I got it! Nowadays it's not worth going back to, DKC SNES is perfectly accessible on any handheld Nintendo system, but the novelty of an 8-bit demake is still a fantastical curiosity, and I do appreciate its existence... More than the GBA port even.
Want a platformer you can play?
Very impressive that they got this game to run on a GBC. Music is suprisingly good and controls are fine. The difficulty is very high, with the screen being crunched and all. Definitely not the best version of the game, but still a good platformer on the GBC.
a very impressive port that can be pretty frustrating due to the hardware limitations on some levels.
I have a very faint memory of renting this game from Blockbuster for my green GameBoy Color :)
My first game. Got a gameboy color when I was quite young, 4 or 5 I think. Only ever had a few games for it, but this was the best. Because of this I actually prefer this gameplay to the SNES version. Visuals are great for a Color game, and I enjoyed trying to find the hidden ripe banana clusters, and I spent a lot of time in the fishing minigame.
Oh and King K Rool kicked my ass many times as a kid so that provided a huge sense of accomplishment.
Oh and King K Rool kicked my ass many times as a kid so that provided a huge sense of accomplishment.
There is NO WAY this is above a 3.0. Has anyone here even played this? It's horrible.
the intro music says it all
Being an avid Donkey Kong Country Fan, I have a strong distaste for this "port" of the game. Long story short, it is Donkey Kong Country from the SNES, but a little more clunkier and designed to run on the Gameboy Color. In my eyes the Gameboy Color, is a portable NES mainly because it provides color to games that don't boast high graphics. This game was made to run on Super Nintendo and even Gameboy Advance to match the tricks you could do and get a good feel from moving the characters from Point A to Point B. This game just feels clunky and hard to control and some tricks that you would do in Donkey Kong Country SNES just don't work here due to the Kongs feeling a bit stiff. It has the same feel of Donkey Kong Land, but with Donkey Kong Land the game's levels and settings were built around how stiff the Kongs were. I would recommend playing this game and giving a try for yourself using a Gameboy Player or a cartridge on a Gameboy Advance.
While it is impressive that Rare managed to fit a 16-bit classic on to an 8-bit handheld with pretty much all the content present and then some, this is probably the worst way to play Donkey Kong Country. The physics and collision detection feel off, for example I'm clearly touching this KONG letter, yet it doesn't get collected. There are a few spots where you have to roll off the ledge to snatch a bonus, and not only the small hitbox of those pickups make that a difficult task on it's own, but the physics as well, you stall in air for a little bit when rolling, then get a quick downward momentun, practically plummeting you to your doom. I also found bouncy tires to be janky. The game features a mechanic, where once you're in air, if you press and hold the jump button, you'll automatically jump off the ground upon landing, and I think it's conflicting with the bouncy tires, and I don't always bounce off when I need to. The screen crunch doesn't help either, and the game does lag a bit more frequently, compared to the original, making this a more frustrating experience of what could be considered a flawed classic.
That's not to say this rerelease doesn't have its value. The game autosaves after each level, which is a great quality of life improvement. There's new content added to the game, such as new mini-games, Funky Fishing, which will later reappear in the Game Boy Advance remake, and Crosshair Cranky which doesn't make a comeback in any other version. What else doesn't make a comeback is a new level exclusive to this version, Necky Nutmare, featured in the last world of the game, Chimp Caverns. The level design is decent, but isn't all that noteworthy to be perfectly honest. Still, it's still a neat inclusion nontheless. The game also extends a pre-existing level, Winky's Walkway, making it longer. There are probably other level design changes that I'm not aware of.
Onto the graphics and audio. Talking about music, the game is a bit of a mixed bag. Not necessarily by the quality of the tracks, but by the track selection itself. Some tracks from the original are absent, like Misty Menace or Northern Hemispheres, the latter was replaced with Ice Cave Chant, while the level that used Ice Cave Chant in the original now uses Atlantis track from Donkey Kong Land, and there are a few more tracks from Donkey Kong Land that made their way here. Forest Frenzy is a completely original piece of music, nothing like the original. The tracks from the original also saw some changes, like how Main Theme is now faster tempo, and I actually like this 8-bit reindition, while Tree Top Town is slower, sounding more like a marching song. The music sounds fine overall, and I don't have strong favorites, aside from Main Theme. Graphically, the game looks fine as well, the game keeps the pre-rendered style of the original, although due to color limitations some frames of animation tend to look more cartoonish than realistic-like. I don't really have much to say, the graphics and animations do look appealing even with fewer colors.
If you can get past strange physics and collision detection, the game can be enjoyable and I did have some fun, though it was mostly toward the end. This is still Donkey Kong Country at its core. Still, I can't really recommend this version as it doesn't feel as tight or polished as the original. If you want a definitive Donkey Kong Country experience, play Donkey Kong Country GBA, or just stick to the SNES original.
That's not to say this rerelease doesn't have its value. The game autosaves after each level, which is a great quality of life improvement. There's new content added to the game, such as new mini-games, Funky Fishing, which will later reappear in the Game Boy Advance remake, and Crosshair Cranky which doesn't make a comeback in any other version. What else doesn't make a comeback is a new level exclusive to this version, Necky Nutmare, featured in the last world of the game, Chimp Caverns. The level design is decent, but isn't all that noteworthy to be perfectly honest. Still, it's still a neat inclusion nontheless. The game also extends a pre-existing level, Winky's Walkway, making it longer. There are probably other level design changes that I'm not aware of.
Onto the graphics and audio. Talking about music, the game is a bit of a mixed bag. Not necessarily by the quality of the tracks, but by the track selection itself. Some tracks from the original are absent, like Misty Menace or Northern Hemispheres, the latter was replaced with Ice Cave Chant, while the level that used Ice Cave Chant in the original now uses Atlantis track from Donkey Kong Land, and there are a few more tracks from Donkey Kong Land that made their way here. Forest Frenzy is a completely original piece of music, nothing like the original. The tracks from the original also saw some changes, like how Main Theme is now faster tempo, and I actually like this 8-bit reindition, while Tree Top Town is slower, sounding more like a marching song. The music sounds fine overall, and I don't have strong favorites, aside from Main Theme. Graphically, the game looks fine as well, the game keeps the pre-rendered style of the original, although due to color limitations some frames of animation tend to look more cartoonish than realistic-like. I don't really have much to say, the graphics and animations do look appealing even with fewer colors.
If you can get past strange physics and collision detection, the game can be enjoyable and I did have some fun, though it was mostly toward the end. This is still Donkey Kong Country at its core. Still, I can't really recommend this version as it doesn't feel as tight or polished as the original. If you want a definitive Donkey Kong Country experience, play Donkey Kong Country GBA, or just stick to the SNES original.
I grew up with this version. Gameplay-wise, I think it's about the same as the original. But there are actually some things that I like more about this version. Most notably, the music. I love the chiptune style music in this game more than the largely ambient stuff from the original. I also love the extra side content they added, like the minigames.
There are some worse things too though. The fact that the GBC had no backlight made a lot of levels really hard to see what was going on, especially that one level where the gimmick is that the lights turn off.
I haven't played this version since I was probably still a single digit age, so I don't remember the details about the game, but I got a lot of enjoyment out of this game.
There are some worse things too though. The fact that the GBC had no backlight made a lot of levels really hard to see what was going on, especially that one level where the gimmick is that the lights turn off.
I haven't played this version since I was probably still a single digit age, so I don't remember the details about the game, but I got a lot of enjoyment out of this game.