A handheld follow-up/remake of 'Donkey Kong Country', and almost as good in every way.
New levels, new story, new worlds. Quite cool.
Please, Nintendo, make a Donkey Kong Land with current DKC graphics and controls.
This game is very difficult, but most of times it's just because of its controls, they are terrible.
It is very impressive stuff for a console which couldn't handle not even NES graphics, and the soundtrack is actually interesting.
Some of the stages are very good and interesting, but many of them demand leaps of faith or surprise you with an enemy out of nowhere, mostly because of the screen crunch.
I'd like to play these stages and themes with good controls, though.
This game is very difficult, but most of times it's just because of its controls, they are terrible.
It is very impressive stuff for a console which couldn't handle not even NES graphics, and the soundtrack is actually interesting.
Some of the stages are very good and interesting, but many of them demand leaps of faith or surprise you with an enemy out of nowhere, mostly because of the screen crunch.
I'd like to play these stages and themes with good controls, though.
When I played it the first time, the clunky controls and bad physics drove me away, it felt bad to play. But when I picked it again recently, it was better than I thought it was. I got used to the controls and physics and found the game to be fairly engaging. There were a few bad levels, but I still enjoyed it. Definitely not perfect, but it is not a bad game either.
My greatest dream in video games would be for an HD collection of all three Donkey Kong Countries using the uncompressed original assets, and all of the Land games remade in that style. It'll never happen but a man can dream.
Mi primer videojuego en propiedad, ojo
Like most Game Boy ports, it was a vastly inferior and clunkier way to play its original game. These bananas are, in fact, not pretty good.
It was bold of Nintendo to base those final levels on the aftermath of The Great Ape War, but I think it payed off.
My intro to DK, it was a solid platformer. Some great music for sure.
An impressive effort by Rare to make it work in the Game Boy hardware. The shortcomings vs the SNES release are obvious but expected, yet the game delivers a fairly good adventure that complements the console main game very nicely.
I love the silliness of the story in this game (only experienced via the instruction booklet, worth looking into it if you are playing a digital version). Another high point for me was the last world (City/Urban world) which I would have loved to see come to life in the console versions since it fits the tone of the original DK arcade game. I also enjoyed the addition of a couple of new enemies and all brand-new boss battles.
Now for the negatives: the screen size definitely affects the viewing and scale of the game, combined with a very weird camera movement and pan that doesn't do anything else than confuse the player and makes you miss platforms every now and then. New boss characters are cool, but the battle themselves are uninspired and on the simplistic side of things.
I love the silliness of the story in this game (only experienced via the instruction booklet, worth looking into it if you are playing a digital version). Another high point for me was the last world (City/Urban world) which I would have loved to see come to life in the console versions since it fits the tone of the original DK arcade game. I also enjoyed the addition of a couple of new enemies and all brand-new boss battles.
Now for the negatives: the screen size definitely affects the viewing and scale of the game, combined with a very weird camera movement and pan that doesn't do anything else than confuse the player and makes you miss platforms every now and then. New boss characters are cool, but the battle themselves are uninspired and on the simplistic side of things.
O jogo é bem limitado graficamente e a jogabilidade fica a quem do restante da franquia, mas ainda sim é um DONKEY KONG NO GAME BOY! haha
Apesar dos problemas é um jogo bom, divertido e vale a experiência!
PS - O curtucho amarelinho é muito charmoso!
Apesar dos problemas é um jogo bom, divertido e vale a experiência!
PS - O curtucho amarelinho é muito charmoso!
A solid and short game for DK's first Game Boy platformer (unless you count Donkey Kong '94). Jumping takes a while to get used to especially when bouncing off of enemies. And the save system is not good in my opinion. Don't like that you have to collect all KONG letters in a level in order to save. You can back track to previous levels to save, but it does get tiring. Good thing the sequels never kept this save feature. Despite those problems I did enjoy this game and I feel like it's best played on the Super Game Boy.
para um jogo de gameboy ele realmente é bom, e pelo menos é diferente do original de SNES (diferente do Land 2 e 3) com fases novas e criativas que eu realmente gostaria de ver em um outro jogo do DK, mas é pequeno demais e algumas fases tem um nível de dificuldade alto demais e injustos.
The game's manual explains that, after the events of Donkey Kong Country, Cranky Kong claims that the only reason DKC was a success was it's use of George Wood Voice Silicon Graphics. Cranky then challenges DK and Diddy to once again save their banana hoard from King K Rool, but this time on the Game Boy. It's a genuinely funny explanation for why this game exists outside of just being a tie-in to what was becoming one of the SNES's most popular series, and it's also a cute little allegory to how Rare may have felt making this game. Could they actually manage to capture the spirit of DKC within the limits of a handheld 8-bit console? The result ends up being mostly a success, believe it or not.
Land has to make a couple of big compromises to get there, though. The smaller screen size isn't actually as much of a menace when it comes to getting killed by offscreen enemies, but what it does do is make Diddy and DK feel a lot slower and less capable. The rolling jump you can normally do off platforms in DKC is way harder to pull off due to it being a lot more finicky to get the right amount of acceleration for it. The Game Boy's smaller memory also means that when a level gets vertical, falling down often doesn't mean landing on a lower platform but instead immediately dying because whatever was down there simply isn't there anymore. The CG sprites of DKC on the Game Boy certainly don't look great, but their silllhouettes are readable enough that I never found it much of a problem to spot enemies and read level design (granted this is probably a lot easier to do on emulator). While these limitations definitely keep this from being as good of an experience as the original, what we have here is still a very competent and fun set of DKC levels.
None of the levels are really 1-to-1 with DKC, as this game was made more as a companion to DKC rather than a port. But the original levels here can be just as fun, as a good amount of the feel of the SNES game is retained here in enemy placement and the prioritization of keeping things kinetic as much as possible. Surprisingly, one of my favorite parts of this game ended up being the water levels, as they introduce some neat new enemy designs like a jellyfish that you can go under or over, each having its own distinct risk, or a nautilus that chases you through parts of a level. The water levels also have a new underwater temple setting, and in fact there are a lot of new settings for the game here, which help keep things varied on a console that requires a lot of clever reuse and tricks to get a game like this onto it. As for the music, well I guess it should be no surprise the geniuses behind the SNES soundtrack can also make those songs sound great on the Game Boy. The compositions here are slightly different from the SNES versions, but this is usually because the song decides to take advantage of the GB's sound rather than see it as a limitation, an opportunity to make something new. The original tracks in this song don't slack at all.
At its best, this game can manage to perfectly capture the feel of DKC, and it can feel like you were just given a whole new set of levels for the game you never knew about. But not only are there the limitations I mentioned before, but there are also just some stinker levels here. The levels that take place in the sky setting are almost all bad, as most of them require waiting on slow, small platforms while trying to avoid enemies. The second one, in which you can change the direction of the platform by jumping on it, is probably the worst level in any Donkey Kong game. It's slow, it's way too easy to fall off, jumping and landing on the platform in quick succession feels bad, and the problems with acceleration really hit when you have barely any land to run and jump off of. Also, sometimes it feels like this game gives you no hang time off cliffs whatsoever, whereas I feel like the console DKC games do a good job of giving you some slack when it comes to jumping off cliffs. I was expecting a lot more levels like these when I played this, but as I said, there's a lot of neat stuff in this game. It doesn't fully succeed in capturing everything that's great about DKC, and the level design isn’t nearly as fine tuned and elegant, but it ends up serving as a fun supplement to the original, I would recommend it if your fiending for more DKC and have overlooked this game in the past.
Land has to make a couple of big compromises to get there, though. The smaller screen size isn't actually as much of a menace when it comes to getting killed by offscreen enemies, but what it does do is make Diddy and DK feel a lot slower and less capable. The rolling jump you can normally do off platforms in DKC is way harder to pull off due to it being a lot more finicky to get the right amount of acceleration for it. The Game Boy's smaller memory also means that when a level gets vertical, falling down often doesn't mean landing on a lower platform but instead immediately dying because whatever was down there simply isn't there anymore. The CG sprites of DKC on the Game Boy certainly don't look great, but their silllhouettes are readable enough that I never found it much of a problem to spot enemies and read level design (granted this is probably a lot easier to do on emulator). While these limitations definitely keep this from being as good of an experience as the original, what we have here is still a very competent and fun set of DKC levels.
None of the levels are really 1-to-1 with DKC, as this game was made more as a companion to DKC rather than a port. But the original levels here can be just as fun, as a good amount of the feel of the SNES game is retained here in enemy placement and the prioritization of keeping things kinetic as much as possible. Surprisingly, one of my favorite parts of this game ended up being the water levels, as they introduce some neat new enemy designs like a jellyfish that you can go under or over, each having its own distinct risk, or a nautilus that chases you through parts of a level. The water levels also have a new underwater temple setting, and in fact there are a lot of new settings for the game here, which help keep things varied on a console that requires a lot of clever reuse and tricks to get a game like this onto it. As for the music, well I guess it should be no surprise the geniuses behind the SNES soundtrack can also make those songs sound great on the Game Boy. The compositions here are slightly different from the SNES versions, but this is usually because the song decides to take advantage of the GB's sound rather than see it as a limitation, an opportunity to make something new. The original tracks in this song don't slack at all.
At its best, this game can manage to perfectly capture the feel of DKC, and it can feel like you were just given a whole new set of levels for the game you never knew about. But not only are there the limitations I mentioned before, but there are also just some stinker levels here. The levels that take place in the sky setting are almost all bad, as most of them require waiting on slow, small platforms while trying to avoid enemies. The second one, in which you can change the direction of the platform by jumping on it, is probably the worst level in any Donkey Kong game. It's slow, it's way too easy to fall off, jumping and landing on the platform in quick succession feels bad, and the problems with acceleration really hit when you have barely any land to run and jump off of. Also, sometimes it feels like this game gives you no hang time off cliffs whatsoever, whereas I feel like the console DKC games do a good job of giving you some slack when it comes to jumping off cliffs. I was expecting a lot more levels like these when I played this, but as I said, there's a lot of neat stuff in this game. It doesn't fully succeed in capturing everything that's great about DKC, and the level design isn’t nearly as fine tuned and elegant, but it ends up serving as a fun supplement to the original, I would recommend it if your fiending for more DKC and have overlooked this game in the past.
i commend the attempt at trying dkc on gameboy and it feels pretty good to play but god sometimes dying even when you have diddy or dying to a pit because the screen doesnt move with you or dying to bad enemy/obstacle placement you cant see ahead of you really breaks the spirit to its poor whittled down core after playing a game for monkeys by monkeys
The first console game i've ever played.
good game, bit glitchy, no idea how anyone actually finished this without a super game boy
This is just DK Country but worse. It is interesting only to be played on the original system just for the experience, and not for too long.
This is probably the first 2D platformer I ever played. I don't remember anything about it other than the yellow cartridge. At that point I had only ever seen 3D games like Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time and simple, abstract arcade games like Pac Man and Galaga. I probably just straight up couldn't tell what I was looking at. I love it. This and Pokemon Red were the first games to challenge me not on a mechanical level, but an artistic one.
Mono hijo de puta, te dije pan molido pendejo.
A messy Gameboy installment of the DKC series that doesn't work so good, but delivers on charm for me. I love that the game takes a lot of big swings, going for a bunch of new enemies, mechanics, and environments all new to this game. This all makes the game very memorable to me, despite it's clunkiness. The translation to Gameboy didn't go so well, and the gameplay isn't as tight as on the SNES and it can also be very hard to read. Still, I appreciate its daring.
So you're really just gonna sit there and ask me to 100% your game and then give me nothing to show for it but a black screen that says "congratulations," huh
Good challenge, screen size kind of hurts it but every level will probably be memorable when I revisit (squid one was great). Decent versions of these tunes too
pros: legitimately impressive handheld companion title to DKC, as little as possible is sacrificed to bring you a donkey kong country experience on the go. perhaps it would be redundant to play today if it was simply "donkey kong country but on the gameboy", but this is something of a sequel with all new levels, acting as a sort of "donkey kong country 1.5"
cons: I CANT SEE SHIT OH MY GOD MY EYES HURT WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS GIMMICK WHERE I HAVE TO JUMP ON A PLATFORM TO CHANGE ITS DIRECTION WHY ARE THERE SO MANY WATER LEVELS WHY DO THE BOSSES HAVE SO MUCH HP THIS GAME SUCKS
cons: I CANT SEE SHIT OH MY GOD MY EYES HURT WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS GIMMICK WHERE I HAVE TO JUMP ON A PLATFORM TO CHANGE ITS DIRECTION WHY ARE THERE SO MANY WATER LEVELS WHY DO THE BOSSES HAVE SO MUCH HP THIS GAME SUCKS
Not exactly the game you're thinking of. Its not a port of Donkey Kong Country at first glance. There's several original levels (world 3 and 4 are completely original) as well as original bosses. The King K Rool fight isn't even a repeat of the one in DKC. the only thing I don't like about this game besides the screen crunch is the cloud levels are a pain in the ass to treck through. I must have game over'd countless times when I went through those stupid stages the first time as a kid. Overall its definitely worth a look.
Love how the final boss is just K. Rools apartment. Imagine if the next Mario game's final boss is Bowser's airbnb
Space Chimps minus the space
I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY
I actually like this game. My first experience didn't go too well since I was behind the learning curve. But now that I'm over that hump, I have a lot of respect for this DKC demake.
-The artstyle remains intact
-I never had trouble reading the screen (chalk it up to my perfect, albeit short-sighted vision)
-Most - like 93% - of the bonus barrels weren't cryptically hidden (though with every DKC game, there were a handful I needed to hunt down with a guide up)
-Rolling through enemies no longer speeds our hairy heroes up to mach speed, goomba stomping does this instead (bopping the flying pigs in the sky levels was nerve-wracking for this reason)
-Obstacles entered the screen at a reactable speed, IMO (Killer Instinct has honed my hand-eye coordination)
BUT I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY
I actually like this game. My first experience didn't go too well since I was behind the learning curve. But now that I'm over that hump, I have a lot of respect for this DKC demake.
-The artstyle remains intact
-I never had trouble reading the screen (chalk it up to my perfect, albeit short-sighted vision)
-Most - like 93% - of the bonus barrels weren't cryptically hidden (though with every DKC game, there were a handful I needed to hunt down with a guide up)
-Rolling through enemies no longer speeds our hairy heroes up to mach speed, goomba stomping does this instead (bopping the flying pigs in the sky levels was nerve-wracking for this reason)
-Obstacles entered the screen at a reactable speed, IMO (Killer Instinct has honed my hand-eye coordination)
BUT I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY I HATE THE GAME BOY
I was mistaken in thinking that the Donkey Kong Land series were just lesser ports of the DKC games. Instead, the Land games are closer to being portable bonus levels for each of the three SNES titles. At least, that’s what it seems like Rare tried to accomplish here.
At its peak, Donkey Kong Land feels like more Donkey Kong Country. You get to play as Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, and you start the game running through various jungle and pirate ship-themed settings. You roll and jump over kremlings, toss barrels, collect KONG letters and bop along to some great David Wise Donkey Kong music (with a distinct Game Boy flavor). The game even offers some neat novelties, like having an entire world set in a city, and a level where you use KONG letters to form platforms to cross bottomless pits.
There are also some Game Boy-specific quirks to the game that I loved — like how Donkey Kong and Diddy literally shrink down into nothing when you swap between them. Or how breaking a DK barrel will send the Kong you aren’t currently controlling straight up in the air like they’ve been beamed into space. Falling deaths happen with zero fanfare: The game just immediately dumps you back to the world map, which can feel like impeccable comedic timing when you goof up a jump. Plus, as I mentioned, the soundtrack rips, featuring new tunes and Game Boy-ified versions of classic DKC themes (Aquatic Ambience even gets a GB version, which transcends the platform it was made for, just like its SNES sibling).
It’s not all great, though. Many deaths can be attributed to simply falling faster than the game can keep up, despite there being a platform just off screen. I died multiple times because I climbed down a rope too fast, or had the audacity to jump down to collect some bananas before the game could load in the platform they were floating above. The game isn’t clear about when it saves your progress, which can have you repeating levels you already completed if you’re not careful. There are also a few truly miserable levels in World 3 that nearly made me quit the game — in particular an obnoxiously long level taking place entirely on tiny, auto-scrolling platforms. Gross!
In the end though, a lot of the “limitations” of the Game Boy work in Donkey Kong Land’s favor — giving the game its own distinct feel while keeping the gameplay and audio in-line with what you expect from a mid-90’s Rare platformer starring a couple of banana-loving Kongs. I’m glad I gave DKL a shot, and I’m definitely planning to play the other two games in the trilogy in the future.
At its peak, Donkey Kong Land feels like more Donkey Kong Country. You get to play as Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, and you start the game running through various jungle and pirate ship-themed settings. You roll and jump over kremlings, toss barrels, collect KONG letters and bop along to some great David Wise Donkey Kong music (with a distinct Game Boy flavor). The game even offers some neat novelties, like having an entire world set in a city, and a level where you use KONG letters to form platforms to cross bottomless pits.
There are also some Game Boy-specific quirks to the game that I loved — like how Donkey Kong and Diddy literally shrink down into nothing when you swap between them. Or how breaking a DK barrel will send the Kong you aren’t currently controlling straight up in the air like they’ve been beamed into space. Falling deaths happen with zero fanfare: The game just immediately dumps you back to the world map, which can feel like impeccable comedic timing when you goof up a jump. Plus, as I mentioned, the soundtrack rips, featuring new tunes and Game Boy-ified versions of classic DKC themes (Aquatic Ambience even gets a GB version, which transcends the platform it was made for, just like its SNES sibling).
It’s not all great, though. Many deaths can be attributed to simply falling faster than the game can keep up, despite there being a platform just off screen. I died multiple times because I climbed down a rope too fast, or had the audacity to jump down to collect some bananas before the game could load in the platform they were floating above. The game isn’t clear about when it saves your progress, which can have you repeating levels you already completed if you’re not careful. There are also a few truly miserable levels in World 3 that nearly made me quit the game — in particular an obnoxiously long level taking place entirely on tiny, auto-scrolling platforms. Gross!
In the end though, a lot of the “limitations” of the Game Boy work in Donkey Kong Land’s favor — giving the game its own distinct feel while keeping the gameplay and audio in-line with what you expect from a mid-90’s Rare platformer starring a couple of banana-loving Kongs. I’m glad I gave DKL a shot, and I’m definitely planning to play the other two games in the trilogy in the future.
Pretty good. More DKC basically. Physics felt a bit off and bosses were somehow even worse than normal DKC. But just fine for the gameboy.