This review contains spoilers
After seeing this game often praised by Donkey Kong fans, I was very curious to try this. Having just beat it after typing this, I definitely understand why people call this game one of the best on the Game Boy, its a great time and its my favorite on the console so far. Unfortunately the iconic bait-and-switch of this game pretending to be a port of the arcade game just for it to be a huge game all on its own was not a surprise for me, but the game did still manage to shock me with just how much content is in it. It took me 22 hours to beat this game (though that's counting the times I left my 3DS on without playing the game so its not entirely accurate); frankly, I would have never expected to get anywhere near that amount of time on a Game Boy game that isn't an RPG. Honestly that is a bit of a negative for me since I much prefer when Game Boy games are short, though this game at least doesn't overstay its welcome which I'm very appreciative of.
Its interesting to me just how much mileage this game gets using the relatively simple style of the arcade Donkey Kong. It introduces some new abilities, like the backflip, handstand, and handstand jumps, plus it lets you pick up enemies and items like in Super Mario Bros 2 USA. Nonetheless, it still feels like a spiritual successor to the arcade game, taking its style and improving on it in meaningful ways. Small parts of this game's design actually take inspiration from Donkey Kong Jr., too, which I think is pretty neat since that game tends to go forgotten. The influence is mainly in specific stages, which will have ropes you need to climb to get to your destination, enemies that block those ropes, and fruit on those ropes that you can use to defeat the enemies.
Donkey Kong 94 has some very creative level design that I love. Trying to figure out how to get the collectibles in each stage and finishing the stage in general is handled in a way that is engaging but not overly complicated aside from a few standouts that I needed to watch a guide to complete. Whenever I sought outside help for the puzzles, I found that the solution was always just something I wasn't thinking of, so it never felt unfair to me. Your main goal in every stage (except for the Donkey Kong showdown stages) is to find the key and reach the door, but the stage design finds many creative ways to make you think about how you're going to get that key over to where the door is. One of my favorite stages is 5-9, which takes you through an area with a bunch of platforms that switching levers will turn on and off. Those levers have been present in many other levels before this one, but I had to really think about how to beat this stage and when I figured it out I felt so clever. In my opinion, the last three worlds - Desert, Iceberg, and Rocky Mountain - were definitely the peak of interesting level design in this game.
This game controls so nicely. It has probably the best controls out of any game I have played on the Game Boy. Mario's movement feels precise and fluid, I never felt like the game screwed me over through his movement. My only real problem is that jumps are very committal, but that's not new for an old Mario game and the game is balanced around this quirk. I just felt I should mention that since the Game Boy is an older console, so clunky controls sometimes happen in games. The only jankiness I have experienced in this game is that it feels like hammers just don't work on occasion; sometimes you'll still get hit by an enemy even when you're swinging your hammer at it. This was very rare, though, and it was the only potential glitch I recall encountering in this game.
As someone who was introduced to Donkey Kong through the Country games and was never much a fan of the original Donkey Kong, I was surprised by how much I really enjoyed this game. Its interesting how this game released so close to Donkey Kong Country and was pretty much the last game to have DK's classic design (of course before Donkey Kong Country introduced modern DK and revealed that Cranky Kong is classic DK). The ending also sets the seeds for a potential friendship between Mario and classic DK, which I think is a neat touch considering how modern DK became a good guy and has a decent friendship with Mario in the spin off games. Maybe it rubbed off on him from classic DK / Cranky Kong making amends...uh, my unwarranted DK lore spiel aside, I think this is a really good game, but its not quite going to get 5 stars from me. I'd say 4 and a half stars is a good ranking to give it.
Its interesting to me just how much mileage this game gets using the relatively simple style of the arcade Donkey Kong. It introduces some new abilities, like the backflip, handstand, and handstand jumps, plus it lets you pick up enemies and items like in Super Mario Bros 2 USA. Nonetheless, it still feels like a spiritual successor to the arcade game, taking its style and improving on it in meaningful ways. Small parts of this game's design actually take inspiration from Donkey Kong Jr., too, which I think is pretty neat since that game tends to go forgotten. The influence is mainly in specific stages, which will have ropes you need to climb to get to your destination, enemies that block those ropes, and fruit on those ropes that you can use to defeat the enemies.
Donkey Kong 94 has some very creative level design that I love. Trying to figure out how to get the collectibles in each stage and finishing the stage in general is handled in a way that is engaging but not overly complicated aside from a few standouts that I needed to watch a guide to complete. Whenever I sought outside help for the puzzles, I found that the solution was always just something I wasn't thinking of, so it never felt unfair to me. Your main goal in every stage (except for the Donkey Kong showdown stages) is to find the key and reach the door, but the stage design finds many creative ways to make you think about how you're going to get that key over to where the door is. One of my favorite stages is 5-9, which takes you through an area with a bunch of platforms that switching levers will turn on and off. Those levers have been present in many other levels before this one, but I had to really think about how to beat this stage and when I figured it out I felt so clever. In my opinion, the last three worlds - Desert, Iceberg, and Rocky Mountain - were definitely the peak of interesting level design in this game.
This game controls so nicely. It has probably the best controls out of any game I have played on the Game Boy. Mario's movement feels precise and fluid, I never felt like the game screwed me over through his movement. My only real problem is that jumps are very committal, but that's not new for an old Mario game and the game is balanced around this quirk. I just felt I should mention that since the Game Boy is an older console, so clunky controls sometimes happen in games. The only jankiness I have experienced in this game is that it feels like hammers just don't work on occasion; sometimes you'll still get hit by an enemy even when you're swinging your hammer at it. This was very rare, though, and it was the only potential glitch I recall encountering in this game.
As someone who was introduced to Donkey Kong through the Country games and was never much a fan of the original Donkey Kong, I was surprised by how much I really enjoyed this game. Its interesting how this game released so close to Donkey Kong Country and was pretty much the last game to have DK's classic design (of course before Donkey Kong Country introduced modern DK and revealed that Cranky Kong is classic DK). The ending also sets the seeds for a potential friendship between Mario and classic DK, which I think is a neat touch considering how modern DK became a good guy and has a decent friendship with Mario in the spin off games. Maybe it rubbed off on him from classic DK / Cranky Kong making amends...uh, my unwarranted DK lore spiel aside, I think this is a really good game, but its not quite going to get 5 stars from me. I'd say 4 and a half stars is a good ranking to give it.