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.