With its last hushed, wheezing breaths, the NES delivered two sister titles. Like the Pokemon series after it, these releases pose the player with an introspective question: will you go on a safari through the country of Letterland, or will you make haste to solve the crises that plague Numberland?

Whichever you chose, Mickey Mouse is your humble avatar. In this adventure, players will be put to the test with mind-boggling algebraic equations as they reclaim Numberland's national treasure back from the clutches of one villainous Captain Peg-Leg Pete. Not alone on his quest, Mickey will meet with the the country's lone defender, Sheriff Donald Duck, who despite his ability isn't able to tackle the threat without the Mouse's help.

From the dizzing heights of the Numberland space station to the the treacherous pits of the menacing Number Factory, this is surely one of Mickey's finest outings in the realm of gaming. If I, a mere groveling reviewer, could afford this game a full five stars, I would. Alas, I will have to give it the valor of one half star.

It's very strange to look back at this game in a time where it's remake outclasses it in almost every way, but also where the series it hails from has evolved artistically far beyond itself.

There are times where the art direction is very detailed and makes great use of perspective to indicate scope (like Dyna Blade's nest in the mountains or Meta Knight's ship looming in the orange sunlit skies), but there is an overuse of prerendered and image-based graphics that leave a weird uncanniness. For example, those weird flat green mountaintops in Cavios, those swinging bells in Gourmet Race, and those terrible compressed cloud JPEGs in the last area of Great Cave Offensive. They all clash pretty heavily with the otherwise lovely spritework of bosses and other characters.

Although I may not always like its presentation, it is distinctly charming for its era. I think the soundtrack is what truly elevates it to that weird dreamy status a lot of early Kirby is shrouded in (like pre Nightmare in Dream Land), especially the Dyna Blade subgame. My personal favorite subgame was Milky Way Wishes, although Revenge of Meta Knight is very close behind it.

I like the second DKC more thematically, but I still love the monster movie vibes this one brings. Its just such a weird aesthetic choice for a Donkey Kong game, it's great. The more varied colors and denser detailing add to a much moodier atmosphere than the other games in the trilogy, also highlighted by Eveline Novakovic's score. Specifically, I adore how the water levels look and sound in this game, with vibrant coral reefs and dark waters brought to life by the ominous track, Water World.

The big improvement here over its predecessor is the completion experience, as its far more standardized as to what to expect in terms of collectibles in each level. The second game ws very spontaneous with its collectible placement, which can be fun but also annoying. My only real gripes with this one is that the field of view for some levels like fucking Kong-Fused Cliffs is really bad and the secret world, Kremetoa, is home to some of the worst levels in the entire trilogy. Granted on that last point, there's only like 3 really bad ones.

This is true for all the DKC games on SNES, but you really can't go wrong with these games if your looking for good and varied challenge paired with unique presentation.