This remake (and DKC1 GBA) were my earliest gaming memories I remember fondly. Despite owning a bootleg cartridge of the game (yes seriously, it was the EU rom flashed on a cart but the localization label was from some Donald Duck game) I still had extremely fond memories of DKC2 on the GBA as the theming, atmosphere, music, levels designs. Just everything about the game really tailored my taste in gaming.

Nowadays, as an adult I prefer playing the SNES original of DKC2 just for the music and visuals alone but the GBA remake is absolutely no slouch and is worth checking regardless (same for the other GBA remakes of DKC). At its core its still DKC2, an already amazing game but the other little things it adds is pretty nice, they're nothing too substantial compared to what DKC1 and DKC3 got on GBA but its appreciated nonetheless.

Despite preferring the SNES original I didn't want to rank this game lower due to the visuals and music being crunched down to level with the GBA's hardware cause hey, I feel that does fall to subjectivity and it's still DKC2 which again, still a great game!

Reviewed on May 28, 2023


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