𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐊𝐢𝐥𝐥

ᵀʰᵉ ˢᵘⁿ ˢʰⁱⁿᵉˢ ᵀʰʳᵒᵘᵍʰ

M̸̮̦͒̆͋̅̊̐͠͝ơ̶̲͕̭̯͆̍͛́͐̂̕s̵̼̹͓̞̒̀̈̑͜ẗ̵̨̛̜͙̝̠̺̤̲̗̓̅̂̐̑̂ ̵̬͕̲̾͌̿C̴̡̧̛͍̖͕̮̯̺͇̎̇̄͐̃͌͜͝͝a̵̩͈̗̦̪̯̭̬̩̒̈́̎̅n̶͍͚̈́ ̵̱̈́̊B̶̰̭͈͔͙̩͚̮̝̑͆̿̎̃́̕u̶̘̫̲͖̘̤̦̬̇̾͑̓͛̀͗̾͂r̴̼̍̐̐̒ņ̷̟͖͓͖̬͆̐̑͊,̴͓̺̺̗͑͑̑̉͠ ̸̢̛͔̠̹̬̼̱̘̞̈B̵̢̧̭̱̝͖͚̬̠̆͐̈́͒͜͠ú̵̮͎̉t̴̢͕̘̺̤̄͆̒̍̈́͆̽͝ ̸̖͂̀̒Ĭ̶̛͈̤͉͈́̾͝ñ̸̜̞̲͍̝̣̳̫͉s̶̳͑̽̅͗̿̋ï̸̧̺̪̱͉͈̲̊̍͗̿̋̍́̃̚d̷̳̰̬͚̙̯̜̣̾̋̀̈͊̌͆̏͝ȅ̵͎̗̙̼͖̠͉͔̈́͐͗̈́ͅ ̷͎̼̜̈́́̓̌͘̚̚͘͝T̵̯̖̙͎̭͈͖̮͔̔̓́̀̿͊̃̑͝h̵̺͓̫̹͊e̵̛̗̻̦̗̣ͅẙ̷̻̥ ̵̧̢͔̯̖̣̭̟͔̳̋́̑̈́̇͒͛C̶̫̰̦̫͍͔̮̲͖͆̀̽͋̉̿́͂͝â̴̫͉̤̠̻̜̭̙͇͗̀̅͑̅̏̎͜͠n̶̖̜̯̗̎̓'̵̡̩͖̹͓̺̳͓̬̠͗̐̚ţ̵͉̱̘̱̝̌͊̒̽̔̅̎͗̕͠ͅ


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BEHOLD, THE ATARI KUSOGE

this is some unbalanced bullshit and I'm here for it. The game basically consists of a shmooving stick figure known as the wizard fighting for his life against the "imp", a whirlwind-looking entity that eternally stalks our poor wizardly friend like a tropical hurricane. Unfortunately for Hurricane Imp, our Wizard must be a Florida resident because he's packing heat and can shoot the storm as a way to deal damage. If the Wizard's damage reaches 100, the Imp wins and the game is over. If the Imp's damage reaches 100, the wizard gets a kill point and a health refresh and the Imp respawns except with more health. It's really weird that it's not just a round-based versus game as it has the weird kill score counter tacked on but like sure. It does fundamentally make it an inevitable losing game for the wizard as there's really no win state for the wizard whatsoever, so that's cool.

That's not even to mention the actual imbalance of the gameplay. It's kind of like combat in that there are two bodies that shoot each other until one stops moving but in this game it's really more of a predator-and-prey dynamic. The Imp is completely invisible unless it's either close to the wizard or fires an attack, so the wizard really has no idea when or where danger could come from. The wizards shots also have a cooldown of like a second or two whereas the imp sure as hell doesn't so the wizard basically has to dodge and weave aiming shots against an invisible predator hunting them down whereas the imp just has to get up close and mash button to win EZ. Also the more damage the wizard sustains the slower he moves just for good measure. It's so comically weighted against the wizards favor that I can't help but be entertained by it. If for some reason the wizard needs even more things to worry about there's also the option to add a flame on the map to defend that serves no purpose outside of getting an additional hitbox the imp can use to deal damage to the wizards health bar.

Unlike a lot of versus-oriented 2600 games there is indeed a single player mode where the AI controls the imp, but really the most fun I've had with it is through playing with a friend as it just turns the game into an inescapable horror movie where one person gets to play the monster. Despite its wildly imbalanced nature I've happened to have a lot of good times just shooting the shit playing this with someone making house rules to give the wizard some kind of thing to aim for and whatnot. I do wish there was more than one map but what can ya do. The game wasn't actually ever released on a cart in its actual time as it was supposedly to be one of the last 2600 games before development shifted to the 5200 but got cancelled for like not being complex enough of a game or something like that, so I kinda get the lack of pretty much anything here. Despite the fact that it's probably much more of a "toy" than a "game" given how loose the gameplay conditions are, I've somehow managed to have a lot of fun with the 2P mode so I can't say I'm not a wizard fan.

This was actually the last mainline DKC game I played. My first was returns, as I said in my DKC1 review. I played 1 and 3 shortly after that and I played Tropical Freeze the day it released. I didn't play 2 until years later in 2018 where an Instagram account I was following was selling a CIB copy for $35. That sounded like a good deal back then, and considering it's almost $90 now it's even better now, so I bought it off them. I really enjoyed my time with it, but it wasn't until replaying it in 2022, where I truly saw it as a masterpiece. Do I still think that now? Look at my score to find out (that means yes).

Let's start with the gameplay changes. The thing you'll notice when you first start the game is you don't play as Donkey Kong anymore. You still play as Diddy Kong but replacing Donkey is newcomer Dixie Kong. The main plot this time is King K Rool is back, he has kidnapped Donkey Kong and you must team-up as Diddy and Dixie to defeat him and save DK. Pretty simple but it works. Anyways, Diddy plays pretty much the same but Dixie is a bit different. Her main gameplay change is the fact that she can glide by using her hair. This is incredibly helpful with certain segments throughout the game and because of this plus being more fun to control, I definitely prefer this duo over the first game's. I still think Diddy feels better to play as since he's still faster here and has a better roll (Dixie's roll sucks if you're trying to roll jump off a cliff) so he was my go to Kong when I had both but Dixie is still very fun to play as here due to her glide. This game did add another new big mechanic that plays a part in a bunch of levels. By pressing the A button, if you have both Kongs, you can perform a Team Up. This basically lets you throw the kong upwards in whatever direction you want, and it lets you get up to high places you normally couldn't get to or collect items up high. It's nice and quick to pull off and just adds that much more depth to the levels.

The levels themselves are better than ever here. The level design is improved, with each level feeling pretty distinct from each other. One moment you'll be riding air balloons over a pit of lava and the next you'll be racing enemies in a haunted amusement park. Levels have gimmicks but they never feel intrusive or annoying to me. The level themes are also way more interesting this time. The mains setting here is pirates and that first world makes great use of it. You had levels where you run on top of a ship, levels where you are swimming inside the ship itself and then levels where you're climbing up the top of a pirate ship. That's all the first world, and even tho it's all pirate themed, they all feel distinct. Besides that, you have typical lava stages tho they're visually appealing in this game, you have these beehive stages where honey stops you dead in your tracks, you have bayou stages..just all the level themes in this game are so much more unique compared to the 1st game. Honestly, the backgrounds used in these levels are better than the 1st game's as well, they made them really clean looking this time around.

As for the collectables, you still collect bananas..and KONG letters. Animal Friend tokens are gone which is nice because they could kinda be annoying at times. Instead of finding a bunch of random bonus rooms to 100% the game, this time you must collect Kremkoins and DK coins. Kremkoins are all found in bonus barrels, or sometimes secret walls. These both lead to the bonus area, which instead of being all lax and random like in DKC1, you have to play a bonus game whether it's collecting all the stars or defeating every enemy or just getting to the coin itself. This is more unified than how it was in DKC1 and I prefer it this way. The DK coins are always only in levels once, and they're usually just in the stages and not in the bonus rooms. Anyways, collecting every Kremcoin and every DK coin, and completing every level, gets you 102% in this game. I much prefer this over the bonus rooms in DKC1. They are much easier to find without a guide, tho I still had to look up some but that's better than almost all of them like in DKC1, and it's better for it.

Animal buddies are back and you have some returning ones plus some new ones. Winky and Expresso are gone but Rambi, Enguarde and Squawks are back. Rambi and Enguarde are exactly the same except they have a charge move you can perform to go super fast and kill any enemies in your path or to open up secret bonus rooms. You can now ride with Squawks and shoot nuts out of his mouth at enemies, so he's changed drastically. There's a new animal buddy called Quawks who is only used in one level and is purple, cannot fly upwards (only glide down) and cannot shoot nuts. He's not worth getting into since it's just a downgrade of Squawks, but the other two animal buddies are. Rattly the rattlesnake, is basically Winky but better. He can jump high, jump on normally dangerous enemies like Winky but you can also charge him up to perform a super jump. The other new animal buddy, Squitter the Spider is awesome and is my favorite buddy in the series. You cannot jump on enemies as him but you can shoot projectile webs out of his mouth and if you press the A button, you can shoot a different type of web and if you press A again..you can create a web platform to jump on. They use this a good amount in some of the stages and this mechanic just makes him super fun and interesting to use. Along with all this, there are also these animal buddy barrels that let you transform into just the animal buddy.

The bosses in this game are also a big improvement from 1. Gone are very easy bosses that feel like a big version of a normal enemy. Every boss in this game feels distinct (besides the zinger fight tho his fight was pretty fun) and aren't piss easy and also aren't super quick. They feel like actual bosses, with the K Rool fight being a standout. Definitely my favorite fight in the trilogy. While not too difficult, he's still really fun.

If you had gotten 15 Kremcoins per world, you could pay them to this fella named Klubba. Once you do, you can access a level from the Lost World, a secret super hard bonus world. These are definitely some of the hardest levels in the game, tho I must brag and say it only took me two tries to beat Animal Antics this time around. Going back to the difficulty, yeah this game can be quite tough. It's not like bullshit hard, just the levels themselves can have some very tough portions and honestly, I welcome it. I still died a bunch in this game but I think the difficulty curve is very nice. It doesn't start off hard at all, it gradually start's getting pretty tough by world 4.

The OST is a big upgrade from the first game I think and is honestly amazing. Some of my favorites were Mining Melancholy, In A Snow-Bound Land, LockJaw's Saga,Hot Head Bop, and Forest Interlude. That is not even mentioning the absolute fucking goated song that is Stickerbush Symphony which is honestly a top 5 song for me from any video game ever. It's that amazing and I've loved it before I even played this game. This is a top tier OST I think and may be the best SNES soundtrack of all time.

If I had any little nitpick about this game, it's the fact you have to use banana coins to save and move to other worlds freely. I forgot to mention this in the collectables section, but you also collect bananas throughout the stages, they're plentiful, but after saving once or using Funky's Flights in a world, you must pay each Kong coins to do either action again. Because coins are super easy to get, this wasn't an issue for me but if you reset the game, you lose all your coins (and lives) so I can see where it would be an annoying mechanic to some people.

This is peak Donkey Kong Country imo. Everything from 1 was perfected in this game and then some, and it easily has the best soundtrack in the entire series, which does play a big part in me loving this game. I have more nostalgia for Super Mario World but I cannot deny the fact that this is the better platformer on the Super Nintendo. Because of this, I do think this is the best SNES game I've played period. It's just a masterpiece through and through. Do yourself a favor and play it!

I'm going to get back to the Kirby marathon now but I do plan on replaying DKC3 in the near future so stay tuned for that whenever I decide to play it!

This is not the first game that will come to mind when I think of Resident Evil. I will always immediately think of RE and RE2 when I think of Resident Evil. As far as personal enjoyment goes though this is 2nd on my list of all time RE games. They blended the action and horror better in this game than all other REs. It calls back to RE4 so hard many times throughout the game. While this isn’t the scariest RE it has its moments. It does have what I consider the best horror section in the series though. I won’t place any spoilers but if you’ve played you pretty much know what section I mean. It does seem to be more horror less action through the first half with more action and much less horror in the last sections but overall I felt like they blended it very well.

I really liked the 4 Lords and hope to get more back story on Miranda, Lady D, or Heisenburg in the DLC. After RE7 Ethan was my least favorite playable character of the main line titles but after 8 he is one of my favorites. As a new father to a little girl myself I can relate to the lengths he would go through to try and save his baby girl. The ending hit me in the heart as a father.

All in all I would recommend this game to anyone that is a fan of horror games.