This game is so good. The Donkey Kong series prior to this point had been dormant for a decade, a clunky relic of the past arcade era. Developer Rare was tasked with reviving one of gaming's oldest franchises as a 2D platformer, and succeeded brilliantly creating a significant upgrade to what the SNES was thought capable of. Both the unique and new pre-rendered '3D' graphics and music that sounds too good and multi-layered to have even come from the SNES sound chip were a big deal for a console entering its fifth year.
Composer David Wise did an unbelievable job on DKC's soundtrack. The best tracks in this game are atmospheric and serene, but the required jungle-style beats are of course included, DK Island Swing is iconic and plays in the very first level in the game. Gangplank Galleon, from the opposite very last level in the game, is another fan favorite, but the true everlasting work of art from Donkey Kong Country's music is no doubt the legendary Aquatic Ambience. A breathtaking underwater synth vibe set to a coral reef backdrop, this track alone is worthy of its own full-length review by someone with more intimate knowledge of musical technicalities than myself. As just a fan however, my personal favorite track is the mysterious and eerie "Life in the Mines", with an honorable mention to "Fear Factory", even if it only plays in like two levels. I normally wouldn't write so much about an OST as the first real topic in a review, but it's hardly an exaggeration to say people hadn't heard music like this from video games in 1994, a serious overachievement for a game about an ape trying to recover his lost bananas.
The other important artistic attribute is just how great Donkey Kong Country's pre-rendered graphics look. The underwater backdrop has already been mentioned, but the dense jungles, especially with the aesthetic sunset in levels like Orang-utan Gang, look fantastic. Snow Barrel Blast features the snow effect over the screen starting very light, but gets heavier and heavier to eventually become a vision-impairing blizzard as you get further into the (really difficult) level, a winter aesthetic that I've always been a huge fan of. The 16-bit graphics of the SNES have aged far better than their early-era low-poly 3D successors from the likes of the PS1 or the N64, evident by the modern indie game landscape featuring countless great titles adopting this retro pixel art style. With this in mind, its worth mentioning that Donkey Kong Country and its sequels might be the best looking games visually on the entire SNES library. As graphics continue to improve, this creative stylization ages far better than the never-ending pursuit of hyper-realism.
Artistic bells and whistles aside, the real meat of a platformer is of course the gameplay, and Donkey Kong Country is usually very fun both as a first-time casual, and a veteran player speeding through. The mechanic of rolling through enemies to gain speed is a thrill, even if it can result in the player going too fast to even see where they're going at times. The animal buddies in different levels add to gameplay variety, riding Rambi the Rhino in the first level is a great introduction, and Enguarde the swordfish is an absolute lifesaver in underwater levels where the Kongs are otherwise super vulnerable. This game is just a real dopamine rush for me as an animal lover, everything from the crocodile Kremling enemies to the sprites for Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong themselves contributes to the jungle setting so well. Swinging on vines or ropes is another fun mechanic, and the gameplay switch-up in Mine Cart Carnage is a notorious difficulty spike for first-time players, but really satisfying to do well, more satisfying than what's essentially an auto scroller has any right to ever be.
Mine Cart Carnage and Snow Barrel Blast have already been mentioned as difficulty spikes, but Donkey Kong Country as a whole is just a well-known hard video game. The real flaw with this game is admittedly the screen is just a bit too zoomed in, which can exacerbate the difficulty even more with less time to see what's ahead of you. I have unfun memories of slowly swimming through Poison Pond with just one Kong left, waiting for the camera to catch up at certain points to better avoid any of the fish that will one-shot me. Others have taken issue with how well-hidden some of DKC's secrets are. The hidden/optional content is indeed far better in the sequel, but I really don't have a problem with them in the original since they're supposed to be secret for a reason. Warp barrels that skip the whole level aren't really fun anyway, most of these levels are so good that they're definitely worth playing. The bosses are overly simple and barebones though, and honestly not especially great, but King K. Rool is a memorable final boss especially for his fake Kredits and jump scare 2nd phase.
Minor gripes aren't enough to hold Donkey Kong Country back from a very high star rating, this is one of my favorite games to replay. DKC has historic value as a game that helped the SNES maintain relevance with the 3D era very nearly on the horizon, and compares favorably to even some of Nintendo's best work in the golden era of 2D platforming. More importantly, this game aged gracefully and is absolutely still worth experiencing, even if it was developed in England.
4.5/5.0
Composer David Wise did an unbelievable job on DKC's soundtrack. The best tracks in this game are atmospheric and serene, but the required jungle-style beats are of course included, DK Island Swing is iconic and plays in the very first level in the game. Gangplank Galleon, from the opposite very last level in the game, is another fan favorite, but the true everlasting work of art from Donkey Kong Country's music is no doubt the legendary Aquatic Ambience. A breathtaking underwater synth vibe set to a coral reef backdrop, this track alone is worthy of its own full-length review by someone with more intimate knowledge of musical technicalities than myself. As just a fan however, my personal favorite track is the mysterious and eerie "Life in the Mines", with an honorable mention to "Fear Factory", even if it only plays in like two levels. I normally wouldn't write so much about an OST as the first real topic in a review, but it's hardly an exaggeration to say people hadn't heard music like this from video games in 1994, a serious overachievement for a game about an ape trying to recover his lost bananas.
The other important artistic attribute is just how great Donkey Kong Country's pre-rendered graphics look. The underwater backdrop has already been mentioned, but the dense jungles, especially with the aesthetic sunset in levels like Orang-utan Gang, look fantastic. Snow Barrel Blast features the snow effect over the screen starting very light, but gets heavier and heavier to eventually become a vision-impairing blizzard as you get further into the (really difficult) level, a winter aesthetic that I've always been a huge fan of. The 16-bit graphics of the SNES have aged far better than their early-era low-poly 3D successors from the likes of the PS1 or the N64, evident by the modern indie game landscape featuring countless great titles adopting this retro pixel art style. With this in mind, its worth mentioning that Donkey Kong Country and its sequels might be the best looking games visually on the entire SNES library. As graphics continue to improve, this creative stylization ages far better than the never-ending pursuit of hyper-realism.
Artistic bells and whistles aside, the real meat of a platformer is of course the gameplay, and Donkey Kong Country is usually very fun both as a first-time casual, and a veteran player speeding through. The mechanic of rolling through enemies to gain speed is a thrill, even if it can result in the player going too fast to even see where they're going at times. The animal buddies in different levels add to gameplay variety, riding Rambi the Rhino in the first level is a great introduction, and Enguarde the swordfish is an absolute lifesaver in underwater levels where the Kongs are otherwise super vulnerable. This game is just a real dopamine rush for me as an animal lover, everything from the crocodile Kremling enemies to the sprites for Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong themselves contributes to the jungle setting so well. Swinging on vines or ropes is another fun mechanic, and the gameplay switch-up in Mine Cart Carnage is a notorious difficulty spike for first-time players, but really satisfying to do well, more satisfying than what's essentially an auto scroller has any right to ever be.
Mine Cart Carnage and Snow Barrel Blast have already been mentioned as difficulty spikes, but Donkey Kong Country as a whole is just a well-known hard video game. The real flaw with this game is admittedly the screen is just a bit too zoomed in, which can exacerbate the difficulty even more with less time to see what's ahead of you. I have unfun memories of slowly swimming through Poison Pond with just one Kong left, waiting for the camera to catch up at certain points to better avoid any of the fish that will one-shot me. Others have taken issue with how well-hidden some of DKC's secrets are. The hidden/optional content is indeed far better in the sequel, but I really don't have a problem with them in the original since they're supposed to be secret for a reason. Warp barrels that skip the whole level aren't really fun anyway, most of these levels are so good that they're definitely worth playing. The bosses are overly simple and barebones though, and honestly not especially great, but King K. Rool is a memorable final boss especially for his fake Kredits and jump scare 2nd phase.
Minor gripes aren't enough to hold Donkey Kong Country back from a very high star rating, this is one of my favorite games to replay. DKC has historic value as a game that helped the SNES maintain relevance with the 3D era very nearly on the horizon, and compares favorably to even some of Nintendo's best work in the golden era of 2D platforming. More importantly, this game aged gracefully and is absolutely still worth experiencing, even if it was developed in England.
4.5/5.0