This is a true story.

I was about 7-years-old when Donkey Kong Country came out. It looked insane, and more than any other game for the system, it was the one that left me the most jealous of SNES kids. I needed to play it, but the only one I knew who had a copy was a boy on my block who I didn't get along with. I tried to suck up to him, but he knew I had a Genesis. He saw through my deception.

One day while riding my bike, I saw him run out of his garage to go over to a friend's house. With the garage door still open, I saw a golden opportunity... And so I snuck into his home and made my way to his bedroom, popped in Donkey Kong Country, and started playing. From the hallway, I could hear his mother approach, asking him a question that I cannot recall, clearly assuming her kid decided to stay indoors. As she turned the corner and peered into his room, she saw me on his bed playing the Super Nintendo. I'll never forget how loud she screamed as she chased me around his house and out into the street.

Just me doin' a little B&E because I love Donkey Kong Country so much.

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.

I have a question for you: Do you have a "happy place" game? When you have had a bad day, nothing's gone right, and you feel dead to the world, do you have a game that you just turn on and suddenly everything suddenly feels like it's going to be okay? Donkey Kong Country is that game to me. Every Donkey Kong Country has that effect on me, but it's most keenly felt with this one.

The story is pretty simple. One dark and stormy night, King K. Rool has stolen Donkey Kong's banana hoard and locked Diddy Kong in a barrel. It's your job to save Diddy and the banana hoard. It is admittedly light on story, but most of the game's emotions are carried in the moment to moment gameplay. This is an incredibly challenging game for first-timers. Sure, I can beat it now no problem, but that's because I have over 20 years of experience playing it. Its difficulty actually enhances the quest. With how high stakes the atmosphere of the levels make it, combined with David Wise's frankly haunting soundtrack, it really feels like a quest into danger more than a simple platforming romp. Some nights, I will just put on Aquatic Ambience from the soundtrack and just contemplate my place in the world. The music and atmosphere of this game make me feel wonderful things that I am not sure I can even put into words.

The platforming itself is a ton of fun. An incredibly high skill ceiling means that it is always engaging, and there is enough mechanical variation to keep you entertained through the whole journey. The same can arguably not be said about the stage variety. They could have called this game "Donkey Kong Cave" for how much time you spend in them. This is one aspect where its sequels have it beat admittedly, but it never really bothered me personally. The same can be said of the bosses. Of all the various bosses in the game, only King K. Rool himself stands out as memorable. Fortunately, the final fight with him is arguably one of the best the Super Nintendo has to offer.

It should also be noted that this game arguably saved the Super Nintendo from losing to the Genesis in North America. While the Sega Genesis did still beat the Super Nintendo in sales in 1994 and 1995, it would prove to be the years that a Sega console would ever be on top in the region. Sega would move on to the Saturn in 1995 in America, more or less abandoning the Genesis, allowing the Super Nintendo to catch up and eventually surpass it in sales globally. The Donkey Kong Country games were a major reason why, and it all began with this one. This game would prove to be the second best-selling game for the SNES, with Donkey Kong, for a few years at least, supplanting Mario as Nintendo's most popular character. A lot of that had to do with the graphics. No one had ever seen graphics like this before. When you play this game on a CRT TV now, they still hold up. With the right filters on an emulator, you can get a similar effect.

This game was a risk that paid off. I am not sure modern Nintendo would trust a third party to handle one of their biggest IPs in such a way. Perhaps they should. With its colorful graphics, interesting and challenging platofrming, excellent animation, and amazing soundtrack that elevates the whole experience into something that is emotional and poignant, Donkey Kong Country is simply one of the finest platforming games ever made, and my "happy place" game. Give it a shot and who knows? It just might become your "happy place" game, too.

As the new year approaches, I felt the need to beat at least one more game before the clock strikes 12 here. I decided to give Donkey Kong Country another playthrough, but with a twist. I played through it using this MSU mod, which not only replaces the song that plays in each stage with a unique remix, but also shuffles the overworld music between multiple overworld remixes. Needless to say, it was a feast to the ears that kept fresh throughout the playthrough.

Speaking of the playthrough, man, the back half of this game is rough. They sure were cooking something when they decided that the player should beat 5 ice world levels before getting the chance to save! DKC isn't an easy romp, but despite that it's still a great time. The graphics look good, the game feels great, and even without the mod the music is stellar. You're missing out of you don't give DKC a shot at least once in your life, even if you don't beat it.

END OF YEAR RAMBLINGS BELOW THIS POINT! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

I wasn't expecting this to be the last game I beat before 2024 but here we are, I guess. At the start of this year, I had only just gotten really into using this site. Since then, I've grown to really like this place. Writing reviews has been a fun way to express myself, and seeing what other people have to say on this site is always a treat. I'm looking forward to writing more stuff in 2024, all while tackling my backlog, getting used to the married life, and taking on whatever other challenges and changes life throws my way. I hope everyone has an exciting 2024 full of fun games and good times!

i feel no hesitation in saying that donkey kong country is my favorite game from the golden age of platformers; hell, my favorite platformer ever. every word of impossible nostalgia-drunk exaltation spilled from the mouths of nintendotubers over the snes drivel they grew up with is fulfilled in dkc's pre-rendered 3d glory. fuck mario. this is what they told me smw would be like. even the water levels are good. if this game didn't play like a dream- constantly challenging you, though never unclear of its expectations or punishing with its lives- it would still have more style than pretty much any game in its genre released then or now. such technical wizardry was performed here that the game's assets and soundtrack look and sound somehow worse uncompressed. every level is a real place and i want to be there. aquatic ambience is cited incessantly in "greatest ost" lists for good reason. rare's nintendoid output would only improve (see: the sequel to this game), but this will always be their greatest achievement in my eyes. it was here first. it came and it conquered. shine on, you crazy kong.

Solid platformer for its time. Very challenging, and I feel a bit unfair at time with enemy placement expecting you to know what's coming in order to react at all, but otherwise pretty fun. Very interesting and cool level design with unique gimmicks like fuel for platforms, the mine cart levels, and stuff like turning the light switches on regularly.

The OST really steals the show for this game, one of the most immersive and ambient OSTs I've heard in any platformer, and it's really impressive for the SNES soundchip. The sprites have aged better than I expected, and the game running in such a smooth 60 FPS despite its age is really impressive to see, and makes the game feel and play that much better.

While I don't really find much charm with the DK duo personally, I do love the Kremlins and K. Rool for how goofy and fun they are, I always smile anytime I see them.

Overall a decently fun romp, hoping I'll enjoy the future DKC games more which I'll be playing soon.

(This is the 104th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet/blog is in my bio.)

Thanks to this challenge I finally played so many beloved Nintendo franchises for the first time in my life. Metroid, Zelda, Kirby and now, I finally played my first ever Donkey Kong game: Donkey Kong Country. I knew next to nothing about this game before playing it and I still know next to nothing about the rest of the games, but after playing Donkey Kong Country, I'm definitely excited to check out whichever games next for this character.

Donkey Kong Country released on November 18, 1994 and was developed by Rare. Rare developed 3 games before this that I actually played, namely Captain Skyhawk, Battletoads and The Amazing Spider-Man for the GameBoy. While I didn't necessarily enjoy all of these games (I'm looking at you Amazing Spider-Man), I saw even then that Rare are capable of developing good games, it's just gonna be a budgetary thing that'll decide the overall quality. So Rare developing a game for Nintendo sounded like a great combo before playing this, and turns out, it was.

Donkey Kong Country went on to sell over 9 million copies (3rd best-selling SNES game, best Donkey Kong game), which led to two sequels on the SNES that released in 95 and 96, which I'll check out for sure. But not before sharing my thoughts on this game. :)

STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 3/10

There is no actual storytelling in the game. You control Donkey Kong and his nephew Diddy Kong to rid Donkey Kong Island of the Kremlings and to reclaim your bananas that were stolen. This is all explained in the manual exclusively, which has a nice, longer-than-usual story explaining the setting for the game. In the game itself, there are a few characters you meet who will help you out. Funky Kong, the cool dudebro surfer gorilla, who flings you back to a previously finished level really fast if you want to, Candy Kong, Donkey Kong's love interest according to the manual who saves your game, and Cranky Kong, an elderly and wise gorilla who gives you tips. His bio is pretty hilarious because he is apparently the Donkey Kong who featured in the games from the 80s and wants nothing to do with the fancy visuals of (then-)modern day. Legend.

But you're not gonna be playing this for the story and characters, but for the gameplay, the levels and the music.

GAMEPLAY | 14/20

Donkey Kong Country is a 2D platformer like many others before it. It differentiates itself mainly due to its main character and his barrel-flinging escapades, as well as the amount of space he takes up in the otherwise rather small levels. This changes the dynamic of avoiding enemies and objects somewhat because you have to be more precise with your inputs in many of the levels, which is one of the main reasons why Donkey Kong Country is not as easy as it may seem. There is a save system in place, both in-game and in-emulator (if you want), as well as a generous number of extra lives you can get as you play, so beating the game is by no means impossible, but you'll die more often than you think.

Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong run alongside each other and you can swap them out whenever you want. That's worth it at specific points because Diddy Kong is smaller (good for water levels), runs faster and jumps higher, but Donkey Kong is stronger (kills enemies by jumping on them just once instead of twice), grabs vines automatically and can hold a barrel over his head instead of just in front of him, which matters depending on enemy positioning.

There are many obstacles to face in the game, and they continuously change up as you play. The game uses the same items and enemies throughout, but makes use of them pretty creatively. The main challenges include avoiding enemies or killing them by jumping on top of them / rolling into them, grabbing ropes/vines to jump across platforms, jumping into barrels which catapult you forward and chaining together some of these challenges to get to otherwise inaccessible areas, which unlock bonus rooms. There are also mine cart levels, underwater levels and rainy levels which make the floor slippery (always love those), so the challenge is constant and varied enough. The difficulty is mostly fair, but not perfect.

Each world ends with a boss fight. These are pretty simple, which is typical for Nintendo platformers I find. Find a good time to jump on top of the enemy, repeat this 5 times (with Donkey Kong) and the enemy is down. Apart from the final boss, I found these to all be easy.

Overall, it's a fun loop and it's one of the better platformers for its time. Donkey Kong's move set is more limited than I would have liked, so I hope the sequels improve upon that, but gameplay is enjoyable enough to carry you through as you listen to the music and take in the great visual style.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 9/10

There is actually voice acting here, though mainly for Donkey Kong yelling. If you're talking about audio in Donkey Kong Country though, you're mainly gonna talk about its soundtrack. Beloved by just about each of the 9+ million individuals who bought it and the many more millions who emulated the game through other means, Donkey Kong Country's soundtrack is just as much part of the experience as the gameplay.

Having listened to the soundtrack for hours while playing the game and a couple more hours in addition to that, I can both definitely say that it's a great soundtrack, but also that I wouldn't put it among my favorites on the SNES. The soundtrack has a distinctive quality, which is that pretty much all of the tracks are nice to listen to and there are no real stinkers included, but the soundtrack, for me, doesn't have that many tracks that make me stop and listen to them like I have a tendency to. Games like A Link to the Past, Super Castlevania, Super Metroid, Super Mario World etc. come to mind.

What makes Donkey Kong Country's soundtrack additionally to me though is that I did not at all expect it to be this vibey and play with different themes like it did. I expected cheerful and jolly music throughout while you run around carefree from level to level. As discussed, the game is much harder than I would have anticipated as well, so it's only fitting I guess that from time to time, the music can set an almost dangerous vibe. If you wouldn't agree on dangerous, I'm sure you can agree that some tracks set a mysterious, adventurous and even thoughtful tone from time to time. Then there is a track like Acquatic Ambience, which sounds incredibly soothing and chill instead of hyper and energetic like I would have expected.

In general, the water levels have some of the better tracks in this game, which I'm thankful for, because the levels themselves sucked. So if you do play Donkey Kong Country, I hope the levels themselves don't ruin the songs for you. Overall, a great soundtrack by David Wise, who is another composer I can add to the list of "one's to look out for".

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 10/10

Wow. To call Donkey Kong Country's visuals unique would be an understatement. If you are looking for some of the best looking games of the early 90s, put Donkey Kong Country on your list asap. It's really worth reading up on the technology used to make these sprites come to life, but suffice it to say it's impressive how Rare pulled this off. I have no real working knowledge of this stuff, but if I understand it correctly, they managed to turn 3D geometry into 2D images to use in this game, and whatever way would be correct to explain it, all you need to know is that it looks great.

Environments from the jungles to the mines also look great to extend the vibes and emotions that are put forth by the soundtrack, as well as simply being pleasing to look at. Some locations are repeated here, which is worth pointing out, but thanks to obstacles/challenges constantly varying from level to level, the levels still feel much more distinct than different-looking levels in some other platformers were the challenge stays static.

ATMOSPHERE/IMMERSION | 10/10

I've gone over the vibes and emotions I got from playing the game and how it is way different from what I would have anticipated. Apart from the whimsical, quirky characters that aid Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong in their adventure, there is no storytelling or anything here, so it's important for the music and visuals to set the main tone for this game and if you're like me and have played so many of these cheerful platformers that give off "low stake, made for children" vibes (and I don't mean this negatively, I enjoy them myself to this day), you might feel some fatigue from it from time to time. So to have Donkey Kong Country switch up the tone here and there was a very welcome change and definitely will make the game stick with me longer than some of its contemporaries.

CONTENT | 7/10

The content in this game is very good, but it doesn't feel like it has the budget of a Mario game for example. This is understandable for a video game character that remained dormant for a while, but is noteworthy nonetheless. Donkey Kong has a lack of skills, enemies and objects repeat pretty early on (even though their placement creatively differs regularly) and levels provide lots of fun, but not a lot of depth to them. It has the feeling of the start to something bigger to it in many ways.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 7/10

This game has a lot of levels. While I'd consider most to be good and some to be excellent, there were some levels I really didn't like. A lot of it has to do with the space given to your character and the timing of button presses. The windows to jump in order to reach a platform or barely just get past an enemy (like those damn zingers) felt too short many times. Two things come to mind especially. First, it's all the levels that include ropes. Half the time I'm struggling getting Donkey Kong to hold on, and the other half of the time where I succeed, I felt like I always would eventually hit my head or my legs on one of the zingers patrolling all the ropes in this world. The other situation where this issue arises is during water levels, where fish are seemingly everywhere and you don't have enough control nor space to maneuver past them reliably, at least as a new player. So if you find yourselves in these situations, best of luck to ya.

Apart from that though, there is more variety here than you'd expect based on the number of enemy types and the limited feature set for Donkey Kong. The barrel levels were fun, the mine cart levels, ditto. Finding secret areas is neat, riding one of the multiple types of animals a la Yoshi is cool too. I thought the mini games weren't as exciting as in Mario games for example, and the last boss was pretty annoying, so there is lots of good and bad here for me, though overall the good definitely wins.

CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 6/10

The innovation here definitely comes from the graphics. Apart from that, the level design and gameplay has similarities to many platformers of its time, and in many ways to Mario as well. It's just that Donkey Kong Country has passion oozing off of it from every direction and also controls well for the most part, which is more than I can say for most platformers in this era of gaming.

REPLAYABILITY | 3/5

After beating this, you can try and find more of the bonus levels to get closer to 101% completion, though as someone who has never done a speedrun or followed the scene, I still don't know what the additional percentages after 100 mean in these games.

PLAYABILITY | 5/5

Works well at all times.

OVERALL | 74/100

A must-play for platforming fans. Some of the most unique visuals for its time, a great soundtrack, fun levels (but also some frustrating ones) and overall just a charming game. I wouldn't call it my 3rd favorite SNES game like its sales would suggest, but I'm positive someone else out there will and I can definitely see their point.

Something that I noticed about Donkey Kong Country while playing it is that, compared to most other platformers, this one really isn't as bombastic or "in your face" as you'd expect. Something about this particular game feels so understated and quaint, like it's politely inviting you in for a swingin' time in the Jungle. I've never played a platformer that has felt so in tune with nature before, and that's definitely thanks in part to one of the best soundtracks in gaming, composed by David Wise. Pair that with the introductions of some of the most beloved Nintendo characters of all time such as Diddy Kong and King K. Rool, and you truly have a platformer that I'm gonna be going bananas for, for a long time. I can't believe that it took me THIS long to play this absolute classic for the first time. I am so ecstatic to play the sequels

At this point in time, Rare didn’t necessarily have the best track record when it came to their releases. Sure, they did have the Battletoads franchise, which mostly managed to have pretty solid games, and they had developed several other games that hold up relatively well, but most of the rest of the games that they have developed were either uninteresting, forgotten, or just straight up terrible. It was enough for them to stay in the business for as long as they had been, but not to the point where they could reach the same level of success and notoriety as other developers, like Capcom, Squaresoft, or Konami. That is, until they were approached by Nintendo who, after seeing what they could pull off with games on the SNES using pre-rendered graphics, decided to give them a shot at developing a brand new game in a similar style so they could compete with what games like Aladdin were doing on the Genesis. They were given the reigns to make a new game in the DK franchise, which, aside from the Game Boy game that had been released earlier in the year, hadn’t really seen any major attention in nearly a decade, and thus, Rare went on to not only make a new game to reintroduce DK to modern audiences, but to also completely re-invent the character and his world, changing both DK and Rare's reputation forever. This would result in what would become the start of one of the best sub-series that DK would ever be a part of, Donkey Kong Country.

I have had quite the history with the DKC series over the years, with my first proper introduction to the series being with DKC Returns back in 2010, when I was still a dumb kid, and I had no clue as to what a Super Nintendo or a Rareware was. Eventually, I would discover the wonders of what we refer to as “retro gaming”, and it would lead to me getting my hands on a SNES for myself, with this being one of the first games that I had ever gotten with the system. I don’t think I had ever heard of the game beforehand, so needless to say, I was excited to try it out, and naturally, I ended up loving it. So now that I am playing it again after all this time, I can say that it holds up extremely well, being pretty basic for a platformer, but having some of the best design, personality, and fun challenges from any platformer of this era, and it successfully managed to reinvent DK into what he would be to this day.

The story is pretty simple, where the villainous King K. Rool steals Donkey Kong’s banana hoard with the help of his Kremlings, which makes DK very sad, so he then sets out with his nephew Diddy Kong to go beat them up and get his bananas back, which is a very silly premise, but one that fits perfectly for this series, and I am all here for it. The graphics are pretty good, not only having a pretty unique style for a SNES game at that point, but also holding up extremely well, with all of the different models for the characters, enemies, and bosses looking very charming, and the environments look just as great right alongside them, the music is fantastic, with there being plenty of different tracks that I still love to listen to to this day, such as the final boss theme, the theme for the first level, and my favorite track in the whole game, the underwater level theme (if I drowned IRL while this music played, I would be going out happy), the control is pretty great, with both DK and Diddy having the proper weight to them, and each action they can perform feels just right on a SNES controller, and the gameplay itself is pretty basic for the genre it takes on, but it still manages to be a solid experience all the way through, and I would rather a game be simple yet solid rather than experimental yet flawed.

The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of either Donkey Kong or Diddy Kong, go through many different worlds, each one containing their own set of levels that will challenge you in plenty of different ways, defeat many different enemies and Kremlings along the way while gathering plenty of bananas, collectibles, and power-ups to assist you on your way, find many of the other members of the Kong family such as Funky Kong, the coolest motherfucker on the planet, Candy Kong, the Kong who made a lot of kids question themselves when they were younger, and Cranky Kong, the Kong who resembled everybody’s grandparents in one way or another, who will each help you out in their own way (except for Cranky, who just says you suck and makes you depressed), and take on plenty of bosses that will prove to be quite the “challenge” to overcome to get your precious bananas back. A lot of it is pretty standard for a platformer, and some who aren’t new to the genre may question why you would bother playing it with plenty of other options out there, but not only does the graphical and musical style help give this game its own unique identity that holds up extremely well to this day, but it also still manages to be a fun game all on its own, with many ways it changes up the formula and keep you going.

For every single level in the game that you go through, there is always something new and exciting waiting for you, even if the changes may not be as big as others. You start out going through a pretty typical platformer level, nothing too exciting for you to see or do, but then you get to levels where you will be going through ancient temples, fighting different foes, finding different animal buddies that can help you take out enemies and give you more momentum, and there are even extreme cases of changing up the gameplay, such as levels where you are riding minecarts, ones where you are grabbing fuel for a conveyor belt you are riding on, and ones where you are turning on the lights to keep the Satan crocodiles from waking up. While some of these gimmicks are definitely preferable over others, each one is very fun to go through and experience, all while the game makes you think more and more about what to do in each situation, even if the goal is obvious.

What also helps keep this game fun and fresh throughout the entire journey would be in terms of its difficulty. For those of you who have played this game, you know it isn’t easy in the slightest, and while I wouldn’t say it is as hard as other platformers out there like Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden, there are still plenty of the moments where the game will test your skills in pretty extreme ways, such as with precarious platforming in plenty of levels, adding gimmicks like wind and barrels you need to shoot out of, timing your jumps on minecart segments effectively, and so many more examples. However, despite how hard it can be, it never feels unfair. There is always a chance for you to figure out what to do, how to overcome these challenges, whether it be through simple trial and error, or just by taking your time, and even if you do manage to fuck up and get a game over, if you have been using save points properly, then you shouldn’t be sent too far back to where it discourages you from continuing forward. Not to mention, it feels immensely rewarding whenever you do conquer some of the challenges in this game, managing to make it to the next save point so that you can press on towards whatever challenge may lie ahead.

For those of you wanting a little more out of your platformers though, fear not, because this game isn’t just a simple “run to the end and you win” kinda deal… or at least, it doesn’t have to be, anyway. Throughout each of the level, there are plenty of different bonus areas that you can access, each one giving you some kind of bonus, whether it be with extra lives, or even by sending you to this bonus area where you can collect all of these golden tokens as one of your animal buddies for even more extra lives! Not only do they help you prepare for the journey ahead, but each one does add to your percentage total, and it can even change the ending that you get if you manage to find everything… which isn’t much different then the normal ending, but it will keep Cranky Kong from complaining too much, fucking old-ass prick. They are pretty fun to go for, not just for the sake of completion, but they can be pretty tricky to find to, making you really look around every corner to see what walls or floors are breakable, and where else you could look just in case you end up missing something along the way.

So yeah, most of this game is a blast from start to finish, but there are some gripes that I have with it that do keep it from being a perfect game in my eyes. For one thing, the boss fights FUCKING SUCK, not because they are too hard, but moreso because they are uncreative and boring. Most of them consist of just bigger versions of enemies that you fight in the regular levels, with some of these even being repeated as the game goes on, and while some of them try to mix things up a bit, it’s only methods of doing so is by either giving you a different weak spot to hit, or just by taking on an enemy gauntlet, which isn’t exactly fun to deal with. The only good boss in the entire game is the final one against K. Rool, because not only does the foe you fight actually put up a fight, but the ways in which he does and when you can hit him is pretty creative, and it keeps you on your toes.

Secondly, while most of the elements in this game are pretty fair, and you can get through a lot of the challenges easily, there are some things that were put into this game that I am just not a fan of. There’s one example of this that sticks out to me as clear as day, and that is with one of the bonus areas that you find in Oil Drum Alley. Whenever you go into one of the other bonus levels in the stage and clear it out, you have to take the barrel that you get and throw it ABOVE the wall that you would normally hit in order to clear it out, which will grant you access to another bonus area you need to go through. If you don’t know about this on your first go, and you end up missing it, you cannot go back and try getting it again, making it so that, if you are going for 101% completion, you are FUCKED. That’s not necessarily that bad for those who just wanna go through the game normally, and I myself have never had this happen to me, but the fact that it can happen at all is pretty shitty, and I’d imagine there is at least one person out there who didn’t know about it, figured out what they was missing, and had their day ruined because of it.

Overall, despite the terrible bosses and some secrets having strict punishments for not finding them, the original DKC is still a fantastic game after almost 30 years, having very fun platforming challenges, wonderful visuals and music, and plenty of things to do for those that wanna go the extra mile that you usually wouldn’t go for in a platformer like this. I would highly recommend it for those who are fans of Donkey Kong, as well as those who love 2D platformers in the first place, because while this certainly isn’t my favorite game in the series, it is still one of the best platformers you can play on the SNES, and one that would launch an equally fantastic series that would continue to get installments for years to come…………. at least, until 2014, that is. Seriously, Nintendo, bring back Donkey Kong in a brand new game already! And maybe also try to bring back the Kremlings while you’re at it, too. That would be nice.

Game #532

I bought a Super Famicom recently. Got a good deal, came with twelve games, and pretty much all the big ones you'd really want to have - Super Mario World, Tetris Battle Gaiden, the heavy hitters. It also came with a certain trilogy of funny monkey games, and while I don't like re-reviewing stuff I've logged, this isn't Donkey Kong Country... This is SUPER Donkey Kong.

Perhaps that's some unnecessary justification to talk about one of my favorite games again, but you must understand the significance of no longer needing to break into people's homes to play Donkey Kong Country. At last, the DKC Prowler's criminal career comes to a close, and a happy one no less as I can now play Donkey Kong Country at my leisure. My childhood dream of having a Super Nintendo right next to my Genesis - like all the spoiled brats of the 90s - has finally been fulfilled nearly 30 years later, and though my tour of service in the console wars ended when Sega bowed out of the hardware market, I feel I can now truly put old allegiances behind me and admit I fought that fight because I didn't have Donkey Kong.

Hyperbole aside, this last playthrough of Donkey Kong Country Super Donkey Kong really did feel like closing the loop, even if I can't understand a single thing Funky Kong is trying to tell me when I visit his shop. It is a bit weird that the credits are all in English, including Cranky's boasts of beating the game with one life in under one hour, but Super Donkey Kong is easy enough to play despite the language barrier. Bounce on Kremlins and jump in barrels. I've done this all before and it feels just as good as it always has, perhaps even better. This might be due in part to the easier nature of the Japanese release, which adds a number of extra lives and makes other small tweaks to smooth out the difficulty.

Of course, playing it on real hardware for the first time since my hoodlum youth no doubt played a role in making this a special experience, too. I've found going through these old games the "legitimate" way and cutting the save state safety net often results in a greater feeling of engagement. Not that there's anything wrong with filling your quick save slots up and hammering through something. Any method is valid, but I have my preference. Likewise, Super Donkey Kong's unique graphical style doesn't hold up quite so well when viewed as raw pixels, but the smoothing effect of a CRT makes all the difference here. I already gave this a 4.5/5 and won't be updating my rating, but this last playthrough was a solid 5/5.

Cutting through the water on the back of Engaurde while the calming tones of Aquatic Ambience pipes through the aged speakers of my 100+ pound big boy Toshiba left me thoroughly drenched in nostalgia, and I don't even care. It's nice being able to play DKC this way once again, only with the added benefit of not needing to look over my shoulder.

Your boy finally got his Donkey Kong.

Life Could Be A Dream

A historia se resume em macaco feliz, macaco quer comer, macaco não tem comida, macaco vai atrás do maluco que roubou a comida dele, uga uga banana.

A gameplay de primatas no jogo é muito intuitiva e as fases criativas junto com as músicas só melhorou ainda mais esse jogo que foi perfeito na época e também usa uma tecnologia de transformar gráficos 3d em 2d para o SNES (nem preciso dizer que foi revolucionário), sinceramente tá pelo menos no top 15 jogos de SNES por conta disso tudo e do Diddy que é o melhor macaco. 9/10

🎈That Balloon pop sound gives me PTSD 20+ years later 🎈

Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo is an absolute classic that stands the test of time. Its addictive gameplay, quickly became one of the most beloved platformers for me almost superseding Super Mario. From its stunning visuals using pre-rendered 3D graphics, the game boasts charm and vibrant colors, and often overlooked character animations that were not present much in SNES games but Rareware were the top dogs in the 90s.

DKC solid gameplay always had me coming back for more. Being both Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong offered a extra layer of gameplay without you ever realizing it as DK is more Brute and Diddy is fight and fast. As I navigated through the in game world "DK Island" It provided alot of challenging levels filled with enemies, obstacles, and secrets to discover. As I played this game so many times I am always learning new things and locations about the levels. Which brings me to the level design; It is top notch. Each level has its challenge or gimmick but just amps up the difficulty just enough that players of all skill levels can enjoy the game. Also adding a two-player co-op mode adds another layer of gameplay that really makes you work together to beat each level as each Kong is controlled by a different person.

The music in this game is top tier! It perfectly complements the action on screen, immersing you in the world and also giving each world and level its own identity.

Now while the game is excellent, it is not without its drawbacks. Some people that are not familiar with these types of games may experience frustrating difficulty spikes While the game generally strikes a good balance in challenge, there are a few levels that can feel unfairly difficult, leading to frustration for some players. The usual consensus is "git gud" when this happens but some people may be turned off due to some unfairness which doesn't really relate to skill IMO. Another drawback I had was the variety in Boss Battles. While each boss are fun and memorable, there isn't a huge variety in the types of bosses you face often repeating enemies you have already seen. Many of them follow similar patterns, which can make them feel repetitive after a while. In retrospect it makes the them easier than the levels themselves.

Overall, I think Donkey Kong Country holds up as one of the greatest platformers ever made. It's a timeless classic and really accessible if you have the Nintendo Switch Online. Give it shot you will not be disappointed. Donkey Kong Country is an absolute must-play for anyone.

The 4th game in my DK marathon and it’s the first one that actually feels like an actual video game

Donkey Kong Country is a short but ultimately super satisfying platformer, I love the gameplay itself, DK has so much weight to him and it adds a sense of realism to this game that other platformers lack, it also helps that this game just looks incredible, the use of silicon graphics here is superb, it gives the game this unique style and couple that with how expressive every enemy and character is, it just really makes it feel alive.
The bosses admittedly are very ok, most of them are just bigger versions of regular enemies, the big death barrel boss was kinda funny but nothing much beyond that, however despite that, the final boss against King K Rool is great, he does more than just one attack in the fight, it’s the one arena that isn’t just a giant banana pile, his animations are really well done, it’s all around just a great final fight, and a nice way to end the game.
The big thing that really elevates this game above a lot of platformers is the atmosphere and the soundtrack, holy fucking shit, the atmosphere is insane for an SNES game, I thought nothing could rival Super Metroid but I mean, here we are, and the soundtrack god damn, the soundtrack is the nice as hell icing on the cake, the one thing that fully rounds out the levels in the game, and makes this game a near masterpiece, it is legitimately one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard in a video game, and I got multiple games with a similar soundtrack to get through, hell yeah.


Overall DKC is an absolute classic, and I loved it dearly.
Now onto DKC 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest

Randomly decided to give a quick replay cause of all the "Cat zoning out" memes with the remix of Aquatic Ambience playing in the background, and man, the sudden wave of imminent nostalgia that hit me while playing was something else. Despite the weird and janky level design at times, it still holds up and is more than stellar if you're looking for a challenging but still fun time. It doesn't hand-hold you ever through any moment, but rather expects you to learn and get used to its mechanics. And trust me, when you're exhausting lives at the speed of light in the ice stages, you'll more than get used to it. Also, I friggin' love Diddy. Artistically I love this game, I find the visuals stunning, and they kinda represent a majority of the visuals of the SNES era for me and why I love them so much. Never could beat this game as a kid, now feels absolutely great doing so as an adult :)

It was popular for a time to denigrate this 1994 title, to dismiss it as a technology showcase masquerading as a game. I beg to differ. DKC is a distilled fusion of Sonic and Mario – thrilling speed with precise controls. The first rule of DKC is “don't hesitate.” Follow your first impulse and you'll enjoy a wild ride equaled only by select endless runners. Even the humble bonus rooms keep the energy going, bouncing you back into the action without delay. Later stages in DKC forget this rhythm (to their detriment), but they're not half as guilty as the overrated sequels.

For me, Donkey Kong Country feels unfinished. Even as a kid, owning the entire trilogy since I could first actually play a game, DKC1 felt looser somehow. That the game was throwing a ton of ideas at the wall and didn't quite know how to make them stick. Animal buddies function a lot more like limited Yoshis, having some applications and rules but mostly serving as neat bonuses for the level they're in. Diddy is just outright better than DK unless you want to take DK's "take every banana back" literally and mug every single Kremling for a single potassium. Things are a bit slippery, edges feel more rounded, levels don't have a set pace and can end either way too quickly or way after they've worn out their welcome. It's a messy effort of a game.

Anyway Diddy's still the best-controlling 2D platformer character before combat is taken into account, level design is still incredibly snappy, the flow state that DKC has is absolutely unparalleled when it gets going, and it's still challenging enough that I die a couple times despite my dozens of clears over the years. DKC shows brilliance in understanding basic momentum concepts and utilizing them well - you're only brought to a stop when there's fear in your heart and you hesitate, otherwise there's very few games that let you make up lost ground as quickly or as confidently as DKC does. It makes every individual obstacle you get hung up on feel like a fantastic triumph rather than a slog trudging your way back there, and like... it just feels GOOD, okay? It's sloppy, most of the bonus stages suck to get to, it's not its sequels, but NONE of DKC's sequels with the possible exception of Returns play as fast and streamlined as this game does. It remains one of the best platformers to blaze through as levels lean into DK and Diddy's momentum and leave more opportunities to find optimal pathing or weird secrets. It's its own, weird little beast amongst the DKC series before the games discovered what they really wanted to be. And it's good! Big monkey jump good!

Eheheh Konkey Dong is so good.

Imagine how surprising would have been to see this title in the 90s: you see the weird Ape that was beaten by Mario in the Arcade, imagining that there was not a lot going on for him, and then seeing it return with a world on his own.
And not just any world: one of the most stunning and vibrant environments you have ever seen in a videogame, with and atmosphere and immersive to this day.

Rare put an incredible amount of effort on revitalazing DK: this title emanates a huge amount of love, from everything that tries to accomplish: from the fact that the devs tried to study real life animal to better convey the animations, to the end credits showcasing all of their quirky enemies, to the concept of Cranky Kong alone, to the incredible soundtrackm to the fact that they literally created a second character just to not showcase a Heart Bar..... seriously it is insane how much they cared for the world they were creating.

And the love doesn't stop there: the gameplay is still fantastic, conveying a sense of speed and power that in my opinion surpasses the moment options of 2D Mario games, and offer an experience that can be enjoyed differently depending on your skill level: the amount of secrets and paths you can take depends on you: jump on time on different enemies to discover an alternate route above the trees, keep a barrel around to break a wall, protects Winky to later jump into a cannon above the stage... the way DKC is able to embrace and tie together both it's great gameplay and the environments it presents to the player is one of its greatest aspects, and its able to make you gro attached to this silly island of monkeys, beavers and crocodiles.

I will say it's not my favorite DK game, I feel it has some things that makes it a bit worse compared to other titles: some of the levels I feel can be too punishing (or I may just not be good at them, I especially suck at the cart levels), and the bosses are really not memorable..... the only stand out may be K. Rool, even though I feel his first appearence is overshadowed by his battles in later games.

But aside from that DKC is a series that should be xeperienced by everyone: while the first title is not the best the franchise has to offer, I can't deny that its charms and passion can be felt to this day.

The thing that impresses me the most about this game is how it manages to continuously feel different and unique despite the incredibly simplistic controls.

I'm familiar with the whole introduce thing and then play with thing more later in the stage formula that platformers do all the time but I'm not sure if I've ever played one that consistently has ideas that change up how the level goes this much without feeling gimmicky or detracting from the core gameplay. The final world in particular, the one I'd consider the best, managed to juggle being somewhat challenging, unique to itself, and being just straight up good.

There's more to talk about the level design with the whole secrets and stuff, but honestly, that part of the game doesn't especially appeal to me. If I spotted something I'd go for it, and it doesn't detract from the experience at all, just not something I put much time into and therefore don't feel like I could say much about even if I cared about it.

The bosses were pretty generic for a platformer, not to say they're bad, just kind of there most of the time. The last two bosses in the game I thought were pretty neat though, for what that's worth.

By the time I was at the end of this one I was upset it was over so fast.