Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest is a great game when you are not playing as the bird and the spider. The levels wherein you play as Diddy or Dixie are very fun as they feel super great and tight to control. Some of the other animal levels are also fun, as they bring a great variety to the platforming. The animals that are not fun are the spider and the bird. These levels were so bad that I enjoyed the game less because of their inclusion, and I hoped they did not have as many of these levels especially in a row. The bosses are also a nice tough challenge, except for the one with the bird, which was abhorrent. If you enjoyed the first Donkey Kong Country, you will likely enjoy this one, however the animal levels bring the experience down greatly.

The first Donkey Kong Country was already a pretty solid game, but Donkey Kong Country 2 nevertheless improves on it with more refined level design, better boss fights, a more consistent aesthetic, an even better soundtrack, and replacing the somewhat clunky title character with the more maneuverable Dixie Kong.

That said, while DKC2 is an outstanding game, but I do still have a few small gripes with it - primarily in the category of difficulty. It's definitely not the most welcoming, pick-up-and-play platformer, that's for sure. And some of the lategame and postgame challenges, especially stuff like Animal Antics, get egregious.

None of that undermines the game's core appeal, though. If you're considering DKC2 because you're curious about platformers, SNES games, or both, it's a very worthwhile game to try. Just be prepared for the fact that the game won't pull its punches for long.

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!

Donkey Kong Country 2 took everything that made its predacessor great and cranked it up to 11. I seriously mean everything. The visuals, the music, the gameplay, the levels, the story are all major upgrades from an already fantastic platformer.

While the story isn't great it is much better than the original. The original is legitamately Kaptain King K. Rool stole all of Donkey Kong's hoard of bananas. In DKC2 the stakes are raised from bananas to Donkey Kong’s life as he is kidnapped by King K. Rool. It's now up to Diddy Kong and newly introduced Dixie Kong to save the day. Dixie and Diddy are far and away my favorite two characters in the franchise so it was so much fun to have the entire game revolve around them. The gameplay is smooth and feels great even today. To be fair the original DKC also had smooth gameplay but I always found myself using the limber and quick Diddy over the lumbering DK. In DKC2 Diddy controls identically to the original DKC but now instead of a slower based powerful DK you get a second quick character in Dixie Kong. Plus Dixie comes with my favorite movement in the entire series with her hair spin which functions similarly to Peach's float mechanic in the Mario series. You will absolutely need that hairspin as this game is very difficult, especially the bonus stages. Every world out side of the first is sprinkled with a few very difficult levels which I appreciate.

The levels in DKC 2 put other platformers of this generation to shame. From a pirate ship, to a volcano, to a swamp, to a run down amusement park, to a giant castle this game takes you to many different locations that all feel fleshed out and keep the levels intersting and fresh. Not to mention they are gorgeous graphically. In my opinion it is some of the best graphics of the entire SNES library. The pirate, amusement park, and the bee hive levels absolutely pop with vibrant and beautiful color schemes. The swamp, castle, and volacono have a completely different tone with a much darker palette but equal in beauty just in a much different way. The animations on the enemies and the Kongs were top notch for the time. My favorite animation, which is also one of my favorites of all time, is when you complete a level and Diddy Kong breaks outs a boom box and starts rapping while Dixie pulls out a guitar and start slaying. It’s also very fitting that they celebrate their victory with music as this game with out a doubt has a top tier sound track of all time. As many great qualities that DKC boasts the star of the game is the abusrdly beautiful OST.

DKC2 is rightfully thought of as one of the greatest 2D platformers of all time and this is absolutely a game you should play.

My favorite 100 games of all time:
https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/my-favorite-100-video-game-of-all-time/

Not just an amazing sequel but an absolute perfect platformer as well, DKC2 is one of those few games where every inch of it is just brimming with polish, care, and love. Diddy and Dixie both feel fantastic to control, the levels are varied and challenging to complete, but satisfying once you do, and the soundtrack is just about as perfect as it could possibly be. I can safely say that this is just about as good as games get, and very few have been able to even come close to DKC2 after almost 3 decades.

A Kong-quest to find a barrel of fun! 🛢️

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest is an absolute BANGER of a platformer that supersedes the first Donkey Kong Country in every way. One year after DKC the visuals to its challenging gameplay are amped up and lets not forget the LEGENDARY memorable soundtrack from David Wise, it's Rareware Magnum Opus on the Super Nintendo!

Moving from DK Island to Crocodile Isle was a bold move and even switching the tone to mysterious and dark I think was the right choice in making the sequel stand out. Every location from Krazy Kremland to Gangplank Ganlleon; every location feels alive and full of personality suiting both our protagonists as they maneuver through obstacles to save Donkey Kong.

That's right! Donkey Kong is nowhere to be seen almost 98% of the game. Introducing the newest addition to the Kongs is Dixie. Her ability to glide through the air adds a new dimension to the platforming, allowing for even more creative level design and traversal options. With this in mind there never felt a dull moment from beginning to end as each level and world felt expertly crafted.

One flaw that DKC had is immediately addressed here. The World bosses now offer a challenge and actually require some thinking instead of the typical jump on their head and move on. Some require you to play as animal buddies. This adds another layer of gameplay to what is already a well built system. I never felt like I was cheated at all besides 1-2 levels.

Now to my favorite part, no review of Diddy's Kong Quest would be complete without mentioning its incredible soundtrack. Composed by David Wise once again, the music is simply phenomenal, that I think is better than DKC. From the upbeat rhythms of Stickerbush Symphony to the dark melodies of Welcome to Crocodile Isle and who can forget the BANGER bonus stage music Token Tango easily top 10 for me.

Overall, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest is a masterpiece of 2D platforming that stands as one of the greatest games ever made for the Super Nintendo. Replay value is insane as there is a secret world and motivation to continue on and collect everything from all the levels. I absolutely recommend this game!

(Emulated on Windows. Played using RetroAchievements, 80/80 collected)

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest for the SNES will never not be a strong contender for my favorite game of all time. Going through the game on RetroAchievements only solidified that further--shoutouts to GalacticSpear, Brian, Dissection, and Tiago17 for their work. I especially liked the special challenges for individual levels, such as minimum bananas in Hot-Head Hop and Rattle Battle or, conversely, every banana in Fiery Furnace. If you consider yourself at least pretty familiar with DKC2, you should definitely give this a shot; I guarantee it'll give you a new perspective on at least some parts of the game.

Taking any sort of dormant franchise and bringing it back into the “modern” era is always a risky move, no matter what the franchise in question is, but it was clear that Rare was able to pull this off seamlessly with the original Donkey Kong Country for the SNES. Sure, the bosses may have been lacking in plenty of areas, and there is some bullshit to be found when it comes to some of the secrets, but all of that is made up for with the game’s tight platformer, superb gameplay, wonderful gimmicks, impressive graphics for the time, and wonderful music, tying everything up together in one, banana-flavored package that many have enjoyed ever since it had initially released. Not only that, but the game was also extremely successful, selling over 9.3 MILLION copies, so it was clear that both Rare and Nintendo needed to keep this money train rolling with a sequel of some kind. However, this is the part of Rare’s life as a company where they were going to go through a bit of character development: they were sitting on a gold mine with this property, so they couldn’t just hash out something cheap and terrible like they did with Battletoads. They needed to make sure that this game was better than the rest, the true king of the jungle, one that can stand amongst the greatest of the greats, and personally, if you were to ask me, I think they succeeded in doing that and then some with Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest.

While I did get the original DKC as one of the first games on my SNES, and I would go onto playing it a lot because of that, I initially didn’t get DKC2 for quite some time, even though I was well aware of it existing for a while. It was only when another video game convention managed to roll through my town a good couple of years ago that I was able to snag myself a physical copy of the game to try it out, and HOT DAMN, I definitely should’ve hopped on it a lot sooner before then. The original game was already great enough as is, but this game manages to take everything that game did, expand upon it, and improve upon every criticism that I could have with that game, making for what I would say is not only a perfect sequel, but also a masterpiece of the platforming genre.

The story is just that little more complex when compared to the extremely simplistic premise of DKC 1, where while relaxing on the beach, Donkey Kong is suddenly ambushed and kidnapped by a group of Kremlings, who take him to the dastardly Kaptain K. Rool. Shortly after this, he then sends a message to the other Kongs, saying that if they want to ever see DK again, they need to give him the banana hoard that he failed to get from the previous game, which the Kongs refuse to give up, so it is up to Diddy Kong now, alongside his girlfriend Dixie Kong, to travel through the lands of Crocodile Isle, save DK, and defeat Kaptain K. Rool once and for all. It is still a very basic premise, one that decided it wanted to be even more like Mario and involve a kidnapping of some kind, but it is still an effective story, and not gonna lie, having the main character of the previous game be the one that needs rescuing in this is a bit of a nice twist.

The graphics are pretty great, looking on par with the original game in many different aspects, but also expanding on the visuals with much more creative environment, character, enemy and boss designs, with great animations paired right alongside them as well, the music is fantastic once again, having plenty of incredible tracks that range from the menacing and exciting like this one, to the much more calm and serene like this one, all of which are an absolute joy to listen to even after all this time, and the gameplay/control is just as tight, fun, and masterfully put together as last time, not only providing plenty of fun levels and gimmicks for you to mess with ahead, but also plenty of challenges ahead that will make you feel like a true champ for conquering.

The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of either Diddy Kong once again or Dixie Kong, go through many different worlds of varying shape and size, each having a very different, unique theme that makes them stand out from each other, while also not feeling like complete copies of what came before in the previous game, defeat plenty of enemies using various techniques while gathering plenty of different bananas, collectibles, animal buddies, and power-ups along the way to help you out, run into many other members of the Kong family such as Funky Kong, who is STILL the coolest motherfucker on the planet, Wrinkly Kong, the one that reminds you of all the horrible teachers that you had back in school, and Swanky Kong, the one that will prove to you just how much of a dumbass you really are, who will each help you out in their own way (except for Cranky again, who I’m surprised hasn’t dropped dead from a heart attack at this point), and take on plenty of bosses who, unlike the last game, are not only very fun to fight, but also have a level of creativity to them that makes taking them each on feel incredibly fun and rewarding. As any good sequel does, this game takes all the great elements from the previous game and retains all of their great qualities, while expanding on them just enough to make it even better than before, and trust me, back when I first played this a long time ago after only having the original game some time, I was FLOORED by just how massive the jump in quality really was, despite not being all too clear by just looking at it.

For starters, since he is now the damsel in distress of this game, you can’t play as DK anymore, which does kinda suck, but hey, at least you still get to play as Diddy Kong, who still plays just as wonderfully as he did in that original game, being very nimble and quick. Not only that, but we now also have Dixie Kong in the crew, who when you start to play as for the first time, you will decide from there on out to ONLY play as Dixie Kong whenever you get the chance, because she is AWESOME in this game. Not only does she have all the same strengths (and weaknesses) as Diddy Kong, but she can also twirl around in the air with her hair, allowing her to safely glide over plenty of obstacles, which, by default, makes her the better character to play as. It’s just like when you discover how Peach can float in Super Mario Bros. 2: it is just broken enough to where you will stick with it for the whole game, and you will accept no other alternatives……….. except when you are forced to.

The game features just as many different kinds of levels as you would find in the original game, this time featuring plenty of new, creative gimmicks that do make it feel a lot more exciting and fun to play. Of course, at first, you just get your standard kinds of levels, where you just run through, jumping on enemies, collecting things, and watching Diddy perform a rap at the end of the stage, just as a means of getting you back into the groove of things, which it manages to do so very smoothly. This then leads onto the levels then quickly spicing things up, with levels where you will have to change the temperature of the water via some magic seals, making it so that you gotta make a mad dash through before you end up dead, levels where you have to ascend up a pirate ship quickly before the water catches up to you so that the piranhas will eat you, levels where you will have to maneuver on hot air balloons to catch hot steam over molten lava, and even levels where you are riding a roller coaster while being chased by a creepy spector, needing to hit checkmark barrels to open gates to avoid your own ghastly demise. Those are only just SOME of the gimmicks that you will encounter with the levels in this game, and they are much more fun to mess around with this time, making the game feel more like a proper evolution of what came before it other then just a simple retread.

This can also be seen in the game’s difficulty, because this game is HARD AS FUCK, even more so compared to DKC 1. Sure, there are plenty of easy levels that you will run into that will take no time to beat, but even by the second world of the game, you will be running into plenty of tricky platforming challenges, enemies that you can’t take out as easily as you would like to, gimmicks that push you to the limit in many different ways, even forcing you to play as certain animal buddies in some levels, and then you add getting the collectibles on top of that, and that adds a whole nother layer to the difficulty in many different instances. This even extends further beyond what you would expect to see from traditional video game difficulty, which can be seen with the simple aspect of saving the game, where you initially can save the game normally once in each world, but then after that one time, you then have to pay banana coins each time, making it so that you will now focus on collecting these things much more in levels, which can lead to plenty of other roadblocks as well. Hell, if that doesn’t convince you enough, how about the fact that there is an enemy in this game who, if he touches you, can zap away your lives from your life counter until you ultimately have nothing left? That is just one of the many cruel ways that this game can fuck you over if you aren’t ready.

However, with all that being said, the harsh difficulty that the game presents you with is one of the reasons why the game is so fantastic to begin with. It truly feels like you are being presented with a challenge, where the original DKC could be seen as the training grounds for you to get used to how this kind of game works and what it could throw your way, and now this game is the true test of everything you have learned, throwing whatever it can at you to kill you, while also giving you everything that you need to conquer every single challenge you face. It never feels unfair in that regard, which makes playing through these levels much more fun, especially whenever you do eventually succeed in beating some of these challenges, as the wave of satisfaction washes over you, making you feel like you truly have accomplished something here today, and that feeling carries out through most of the game.

But of course, what would a DKC game be without having some sort of collectible, and this game has plenty of them for you to find. There are still the many different bonus areas you can find, each giving you a Kremkoin for beating them, as well as the new DK coins that you can get in each level, which if you get enough of them, you can place yourself amongst the others in the Video Game Heroes Contest, allowing you to beat out Mario, Yoshi, Link, and even non-Nintendo characters like Sonic and Earthworm Jim. It’s a pretty cute easter egg to get, and it does prove once and for all that DKC is better then all of those other games, and you can’t change that fact no matter what you say. That’s not all the reward you can get though, as with the Kremkoins in hand, you can then gain access to the Lost World, a bonus world of the game that houses some of the hardest levels in the entire game, such as one level where you have to complete multiple sections as each of the animal buddies that you found throughout the whole game. Needless to say, these levels are no joke, but again, completing them only adds to the satisfaction you feel throughout, and helps you stand on top as the best Video Game Hero of all time.

Overall, if I haven’t made it clear enough at this point, this is a near-perfect sequel to the original DKC in just about every way, and one of the best games that you could find from the SNES era, not only providing many more fun levels to run through, exciting boss fights, incredible music, and gameplay that is as fresh and tight as ever, but it also provides quite a hefty challenge that feels oh so satisfying to overcome, leading to plenty of neat rewards waiting around the corner. I would absolutely recommend it, not just for those who played and loved the original DKC, but also to anyone in general, because it is just that damn good to where if you haven’t tried it out at least once, then do yourself a favor and load it up, possibly with a friend to join you, and get ready to have a blast. satisfied sigh... man, it felt great to revisit this game again after so long, and it really has me looking forward to what comes next in this series. I mean, come on, how could they possibly screw it up at this point now?............... oh right, with a stupid little fuck named Kiddie Kong, that’s how.

Game #586

Если в двух словах, то это как первая игра только лучше!

Теперь в центре внимание Дидди Конг, т.к Донки Конга похитили. И теперь у нас в качестве второго персонажа новая обезьянка Дикси. Но в отличий от первой части, в которой разница между персонажами была только в хитбоксе и прыжке, то тут отличия между персонажами есть прям геймплейные. Шутка в том, что если в первой части я играл за Дидди практически всю игру (из-за хитбокса и мувмента опять же) то тут я всю игру предпочитал играть за Дикси, потому что она умеет парить, из-за чего можно слать половину платформинга.

По атмосфере игра стала куда мрачнее: Вся игра проходит на каких-то болотах, туманных локах как в каком-то Сайлент Хилле, есть уровни в которые абсолютно ничего не видно кроме персонажа и бананов, да и даже светлые локации выглядят серыми.

Боссы стали более интересными и разнообразными, со своей тактикой и несколькими паттернами, у каждого по две фазы. (да и нету повторных боссов как в первой части, уважаемо)

В целом вся игра стала разнообразной и интересной. В итоге получился отличный сиквел.