The black sheep of the trilogy, I definitely see why but there's still a lot going for it. I think this game just takes a few worlds to hit its stride. It's definitely a lot more of a standard platformer relative to the first 2. Closer to a mario game in a way. Relies pretty heavily on level gimmicks, and they aren't particularly engaging early on. But, it's still paced pretty well and I do think it's a lot of fun once it hits its stride a few worlds in. It even makes some fun auto scrollers where you're running up trees while they're being sawed down. And if a game's auto scrollers are fun, it's definitely doing something right.
The bosses are at least pretty interesting right away. The first one being a giant barrel that spits bugs at you, and you've gotta throw them into its mouth, making it shoot backwards. And it only dies if you make it fall into the hole at the end of its side, but if you miss too many bug shots in a row it'll have pushed you into your hole. In one you play as the elephant and drink water from the waterfall and spit it into the eyes of the boss behind the falls. It never directly tries to damage you, it just tries to push you off the platforms with its own water spit. A boss where you're throwing snowballs in third person towards the background and dodging snowballs being launched directly towards the screen. Definitely pretty memorable to me in the boss department.
I also really like the level select map. It's got a light free roam aspect to it when you're not on the main trail. Over the course of the game you get different boats from Funky by giving him items the bosses drop, letting you do stuff like drive over rocks, or up waterfalls. There's a lot of hidden areas, an entire hidden world...and it just feels like one big cohesive map which I always love. It's even got some NPC's with a trading quest type thing going on. Finding banana fairies for Wrinkley Kong, who's sometimes seen playing Mario 64 in her cave which is cool to see on a snes game.
The music is an interesting topic as there's actually two entirely different soundtracks for this game. One for the snes and one for the gba. The SNES one if I'm not mistaken, wasn't composed by David Wise, and I think it shows in a lot of it. But that doesn't mean it's not good. I think it's just like the rest of the game, in that it may take a little longer to get good than the previous 2 games, but it absolutely has some great stuff in the second half. The first half is alright, it's a lot more...Saturday morning cartoon, bumbling goofy ape type music. Less introspective emotional tracks like aquatic ambience and stickerbrush symphony. But, there's definitely some more atmospheric somber tunes that do scratch that itch very well even if they're not as iconic or memorable. But bigger picture the soundtrack is still great, it just has steep competition. Especially considering the GBA version's ost IS composed by David Wise, which is the version I grew up with. It's a very impressive soundtrack that takes full advantage of what the gba is capable of. It's generally a lot more memorable and more reminiscent of the first 2 games more often. Though in some instances the SNES version is able to get a bit closer to the moody feel of the first 2 in sound. I generally lean towards the GBA version in a lot of places but I don't think one is strictly better than the other, both have fantastic highlights in different areas and a different vibe entirely. I'm just happy we got two soundtracks out of one golden era DK game. More of anything in the original trilogy is something to be celebrated.
The variety in the secret barrels from the 2nd game is still here. Getting the big DK coins by figuring out how to hit the shield Kremling from behind is satisfying. One small misstep is that in 2 the diddy kong/dixie kong pair was great because diddy had a better roll attack and dixie could float. Which was a bit of an improvement making both characters equally as useful, whereas in the first game in most instances Diddie was better to play due to his smaller hitbox and faster speed. In this game though they go back to dkc1's problem since Kiddie's kinda just dead weight. Except he's not even as good as DK because 1. He's not DK, and 2. His initials aren't even DK so the DK barrels don't make sense for him. He can skip along water like a rock which is very situational and that's like, his only ability beyond being able to break floors when Dixie throws him. I don't have the visceral hatred a lot of people seem to have for him, but he's definitely a low tier Kong I gotta say. Though the scream and animation he makes when he dies in both versions of the game is hilarious so he's not totally worthless.
Definitely the least Iconic of the trilogy and it's not too hard to see why. But I still love a lot of what this game has to offer, and it's cool to see it move ahead and perfect certain things, like the level select map. And the prerendered graphics feel way beyond what the snes should be able to do. Also on a personal note it was super cool to play on a SNES like ten years after playing only the GBA version.
DK64 Review Next!
The bosses are at least pretty interesting right away. The first one being a giant barrel that spits bugs at you, and you've gotta throw them into its mouth, making it shoot backwards. And it only dies if you make it fall into the hole at the end of its side, but if you miss too many bug shots in a row it'll have pushed you into your hole. In one you play as the elephant and drink water from the waterfall and spit it into the eyes of the boss behind the falls. It never directly tries to damage you, it just tries to push you off the platforms with its own water spit. A boss where you're throwing snowballs in third person towards the background and dodging snowballs being launched directly towards the screen. Definitely pretty memorable to me in the boss department.
I also really like the level select map. It's got a light free roam aspect to it when you're not on the main trail. Over the course of the game you get different boats from Funky by giving him items the bosses drop, letting you do stuff like drive over rocks, or up waterfalls. There's a lot of hidden areas, an entire hidden world...and it just feels like one big cohesive map which I always love. It's even got some NPC's with a trading quest type thing going on. Finding banana fairies for Wrinkley Kong, who's sometimes seen playing Mario 64 in her cave which is cool to see on a snes game.
The music is an interesting topic as there's actually two entirely different soundtracks for this game. One for the snes and one for the gba. The SNES one if I'm not mistaken, wasn't composed by David Wise, and I think it shows in a lot of it. But that doesn't mean it's not good. I think it's just like the rest of the game, in that it may take a little longer to get good than the previous 2 games, but it absolutely has some great stuff in the second half. The first half is alright, it's a lot more...Saturday morning cartoon, bumbling goofy ape type music. Less introspective emotional tracks like aquatic ambience and stickerbrush symphony. But, there's definitely some more atmospheric somber tunes that do scratch that itch very well even if they're not as iconic or memorable. But bigger picture the soundtrack is still great, it just has steep competition. Especially considering the GBA version's ost IS composed by David Wise, which is the version I grew up with. It's a very impressive soundtrack that takes full advantage of what the gba is capable of. It's generally a lot more memorable and more reminiscent of the first 2 games more often. Though in some instances the SNES version is able to get a bit closer to the moody feel of the first 2 in sound. I generally lean towards the GBA version in a lot of places but I don't think one is strictly better than the other, both have fantastic highlights in different areas and a different vibe entirely. I'm just happy we got two soundtracks out of one golden era DK game. More of anything in the original trilogy is something to be celebrated.
The variety in the secret barrels from the 2nd game is still here. Getting the big DK coins by figuring out how to hit the shield Kremling from behind is satisfying. One small misstep is that in 2 the diddy kong/dixie kong pair was great because diddy had a better roll attack and dixie could float. Which was a bit of an improvement making both characters equally as useful, whereas in the first game in most instances Diddie was better to play due to his smaller hitbox and faster speed. In this game though they go back to dkc1's problem since Kiddie's kinda just dead weight. Except he's not even as good as DK because 1. He's not DK, and 2. His initials aren't even DK so the DK barrels don't make sense for him. He can skip along water like a rock which is very situational and that's like, his only ability beyond being able to break floors when Dixie throws him. I don't have the visceral hatred a lot of people seem to have for him, but he's definitely a low tier Kong I gotta say. Though the scream and animation he makes when he dies in both versions of the game is hilarious so he's not totally worthless.
Definitely the least Iconic of the trilogy and it's not too hard to see why. But I still love a lot of what this game has to offer, and it's cool to see it move ahead and perfect certain things, like the level select map. And the prerendered graphics feel way beyond what the snes should be able to do. Also on a personal note it was super cool to play on a SNES like ten years after playing only the GBA version.
DK64 Review Next!
Despite being such a big fan of the first game, and even the third game on GBA, it wasn't until, give or take 15 years later that I got the opportunity to play this 2nd game. I gotta say this is one of the finest sequels to a fantastic game out there. It's practically the only reason the first game didn't get a 5 star to begin with, this game needed room to show it's basically everything that made the first game phenominal, while tripling down on absolutely all of it. I already adored the first game's level themes, art direction, and thought it had one of the best soundtracks out there. But 2 sets out to 1-up the original in every way, and somehow manages to succeed.
It really leans into the moody atmospheric vibe in its levels and that REALLY let the musical style David Wise had absolutely crush it. I love that I didn't play this game until I was 20, as it proves it's not just nostalgia. It's insane what an emotional response these old games are able to give off just through their music and visuals alone.
The level themes themselves are way more creative than the first game. Less caves, mountains, jungles, etc. type themes more pirate ships, beehives, and haunted roller coasters. Bosses are a lot more involved and varied as well. And I love that the game map starts off on the ship, where the first game ended, and you can see DK Isle in the background. They also double down on secrets too. The original already had a good variety of bonus room types, but this game introduces bonus barrels and they all have different layouts and goals. Including a currency and a secret world, 100% completion feels more rewarding than ever.
Literally the only tiny nitpick I have is that the levels feel randomly placed on the maps sometimes. In the first game there was a clear line drawn between levels on the map, and they'd likely be on points of the map that were made to look like a location. I still like a lot of what's there, it's just that some of the worlds feel like just a static image with levels randomly placed over the image. They even had to add arrows to show which ways your able to move because it's not really clear how one level leads to the next sometimes. So yeah, weakest level select map in the trilogy. But that goes to show how good of a game this is that I'm complaining about level select icon placements in relation to a few map png's not being perfect.
3.5/5 level map.
10/5 absolutely everything else
DKC3 Review Next
It really leans into the moody atmospheric vibe in its levels and that REALLY let the musical style David Wise had absolutely crush it. I love that I didn't play this game until I was 20, as it proves it's not just nostalgia. It's insane what an emotional response these old games are able to give off just through their music and visuals alone.
The level themes themselves are way more creative than the first game. Less caves, mountains, jungles, etc. type themes more pirate ships, beehives, and haunted roller coasters. Bosses are a lot more involved and varied as well. And I love that the game map starts off on the ship, where the first game ended, and you can see DK Isle in the background. They also double down on secrets too. The original already had a good variety of bonus room types, but this game introduces bonus barrels and they all have different layouts and goals. Including a currency and a secret world, 100% completion feels more rewarding than ever.
Literally the only tiny nitpick I have is that the levels feel randomly placed on the maps sometimes. In the first game there was a clear line drawn between levels on the map, and they'd likely be on points of the map that were made to look like a location. I still like a lot of what's there, it's just that some of the worlds feel like just a static image with levels randomly placed over the image. They even had to add arrows to show which ways your able to move because it's not really clear how one level leads to the next sometimes. So yeah, weakest level select map in the trilogy. But that goes to show how good of a game this is that I'm complaining about level select icon placements in relation to a few map png's not being perfect.
3.5/5 level map.
10/5 absolutely everything else
DKC3 Review Next
1994
This is one of the first video games I've ever played. Glad to say it's held up extremely well. The controls are tight and satisfying, visuals have held up great and are still unique to this day, a very charming cast of characters/enemies, and a sublime soundtrack. Pacing is just about flawless, even water levels don't bog down the experience at all. Level design builds on its ideas to their logical conclusion making for a satisfying increase in challenge as a level goes on. Giving the game variety in its ideas without said ideas feeling like they didn't reach their potential.
Something this game does great is its secrets. There's a lot of variety in the bonus rooms and hidden rooms, and simply finding them feels great, as you blast open a seemingly random wall with great visual and sound effects. And it's not just one type of hidden room for secrets either. The first level alone has an entire treetop platforming challenge that's naturally just part of the background, you can go back into DK's house for an extra life, you can jump on the rhino to burst through a wall, the very floors themselves have secrets. There's golden animal trophies and if you find 3 of them you play a minigame where you turn into those animals and have to get as many mini trophies as possible to get more lives. Within these areas there's a hidden giant trophy that doubles your current count. Not only is it super cool to find a secret within a secret, but the mechanic it introduces is a fun risk vs. reward. Since it doubles your current count you'll want to get to it as late as possible, risking not being able to make it in time if you're not careful. This makes these bonus rooms even more fun than they already inherently were and it just never gets old.
I also actually really like the save system and how it ties into the world map traversal. First of all I REALLY don't understand why it's always the old 90's games with cool level select map screens that feel like a big connected world, and it's the new ones that separate each world into disconnected islands, not just talking DK here. So yeah I already like the map but to save you have to make it to Candy Kong's stand, and you can't leave to previous worlds unless you make it to Funky's. I really like that they're not consistently in the same spots in every world. This let them fine tune the balancing between being able to save your progress and go to previous worlds to get more lives. There's multiple instances where you're just stuck playing level after level hoping the next one will unlock Funky or Candy's stands for that world. For a game that's pretty generous with its lives, especially if you're really looking for secrets, I think the tense periods where you can't do anything but beat (At its most, I believe 5) levels in a row without getting a game over help keep this game feeling engaging and rewarding to this day. And it's balanced out, as not every world holds out that long for rest points.
The only somewhat weak point is the bosses. I enjoy them all for what they are but 2 of them get reused as recolored harder variants, and one of them just throws standard enemies at you for a bit. Future DK games make the bosses in this first entry look kinda cute and low budget. The final boss definitely leaves a good impression though thankfully. Generally though they're all at the bare minimum charming and do get harder as the game goes on, and don't overstay their welcome at all.
All that and as I said in my DK64 review, I love the Rareware DK universe. I think they nail just about every addition to the universe and their version of DK will likely forever be my favorite iteration of the character and world. There's so much personality and intrigue to it all.
Timeless game~<3 DKC2 Review up next!
Something this game does great is its secrets. There's a lot of variety in the bonus rooms and hidden rooms, and simply finding them feels great, as you blast open a seemingly random wall with great visual and sound effects. And it's not just one type of hidden room for secrets either. The first level alone has an entire treetop platforming challenge that's naturally just part of the background, you can go back into DK's house for an extra life, you can jump on the rhino to burst through a wall, the very floors themselves have secrets. There's golden animal trophies and if you find 3 of them you play a minigame where you turn into those animals and have to get as many mini trophies as possible to get more lives. Within these areas there's a hidden giant trophy that doubles your current count. Not only is it super cool to find a secret within a secret, but the mechanic it introduces is a fun risk vs. reward. Since it doubles your current count you'll want to get to it as late as possible, risking not being able to make it in time if you're not careful. This makes these bonus rooms even more fun than they already inherently were and it just never gets old.
I also actually really like the save system and how it ties into the world map traversal. First of all I REALLY don't understand why it's always the old 90's games with cool level select map screens that feel like a big connected world, and it's the new ones that separate each world into disconnected islands, not just talking DK here. So yeah I already like the map but to save you have to make it to Candy Kong's stand, and you can't leave to previous worlds unless you make it to Funky's. I really like that they're not consistently in the same spots in every world. This let them fine tune the balancing between being able to save your progress and go to previous worlds to get more lives. There's multiple instances where you're just stuck playing level after level hoping the next one will unlock Funky or Candy's stands for that world. For a game that's pretty generous with its lives, especially if you're really looking for secrets, I think the tense periods where you can't do anything but beat (At its most, I believe 5) levels in a row without getting a game over help keep this game feeling engaging and rewarding to this day. And it's balanced out, as not every world holds out that long for rest points.
The only somewhat weak point is the bosses. I enjoy them all for what they are but 2 of them get reused as recolored harder variants, and one of them just throws standard enemies at you for a bit. Future DK games make the bosses in this first entry look kinda cute and low budget. The final boss definitely leaves a good impression though thankfully. Generally though they're all at the bare minimum charming and do get harder as the game goes on, and don't overstay their welcome at all.
All that and as I said in my DK64 review, I love the Rareware DK universe. I think they nail just about every addition to the universe and their version of DK will likely forever be my favorite iteration of the character and world. There's so much personality and intrigue to it all.
Timeless game~<3 DKC2 Review up next!