Donkey Kong Country
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A great return of the amazing Donkey Kong, thanks to the one and only, Nintendo!
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Donkey Kong Country is a 1994 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and later for the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance in 2000 and 2003, respectively.
Plot
One night, King K. Rool and his gang of Kremlings invade Donkey Kong Island and steal the Kongs' hoard of bananas. Donkey Kong and his nephew/best friend Diddy must reclaim the banana hoard and defeat the Kremlings.
Why It Deserves Bananas
- The SNES box art shows off some of the characters in the game to help give the viewer a taste of how the game will be like, such as showing off Diddy riding Rambi the Rhino, and Krusha following Rambi as they move along.
- There is plenty of cooperative gameplay between Donkey and Diddy Kong, since that Donkey Kong is stronger, but moves slower, and Diddy is faster, but not as strong.
- The level design allows you to either take your time or blast your way through the level with enough skill, which makes speedruns of the game very entertaining.
- Diddy Kong makes his debut, and the game does a good job at showcasing some of his personality traits. In a 90s platformer, no less!
- You can ride multiple animals in the game, such as Rambi the Rhinoceros, Expresso the Ostrich, and Winky the Frog, all of which help the Kong's in their journey and can reveal plenty of secrets such as bonus rooms.
- There are multiple types of environments to explore across, such as jungles, abandoned mines, snowy mountains, and underwater levels.
- This game is one of the best-looking titles for the SNES, since that it features pre-rendered 3D graphics, and the player is allowed to explore 2D levels with 3D backgrounds.
- Cranky, Funky, and Candy Kong will provide you with their services by offering a few useful things:
- Cranky offers the player tips for the game, but unfortunately, this only applies to the first world of the game.
- Funky can take the player anywhere that they've been so far.
- Candy can save the player's progress.
- It has lots of replay value, since that there are multiple secrets such as golden animal tokens that can either be obtained by performing a specific trick, or are hidden in some of the levels and lead to bonus stages if the player gets three of the same token.
- There are also many secret passages that can lead to bonus games where the player can earn additional lives or other items, and if the player finds all bonus areas in one stage, they are rewarded with an extra 1%. Players can also find secrets to gain the advantage to gain possible shortcuts through the level.
- It is one of the few platformers to cap to a maximum of 101% progress.
- There's a total funny moment, with Diddy angrily stomping his hat, when he failed the bonus stage.
- Even if it is slightly creepy, the Game Over screen is good at making you feel bad for the Kongs.
- There is a multiplayer mode that allows two players to play alternatively in one of two different modes: either the competitive "Contest" mode or the cooperative "Team" mode.
- Despite the GBA remake being flawed, it reuses voice clips from Donkey Kong 64, and greatly improves the poor boss battles.
- Incredible Soundtrack composed by David Wise
Bad Qualities
- All the bosses except for King K. Rool, who is the final boss, are just bigger versions of normal enemies and are too easy. The Game Boy Advance version thankfully makes these bosses have some proper challenge, such as Queen B. using Zingers as a shield.
- The Game Boy Advance version suffers from oversaturated colors and worse sound effects.
- Cranky doesn't really help you out that much, since his hints only apply to Kongo Jungle even if you aren't in the world itself. Oddly enough, he also has unused hints for the rest of the levels in the game.
- No 101% reward other than slightly different text from Cranky Kong telling you that you completed the game.
- The ice cave level theme was only used in the level Slipslide Ride, which is disappointing.
Reception
Donkey Kong Country was very successful upon release in November 1994, receiving critical acclaim and high praise in retrospective reviews, with an 89 percent approval rating at the review aggregator GameRankings. Reviewers praised the game's vibrant, colorful, and "groundbreaking" graphics.
Many critics consider that Donkey Kong Country "saved" the Super Nintendo Entertainment system from the growing influence of rivals such as the new PlayStation and the rising popularity of the Sonic the Hedgehog series.
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