Donkey Kong Country

"Two simian goofs go to retrieve their stash of bananas from a sneaky pirate captain"

*sigh*

There's always a phase in each system's lifetime where it controls the market, where it is the #1 system, and nothing can touch it. It was this way for the Sega Genesis (or Megadrive if you don't come from North America) from 1991 onward. Until 1994. 1994, Nintendo decided to pull its finger out. Nintendo decided to turn the tables of the war, and put everything in their favour. Nintendo decided that they were going to blow the socks off every single gamer in the world. Nintendo decided to hand this responsibility to Rare.

1994 was a real test of my loyalty to Sega. Frankly, until that very year, I was a 100% Sega fanboy. Pure Sega. First test of my Sega loyalty was to come with Mortal Kombat 2. Nintendo had authorised the gore and fatalities this time, and suddenly, the Megadrive/Genesis version didn't look so hot anymore. The final blow to my Sega fairy tale would come towards the end of the year. Nintendo had signed a deal with SGI, to utilise their technology in their Next console, at that stage known as Project Reality. They had also bought a large share of Rare, a software developer based in the United Kingdom. They'd united these two parties together, to do a platformer, featuring Donkey Kong, called Donkey Kong Country.

When I first caught word of Donkey Kong Country, I immediately wrote it off, thinking 'Hah! It's just going to be another Nintendo platformer.' Nintendo were going to use this narrowmindedness of mine against me. Back in those days, there was a TV show, called 'The Zone' on Channel 9. It was a video game show, where they showed you the latest games in action, and generally created hype. One Saturday morning, my gaming life as I knew it since 1989 changed forever.

I saw Donkey Kong Country in action.

My jaw dropped. I drooled. I pissed my pants (well, not literally, I have good bladder control). I ran around yelling profanity, and saying 'THEY CAN'T DO **** LIKE THAT YET, IT'S NOT ****ING FAIR!'. From that day onward, I had a newfound respect for Nintendo. Despite the fact it would take almost every effort Nintendo had to convert me to their side (see Killer Instinct :)), it was from that day I was saved from being a fanboy.

Donkey Kong Country was the inappriopriately named Ape's first adventure, since the ill-fated Donkey Kong 3, in the early 1980's. This time, it's actually Donkey Kong Junior who is Donkey Kong, with Cranky Kong being the Original Donkey Kong. This game sees the introduction of a few new members in the Kong family, namely Donkey's nephew, Diddy Kong, Donkey's girlfriend, Candy Kong, and Donkey's friend, Funky Kong. This time, Kaptain K. Rool, a no-goodnik pirate wishes to take over DK Island, the home of the Kongs, and capture Donkey Kong. K. Rool steals Donkey's banana horde, and uses it as bait to draw Donkey to him. Donkey and Diddy set out for an epic adventure through all sorts of terrain, to cross DK island, reach K. Rool's galleon, and get their bananas back.

As previously mentioned, Donkey Kong has amazing visuals. Simply stunning, in my opinion, they'd have to be the absolute best visuals on the SNES. Rare combined with Silicon Graphics Incorporated to work on the graphics. Due to the deal with Silicon Graphics, the graphics for the game were developed on Silicon Graphics Workstations, which are noted for being able to produce mouth watering graphics, and that is precisely what we have here. Donkey Kong looks brilliant, and has been animated so free-flowingly, its hypnotic. The same goes for all other characters in the game. The detail is simply amazing. You can almost see the hairs on Donkey Kong's back. Speed is no issue here, as the game rarely ever gets any slowdown. The backgrounds are of a pristine quality, giving a real atmospheric feel.

The soundtrack is brilliant. The music changes with the level, mainly to suit the atmospher, for exmaple, in a jungle level, it will involve all sorts of drums, and move at a fast past, while in an underwater level, the music will involve more wind instruments, and be very slow. The faster songs in the compilation are quite catchy too. Sound effects are great. Donkey Kong beats his chest and hollers out loudly if you leave him too long. Animals whine in pain when you jump on them, as do you when they hit you. Ambient sounds of the jungle are all apparent too, completing a brilliant sound experience. And its all on the SNES.

Donkey Kong country may be a normal platformer, but it introduces some fantasic features. For instance, you always have Donkey and Diddy on screen, and you can tag between the two. Diddy is faster and can jump higher, but Donkey is much stronger. It gives a feel similar to The Lost Vikings. If one character dies, the other takes over too. Also, throughout certain levels are various animals, which function as vehicles of sorts. Each animal has its own bonus stage, which gives you the opportunity to cash in, and get some extra lives. Throughout the levels, your aim is to grab as many bananas as you can, and find all the secrets. There are more than 5 worlds in all, with about 8 levels each, and a boss. You'll be playing this one for a while. Combine that to the fact you need 100% secrets to finish the game properly, and Donkey Kong Country will be sitting in that grey box for a while to come. The game controls quite well, employing almost exact controls that have been used in previous SNES classics, such as Super Mario World. The D-Pad will move your character, A will make the character roll, and Y will make them jump. Select will tag between partners.

The levels themselves are quite well designed, with no real sticky spots, or impossible jumps. Some levels might seem as if they have impossible sections to them, but there is always another way around. Enemies are plentiful, and come in all forms of creatures, great and small, from armidillos to vultures. The bosses are a standout. They're big, and some are quite tough. Though, Rare have been a little cheap in one area, recycling the bosses, but I think we can let them have that one :)

Donkey Kong country has a lot of staying power. Not only does it have over 40 levels, and tons of secret areas, but it also has two player modes, such as the competition, which is a race through the entire game, and the co-operative mode, where one person takes Donkey, and the other takes Diddy. But with the game being so big, there's the chance that you will only end up playing through once or twice, for the simple fact it takes so long. The game is difficult in spots, but overall, the level of difficulty is satisfactory.

Time to go to the breakdown...whee!

Graphics: 9.9

This is as good as it gets on the Super Nintendo. Everything is clear, looks absolutely beautiful, and runs smoothly. The animation on the various characters is fantastic. All backgrounds provide a very atmospheric feel. No slowdown at all.

Sound: 9.4

The soundtrack is wonderfully atmospheric. The sound effects are plentiful, and sampled very clearly. The ambient jungle sounds can almost make you feel as it you are there.

Story: 6.6

The story is quite lacking. Donkey and his nephew are out to recover their lost horde of banana's, which were stolen by the pirate, Kaptain K. Rool.

Gameplay: 8.9

Plays much like the other SNES platform classics, but introduces animal rides and the tag mode. Level design is fantastic. The game runs over more than 40 levels.

Controls: 9.0

As good as its really gonna get. Plays very similarly to Super Mario World.

Lastability: 8.4

There is plenty of game there, with over 40 levels in the normal game. Add that to needing 100% secrets to finish the game properly, and you have quite a task at hand. Replay factor isnt that great, due to the sheer size.

Pro's

- The most beautiful looking game on the Super Nintendo. Period.
- Really ambient soundtrack adds to atmosphere
- Tag system is a great touch
- It plays like most other classic Nintendo platformers

Con's

- The story is a little indescriptive
- Replay value is shot due to the sheer size of the game

Does it belong in my collection? Yes

You shouldnt need to ask this question. This game is one of, if not the best platformer on the Super Nintendo. Great looks, great sound, brilliant gameplay. There's not much more you could want.

Overall: 9.1 (Adjusted to 9 to suit the GameFAQs rating system. Note: this is not an average)

A fantastic package. Turned a Sega fanboy into an open minded gamer. The game was one of the best looking things of its time, and still looks great today. It's a pity DK64 didnt do for the Nintendo 64 what DKC did for the Super Nintendo. The sequels are both great games in their own write, even if they do also stinge on the story, and dont really fix anything wrong in this game. If you are screaming out for more simian adventures, get those two as well.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/16/01, Updated 08/29/01