Donkey Kong Country

"Clearly pushing the SNES to its limits."

Wow...just wow. The first thing you'll notice when you turn on this game is its awesome graphics. Expecting Mario style, cartoony graphics? Think again. For an SNES game made in late '94, Rare clearly pushed the SNES' graphical capabilities to its limits. While the actual gameplay is standard side scrolling in 2D, the levels contain incredible 3D backgrounds, and look extremely realistic, especially for an SNES game.

But the heart of a platformer isn't its graphics, but its killer gameplay and action, right? Luckily, Rare didn't spend so much time on graphics that they forgot about gameplay; the game is jam packed full of challenging levels, tons of secrets, bothersome enemies, and tricky stunts to pull off. A great start to the SNES Donkey Kong series, and truly a revolutionary title.

Graphics (10/10)- Beautiful, just beautiful. There really isn't much to complain about when it comes to this game's graphics; they're some of the best graphics I've seen on the SNES console. Each level is bursting with detail, from the bright green palm trees to the blinding, raging blizzard of the snowfields. What's more, each level has a detailed background, be it a snowy mountain in the distance or the numerous pine trees of the forest. The character models aren't bad, either; they are extremely smooth, with no jagged lines or distorted polygons. They look very 3D as well.

The world map, while not as graphically stunning as the levels and characters themselves, still is made up of bright colors, and definitely won't disappoint. Overall, the graphics of this game are absolutely stunning, and a high standard for SNES titles.

Music/Sound (9/10)- While the game surpasses the norm in graphics, it also stuns with its well composed music. Each tune of the game matches the mood of the levels perfectly, depending on the type of level. The tunes never get very repetitive either, as none of them loop much at all. The game stays away from awful bleep blops, and instead relies on catchy, sometimes peppy music that is sure to get stuck in your head.

The sound effects of this game are perfect, and do an excellent job of blending with the music. Smash a barrel, hear a loud, realistic cracking noise. Throw TNT at an enemy and listen to the sound of a rumbling explosion. It's all fantastic, high quality sound effects that definitely aren't hard on the ears.

Control (10/10)- Simple, standard control. A allows you to switch between Diddy and Donkey Kong, while Y barrel rolls with Donkey and cartwheels with Diddy, while also letting you pick up objects and run fast if you hold it down. Lastly, B jumps. It's all very easy to master.

Gameplay (9/10)- So the control is smooth, and that's a plus...but what good is it if there are no tough enemies to beat up or obstacles to pass? Thankfully, Donkey Kong Country succeeds in gameplay and provides a challenging, action packed game that definitely won't leave you bored.

You start off on the world map, and head into the first, relatively easy world to practice your platformer skills. Each time you master a level, a new one appears in the world, and once you've finished the big bad boss of that world, another world opens up on the main map. You can replay levels you've completed to find missed secrets or just mess around anytime. The map also contains three special locations aside from your normal levels: Cranky Kong's cabin, Funky Kong's flights, and Candy Kong's save point. Cranky gives you some mildly useful tips, Funky provides you with an air barrel to exit the current world and move around on the map, and Candy saves your game; once you lose all of your lives, you'll start off at the point where you last saved.

While the game is 3D, the action is linear, side scrolling fare, but each level is chock full of secrets, enemies, tricky jumps, and tough obstacles to avoid. You start off with just Donkey Kong, though you can
smash open DK barrels to find your buddy, and switch between Kongs by pressing the A button. Once the leading character gets clobbered by an enemy, you're down to one Kong unless you can find a new DK barrel; if a lone Kong dies off or you both fall off an edge, though, you'll lose a life and have to start off at the beginning of the level or the continue barrel. You can also find different animals like Rambi the rhinoceros and Enguarde the swordfish to aid you on your quest, to name a select few.

Not only does this game contain an innovative, challenging one player mode, but it also has two styles of two player as well! One plays the same as one player mode, but with controller port one as Donkey and port two as Diddy; the other allows each port to play as a different team, switching off whenever one level is finished or one team loses a life.

The game plays well, has tough challenges awaiting, and it's simply a blast to play through the many levels. Donkey Kong Country definitely more than satisfies the gamer when it comes to intense platform gaming.

Challenge (6/10)- The game gets progressively harder as you move along. While the first several levels consist of basic enemy stomping, barrel shooting practices, the later ones have moments where several enemies fill the screen to overwhelm you, and you must make huge, tricky jumps and correct timing to survive. These levels can get frustrating, but you'll memorize and master over time. The bosses aren't too hard, though some may cost you a few lives before you figure out an effective strategy.

Replay (5/10)- While the game contains loads of secret bonuses and rooms to find even after you've played through every level, they aren't half as fun as your first time through the game. It's always satisfying to head back and master every level just to see that 100% next to your file though, right?

Story (3/10)- With such awesome gameplay and challenges, you might expect a unique story running through this game; sadly, the story is, in a word, disappointing. Sure, it's a little different from the ''we have to kill the bad guys and save the princess'' cliche, but not by much. The treasured banana horde of the Kong family has been stolen by the evil King K. Rool, captain of the vicious reptiles called Kremlings. You guessed it, Diddy and Donkey have to team up to get them back. The story didn't really affect my opinion of this platformer, though, as the unique gameplay more than makes up for the lack of a good storyline.

Buy/Rent? Buy, of course. There's just to many secrets and complex levels to replay, so you won't get bored of this game in two days.

Rare really made a masterpiece here. They combined jaw dropping graphics, catchy tunes, easy-to-learn control, and linear, yet intense and sometimes challenging gameplay to produce one monster of an SNES platformer. If for some strange reason you don't already have this game, run out and buy it, borrow it from a friend, or just do anything you can to get your hands on it. You definitely won't get tired of it in one sitting.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/08/01, Updated 06/08/01