Donkey Kong Country

""So its Super Mario World, only with MONKEYS!" "...I love it!""

Donkey Kong Country is one of those games which no one really saw coming. It came in the later days of the SNES, when it was slowly dying. Rare had been doing some games, but nothing really amazing for quite awhile. Finally, this game comes out, and it totally blows everyone away! While not very innovative, it still manages to be a very fun platformer, which good two player play and really fun minigames.

The graphics at the time were the most drop down amazing graphics ever seen in a videogame. Rare used a special processor to allow the SNES to do graphics like these. Obviously, their hard work payed off. These look wonderful! I mean, they look totally awesome. The characters are rendered, yet almost look real. They look still furry, like they actually scanned in real gorillas for the textures or something.

Besides the general look, the backgrounds are also really great. The jungle themed levels look extremely detailed. I mean, they literally look like they were painted, they're so beautiful. The levels themselves are also very colorful, being in the tropics obviously. But its not only that, but also the number of layers the game has. Donkey Kong is one of the few SNES games, which has 3 different background layers. There is the horizon layer, the background layer, which is what looks painted, and the ''interactive layer'' mainly the ground and all the objects you can walk on.

Not to mention the characters. All of them are so incredibly detailed and so smooth. The character designs are all of course of animals, made to look slightly human. Rare does a good job on making the creatures slightly cartoony, yet realistic looking at the same time. Along with them, the few special effects look pretty good, as do the secret animals. And did I mention the bosses? They are incredibly huge! Overall, these are just beautiful graphics. Maybe the best, perhaps.

The story is pretty basic. You control Donkey Kong, who is out on a mission to get back his banana horde from King K. Krool (so, you're fighting the KKK). Donkey, with his best buddy Diddy, must now venture through the jungles in order to stop Krool and his evil henchmen. Along the way you meet Kranky, the original Donkey Kong, who can give you some hints and tips for fighting bosses. When he's not giving you tips, he's yakking about the old NES days. You can also meet Funky, who will let you travel back to old islands. Finally, there's Candy, Donkey Kong's cousin, who lets you save. Of course, its rather odd that she's blowing kisses when she's supposed to be Donkey's cousin (I don't want to know).

The gameplay is very fun and extremely simple. You, as Donkey or Diddy Kong, travel through the levels, like a basic platformer. Jumping on the enemies kills them, but you can also roll into them and kill some. You may also pick up barrels to through at some. As you go through the level, you can discover some little secrets here and there; pick up some extra lives, etc. Each world can be revisited after beating it, and each major island has one boss to beat.

Throughout the game, you may alternate between Donkey and Diddy. While Donkey is stronger and can beat some enemies Diddy can not, Diddy is faster and more agile. Getting through the game requires a good mix of both of them. Since there are two however, when one gets hit and dies, the other one takes over. Once they die, they can be found again in a barrel labeled ''DK''. Overall actually, Diddy is more useful, but you will still use Donkey alot.

While the gameplay is great, there is the problem that its a Mario clone. Now that's not to say it's a bad game. Quite the contrary. But, in many ways, it’s even dumbed down. I'm not quite sure what it is about it, but something about the gameplay just doesn't feel quite as deep. Maybe it's the fact that there is rarely change in the levels. Maybe it is the fact that the only way the levels really get harder, is by adding more bees around the obstacles. Or, making more vine swinging. Somehow, Mario just seems deeper after going back and playing both of them.

The sound and music are both great. The sound has a couple voices here and there, but not much. It does however have the many different grunts of the animals when being stomped on, or the ''ugh'''s of Donkey and Diddy. You can't really expect much other than that the sound is fitting, so it does accomplish that.

The music is truly excellent. There are a wide variety of themes, all of which are well composed. First, you have the original Donkey Kong theme played in the title, followed immediately by Donkey's boom-box remix of it. You have the first level theme, a very fitting tune that plays throughout most of the game. Then, you have the water level theme, a very relaxing and well-done tune that I love to death. Then there's also the boss theme, the cool cart theme, and many other great tunes. I really love the music for the game, and I'm really glad Rare put some good effort into it.

One way which Donkey Kong totally kicks Mario's ass however is with minigames and extras. There are plenty of reasons to play this. For one thing, each level is loaded with tons of secrets and extras. Each level has the letters ''K-O-N-G'' scattered out through it. Getting all of them means a nice little extra life. Not to mention the secret areas, which can be found by using dynamite or other methods, opening up areas to get some extra rings.

Another great extra is the many animals. You can use different animals throughout the levels. Most jungle levels will have the Rhino, while the water levels get a swordfish. Then, some of the other levels get a Frog. There is also an ostrich, but I can't remember if you really use it or not. Even more interestingly, is that they all have their own minigame. If you collect three of their symbols, you get to go into a level filled with rings while riding them. For every 100 you get, you get a life.

The biggest add-on is the multiplayer. You can have one player controlled by you, and the other by a friend! So, say you get to a part where you totally suck. Well, let your friend take over as his character! Then, as long as he doesn't die, he can get past it and you can get back to playing. Or, if you don't like working together, you can go against each other, in a race to see who can conquer more levels by the end of the game.

Overall, this is one hell of a game. It has great graphics, good gameplay, and tons of extras. And, once you've finished it, you can play it again and again because of all of its minigames and great levels like the cart level. It was one of the last great games for the SNES, and one of the games, which allowed the SNES to edge over the Genesis. Despite all of that though, I can't give it a perfect score since it's still a Mario clone. Oh well, Rare has never known to be innovative anyway.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/10/03, Updated 02/10/03