Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest

"Buy this fun game, whippersnappers!"

Donkey Kong Country: Diddy’s Kong Quest is the second installment of the popular DKC series on the Super Nintendo. This wonderful treasure comes from the great folks at rare, who were extremely successful with the first Donkey Kong Country. Those who played the first DKC will recognize a fun side-scrolling experience similar to the original. Basically, if you loved the first Donkey Kong Country, you will most certainly like the second.

Gameplay: This game is fully traditional platforming at its best. You jump, you run, you kill the enemies. But that’s not all that DKC2 has to offer. In the game, you are faced with perilous situations such as using balloons to carefully maneuver over hot lava, climbing the rigging of a ship to avoid rising water containing a piranha, and using barrels for transportation during the entirety of a stage. Besides, the ordinary kremling, the enemies are fierce and varied and includes a cat with nine tails, a kremling that shoots cannonballs, and the deadly bee otherwise known as the Zinger.

You take control of two characters. Anyone who has played the first Donkey Kong Country will quickly recognize the first character as being Diddy Kong, the little cart wheeling sidekick of Donkey Kong. Joining Diddy this time around is a newcomer Dixie Kong, a girl with a giant ponytail that can do a helicopter spin. Both characters are great and have decent abilities, but you’ll probably find yourself using Dixie more because her ponytail spin can slow down your fall. Anyone looking for Donkey Kong will be disappointed, since the main characters of this game are Diddy and Dixie. Donkey Kong will act as a “damsel in distress” this time around.

You’ll need to control both characters at once. In actuality, you control one Kong and the other follows. Anyway, when one Kong dies, then the other must take its place until he or she can find the DK barrel holding their trapped partner inside. While it isn’t necessary to always have both characters on the field at once, it is extremely valuable because at certain situations, you may need a certain Kong to complete the stage. Another plus to having both Kongs at once is the special piggyback move where one character is on top of the other. The one on the bottom can throw the other character to higher parts of the stage. This really adds to the strategy because to get all the items, you must be able to keep your partner alive to do the piggyback move to reach some of the higher areas.

In addition to the two characters, you are helped by a fun cast of animal buddies. They include a snake that can jump at amazing heights, a spider than shoot webs to use as platforms, a bird that can carry you across the skies, a seal that has the specialty to change the temperature of water, a fish that carries a flashlight for murky waters, a swordfish to control in water, and of course, the popular rhino that will just ram into anything in its way. These animals add variety to the already varied game by making situations where you must use a certain animal to unlock bonus areas or receive bonus items. All in all, you’ll find the animal buddies a great deal of help and provide heaps of fun.

Finally, there’s one aspect that you’ll see throughout the game. That’s right, the popular barrels. A tribute to the barrels in the original Donkey Kong with Mario, there are now many different types of barrels to use. Whether they are arrow barrels, TNT barrels, or barrels that you can control, you’ll always find yourself using one. The barrels have been strategically placed on the stage to produce difficult situations where you must blast out of the barrel at the right time.

Overall, something I noticed that is consistent with the game is this pattern. You go in a stage, you are provided with a situation. Later in the stage, the same situation is presented, only harder. For example, in the hot air balloon stage, the first time you go on a hot air balloon, it’s just a one time thing where you must make it to the other cliff. Then the next time, the hot air balloon will be falling so you must use hot air to propel the balloon upward. The next time, not only will the hot air balloon be falling. There will be Zingers throughout the course so you must find hot air and avoid the zingers at the same time. This pattern may seem repetitive, but it’s really not since the situation is different for each stage. I think this pattern is innovative and requires someone to perfect a certain gaming skill in the course of one stage. That itself is great difficulty.

Rating: 10/10

Graphics: The graphics are amazingly beautiful! Rare has managed to make the 2D side-scroller have 3D character models. The backgrounds are okay, but not the best. Still, it won’t matter when you see the beautiful stages and characters that you would have almost mistaken for a second for a 3D game. The graphics are just simply outstanding.

Rating: 10/10

Story: Donkey Kong has been kidnapped by K. Rool. The ransom is in bananas. (like you’d pay them anyway) Diddy and Dixie believe they are tough enough for to tackle this quest alone. Although, the Kong family may lend a hand. Even that Cranky Kong will help you out on your quest. The story is okay, though it seems unlikely that Donkey Kong would actually let himself be kidnapped. It’s Donkey Kong Jr. all over again!

Rating: 6/10

Music/Sound: Once again, Rare proves that they can do so much for one game. The music in DKC2 is simply some of the most beautiful video game music I’ve ever heard. I especially love the bramble music and the overworld music.

The sound is wonderful as well. Each character makes a sound. They all sound great, especially the kongs themselves and their animal buddies. Even after hearing a Kremling’s “ugh” for the hundredth time, the sound never gets old. With the mixed sounds of monkeys, animals, and kremlings, it’s going to be a jungle out there.

Rating: 10/10

Replayability: Trying to collect all the items adds to the replayability since the only way to get every level is to collect the DK hero coins. Also, it just feels plain good to have 100% of the game done. Even when you have collected every item and DK hero coins, each stage proves so fun that you will just start a new game and play it again.

Rating: 10/10

Rent or Buy? Buy this one. You won’t be disappointed unless you hate side-scrolling games in general. Rare really worked hard with this one as it did with the original Donkey Kong Country. Personally, I like this better than the first DKC and the first is a great game in its own right.

Final Rating: 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/01/03, Updated 07/01/03