Donkey Kong Country

"Fascinating level designs, revolutionary visuals, and an oddly appropriate soundtrack mesh together for one of the SNES's best."

Everything must die in due time. It is the cycle of life. From people to animals to trends, everything dies. Even video game systems die. However, the “dying’ of these entities is sometimes prolonged or delayed by something that manages to breathe new life back into said subject. Donkey Kong Country quite possibly did just that for the Super Nintendo. While mixing all of the superb qualities of past platformers, Donkey Kong Country managed to revolutionize the graphical capabilities of the SNES as well as, along with its two sequels, prolong the death of the Super Nintendo.

Like your traditional fighter or sports game, Donkey Kong Country doesn’t rely on a top of the line, edge of your seat storyline to drive it. It relies solely on the fun of romping through its eight worlds, collecting bananas from your stolen banana hoard. And that banana hoard is really all you have as a storyline. The cruel King K Rool has stolen all of Donkey Kong’s bananas, and he, along with his nephew, Diddy, are out to get the banana hoard back.

To get back these bananas, you will be treated to eight massive worlds of expertly designed jumps, some basic puzzle solving, and hidden areas. Yes, there are many hidden areas. As you progress, you will have both of your kongs available to you; one is the active kong, where the other tags behind waiting to be called to service. You can toggle which of the two kongs you are currently using by pressing A or select, and if a kong is hit by an enemy, he runs away, forcing your remaining kong to go it alone for a time. Scattered around the game are many barrels, and in some of these barrels, you will find your, shall I say, kongterpart. At this point you can retrieve your second kong an d carry on with business as usual.

In total, you take control of six different animals throughout your quest to get back all of your lovely yellow fruit. The two kongs you have all the way, with each having different strengths and weaknesses, that being Donkey Kong’s strength but more clumsy frame, while Diddy can make difficult jumps and use more agility demanding tactics, but he is not quite the powerhouse that Uncle DK is. In their do time, you’re also joined periodically by a rhino, a swordfish, a frog, and even an ostrich. Each will prove to be rather useful in their said levels, from the rhino’s ability to plow through the baddies to the frog’s infinitely useful jumping gifts. This can even go as far as granting you access to hidden levels that wouldn’t be so easy to reach without your animal kingdom buds.

Our two heroes and their four assistants will make their way, as I’ve said before, across eight massive worlds, each having about five or six levels each. These range from a romp through the jungle to gently maneuvering your way through the jagged coral of the underwater levels. You’ll find yourself skidding along ice cliffs one level and speeding along in a mine cart the next. The variety and beautiful design of these levels is what gives DKC the luster that few platforming titles can achieve. While there’s nothing that stands out as original or specifically unique, each level has some new concepts to it that keep each fresh. You’ll find yourself faced with new challenges around every bend, be it having to abide by a stop and go traffic light or catapulting yourself from barrel to barrel to avoid the yawning chasms ready to swallow you up.

All of your other platform clichés are in full swing in DKC, but they all accompany the marvelously sculpted levels in such a way that they don’t seem like a “been there, done that” sort of atmosphere. Bananas are scattered around the levels, with collecting 100 giving you an extra life. Around each level are four letters, these being “k” “o” “n” and “g”. Find the letters to spell out “kong” and you’ll net yourself an extra life. It’s touches like that forcing you to explore all of these magnificently designed areas to find all of these clichés that are most certainly forgivable. Exploration can also grant you the elusive 101% rating which means you’ve found all bonus games and hidden areas throughout DKC, which provides a bit of replay value to what is, without it, a relatively short game. And while some of the levels will provide a periodic challenge, running through the game will take a few hours at most. Of course, these levels are so blissful in such a way that you’d play through the game again simply to swing precariously from ropes during a thunder storm anyway.

As previously mentioned, one of the things that gave Donkey Kong Country the ability to revive the dying Super Nintendo was its beautiful graphics. These all start, again, with the levels. These are simply beautiful. Anything from lightning flashing behind you to trees gently swaying in a breeze makes the game graphically impressive. The AMC affect, which is inaugurated in Donkey Kong Country, gives the game an almost 3 dimensional look to it. The colors are bright and vibrant, allowing for the visuals to echo that feeling of fun and enjoyment that emanates from the game itself.

The soundtrack also enhances the game significantly, but not in the way the video department does. While the soundtrack doesn’t make the game seem gloomy, contradicting the atmosphere the game’s general mood and visuals put forth, it isn’t as uplifting as one would think. Instead, the musical selections concentrate more on highlighting their individual atmospheres. The jungle based levels come to life with deep, exotic tom drums. In the same expert way, the flowing ambiance of the underwater levels’ respective tracks gives you the feeling of a calm lake, putting you even closer to the onscreen surroundings. Throw in instances of creepy sounding tunes accompanied by distant dripping water, and you’ve got the perfect song for the underground levels that are associated with the mines in the game’s second world.

Save the music though, and you’ve got a rather lighthearted game as pertains to the audio affects. High pitched beeps of joy and clicks of delight accent the finding of bananas and other items, and the varying sounds of the enemies as you jump on them are quite pleasant and fitting for this variety of game. Each individual sound clip, unlike the music, gives off a radiance of lighthearted adventure. Sometimes this can be the perfect coupling to bring out that same innocent enjoyment that the rest of the game gives forth. At other times, however, the bright affects will openly contradict the rest of the audio, namely the music, and clash like two opposite personalities. These times, thankfully, are rare and are easily overlooked when the appropriateness of the sound in most situations is so spot on.

The Super Nintendo continued to thrive for a couple years after the release of Donkey Kong Country. That very game is said to be the reason for it. Spawning two sequels on this console alone, it certainly was a magnificent and heartwarming game that undoubtedly brought a sizable amount of joy to many. Whether it was, in fact, the cause of the SNES’s dying burst of energy or not is not set in stone, but the amount of energy packed into that cartridge is certainly something that gives it the life to be one of the most groundbreaking platformers that has graced us gamers to date. Long live Donkey Kong Country.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/13/00, Updated 08/01/02