Donkey Kong Country

"Donkey Kong Isn't SNES, But Close"

In 1994, Nintendo and Rare came out with the first game to ever to star Donkey Kong, a long time Nintendo villain, as the hero. With the greatest graphics to hit the Nintendo System at the time, Donkey Kong Country picked up many, many fans the world over. Suddenly, Donkey Kong and his little pal Diddy, a chimpanzee, were becoming more popular than ever. Leading to several sequels, this popular game has made Donkey Kong known to almost all and everyone worldwide. Realizing they needed to take another step, Rare and Nintendo came together again not long ago and redeveloped their original masterpiece. Soon, this wonderful game was changed, ready to be played on the Game Boy Color. Donkey Kong Country was once again presented to its players, this time on the seemingly more compatible, and handheld, Game Boy Color.

Gameplay/Storyline- 9/10: Donkey Kong Country has a pretty simple storyline. All your Bananas have been stolen, and spread along your quest, guarded by giant animal enemies. You and Diddy Kong, your little chimpanzee friend, have to find and save them all from these evil fiends! I found this game’s story and gameplay truly great, yet it was hindered a bit on the Gameboy. With about 12 boards a level, this game has a great level of replayability, especially so on the Gameboy. With several gainable animals, secret levels obtained by gaining golden models of animals, and more enemies than you could dream of, Donkey Kong Country has great gameplay. I would advise any Nintendo player to get this game for just the reasons above.

Graphics- 9/10: For the Gameboy color, Donkey Kong Country’s graphics were pretty good, but, compared to its SNES brother, it is blurry and dark. Even so, the characters and backgrounds are 3-Dimensional, and, to be frank, beautiful. Truly one of the few masterpieces of the SNES system, this game blows all other Gameboy games out of the water in graphics. Even so, the graphics are only satisfactory, but still amazing for the system they are on.

Control- 4/10: Wow. Suddenly, this game falls downhill, and at an alarming speed. I found myself screaming at my Gameboy many times due to the games horrible reactions and speed. Donkey Kong will fall off the edge more than often, and Diddy will seem impossible to control. During the Ice Level, I found myself cursing the Kongs every board, due to their poor, poor control. I truly have not found a game for the Gameboy that has as poor reaction time. If anything makes this game undesirable, control is the area. Even so, don’t let this spoil the game for you. Just realize that now, if you beat it, you really are a Gameboy expert.

Sound- 8/10: While you don’t really hear the sound of the game (I find myself often turning the volume on my Gameboy totally down always, making it easier, at least for me, to play), the music is actually pretty sophisticated. While the Gameboy system usually doesn’t have very good sound effects, the game is pretty good in this area. It is nothing revolutionary, but still very good.

Overall- 8.33/10: If you average all the scores, you will see the game comes to a 7.5/10. However, I feel this game deserves a much higher score, as the “Control” brings down the score far too much. With such great points and parts in this game, I feel that an 83.33% is a correct representation of this games quality. With great sound, gameplay and graphics, the game only lacks control, something that, while it makes the game a bit frustrating, it does not totally destroy the story. Truly, this game deserves an 8.33/10

Gameplay/Storyline: 9/10 - Great
Graphics: 9/10 - Great
Control: 4/10 - Horrible
Sound: 8/10 - Good
Overall: 8.33/10 (rounded to 8/10) – a Good Game

Buy or Rent?: You should be able to find this game at your local video game store. If you can, I would recommend buying it, even if you already have the SNES version. You will not be sorry.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/28/01, Updated 05/28/01