Donkey Kong Country

"A great port that never drove me bananas"

Donkey Kong was once Mario's rival back in the days of the NES days. But he quickly moved on to better things with the release of Donkey Kong Country on the SNES. And now he returns to action with a port to the GBC. This is one of the best remakes I've ever seen and kudos to Nintendo for making it so good. If you liked the original Donkey Kong Country on the SNES you will some fun playing it quite a little differently and wherever you want to play. For those of you who don't know Donkey and Diddy Kong, here's what you need to know. They are great friends that do battle against an evil force in order to save their banana stock. Got it? Good.

The game plays exceptionally well, button response is surprisingly good. Which makes the difficult jumps you once knew on the SNES not such a huge frustration but the again it still doesn't make them super easy. Attacking is still easy to do. You never find yourself saying, “What are you doing stupid monkey, I said attack him” or “Why won't you jump to that platform, not this one.” There are times when you want to roll at the right moment but you won't be able to get it. But other than that, it works great. There's also another side of the gameplay; how they'll act to the surroundings, bananas are automatically given to you if you are jumping right at them or very close to them, not like some games where you have to line up perfectly in order to receive them.

The story isn't as great as the rest of the game. You really aren't told what you are trying to do that much or whom you're trying to stop. There is a certain menace at the end of the game that you didn't even know you were trying to stop until you reached him. But it's definitely one of the coolest battles when you think its over. Overall the levels give the feeling that you are moving across a huge story area and not just replaying the same levels over and over again with longer jumps and harder monsters. You never really find out what the purpose of going from level to level is except the same basic, save us from the evil lord who's trying to steal your bananas. And after seven or so levels you're faced with a boss and upon completion you can recover your banana stash,

When I first saw the graphics on the SNES, I was impressed. When I saw what they were able to do on the GBC completely shocked me, I thought going to the GBC would ruin them, but I was dead wrong. Even while moving the graphics still stayed the same. I never had to stop and ask myself, “What in the world is that? Or who am I controlling?” They simply act and play amazing which is one of the reasons that makes this game so cool to play. If you do manage to stop playing and just look at the lush levels and the spectacular scenery will just impress you.

They have the neat Donkey Kong theme song down perfectly. All the great level noises from the old versions with somewhat higher quality. There's not much more that can be said except that the sound is quite good which is actually rare in a Game Boy game. Each individual sound goes along perfectly with its action, so you're not hearing something happen before the creature moves attacks, or gets hit. Even while jumping or doing an action you rarely lose any sound quality like a lot of other GBC games out there.

The only thing to do after completing the game is to go back and try to get every treasure and all bonuses that give you percentage points. Which gets quite boring after awhile. Although the entire game takes quite some time of playing and learning how to jump well and tune your reflex skills, I'd say about 20-30 hours to complete, and 40+ to get 100% on every level. If that's not enough for you, picture this: They also threw in a couple of mini-games that can take a good chunk of your time playing. My favorite being the fishing one where you're given a set time limit and you must catch certain fish without collecting bad fish, it can get pretty crazy in the latter stages.

Worth it?
This is one of the best DK games and is worth playing if you can find it. I know I see it at most used game stores and sometimes the SNES version. You'll truly be missing out on a solid game and a true start to the Donkey Kong series if you aren't able to play it. So get out there looking!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/15/04, Updated 04/20/09

Game Release: Donkey Kong Country (US, 11/04/00)