Donkey Kong Country (Super Nintendo) Review

When Rare was bought out by Microsoft, Nintendo fans everywhere roared with disapproval. Many fans threatened to leave Nintendo for ever, so while many where loosing faith in Nintendo, there were others who were unaware of Rare's impact on the gaming industry. While Rare was a Nintendo exclusive company they created some of the biggest stand out games in history. One of which was of course Donkey Kong Country, the first in a series of three games. This is the game that kick started Rare into the sublime game making company they are today. Let's start off with the storyline, not one to win any awards (no surprise there then) is very simple. The game supposedly takes place a whole decade after the first Donkey Kong, the original Donkey Kong is now very old and had retired, he is now known as Cranky Kong. So you actually control Donkey Kong JR, who has taken his fathers name and teamed up with Diddy Kong to get all your lost bananas back that have been stolen by the evil King K. Rool. As his name suggest Cranky Kong is just that, Cranky, obviously not very happy about his son taking his place as the action hero, he is constantly yelling abuse at the younger apes, saying that games were better back in his day, with simple gameplay and no fancy graphics to mess things up.

You can already imagine how the game is going to play, this is one of the defining platformer games in history, so it's pretty much like all other platformer's in that context. Of course there's a difference though, or else we'd be calling some other game defining and not this one. The game works on a basis of teamwork, Diddy and Donkey Kong can both be controlled by the player, but not at the same time. Pressing the A button you can intersperse between the two, both have slight differences. For example Donkey Kong uses a roll attack and is lightly slower whereas Diddy Kong uses a summersault attack and is slightly faster. So if it's brute strength you want pick Donkey Kong if its agility you should pick Diddy. If you get killed while playing (by touching an enemy or spiked object etc), that character runs away and cant be controlled anymore, which means you have to take control of the character you weren't playing as. It is possible to recover a lost character by smashing a Barrel with the DK logo on it. The main item to collect through the game is inevitably bananas but there are other things t as well. For example Red Balloons award you with an extra life. Each level also contains for Gold letters K O N G, collect all four of these and they too will give you an extra life.

Gameplay is far from linear, like many other platformer's are. Levels range from normal run, jump type, the basis of any platformer, to the likes of driving a cart through a deserted mine, jumping over gaps in the track, enemies coming straight at you and other obstacles, to swimming underwater trying to avoid deadly sharks and octopuses. But wait, there's more, as you progress through the levels, you may well find secret areas, accessible via a number of different methods. Some of which contain banana frenzies to top your score up, (getting one hundred awards you with an extra life). Scattered through levels are various types of barrels; firstly there is the basic wooden crate - this is used to throw at enemies to knock them out, or they can be rolled along the floor at incoming enemies. Then there are of course the DK crates, as well as these there are TNT crates that explode on impact. If that doesn't take your fancy, there is one crate per level (mostly) that has lots of little white stars all over it, this acts as a check-point, which can be very useful in the larger more difficult levels. One final crate, is very special, it takes you to a bonus level. These are usually quite difficult to come by, the secret levels increase the overall percentage completion of the game. Once you're bored with barrels though you can move onto.... Crates, yes crates. These contain various animals depending on the level. The first you'll encounter is a Rhino; the Rhino is very powerful and can kill almost all enemies with one smash. He also has the ability of breaking through weak walls to find even more secret areas! There are plenty, but we don't want to give everything away now do we.

The games levels are accessed by a main map, which you steadily work your way around, completing one level opens up the next one and so on. Levels are then split up by the occasional visit to a member of the Kong family; this could be Crank King giving you some advice, or Funky Kong, who offers you a plane ride to one of the levels you've already completed. Also the only way to save is to go and see Candy Kong, she appears at various intervals. Then of course there are the boss levels at the end of an area of levels. These are usually giant versions of the enemies you've been fighting throughout the game. For example the first boss is a giant beaver Gnawghty. He just requires you to jump on his head a few times, but later on the bosses to become more challenging. The game is absolutely massive, with diverse and interesting levels and other things, it never gets too tedious or boring. However it is unbelievably difficulty in places meaning you can get frustrated quite easily. This is a minor is issue in what is otherwise a total classic game.