When the original Donkey Kong Country was first shown off onlookers were generally convinced it was a title for Nintendo’s upcoming Ultra 64 console. Fortunately it was for the plain old Super Nintendo, but the pre-rendered graphics were like nothing anyone had seen on either 16-bit system at that time. I was a big fan, but I’ve soured a bit on Country over the years. It’s a good game for sure, but not nearly as amazing as I once thought. I was very surprised when Nintendo announced and released a sequel just one year later. You’d expect that they would push all their resources on their new console, and I was happy that I could get more mileage out of my SNES. It immediately became one of my favorite games of all time, and I’ve recently returned to it again to see if it holds up better than its predecessor. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest is still one of the best platforming games not only of its era, but of all time.
In a rather daring move Rare pushed aside Donkey Kong and shoved their own creation Diddy in to the spotlight. After his defeat at the end of the last game King K. Rool has since kidnapped his nemesis Donkey Kong. It’s up to Diddy, and his girlfriend Dixie to defeat the reptilian antagonist once more and rescue the hulking ape. What’s interesting about this sequel is that, instead of focusing on the jungle setting, this one instead centers around a pirate motif. The first entire world is based around a pirate ship, and many of the enemies are kremlings dressed in swashbuckling gear. It’s a little weird at first, but the thematic changes help this title establish its own identity. Most of the later worlds are focused more on natural environments such as a cave with flowing lava, a dark swamp, amusement park, etc. This game has more diverse themes, and the atmosphere is a lot more fun than in the original. One example is that instead of mining carts in the rail stages Diddy and Dixie now ride in a small rollercoaster car.
Gameplay is largely the same as in the previous Donkey Kong Country. You control either Diddy or Dixie Kong through a series of side scrolling stages that require intricate platforming as well as hordes of enemies for you to stomp on, roll into, or hit with barrels. In this game you can take only one hit before your character in play is dismissed. The other one can be released from specially marked ‘DK’ barrels, and doing so allows them to follow. Upon being hit you assume control of the other kong, but if you only have character in tow then you simply lose a life and must start over from either the beginning of the stage or the last checkpoint you reached. The two characters once again have slightly different abilities with the main stand out being Dixie’s ability to use her hair to flutter slowly down to the ground mid-jump. The level design is significantly improved over that of the last game. Some stages are now vertical, and involve significantly more climbing. Others feature both under and above water areas. The biggest change however is that some levels are completely based around flying via the animal helper Squawks. These are by far some of the most difficult, but at the same time interesting and memorable stages in the game.
Several new mechanics make this a richer experience on the whole. For starters you’re given an actual benefit to having two characters at once beyond simply being able to take an extra hit. You can now pick up the other character with the A button, and throw them left, right, and up with Y and the corresponding direction on the D-pad. This can be used to collect out of reach items, as a projectile to defeat enemies, and throwing your partner into a blast barrel will drag the in play character into it as well. In addition there are more animal buddies that you can ride atop now. Rattly the rattlesnake is functionally similar to Winky the frog from the last game and completely replaces him. You also have Squitter the spider who can shoot webs at enemies and use them to create platforms mid-air. This is the big new character in this game, and his presence allows for some very interesting platforming sequences. Most of the others return from the past installment, but Squawks the parrot serves a new function. Instead of lighting passages like he once did he now carries you while flying through the air as I mentioned earlier. There’s a new emphasis on collecting in this title. Not only do the standard bananas return, but you’ve also got to collect banana coins which are used to purchase services from the other kongs on the world map, kremkoins which unlock a secret area at the end of the game, and DK coins which are used to weigh your characters in a video game hero contest. The collectathon aspect can be ignored almost entirely for players who don’t care, but you’ll need to find everything to see all that Donkey Kong Country 2 has to offer. It’s all very challenging.
The game uses the same computer generated style characters, items, and environments that the past title did. Everything seems to look just a little better here. Many consider the look to be dated because everything has a ‘plastic’ look to it, but I find the graphical engine endearing. Both characters feature several tons of frames of animation and move fluidly. The enemies have much better designs than in the first title because of the pirate motif. Last time the graphic artists seemed a little out of element when designing humanoid lizards, but this new theme seems to have given them some significantly better ideas in general. The stages and background elements aren’t quite as pretty as the characters and items, but they fare well and are pretty typical of the era. The soundtrack is the best in the series. Tracks such as Stickerbrush Symphony are incredible, and push the SNES’ sound chip farther than I ever imagined it could go. The rest of the music is wonderful especially the cave theme, and I really like the pirate ship music as well. Aesthetically this is just about as good as you can get from a 16-bit console.
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest is one of the best platformers ever released, and stands near the top of the pile from its era. This was Rare at their absolute prime, and the masterful level design is a clear step above that in most similar titles. Furthermore the gameplay elements added here are a perfect evolution of the previously established formula. Donkey Kong Country 2 is simply one of the greatest games of all time and rivals even Nintendo’s own Mario series. It belongs in every SNES fan’s collection.
