Donkey Kong was one of Nintendo’s first big hits. This game lit the arcade scene on fire with extremely challenging gameplay and fun, but basic mechanics. Nintendo ported the title to their NES console, and even developed a few sequels to it that kept the fundamental pick up and play style intact. Unfortunately they didn’t have any good ideas on how to bring the franchise to their 16-bit system. It wasn’t until a small developer Rareware showed them a graphic engine based on digitized characters and backgrounds, and from here they were commissioned to develop a new Donkey Kong game using it. Looking back this must have been a tall order; Rare decided to design it as a side scrolling platform adventure. It was a radical departure from any other game in the series, but it was an instant hit. As a child I was absolutely floored by the graphics which rivaled what I expected from the next generation. While it’s still pretty Donkey Kong Country hasn’t aged as well as most platformers from this time due to some rather uninspired level designs.
Donkey Kong has long retired from his role of kidnapping women and scaling skyscrapers. He now lives a peaceful existence in the Jungle caring only for his banana horde. A group of humanoid reptiles called Kremlings one day steal his bananas, and seal DK’s sidekick Diddy in a barrel. It’s up to the two kongs to get it back and defeat the nefarious leader King K. Rool. I always thought this was an interesting direction for the series, and the new character designs fit the motif extremely well. As I mentioned earlier Donkey Kong Country is a side scrolling platform action game in the vein of Mario or Sonic. Gameplay is strictly 2D and you can only move left, right, and jump in the air. You play as both Donkey and Diddy Kong here but can only control one at a time; the inactive character follows and when an enemy hits you the other takes over. This sidekick system functions as a health bar of sorts because when you’re solo a single touch from an enemy will result in the loss of a life. It should be obvious now that this isn’t your father’s Donkey Kong.
The Donkey Kong motif is the real highlight of this game. Instead of gathering something like coins or rings DK picks up bananas scattered in each level. You will frequently find barrels; some can be thrown, others only broken, and those that glow serve as checkpoint markers. It’s a really great incorporation of old recognizable elements, and this was very tastefully done. Rare didn’t rely on past conventions and created a whole lot of new things that have stuck with the series since this original outing. Nearly every level features rocket barrels that your characters can shoot out of. Many times this is used just to reach new areas, but some stages are based almost entirely around this concept with moving barrels and a reliance on timing. Another new element is the animal helpers which DK and Diddy can ride. They’re only in specific stages, but I always found this to add a nice change of pace to gameplay. The animal helpers include a rhino who is hard footed and can attack enemies using his horn, a swordfish Enguarde who you can ride in the underwater stages, a high jumping frog, a parrot that carries a flashlight, and an ostrich that moves quickly and can hover in the air. These all offer a nice change up and are enjoyable to use.
The main issue I have with Donkey Kong Country is that the level designs have never really clicked with me. There are too many stages wherein you spend too much time simply blasting between barrels, and a lot of this is automatic. The game playing itself was a big problem in the Sonic games, and it’s a serious issue here as well. Other stages suffer from a serious lack of variety. To me it has always felt like the developers ran out of ideas and resorted to repeating themselves too often. Other times obstacles feel randomly placed and don’t entirely make sense. Usually I enjoy underwater stages, but in this game they felt too claustrophobic and were never that interesting. Despite these issues there are a few gameplay elements related to level design that I do enjoy. For example, Donkey and Diddy both handle differently. The former is heavier but much stronger, and the latter can jump higher and moves faster. This can make a big difference when the difficulty ramps up, but I always preferred to play as Diddy to be honest. I also really enjoy the mine cart stages which will test your reflexes. They’re tough, but fair enough to still be enjoyable.
Donkey Kong Country is a beautiful game even today, but in some ways the visuals have aged unfavorably. The digitized characters and backgrounds look excellent, and the animations are highly detailed with many different frames. The framerate stays surprisingly steady given the graphical fidelity, and that’s quite a feat for the old Super Nintendo. What I don’t like are the enemy designs. For the most part the Kremlings are muscular lizards, and while that may have been acceptable in the mid 90s it just comes off as cheesy and laughable now. Aside from that the game is very nice looking. The soundtrack is also really cool with a job well done by David Wise. He was able to make high quality tracks that fit the organic environments perfectly, and somehow he managed to inject them with that old signature Donkey Kong style. I don’t know how he did this, but the music is definitely inspired. The underwater theme in particular is one of the standout tracks across the entire 16-bit era. If the soundtrack was still for sale I would buy it.
The game is still fun to this day, but the nagging design issues really hold it back from the other greats of the generation. In my opinion it’s the very definition of a B-tier platformer; I imagine it was regarded so highly back in the day because the graphics overshadowed any and all of the obvious faults. It belongs in any serious SNES fan’s collection, but it’s not on par with the others.
