The original Donkey Kong Land was a surprising hit on the Game Boy. Somehow Rare was able to release a toned down version of their cutting edge pre-rendered SNES platformer on the 8-bit handheld in a form that was actually recognizable. When Donkey Kong Country got a sequel it was an inevitability that so too would Donkey Kong Land. This prediction turned out to be correct when Rare announced a follow up. I remember seeing screenshots and heing disappointed. The graphics looked like they were scaled back from the previous iteration. Developers are supposed to move forward with presentation. Not backward. Regardless I couldn’t resist the banana yellow cart, and found it to be an enjoyable experience. Today we’re going to take a second look at Donkey Kong Land 2. Is it better than the first? Let’s peel back the banana peel and check it out.
One thing I did like about Donkey Kong Land was how it’s story broke the fourth wall and tried something new. It made fun of SNES to Game Boy ports. That’s cool in my book. Unfortunately they ditched that idea for Donkey Kong Land 2. Instead this one follows the story of the console iteration to a T. Donkey Kong has been kidnapped and it’s up to Diddy along with newcomer Dixie to save him from King K. Rool. There’s no banana horde to speak of this time around, and DK is missing in action. Instead we’ve got Diddy and Dixie. I remember when DKC2 launched it was strange that the game stars two newcomers and not the big guy. Regardless I fell in love with them in the console iteration, and those feelings remain in this handheld edition.
With all that messy plot stuff out of the way let’s get to the gameplay. The mechanics here are very similar to those of the original Donkey Kong Land. This is a side scrolling platform game wherein you guide one of the two kongs from the start of a level to the end. You can release the other character by bursting them out of a DK barrel, but they wait in reserve. It’s possible to switch between then by pressing the select button. You defeat foes in numerous ways; jumping on their heads, rolling into them, or hitting them with thrown items like barrels.
Both Diddy and Dixie Kong can only take one hit apiece before they’re done. If you have a secondary character waiting on standby you then pick up where you left off as them. Consider it a life bar of sorts. If you don’t have the secondary character freed then you lose a life and must start start again from the last checkpoint. It can be a bit unforgiving at times but thankfully extra lives aren’t that hard to come by. This is all thanks to the generous spread of collectible bananas and extra life balloons you’ll find in every stage.
The gameplay is basically identical to Donkey Kong Country 2 which is no small feat for the Game Boy hardware. This means that several of the improvements have been carried over. Dixie Kong can still do her hair twirl, and both banana and DK coins make an appearance here. These function largely the same as they did in the console release. The biggest upgrade DKC2 had was Dixie’s aforementioned hair twirl ability. This made some of the trickier platforming segments easier, and allowed for more creativity in hiding secret items and bonus stages. I’m happy to report it’s perfectly functional in Donkey Kong Land 2. Just that alone makes this a large upgrade from the first Donkey Kong Land. When I had the option I pretty much exclusively just played as Dixie Kong because of it.
Animal buddies also make their triumphant return, and I’m happy to report the cast is all here. My initial concern was that Squitter the Spider or Squawks the parrot would be missing in action. This is because they’re a bit more complicated to use than the others. Thankfully Rare was able to make them work, and they’re fairly intuitive at that. These guys also still play a major part in the main game. You’ll find them in just about every other level it seems like although it does seem like they hang around for a little less time than in the console iteration. This isn’t a big deal, but I definitely noticed it. I just wanted them to hang around a little longer.
A lot of the issues with the first Donkey Kong Land have pretty much been cleared up. The lack of momentum really hampered the original’s gameplay and made platforming needlessly difficult. That’s gone now. Part 2 handles much more similarly to it’s console counterpart, and it’s all the more stronger because of it. Details in the environments are also easier to make out. Rare focused less on re-producing the exact backgrounds from the SNES game, and instead lightened everything up. It looks worse, sure, but at least you can see what you’re doing. Unfortunately this game does introduce some new issues. The first of these comes from the lack of buttons on the Game Boy itself. The buddy throw option just can’t be performed here. This was a major gameplay element in DKC2 and it’s sad to see it missing.
Another issue, and a bigger one at that, has to do with the partner animals. These had special skills in DKC2. These return, but they’re far less intiutive. To activate these abilities you have to press or hold the select button. For most of these it’s not an issue. When it comes to Squitter the Spider however it’s a big problem. He shoots webs with the B button, but to turn these into platforms you have to press select. What’s more is they only last a short amount of time before disappearing. Moving your finger to the select button quickly enough is just not intuitive.
Another issue I had is with the climbing. Specifically latching on to ropes is a chore. I feel like Diddy/Dixie Kong fail to grab them properly about one third of the time. In the early stages it’s not a big deal because these are forgiving. Later on it’s a matter of life and death. I think there are two issues causing this. The first is that the hit detection still isn’t perfect. It’s improved since Donkey Kong Land. The rope swinging still could have used some ironing out however The second is more a prediction, but it seems like the game struggles to load the animation for actually grabbing the rope. It would make sense given the limited hardware. Regardless, these problems are not game breaking by any means.
The level design once again had to be toned down, but it’s a definite step up from Donkey Kong Land in this department. While it does recycle most obstacles and elements I found new platforming situations that were actually fairly inventive for the franchise. In some cases it appears that the stages are 1-1 with it’s console counterpart. This is super impressive. I also really enjoyed seeing all of the stage gimmicks return too. Just like in the console iteration you’ll turn lava to water by jumping on a seal, ride atop sinking balloons, and more. How Rare managed to cram so many of the most memorable elements from the SNES game into a Game Boy cart I’ll never know.
I only scratched the surface earlier when I said that Rare toned down the graphic fidelity from the previous iteration. Let’s revisit this topic. They didn’t try as hard to emulate the pre-rendered look of the prequel. Instead they went with plainer hand drawn backgrounds. There’s heavy use of white space in these, and when playing on a backlit screen it’s actually a little jarring. At first the graphics were really disappointing. The characters do however look better with smoother animations, but the models are smaller. I noticed right away that thanks to the engine improvements there’s less slowdown and flickering from the original. Honestly the trade off is worth it, and Donkey Kong Land 2 looks amazing.
Perhaps the most impressive part of this package is the soundtrack. The SNES had an incredible sound chip, and DKC2 made great use of it. There’s no way the original Game Boy could compete, right? That’s what I thought going in. Turns out David Wise did an incredible job shrinking down his compositions to basic bleeps and blips. Just about every track is recognizable from the console counterpart. Even though they’re all rendered now in 8-bit bleeps and blips. It may not be as good, but the soundtrack is impressive nonetheless. Stickerbrush Symphony in particular is a stand out piece of music here that is still incredible.
