The Game Boy was an easy cash grab for most developers. They could release significantly watered down ports (with minuscule budgets) and generally the publishers didn’t really care much about the quality of these releases. They also didn’t care which genres the various studios tried to slim down for the platform though side scrollers generally fared best. When Rare released Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo using pre-rendered characters and backgrounds the last thing anyone could have suspected was that they would try to cram it into a Game Boy port. That’s exactly what they did though, and while many loved it I couldn’t get past many of it’s problems. Namely, Rare tried too hard to make the game faithful in the visual department and while that wasn’t possible they did a bang up job. Unfortunately the game suffered because from slow animations and horrible collision detection. I initially passed on that iteration of the game, but my little brother picked up Donkey Kong Land 2 in the height of the franchise’s popularity. I was disappointed with it, but I recently decided to give it a second look. Donkey Kong Land 2 doesn’t stand up to its console brother, but it fares MUCH better than the previous Game Boy iteration of the franchise.
Now one thing I did like about Donkey Kong Land was how its’ story broke the fourth wall and tried something new from the console game on which it was based. That’s not the case this time around; DKL2 has the same exact storyline as DKC2 did. Donkey Kong has been kidnapped and it’s up to Diddy along with newcomer Dixie to save him from King K. Rool. With that out of the way the gameplay mechanics 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 defeat foes in numerous ways; jumping on their heads, rolling into them, or hitting them with items you can pick up and throw. Both Diddy and Dixie Kong can only take one hit apiece before they’re done, but you can have the other on standby (by releasing them from a specially marked DK barrel) and when your kong takes damage you take control of the other one. Consider it a life bar of sorts, but when you don’t have the other character in reserve you lose a life and must continue from the last checkpoint you reached. It can be a bit unforgiving at times but thankfully extra lives aren’t that hard to come by thanks to the plethora of bananas in each stage and scattered 1ups.
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. For example, Dixie Kong can still do her hair twirl, and both banana and DK coins make an appearance here and function largely the same as they did in the console release. Even Dixie’s hair twirl ability allowing her to fall more slowly and therefore reach areas Diddy cannot returns, and all of the new animal helpers make an appearance here. Unfortunately this fact leads to a few issues. This has to do with the limited buttons on the Game Boy hardware itself, and the fact that some of the special abilities for your helpers require more inputs. Squitter the spider is the worst case here; he still shoots his webs which is performed with the B button, but you can only make them into platforms by pressing Select. This is annoying to say the least, and moving your hand across the system is annoying when you need to be so precise with it. The other animal helpers also retain their charge up abilities, but these too are performed with the select button which is a questionable choice to say the least. Even holding down B while standing still would have been a better option. On another note it’s really cool that Squawks returns and you control him this time instead of him just holding a flash light.
One of my biggest problems with the first Donkey Kong Land was that your characters moved much slower than in the console counterpart. That’s not the case this time around. Even the collision detection has been improved on this go around. It’s not perfect, but it’s not detrimental in this game because there’s now a decent sense of momentum. 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. Unfortunately the partner throw ability introduced in Diddy’s Kong Quest was omitted. This was one of my favorite new features in the console release, and I was disappointed it’s not here. It probably wasn’t an afterthought and I imagine it had more to do with the hardware being unable to render both characters on-screen at once.
My major problem with Donkey Kong Land 2 is that maneuvering around ropes is a little troublesome. I found myself falling far too often in situations I was sure I had properly grabbed on to the next rope. Most of these obstacles are in the first part of the game so it’s not game breaking by any means. There’s just one major issue left here. You cannot save your game unless you reach Wrinkly Kong’s space on the level select screen. Outside of the first time per each map you have to spend banana coins to save your progress. This means that if you don’t have enough, and are running out of batteries on your system you’re out of luck. This was an aspect brought over from the console version, but is not a good idea for a portable game.
Rare actually toned down the graphics here from the original Donkey Kong Land. They didn’t try as hard to emulate the pre-rendered look of the prequel, and though this sounds like a bummer it really isn’t. The characters look about on par with their models from the last title but they’re noticeably smaller. The environments are what took the biggest hit. Now they’re mostly plain and light colored. This makes enemies significantly easier to see on the small screen. This allows you to avoid them more easily which is a godsend for a platformer game. Sometimes they can still sneak up on you, but by and large this is a huge improvement. Additionally the toned down graphics engine allows this to run significantly faster and more smooth making it more comparable to the console series.
By and large the decisions made with this port are all for the better. The framerate is even improved and I notice significantly less slowdown and flickering. The composers had to deal with significantly lesser hardware when bringing over the soundtrack from DKC2, but they did a commendable job. Every track is recognizable and some of them even sound slightly better do to the bigger emphasis on chiptunes. My favorite some from Donkey Kong Country 2 was always Stickerbrush Symphony, and it sounds amazing even on the limited Game Boy hardware. Overall the soundtrack isn’t quite up to par with its console brother, but the composers here did an amazing job considering what they were working with and each track is instantly recognizable for fans.
While Donkey Kong Land 2 still feels like a poor man’s Diddy’s Kong Quest it fares significantly better than the last handheld iteration of the franchise. I had a lot of fun with this little title, and it almost feels like an extension considering the fact that all of the levels are brand new but stage elements and enemies are ported over very faithfully. If you’re a fan of the console game chances are this handheld version will still manage to tickle your fancy but it’s still not a proper replacement for Donkey Kong Country 2.
