Donkey Kong Country

Publisher: Nintendo

Designer: Rare

Type: Platform

Platform: Super Nintendo

Release Date: 1994

Rating:

This was certainly an interesting game, and a part of me suspects that it has something to do with the popularity of Super Mario Bros. The thing that that you might not realise that back in the deep dark days of computer history, Mario and Donkey Kong used to go head to head in an attempt to rescue Princess Daisy (whom Donkey Kong had kidnapped and taken to the top of a construction site). No doubt, this goes back to the grand old days of King Kong, hence the name, and hence the fact that Donkey Kong is a pretty big ape.

Well, this game takes us back to Donkey Kong’s home, and of course, there is no sign of Mario anywhere. However, what has happened is that Donkey Kong’s protege was tasked with guarding a cave full of bananas. Unfortunately, some nasties came along, tied up Diddy in a barrel, and scampered off with all the bananas. As such, it is now up to Donkey Kong, and Diddy, to get them all back.

So, the game pretty much plays like Super Mario Bros, though it does happen to be a little more detailed than the previous game. Then again, this is the SNES that we are talking about. You pretty much run, jump, and collect as many bananas as you can. You also have the benefit of having Diddy come along with you, and you can tag team with him. This also means that you get the benefit of having an extra life. Fortunately, if you do lose one of them, all you need to do is find a barrel with DK on it, and you can get them back.

The game has some interesting features, one of them being the ability to save, though to do that you have to get to a save point (though I haven’t managed to actually get that far). You can also find yourself getting some bonus rounds, such as when you collect three Emus, and thus you can then collect a heap of gold by playing the emu game (if it is an emu because this thing flies, and emus don’t).

One really cool aspect is that Donkey Kong happens to wear a tie, which was rather cute. Also, you can get power-ups, such as a rhinoceros which you can ride, and basically splatter as many enemies as you can possibly imagine while charging through the level.
Yeah, this game was pretty cool, though of course it does have the problem of getting somewhat harder as you progress through the levels, but still, I did like it.

Anyway, that’s enough from me for a change. If you want to know more, well, Wikipedia is probably the go to source for pretty much everything these days. Oh, and there is also a wiki page set aside for everything Mario Bros related, so you’ll find this game here as well.