14th February 2011, 1:52 PM
Game Boy Color
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Donkey Kong Country -- Whew, this was a tough one. Alright, it didn't take years and years like OoS above, but it did take months. I started playing this game shortly after buying it several months ago, and it took quite a while to finish because DKC is a hard game. The GBC version of DKC really is quite impressive. Visually it looks a lot like the GB Donkey Kong Land games, except with color and perhaps some other visual improvements. There is slowdown, in areas with more than a few enemies, but overall I think the game looks and plays very, very well. It's better than I would have expected DKC to look on the GBC, this game impressed me visually. For the system, it looks about as good as it possibly could. Few GBC games look this good.
Similarly, the music is good. Obviously it's not SNES quality, but the music is good GB remakes of the classic SNES songs, and sounds pretty good for the system.
Level designs are great. They have to have been modified to fit the smaller screen, because there aren't the regular jumps where you can't see where you are going that would be expected (considering the aspect ratio change) if they hadn't adjusted the levels, but they did a great job of it and though it's got to be a little different. it feels just like the original. Brilliant job making the game still a very challenging and incredibly fun game, but not impossible thanks to constant blind jumps. Great work.
Similarly, the save system... I love it. Instead of the original game, where you'd have to beat three or four levels in a world before you'd be able to save in that world, depending on how far into the world the Funky's Flights or Save Hut were, either one would allow you to go and save but before you reach either, if you get a Game Over on SNES you had to start the whole world over. GBC DKC drops that in favor of auto-save that saves after you beat each level. This certainly makes the game easier, but difficulty thanks to cruel save systems isn't something I like, so I think it was a fantastic change that makes the game a lot more fun. It's still a quite challenging game, but it's not as crazy hard as the SNES version was thanks to this saving change, and I think that's a good thing. Having to repeatedly replay levels you've beaten before just because one of the later stages in a world is harder gets frustrating.
DKC for the GBC also has some additional content. There aren't new levels, but there are a bunch of fun little minigames to unlock, as you find stuff. This means that finding the bonus rooms and getting a higher completion percentage means more in this version than in the original DKC, which is good; later DKC games upped the amount of stuff to find, and upped the rewards, compared to the first game on the SNES. Even if they are just minigames, it's nice to have something in this version to make me want to come back and play the game more.
Overall, GBC DKC is a great game. When I got it I was worried that it'd be a waste of money because it's a downgraded port of a classic, and because there's also a GBA version of the game if I wanted to play a more accurate handheld port of DKC, but once I started playing, my concerns almost immediately vanished. GBC DKC is fantastic, and is well worth playing today, particularly for anyone who still appreciates the Game Boy and Game Boy Color. Great game! It's easily and A or A- title.
The only real complaint I can think of about the game is that I kind of wish Rare had made a new game, instead of just a port, like how the GB's three DKL games all were not just ports (DKL2 is the closest to being a port, but even it isn't quite one; DKL1 and 3 are entirely different games based on similar concepts). The GBC and GBA saw many more ports than the original Game Boy had, I would say, and it is too bad; I think that these systems are best when developers are making original titles for them, not just ports of major console titles. Also, it'd have been awesome to see a new DKC/DKL style game. Still though, it's a great, impressive port, and I like it a lot.
--
Donkey Kong Country -- Whew, this was a tough one. Alright, it didn't take years and years like OoS above, but it did take months. I started playing this game shortly after buying it several months ago, and it took quite a while to finish because DKC is a hard game. The GBC version of DKC really is quite impressive. Visually it looks a lot like the GB Donkey Kong Land games, except with color and perhaps some other visual improvements. There is slowdown, in areas with more than a few enemies, but overall I think the game looks and plays very, very well. It's better than I would have expected DKC to look on the GBC, this game impressed me visually. For the system, it looks about as good as it possibly could. Few GBC games look this good.
Similarly, the music is good. Obviously it's not SNES quality, but the music is good GB remakes of the classic SNES songs, and sounds pretty good for the system.
Level designs are great. They have to have been modified to fit the smaller screen, because there aren't the regular jumps where you can't see where you are going that would be expected (considering the aspect ratio change) if they hadn't adjusted the levels, but they did a great job of it and though it's got to be a little different. it feels just like the original. Brilliant job making the game still a very challenging and incredibly fun game, but not impossible thanks to constant blind jumps. Great work.
Similarly, the save system... I love it. Instead of the original game, where you'd have to beat three or four levels in a world before you'd be able to save in that world, depending on how far into the world the Funky's Flights or Save Hut were, either one would allow you to go and save but before you reach either, if you get a Game Over on SNES you had to start the whole world over. GBC DKC drops that in favor of auto-save that saves after you beat each level. This certainly makes the game easier, but difficulty thanks to cruel save systems isn't something I like, so I think it was a fantastic change that makes the game a lot more fun. It's still a quite challenging game, but it's not as crazy hard as the SNES version was thanks to this saving change, and I think that's a good thing. Having to repeatedly replay levels you've beaten before just because one of the later stages in a world is harder gets frustrating.
DKC for the GBC also has some additional content. There aren't new levels, but there are a bunch of fun little minigames to unlock, as you find stuff. This means that finding the bonus rooms and getting a higher completion percentage means more in this version than in the original DKC, which is good; later DKC games upped the amount of stuff to find, and upped the rewards, compared to the first game on the SNES. Even if they are just minigames, it's nice to have something in this version to make me want to come back and play the game more.
Overall, GBC DKC is a great game. When I got it I was worried that it'd be a waste of money because it's a downgraded port of a classic, and because there's also a GBA version of the game if I wanted to play a more accurate handheld port of DKC, but once I started playing, my concerns almost immediately vanished. GBC DKC is fantastic, and is well worth playing today, particularly for anyone who still appreciates the Game Boy and Game Boy Color. Great game! It's easily and A or A- title.
The only real complaint I can think of about the game is that I kind of wish Rare had made a new game, instead of just a port, like how the GB's three DKL games all were not just ports (DKL2 is the closest to being a port, but even it isn't quite one; DKL1 and 3 are entirely different games based on similar concepts). The GBC and GBA saw many more ports than the original Game Boy had, I would say, and it is too bad; I think that these systems are best when developers are making original titles for them, not just ports of major console titles. Also, it'd have been awesome to see a new DKC/DKL style game. Still though, it's a great, impressive port, and I like it a lot.
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