12th February 2003, 10:54 AM
Donkey Kong Country Review
By Derek Miller
Near the end of the Super Nintendo's life span, things weren't looking too good for Nintendo. Sega's Saturn and Sony's Playstation has already hit the market and had begun to take a chunk of the 16-bit crowd away from the SNES. Not helping matters, the Nintendo 64, known back then as Project Reality or the Ultra 64, was constantly being delayed. 3D was the"in-thing" and the SNES, while it did have some 3D games like Star Fox and Stunt Race FX, was really starting to show its age. That's where a little-known company called Rare came in. They used a large amount of resources, partly donated by Nintendo, to create a make-or-break game that would star Nintendo's own Donkey Kong. When Donkey Kong Country was being released Nintendo promoted it to no end. People were awed by it's graphics and many originally thought it was a game for the upcoming Nintendo 64. Donkey Kong Country even looked better than many of the games on Playstation even though it was really only 2.5D. Donkey Kong Country was one of Super Nintendo's last great games and it helped top off one of the greatest consoles ever.
Graphics
Easily the best graphics on Super Nintendo, bar none. Even compared to the next generation consoles Donkey Kong Country was able to hold its own. Whereas games like Star Fox and Stunt Race FX had the extremely noticeable textures and were really buggy, DKC did a fantastic job putting 3D characters in a 2D environment. The landscapes were awe-inspiring and the characters and enemies looked terrific. Not much to complain about in this department. There was never even any noticeable slowdown.
10.0
Sound
Catchy tunes and funny sound effects helped make this game sound great. The music seemed to fit the stages perfectly and the monkey sounds and grunts from the enemies were just plain hilarious. The sound effects were professionally done and were a foreshadowing of Rare's unbelievably sound tracks and effects for their Nintendo 64 games. I truly think there are very few companies that produce better sounding games than Rare.
8.5
Sound
Donkey Kong Country was a classic 2D platform that added a few tricks to make things interesting. The buddy system worked great in the game. Donkey and Diddy each had their stregths and weaknesses and you'd soon learn which situations each excelled in. Playing the game with two players was a lot of fun. You could either make it a competition and try to get farther than your opponent or you could each control either Donkey or Diddy to try to beat King K. Rool. This was one of the first games to use a lot of different mini-games and it was something that would be used in later games again and again. In order to truly beat the game you had to find all of these mini-games which was a task in and of itself. And who could forget the minecart races? While there weren't many of them, they were so much fun to play over and over again. Donkey Kong Country was not just another 2D platformer, it was an incredibly addictive game that would bring Rare into the spotlight as a videogame developer.
8.0
Modern Appeal
Even today Donkey Kong Country looks good. The game has a polished look and the graphics won't turn people off like many NES games sometimes do. The classic platforming action is just plain fun and it's the kind of game you can pick up and play for a few minutes or a few hours, depending on what you're looking for. A thoroughly addictive game if you haven't played it or are a fan of 2D platformers.
8.0
Purchase Price
Donkey Kong Country is a very common game and should be easy to find. Expect to pay anywhere from $10 to $20 for it. Don't pay much more than $20, even if it's brand new.
Total (not an average) : 8.5
By Derek Miller
Near the end of the Super Nintendo's life span, things weren't looking too good for Nintendo. Sega's Saturn and Sony's Playstation has already hit the market and had begun to take a chunk of the 16-bit crowd away from the SNES. Not helping matters, the Nintendo 64, known back then as Project Reality or the Ultra 64, was constantly being delayed. 3D was the"in-thing" and the SNES, while it did have some 3D games like Star Fox and Stunt Race FX, was really starting to show its age. That's where a little-known company called Rare came in. They used a large amount of resources, partly donated by Nintendo, to create a make-or-break game that would star Nintendo's own Donkey Kong. When Donkey Kong Country was being released Nintendo promoted it to no end. People were awed by it's graphics and many originally thought it was a game for the upcoming Nintendo 64. Donkey Kong Country even looked better than many of the games on Playstation even though it was really only 2.5D. Donkey Kong Country was one of Super Nintendo's last great games and it helped top off one of the greatest consoles ever.
Graphics
Easily the best graphics on Super Nintendo, bar none. Even compared to the next generation consoles Donkey Kong Country was able to hold its own. Whereas games like Star Fox and Stunt Race FX had the extremely noticeable textures and were really buggy, DKC did a fantastic job putting 3D characters in a 2D environment. The landscapes were awe-inspiring and the characters and enemies looked terrific. Not much to complain about in this department. There was never even any noticeable slowdown.
10.0
Sound
Catchy tunes and funny sound effects helped make this game sound great. The music seemed to fit the stages perfectly and the monkey sounds and grunts from the enemies were just plain hilarious. The sound effects were professionally done and were a foreshadowing of Rare's unbelievably sound tracks and effects for their Nintendo 64 games. I truly think there are very few companies that produce better sounding games than Rare.
8.5
Sound
Donkey Kong Country was a classic 2D platform that added a few tricks to make things interesting. The buddy system worked great in the game. Donkey and Diddy each had their stregths and weaknesses and you'd soon learn which situations each excelled in. Playing the game with two players was a lot of fun. You could either make it a competition and try to get farther than your opponent or you could each control either Donkey or Diddy to try to beat King K. Rool. This was one of the first games to use a lot of different mini-games and it was something that would be used in later games again and again. In order to truly beat the game you had to find all of these mini-games which was a task in and of itself. And who could forget the minecart races? While there weren't many of them, they were so much fun to play over and over again. Donkey Kong Country was not just another 2D platformer, it was an incredibly addictive game that would bring Rare into the spotlight as a videogame developer.
8.0
Modern Appeal
Even today Donkey Kong Country looks good. The game has a polished look and the graphics won't turn people off like many NES games sometimes do. The classic platforming action is just plain fun and it's the kind of game you can pick up and play for a few minutes or a few hours, depending on what you're looking for. A thoroughly addictive game if you haven't played it or are a fan of 2D platformers.
8.0
Purchase Price
Donkey Kong Country is a very common game and should be easy to find. Expect to pay anywhere from $10 to $20 for it. Don't pay much more than $20, even if it's brand new.
Total (not an average) : 8.5