- Platform: SNES (VC)
- Genre: Platformer
- Developer: Rareware
- Publisher: Nintendo
- The word from NerdMentality
- Cost: 800 points
- Average Rating:
Games
Donkey Kong Country
Reader Rating:
The first entry in the series since 1983's Donkey Kong 3, the Rare-developed Donkey Kong Country featured videogaming's favorite ape on a quest to retrieve his stolen stash of bananas with his nephew Diddy. A basic platformer at heart, the game spiced things up by offering a variety of ways to travel through the levels. Some areas had Donkey Kong bouncing on tires and blasting off through barrels, while the more famous ones saw the two primates riding mine carts or other animals such as Ramby the Rhino and Engaurde the Swordfish.
The most exciting aspect of Donkey Kong Country was easily its presentation, which wowed gamers with its graphics and catchy soundtrack. This title's appeal comes from soaking in pretty levels and looking forward to what new twist the next one will hold. The pre-rendered 3D graphics had a dramatic impact not just on gamers, but also internally at Nintendo, which as a result began pressuring Shigeru Miyamoto to make his upcoming Yoshi's Island look more impressive. These days, the game may not be the looker it once was, but it still manages to have a sort of charm to it rather than simply looking dated.
Legacy...
Originally released on the Super Nintendo in 1994, Donkey Kong Country has been ported twice to Nintendo's handheld consoles: once to the Game Boy Color in 2000, and again in 2003 to the Game Boy Advance. While the Game Boy Color handled the port surprisingly well for an 8-bit console, the game looked much darker and less defined, and this was rectified on the Game Boy Advance when the game's graphics were washed out and less defined. If you don't own an SNES then the Virtual Console title is the version of choice.