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Hello amigos, it's been a while since I did a segment such as the one that is underway. Your fellow amigo beaner has been busy with work, lazy time, and UNCHARTED EFFIN 2! But I digress. Today we look at a game that I consider was a system seller for the SNES: Donkey Kong Country.
Pictured: A system seller...cause it was ONLY for Nintendo (as seen on box)
The reason I say 'system seller' is because as far as I can recall, the game was bundled with new SNES when it came out. Not many games got that honor, the only other ones I remember are Super Mario World (no duh), and Killer Instinct (see previous RCC blog entry). Back in the golden age of Platforming Awesomeness, a game needed to have traits that would make it stand out above the rest. Just like we have to many frigging FPS now a days, platformers dominated the 16-bit era; unlike FPSs from now-a-days, platformers back then were so varied and offered so many possibilities that people weren't getting the same iteration over and over getting ripped off for a rehashed pile of recycled crap.
Pictured: no, your eyes aren't lying to you, that indeed IS what recycled crap looks like
Now where to open this can of awesomeness? Let's begin with the graphics: as stated in the box the adventure was 3-D which back in the day was a new tech. that developers were toying with. Now despite the 3-D aspect, the gameplay being platformer by nature was more of a 2-D style though the objects and backgrounds did stand out as not 2-Ds like others (though not 3-D-ish in my opinion). The mechanics on the gameplay were top notch. Unlike crappy platformers where the characters defyied physics via bad controls/invisible pixels, DK had awesome controls that were responsive and precise, the polished graphics made it awesome to just look at from time to time.
As far as the story line, you played as Donkey or Diddy Kong, yes you had a choice to play as either one, it didn't matter. Characters were switched at any point, so long as you had both of them. In essence you had 2 lives and if either character got taken out, you could get that character back by finding a barrel labeled 'DK.'
Throughout the game you also had the chance to use several awesome animals which added both fun and unique which wasn't found with other games at the time.
Pictured: best helpers ever, kiss off YOSHI
Aw, such an awesome game...
Now, I know that there were 2 sequels and even though Donkey was absent in them (as far as I know), Diddy just didn't cut it for me. I never got into the 2nd installment and so I didn't even consider the 3rd so for me there's only 1 GOOD Donkey Kong.
Pictured: what? a DK game? no, I don't see it.
When the N64 came around I wasn't too enthusiastic to get one given my biggest peeve for it was it's controller. As I went into the Playstation park, I didn't play the N64 installment of DK so I can't say how it was. But back to the main point of this segment: WE NEED A NEW DONKEY KONG! I know he and Diddy made appearances on Mario Kart(s) and Super Smash Bros, but I've yet to see them on new consoles in their own game. It's not like it's difficult to draw up a story for them to take part in. Granted if a game came out, it'd most likely be on the Wii, but that'd make like 4 good games for the Wii which may entice me to get one.
So please RARE, make it happen. This makes 2 RARE games on my list (Killer Instinct being the first) by the way.
A Remake of Donkey Kong gets my Chuck Norris Thumb of Approval!
