The Armchair Empire - Gameboy Advance Reviews: Donkey Kong Country


<MAP NAME="boxmap-p8"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="14, 200, 103, 207" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/thearmchairem-20" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/120x240.gif" width="120" height="240" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p8" alt="Shop at Amazon.com">	Platform Gameboy Advance Genre Platformer Publisher Nintendo Developer Rare ESRB E (Everyone) Released July 2003

- Some classic platforming action - Classic characters - Some of the best graphics on the GBA - More than enough challenge

- Almost too much challenge - If you played the original not much has changed

Classic: Donkey Kong (Colecovision) Review: Donkey Kong 64 (N64) Review: Super Mario Advance (GBA)
Newsletter
Be notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter sent out twice weekly. Enter E-Mail Address Below: Subscribe \| Unsubscribe

Donkey Kong Country

7.7 / 10

Lessons of the marketplace #21: If it sold before, it will sell again.

Although I’d like to point fingers and name names, Lesson #21 is too widespread to single out one company and beat them down for it. One platform that gets its fair share of old ports is the GBA. Case in point, Donkey Kong Country (DKC) which first appeared in 1994 on the SNES. Being more of a Genesis Man (or Boy at that point) I didn’t play the original although I do remember the buzz surrounding it. It had a unique look and brought back one of gaming’s best monkey’s ever, Donkey Kong, courtesy Rare. I’m told that not much has been changed. A dash of new art and some mini-games represent all that’s been added to DKC. But it’s all-new to younger players.

donkey kong country gameboy advance review

Someone has taken Donkey Kong’s massive store of bananas. Donkey, never one to take things lying down, sets off to reclaim them with the help of Diddy Kong. And there you have the atypical platformer setup. Although the setup is atypical the action tends to be more original.

The standards are accounted for: jumping, things to collect, different environments, secrets to find and bosses to defeat. But jumpin’ monkeys is this game hard! I’ve always thought of myself as a platform expert – I raised myself on them from the earliest days and they’ve always been one of my favorite genres – but I was schooled by DKC. Here’s a game as forgiving as a block of concrete. Your sense of timing and ability to quickly gauge distance will be severely tested, as will your patience at having to replay the same sections over and over again. The boss battles are a complete walk in the park – one, maybe two attempts at the most, to defeat them. Conversely, I spent almost two days trying to finish some stages. At least when you finish, you’ll have some sense of accomplishment (if you haven’t been overwhelmed by frustration).

Advertisement

- GameBoy Advance Game Reviews
- Platformer Game Reviews
- Reviews of Games Developed/Published by Nintendo

DKC’s levels are a mixed batch of various environments (water, mines, blinking lights, etc.) filled with big wasps, snakes, and an army of other baddies. Most of the levels can be broken down into sectional puzzles. Jump two wasps, bounce off this guy and land on the platform – next! If you get stuck on one section it’s easy to get work yourself into a fit. Fortunately, each stage contains a midway checkpoint so if you can make it there your chances of making it to the end are doubled. (And when you save your game, it saves it from that checkpoint.)

Advertisement

Donkey and Diddy’s roster of moves is pretty standard. Jump, run, and cartwheel makes up the list. This doesn’t do much to keep either one alive. One hit and you’re dead. That is, if you don’t have both Diddy and Donkey paired up. When you have both you can switch between the two but there aren’t many sections that give you an advantage either way – Donkey or Diddy it makes no difference. If you get hit as Donkey, Diddy takes over and if he gets hit it’s back to the start of the stage (or mid-stage). This can be the source of much frustration, too.

donkey kong country gameboy advance review

Much of the style of the original version is present. This is one of the best looking games for the GBA yet. It’s not an exact transfer of the SNES presentation but it’s pretty close.

Donkey Kong Country is a throwback to platformers when they completely dominated gaming. There’s no doubting that DKC is a great platformer, but it’s completely unforgiving for new players. And of course, if you played the original, there’s not much new to keep you interested other than the nostalgia hit.

- Omni

(July 27, 2003)