“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

Back in the glory days, when companies would send out VHS tapes to promote their games, there was Donkey Kong Country. Rare took the series from its arcade roots and transformed it into a platformer, boasting revolutionary 3D graphics without the need for additional hardware.

The premise is simple. The Kremlings, a group of reptilian creatures, have stolen Donkey Kong’s giant banana hoard. With the help of his friend, Diddy, they must go through each stage, defeat a boss, and get more bananas back.

Let’s face it, you’re not playing Donkey Kong Country for an epic story. You’re playing it for its promise of solid platforming. And that’s a promise the game has no trouble delivering on.

There aren’t a ton of abilities at your disposal. A trusty run and jump is there, of course, with most enemies vulnerable to a Mario-style hop. You can also slam the ground, do a somersault (or cartwheel if you’re Diddy), and do what Donkey Kong is known for best: picking up and throwing barrels. More advanced techniques, such as somersaulting off a ledge, then performing a mid-air jump, add an extra challenge to obtaining secrets hidden in each level.

The role of power-ups are filled by the animal friends that you ride. In certain levels, you can find a rhino, swordfish, frog, or ostrich to hop on the back of. Each of the animals has their own unique set of abilities. For example, you can hover with the ostrich or use the rhino to ram enemies with a mighty charge. Much like Yoshi in the Mario series, you’ll lose them if you get hit, but you can hop back on. The different abilities each animal has adds a nice variety to the game.

Donkey Kong and Diddy can only be hit once each. But together, that means you have two hits. Both in single player and in co-op, the game uses a tag-team system. When one character is hit, the reserve character comes out, if no reserve character is left, it’s game over. You can also switch characters manually. While this is marginally useful in single player since Donkey and Diddy have subtle differences (like Diddy’s inability to head-stomp larger baddies), it’s most useful in co-op, when you want to switch who’s in control without having to get hit.

But you don’t have to get through the whole stage on two hits. Check points and barrels refilling the reserve character are scattered throughout the levels to make things more manageable.

One of the best aspects of Donkey Kong Country is how many secrets there are. Every single level has a ton of hidden things to discover. There are letters to collect in each stage, numerous bonus stages to find, golden animal statues that can lead you to even more bonus stages; the list goes on.

The game also provides enough challenge to be fun without being too frustrating. However, the bosses are an exception. Many of the bosses are total pushovers and not nearly as difficult as some of the levels leading up to them. The levels themselves had a great sense of variety. There are a few levels with unique aspects that are actually pulled off well rather than feeling overly gimmicky. Donkey Kong Country is one of the only games to ever make me excited to play a mine cart level.

The graphics, which were a huge selling point during its release, still look good today. Making use of pre-rendered, 3D models seems like it wouldn’t age well, but thanks to the very cartoony style the game sticks to, it looks great even today; especially the smooth animations.

Why did I pick this game?

I loved all three Donkey Kong Country games growing up. When Donkey Kong Country Returns was revealed at this year’s E3, it got me in the mood to play the original game right away. Since I still own the cartridges of the whole trilogy, it was simply a matter of hooking the SNES up and getting to it.

How does it hold up with time?

While it has admittedly been awhile since I last played it, Donkey Kong Country is just as good as I remember it. The level design is fun, full of challenging segments, completely stuffed with secrets, and provides a lot of variety. The game still looks great and the music from series composer, David Wise, is still top notch.

Platformers were plentiful in this era, but Donkey Kong Country is a cut above most. And with tag-team co-op, the fun can be shared with a friend. If you enjoy the genre, you really can’t go wrong with Donkey Kong Country.

Tags: Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Friday Old Games, Nintendo, platformer, Rare, SNES

This entry was posted on Friday, July 2nd, 2010 at 5:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.