Gaming Target - Game Boy: Donkey Kong Country

Written by Derek Noad on November 28, 2000

Review: mmhhh....bananas....

Not very long ago I was able to purchase one of Rare's newer (or should I say older) titles. Donkey Kong Country GBC is a re-release of an old classic for SNES. It was years ago when I beat the original Super Nintendo version and I loved it. So when I tried this portable version I asked the question is "Is this as good as the original?" The answer is "yes."

The visuals are simply great. The graphics on the small screen mimic the SNES quite nicely. The GBC's capabilities are really pushed to the limits. The characters in front are very detailed like DK's tie for instance. The animation is fluent and smooth. Camera is done nicely and you won't loose yourself on the screen or won't be able to see certain obstacles. One problem I noticed is in some bad lighting some enemies or obstacles might blend in with the background. This problem killed me just enough times to drop the score to a 9.5, otherwise its perfect.

As for the audio experience, another job well done. Nearly all of the original music returns in a tolerable format. Unlike most portable games you won't feel the need to turn the volume down. Like in the mine cart level the music steadily speeds up and adds to the thrill of the death defying jumps and drops. The sound effects are really nothing new or great but the music makes up for it. Unfortunately almost all of those great monkey noises are gone.

The most important of all is how the game plays, which is excellent. The controls are so easy a baby could play. A is jump and B is roll attack, or hold it run. With the exception of swimming, that's about as complicated as is gets. Each level has some type of theme mixing up your challenges. Some levels you need to time blasting out of a barrel while others you need to hit switches to freeze normally invincible opponents. Then there are levels where you ride a mine cart through a roller coaster of obstacles or swim through an ocean of sharks and hungry piranhas.

What makes this game worth another go is some of its cool features. There are no more save points since the game saves automatically. This version also includes printer functions to decorate your belongings with the DK crew. Completely new are the shooting and fishing games. You can fire a coconut gun at some targets before time runs out or play an addictive fishing game. The fishing game puts you as DK on your fish friend and you need to flick fish into your boat. Getting more than one of the same kind together gives bonus points. As your score increases so do the speed of the timer and the speed of the fish. Owner of DK can hook up and play these games head to head. You can also play Candy's challenges strewn through the adventure and unlock more multiplayer games that I have yet to see.

This seems like a great replay. I haven't had it long enough to fully see its depth but so far so good. The one player adventure includes tons of levels and hidden secrets like bonus stages. The mini games are surprisingly challenging and fun. Plus you can go back and find hidden stickers to print out too. If I were a betting man, I'd bet this game could keep a player hooked for a long time.

Donkey Kong Country (GBC)

Review: mmhhh....bananas....