Donkey Kong Country 2

You won't be Cranky after playing this game

Platform	Presentation	Controls	Variety	Audio	Depth	Value & Fun	OVERALL
Game Boy Advance	8.00	8.50	9.50	9.00	9.00	8.50	8.80

Gameplay Description

Donkey Kong Country 2 is a port of a Super Nintendo Entertainment System game. It is a standard sidescrolling platformer and is set in the jungle while you play as the apes Diddy and Dixie Kong in their attempt to rescue Donkey Kong from the clutches of King K. Rool. You can defeat K. Rool's cronies by jumping on them, using the character's spin attack, or throwing a barrel at the enemy. One, two, or all of the techniques may or may not work depending on the foe.

Presentation

8.00

You can see some of the limitations of the SNES when it comes to Donkey Kong Country 2. The images are a bit blurred and undetailed, although that's less noticeable over time. There's occasional slowdown, which is always a pain. The worst thing, however, is that the camera seems a bit too zoomed in and can force somewhat of a leap-of-faith. Overall though, this was perhaps the best looking game on the SNES, and the whole style is still great.

Controls

8.50

A platformer is nothing without its controls, and DKC2 delivers. You'll feel in control and rarely feel as though the controls cheated you. You have a roll move where the characters spins while bursting forward that can be used to eliminate some enemies and get extra length on a jump. You play as Diddy and Dixie, and they control very similarly, except Dixie can descend more slowly if you decide. There are a few minor collision detection issues, though, and the spin attack can feel a bit unwieldy at times. Moving underwater can seem a bit touchy, also.

Variety

9.50

     Everything is just piled on in DKC2.  From the main menu screen you can choose Diddy's Dash, Start Game or Bonus Games, with Bonus games including multiple games including Expresso (ostrich) Racing, Funky's Flights Missions (fly a gyro-copter and complete missions), and Bug Catched (run from Klubba while catching bugs that land).  Diddy's Dash is a race to finish a level as quickly as possible--a must for platformers now; Expresso Racing is surprisingly deep, although it isn't all that difficult to master, but overall quite entertaining and a nice addition; the flight missions are varied and very challenging so again, very nice; and Bug Catcher is the usual short diversion that is forgettable.  You can also play these Bonus games in the main game to collect various items, mainly DK Coins, which is an area in which they may have gone overboard.

     Through the main game, there are Klubba Coins, Golden Feathers, DK Coins, general coins and enemy photos to collect, and it can all seem a bit too much.  The DK Coins are a nice addition because those are the challenge to find, and the enemy photos set themselves apart in the way they are collected as most of them are through defeating an enemy with a camera over its head.  After that, though, it gets a bit annoying.  Klubba Coins are used to enter the lost world for extra missions--except it costs far too much; it will take you a LONG time to collect enough Klubba Coins to see all the missions.  General coins are used for information from Cranky or Granny on the location of those other things.  Golden Feathers are used to improve your bird's stats in Expresso racing.

     As for the platforming itself, the main game lasts about 4 hours without trying to collect all the coins and do the bonus games, which obviously add plenty of playtime on top of that.  It feels a bit short, though, as it takes longer per level as the whole game is quite difficult.

Audio	9.00
The indicator for quality audio is whether it's not the same experience without the sound on; Donkey Kong Country 2 fits this description. The music early on is excellent, but trails a bit by the end and overall is still very good but a step down from the original, and the sound cues from the enemies to know what's coming are very important.

Depth	9.00
The whole game is challenging and there are many tactics to go about your business with secrets abound. Even how you defeat enemies varies by enemy, and will often have multiple options. The mini-games are also deeper than one would expect and are much more satisfying because of it.

Value & Fun

8.50

     To start, the speech from Cranky is fantastic with great complaints about the game, the series and the industry.  The other Kong's speech is forgettable and pointless, but it's all about Cranky.

     The level design itself is quite nice, and throughout the main game you'll get to transform and/or ride various animals such as a Rhinocerous, Spider or Snake.  The game could have used more straight forward, left-to-right levels, though, and the water levels can become a bit tedious.  The game is perhaps difficult for the wrong reasons though, as it tends to take on a trial-and-error sense at times, such as during one boss fight, eggs fall from the sky and unless you know that's coming (no indicator) you have no way of avoiding it the first time.

     The mini-games are great the first time through, but they'll be something you'll get very good at and forget; Diddy's Dash is the most likely to hold your attention.  A good thing about the mini-games as there is stat-tracking of some sort in all of them.

     I also have an obscure minor complaint; the game takes a bit too long to get started--you have to wait through the game being from Nintendo, developed by Rare and so forth and that eats up about 5 seconds (if you speed it up by holding A).  It's not excessively long by any means, but is annoying that it's unskippable.

Overall	8.80
Donkey Kong Country 2 has aged fairly well, but with some blotches. Those blotches are patched by the additional mini-games and helped by the difficulty (although also hindered by it). DKC2 has great universal appeal--deep mini-games with varied and tough level design on top of quality presentation.

Posted by Ellyoda Mon, 19 Jun 2006 00:00:00

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