Full Review

In the past 12 months, Nintendo has ported many games to the GameBoy Advance. Most of these ports have come from the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the classic 16-bit console. Some ports include the Mario games, as well as Zelda. Now Nintendo decided to port yet another platformer, Donkey Kong Country. This game was released way back in 1994, and was made by Rare. Donkey Kong Country was a huge success and it made Rare a household name. A few years ago, Donkey Kong Country was ported to the 8 bit GameBoy Color, and even though it was a moderate success, they felt that they could make it better by transferring it to the GBA. Well, the game has been released, I have purchased and played it for a long time, and in this review I will tell you all about it.

The Donkey Kong series, has always been a challenging, yet lengthy and entertaining bunch of platformers. Even though Mario and Sonic are better known video game characters, Donkey Kong is just as good of a platformer. The story goes like this: the Kremling crew, led by King K. Rool, have stolen an enormous stockpile of bananas, which belong to the Kongs. Donkey Kong and his brother Diddy Kong set out to reclaim what is rightfully theirs. They must traverse over six various settings and must collect bananas and defeat the evil kremlings along the way.

The gameplay is similar to most platform games. In Donkey Kong Country you can run, swim underwater, use ropes to swing from place to place, jump on enemies, roll, collect items, gain lives and throw barrels. To destroy enemies, you can roll on them, jump on them or pick up and throw barrels on them, depending on what type of creature they are. The most important thing, however, is to collect bananas (they are similar to coins and rings in the Mario and Sonic games). If you collect 100 bananas, you gain a life. If you grab a balloon with either Donkey or Diddy Kong on them, you also gain lives. The letters K-O-N-G will appear in various places in a level, and if you collect all four letters, you gain yet another life. These lives are crucial, as there are many places where you will lose many lives before you figure out how to get past that place.

You can switch between Donkey and Diddy Kong as often as you like, as you will use them in various places. Donkey is larger and better in combat. If one dies, you control the other, but they always follow each other. You get the most out of this game, you should explore everything, and there are many extremely well hidden secret places that contain many bananas and lives. There are many levels in this game, and one of the highlights of this game comes at the end of the level, since you will get to face a boss. To defeat them, you usually have to jump on them a few times, and if you beat the boss, you will gain a Golden Banana, and will then be taken to the next level. Each level becomes harder and harder, with more enemies and rougher terrain (long distance between ledges).

The various environments that you will play in include luscious jungles, desert pyramids that contain a plethora of booby traps and secret rooms, underwater levels, snowy mountain levels (similar to that zone in Sonic Advance), mine cart levels and a few more. Therefore, everything is included. Rambi the Rhino, Expresso the Ostrich, Squarks the Parrot, Enguarde the Shark/Swordfish and Winky the Frog are present in the game as well, and they help Diddy and Donkey Kong along their journey frequently. For example, Enguarde is found in the underwater levels, he is a faster swimmer than the monkeys and can kill enemies easily.
Now, Nintendo wanted to spice the game up, add a few extra features to make the game sell better, but Rare has now become a developed for the Xbox (woohoo!), so Nintendo had to come up with filler material by themselves. The first thing that was added was two mini-games, titled Funky's Fishing and Candy's Dance Studio. Both of these games have high score tables, and you can link up and compete against a friend. Funky's Fishing is a cool mini-game, where you, Diddy Kong, must fish for fish. You see the fish in the water, and they are all colored differently. Each fish has a different point value. It's easy to play - move a hook around anywhere you want, and when you pull the hook back up, any fish that touch your hook are caught, and yes, it is possible to catch more than one fish at a time. Candy's Dance Studio involves Donkey Kong, Candy Kong and Diddy Kong dancing to music. You control the characters and must perform moves by tapping various buttons. This game is challenging at first, but soon enough you get the hang of it.

A few more additions are the hidden cameras. If you find a camera in a level, you will unlock pictures of the characters that are exclusive to the GBA version. Another great thing that was added is that you can now save the game anytime you want, which makes the game slightly easier, but useful. A multi-player option is included, as you can link up and play the game together with a friend, one controls Diddy while the other controls Donkey Kong and you must work together.

However, my favorite addition is the brand new "DK Attack" mode. This mode adds a LOT of replay value to the game. The mode consists of the following: when you beat a level in the main game, that level is unlocked in DK Attack. Here you can repeat the level, but there is a time limit. You can gain time by picking up items. You must also kill enemies, collect bananas and when you have completed the level, you are given a score. This means that you will keep coming back to this option to beat your score! It is highly addictive.

I only played the SNES version briefly a long time ago, but I beat the GBC version. Boy, is the GBA better than the GBC version graphically! The backgrounds are just gorgeous! They are as crisp and colorful as Kirby's game. The character sprites were drawn nicely, and they are fairly detailed. Everything is much colorful and vivid now. There are small animals such as lizards and bats scurrying around all of the time, and the framerate does not suffer at all. My favorite graphic was the background during the boss fights, where hundreds of piles of bananas are seen. The music is awesome, the soundtrack is some of the best GBA music I have ever heard, especially in the water levels. The sounds in the game are very appealing as well. Everything from the noises made by dying enemies to the noise made when you collect a banana is great.

Overall, this is a great game, and is right up there with Mario and Sonic as a contender for best platformer on the GBA. Hopefully Nintendo will bring all of the Donkey Kong games to the GBA, as that would be a real treat for all. I really recommend this game to all. If you have played the SNES game, I am sure that reliving the game on the GBA will be a great experience. If you can never played Donkey Kong Country, there this will be an experience that you won't forget for a long time. This game would be a perfect present for all, and I really loved playing it.