Review of Donkey Kong Country

Ah, I remember very fondly this humble tale of a gorilla and a monkey who take a trip to retrieve a bunch of bananas from a gang of thieving lizards... This game has a very special place in my heart, and I can remember like yesterday how I felt as a kid when I first played this on the precious console that was the SNES. I was so enchanted with the rich catchy music and blown away by the unbelievable visuals and addictive game-play, it was all very lighthearted and wholesome great gaming fun. It pushed the graphical limitations of the Super Nintendo to their absolute limits and it still looks amazing to me. How it looked was the first thing to jump out at anyone who played it for the first time. The character sprites were nicely detailed and brightly coloured and well shaded, and they had brilliant animations to their movements. The way the artwork was stylised into both the backgrounds and the foregrounds was utterly gorgeous and the overall effect was that the stage environments had a style that was somewhat realistic and cartoony at the same time. And what really made the game great and special wasn't just how fantastic the pre-rendered graphics looked, it played as amazing as it looked and had a sense of rhythm to its game-play. Many of the obstacles and enemies had a distinctly bouncy rubber feel, and they were laid out in such a way that it encouraged the player to take advantage of that trait, like there was a specific timing to stomping your enemies, thanks to deliberate placing and level design. And thee was a strong sense of variety to the levels, and they had a tough but fair difficulty curve, with some of the later stages like "Black Out Basement" and "Snow Barrel Blast" being extremely tricky to get through. Good luck in trying not to throw your controller across the room during the whole ice zone! And not only were the water levels a joy to play but they were beautiful to look at, in "Coral Capers" you could really lose yourself in that wondrous "aquatic ambiance." Donkey Kong Country had a game-play design that felt unique and intricate, it was fast paced yet strangely mellow all at once, and it all made for some superb platforming, and it felt like a big leap forward at the time. I could make it all the way to the final showdown that is both comical and more challenging than it first appears, where you face the big fat crocodile pirate king of the Kremlins King K. Rool atop his galleon! Just barrels of fun and endearing charm, it's what made Donkey King into a beloved iconic game character and to me the atmosphere and magic of the game-play hasn't changed a bit, to this day it stands as an awesome and masterful platforming classic. One of the SNES's finest! And also, Happy New Year everyone! :) X