Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest was the second Donkey Kong game for the Super Nintendo. It is the sequel of Donkey Kong Country and the predecessor to Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble. It also had a Game Boy semi-sequel, Donkey Kong Land 2. It was released in 1995 and had Diddy Kong as the star. A port of the game was released for the Game Boy Advance in 2004 and was re-released on the Virtual Console in 2007.

Storyline
Donkey Kong got kidnapped by Kaptain K. Rool and his Kremling Krew. The Kremling Leader ask the Kong’s Banana Hoard as a ransom for Donkey Kong captivity. However, both Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong decides to chases the Kremling Krew back to Crocodile Isle and free Donkey Kong.

The Kong’s Special Move
Each of the two Kongs can perform several moves during their adventure. The two Kongs have different moves and abilities. For example, Diddy move faster than Dixie and both characters carries item in different ways.

Cartwheel
This move allow Diddy to cartwheel into enemies, defeating them. This move can be used in conjunction with a Jump to makes Diddy go farther.

Helicopter Twirl
When falling, Dixie can use this move to float slowly. On the ground, this move can be used to defeat enemies, much like Diddy Cartwheel.

Team-Up
This move can only be used when both Kongs are controlled. One of the Kong will pick up the, and then can throw him to defeat enemies or reach normally inaccessible places.

Special Area
Various spot of Crocodile Isle are hosted by more or less benevolent characters, each of which help the duo in different way. They are:


 * Funky's Flights II is where the player can revisit previous worlds. Funky Kong also host a bunch of Flight test in the Game Boy advance port.
 * Swanky's Bonus Bonanza is a quiz about various obscure facts of the game. Swanky Kong and (In the GBA port) Candy Kong host it. The prize for successfully completing a quiz is an Extra Life Balloons. When a quiz is successfully completed, it can’t be played again.
 * The Kong Kollege is where Wrinkly Kong apparently teach a class of Kremling. It’s also here that the player can learn basic facts about the games control, how to defeat the World Boss, and (in the SNES version only) save the game progress.
 * The Monkey Museum is where Cranky Kong shares cryptic advices regarding the various levels of the game. It is replaced by Cranky's Hut in the GBA port. Cranky also host the Expresso Racing miningame in Cranky Hut.
 * Klubba guard the entrance of the Lost World in Klubba's Kiosk. However, Klubba will let the Kong access the Lost World if he is paid with at least fifteen Kremkoins. Klubba also host a minigame  called Bag a Bug in the GBA port.

Animal Buddies
Most of the animal buddies from Donkey Kong Country return in DKC2, and a few new ones are featured aswell. They are:


 * Rambi the Rhinoceros is exactly the same as in Donkey Kong Country, although he now posses an ability that allow him to run very fast.
 * Enguarde the Swordfish act very much like he did in Donkey Kong Country, and can also Supercharge his attack.
 * Squawks the Parrot have been completely changed from his DKC self. he can be directly controlled and can shoot egg from his beak. A blue sub-species (conjecturally called Flapper) is found in a few levels. Flapper can only descend and cannot spit eggs from his beak.
 * Rattly the Rattlesnake acts much like Wrinky . He can jump very high.
 * Squitter the Spider is a very large spider that shoot web that defeat enemies or become floating platform. However, he cannot jump on enemies.
 * Clapper the Seal appear in the levels Lava Lagoon and Clapper's Cavern. When jumping on him, Clapper will breath on the water found in the levels, either cooling it down or freezing it.
 * Glimmer the Anglerfish has a role similar to Squawks in the first Donkey Kong Country. He light up the pitch-black water in Glimmer's Galleon.
 * Expresso II is an animal buddy only founding the GBA port. Expresso II is playable as a part of the Expresso Racing minigame.

Items
Lot’s of helpful collectibles and mechanism are found throughout the Kong’s adventure. Here’s a list of them.


 * Bananas and Banana Bunch are found in plenty on Crocodile Isle. Collecting one-hundred bananas net the Kongs an Extra Life.
 * The No Animal Sign means that the Animal Buddies cannot continue further. When passing the sign while riding an Animal Buddy, said Animal Buddy will turn into an item.
 * The Animal Crate contains whatever Animal Buddy is pictured on it. Jumping on it will free the Animal inside.
 * The Hot Air Balloons are found in Lava-flooded levels. They are used to safely float over Lava.
 * Crates and Treasure Chests can be thrown at enemies. Crate contains nothing while Treasure Chest will gives a variety of items after being broken.
 * Extra Life Balloons now comes in red, green and blue variety. The balloons respectively gives one, two and three extra lifes.
 * DK Coins are huge coins hidden by Cranky Kong in all of the game levels. After beating Kaptain K. Rool, Cranky will tally up the number of DK Coins collected and rank Diddy accordingly as a part of Cranky “Video Game Hero” contest. Because of the various sidequest and minigames added in the GBA port, the number of DK Coin was augmented.
 * Banana Coin are used to pays the various services provided by the other members of the Kong Clan.
 * The Kremkoins are found in the various Bonus Area, those coins are used to access the Lost World.
 * Kannons and Kannonballs are found in some of the levels. Putting the Kannonball inside the Kannon will grant acces to a Bonus Area.
 * Finding all KONG Letters in a level will gives an Extra Life.
 * The End of Level Target will give a reward if it’s jumped on from far above.
 * The Skull Cart has to be ridden in a few levels.
 * A Golden Feather is hidden in each levels. Those items are used to upgrade Expresso II stats in the Expresso Racing minigame.
 * Photograph are used to fill Wrinkly’s Scrapbook. There’s multiples ways of obtaining those items.

Barrel
The Barrels are prominent items throughout the Donkey Kong series, and multiple variants exist, a lots of which are featured in Donkey Kong Country 2. They are:


 * The Barrel can hit through numerous enemies before breaking. However, a few Barrel covered by Seaweeds will breaks after hitting one enemy.
 * Bonus Barrel will launch the Kongs to the Bonus Area when jumped into.
 * The Plus and Minus Barrels are in the level Haunted Hall. Plus Barrels will add time to the timer, while Minus Barrels will decrease it. When the timer run out, Kackle will knock down one of the Kong. Similar barrels called Check and X Barrels are found in Target Terror. These two Barrels act as switches that open (Or close) the gates found in the way.
 * Various type of Barrel Kannons exist, however, they all have one thing in common: Those barrels send Diddy and Dixie to normally unreachable location.
 * The Steerable Barrel can be steered in any directon.
 * The Rotatable Barrel can rotate in the desired positions.
 * Either only Diddy or Dixie can use the Diddy & Dixie Barrel, depending if their faces are pictured or not.
 * The TNT Barrel create an explosion when thrown against something.
 * The DK Barrel is where the Kongs can find their defeated partners . The DK Barrel can also be used like a normal Barrel.
 * The Star Barrel mark the midway point of a level. If one of those Barrel is broken, the Kong will continue from where the Barrel was when losing a life in a level.
 * Breaking the Exclamation Point Barrel will grant the Kongs temporal invincibility.
 * Entering an Animal Barrel will turn the Kongs into the animal friend pictured on it.
 * The Biplane barrel is available for rent at Funky Flight II. It is replaced by the Gyrocopter in the GBA port.

Change between the SNES and Game Boy advance port

 * When fighting a Boss after it has been defeated, Swanky Kong will charges fifteen Banana Bunch Koins and calculate how much time it took to defeat the Boss.
 * Some characters have gained (or lost) sprites,
 * The Kongs have new voices clips, most of which were taken from Donkey Kong 64.
 * The player can now save anywhere on the map.
 * The World maps have been redesigned.
 * The player can travel to a different world for free at any time, as long as Funky Kong was seen at least once.
 * The death and end-of-level music no longer changes depending on the level.
 * The music “Run! Rambi, Run!” that played when King Zing chases the Kongs in the level Rambi Rumble was removed, and replaced by the music heard when racing against Screech. The music can still be heard in the sound test, thought.
 * A cheat that allowed to obtain all Kremkoins in the first level was removed.
 * The player's lives and banana bunch koins are now saved, instead of being lost whenever the game is turned off.
 * The Gangplank Galleon is now crashed in the right side of Crocodile Island, rather than the left.

Gangplank Galleon

 * Pirate Panic
 * Mainbrace Mayhem
 * Gangplank Galley
 * Lockjaw's Locker
 * Topsail Trouble

Crocodile Cauldron

 * Hot-Head Hop
 * Kannon's Klaim
 * Lava Lagoon
 * Red-Hot Ride
 * Squawks's Shaft

Krem Quay

 * Barrel Bayou
 * Glimmer's Galleon
 * Krockhead Klamber
 * Rattle Battle
 * Slime Climb
 * Bramble Blast

Krazy Kremland

 * Hornet Hole
 * Target Terror
 * Bramble Scramble
 * Rickety Race
 * Mudhole Marsh
 * Rambi Rumble

Gloomy Gulch

 * Ghostly Grove
 * Haunted Hall
 * Gusty Glade
 * Parrot Chute Panic
 * Web Woods

K. Rool's Keep

 * Arctic Abyss
 * Windy Well
 * Castle Crush
 * Clapper's Cavern
 * Chain Link Chamber
 * Toxic Tower

The Flying Krock

 * Screech's Sprint

Lost World

 * Jungle Jinx
 * Black Ice Battle
 * Klobber Karnage
 * Fiery Furnace
 * Animal Antics

Bosses

 * Krow
 * Kleever
 * Kudgel
 * King Zing
 * Kreepy Krow
 * Kerozene (GameBoy Advance Remake only)
 * Kaptain K. Rool

Trivia

 * The subtitle of the game in North America was originally "Diddy Kong's Quest", but changed to "Diddy's Kong Quest" before release.


 * When the player defeats K. Rool, Cranky tallies their Hero Coin total and compares that with the performance of other Nintendo characters. Mario, Yoshi and Link make an appearance at that point.


 * A few more cameo appearances of non-Nintendo characters' trademark devices are that of Sonic the Hedgehog's shoes and Earthworm Jim's gun and tights by a trash can with a sign that says "No Hopers." Also, in the Monkey Museum, you can see a poster of Chief Thunder, a character from the game Killer Instinct.


 * A Virtual Boy version of Donkey Kong Country 2 was in development for a short time, but was never completed due to the system's failure. Little else is known about this unmade version.