Donkey Kong Country

Donkey Kong Country is a game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System released in 1994. It is known for being the first game to use pre-rendered sprites, creating a 3D effect throughout the game. It is the first game in the Donkey Kong Country series and has three sequels: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, and Donkey Kong Country Returns. It also has a similar semi-sequel, titled Donkey Kong Land, and a rare competition variant. The game stars Donkey Kong, along with his buddy and nephew, Diddy Kong, in his debut, as the two travel across Donkey Kong Island in search for the Banana Hoard.

The game was remade for the Game Boy Color in 2000 and was also remade again for the Game Boy Advance in 2003. The two remakes feature some new Bonus Games, the ability to save in the overworld, and several other new elements. Donkey Kong Country was also released on the Wii's Virtual Console in 2006 and 2007, being the same as the original version.

Storyline
During a stormy night on Donkey Kong Island, Diddy Kong is told by Donkey Kong to guard his Banana Hoard for his "hero training" until midnight, when Donkey Kong will take over. While watching for predators beneath the darkness, that young monkey becomes attacked by a Krusha. The villain traps the monkey inside a DK Barrel and steals the Banana Hoard along with the other Kremlings, dropping a fruit trail on the way. Next morning, a loud calling of his name wakes Donkey Kong. Realizing that he has slept through his watch, the big ape quickly exits his treehouse, only to find Cranky Kong, who tells him hints about the Kremlings stealing the hoard. Donkey Kong soon realizes that both his Banana Hoard and Diddy Kong are missing and sets out to find them. After finding Diddy in a barrel, both Donkey and Diddy head out to find the stolen Banana Hoard.

On their travels, the two heroes tread through deep jungles, mines, forests, temples, snowy mountains, caves, and several other regions of the island, fighting many enemies and bosses on the way. With assistance from Cranky, Funky, and Candy Kong, the monkeys eventually reach a large ship known as the Gangplank Galleon, where they meet the Kremling Krew's leader, King K. Rool. The Kongs soon "defeat" the foe, only to find the king to get back up and fight with a new set of attacks. However, the duo manages to bring him down a second time, this time defeating the crocodile once and for all. After King K. Rool's defeat, Cranky Kong congratulates the heroes, who then tells them to check the Banana Hoard. They do so, finding that the bananas have been returned.

In the Game Boy Advance remake of the game, a short cutscene is seen at the beginning of the game when DK's bananas are stolen and after King K. Rool's defeat, where Cranky, Funky, and Candy Kong congratulate the apes on their victory. King K. Rool soon recovers and forces them off the ship, sailing away.

Gameplay
The game introduces the "tag-team" system, where Diddy and Donkey Kong follow each other throughout each level. However, the monkey in the front of the group is the Kong in play, so the other Kong simply follows behind the other. If the hero in play is injured, he quickly runs off the screen, and the Kong behind him takes his place as the character in play. In cases like this, only one Kong is on the screen at the time, as the other is defeated. If the lone Kong is injured by an enemy, the player loses an Extra Life and must restart the level from the beginning or by the Star Barrel. Fortunately, any Kong that is missing can be recovered by breaking open a DK Barrel; however, these special barrels do not appear many times in most levels. When a hero is freed from a DK Barrel, he heads to the back of the group behind the Kong in play and is not able to be controlled until the Kong in the lead is injured or if the player hits to switch characters.

It should be noted that only one Kong appears on the screen at a time in the Game Boy Color version of the game, and a DK Barrel appears at the corner of the screen instead when there is more than one Kong in the group. It should also be noted that the Kongs do not run off the screen in the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance remakes as they rather fall off the screen.

Kong Abilities
While both Kongs have different abilities, they have the same basic moves. Both Donkey and Diddy are able to jump, cartwheel (or roll), climb, and swim to pass through levels. The most commonly used basic abilities are the jump and cartwheel moves, which help the heroes cross gaps and defeat enemies. While cartwheeling is often used to pummel into weaker foes, it can also be used as part of the super-jump technique. Both characters can use this move by simply cartwheeling off a cliff and jumping in mid-air. This gives them both a longer jump to cross wider abysses.

Other than jumping and cartwheeling, the Kongs can also use their climbing and swimming abilities to traverse levels. Climbing can only be done on ropes, which can swing the primates over gaps if they cling onto them. Some ropes are stationary, which means that the Kongs can take advantage of their climbing abilities on them to head up the rope to a higher area. Another move both Kongs can perform is their swimming ability which can only be done inside of the water in the underwater levels.

Both Kongs also have some different abilities, as well as different stats. Diddy is faster and more agile than Donkey Kong; however, he is not as strong as him and has difficulty defeating stronger enemies such as Krushas and Klumps. Donkey Kong is stronger and slower than him, and he also has his own unique move called Hand Slap. The Hand Slap move allows him to defeat enemies and find hidden objects in the ground or on treetops.

Another difference between the two Kongs is how they pick up and throw barrels. When Diddy Kong picks up barrels, he holds them in from of his body, protecting him from any enemies in his way. However, Donkey Kong holds barrels above his head, leaving his whole body vulnerable to enemy attacks. Additionally, Donkey Kong throws his barrels slightly further than Diddy, making Donkey Kong more likely to hit enemies from another distance. If the primates throw a Steel Keg against a wall, they are able to jump on the barrel as it rolls back and balance on it.

Special Areas
The other members of the Kong Family clan in these special areas which assist Donkey and Diddy while they are adventuring.


 * Cranky's Cabin: This area is run by Cranky Kong, who the heroes meet here to hear him talking about some random hints and random rambling about how the 8-bit era was better than the 36-bit era. There is one Cranky's Cabin in every world.
 * Candy's Save Point: This area is run by Candy Kong. The Kongs can travel here in any world to save their game for free. In the Game Boy Color remake, this area is replaced by Candy's Challenge where the monkeys have to go through a Bonus Level and collect a golden coin. In the Game Boy Advance remake of the game, the area is replaced by Candy's Dance Studio, where Candy hosts a dance mini-game, which can be won to earn collectibles.
 * Funky's Flights: In this special area, the Kongs can meet Funky Kong and use his Jumbo Barrel to travel to any unlocked world. In the Game Boy Advance remakes, the area is replaced by Funky's Fishing, where Funky hosts a fishing mini-game along with having the Jumbo Barrel. In the game, the Kongs must catch fish while riding on Enguarde to win prizes.

Collectibles and Mechanisms
During their adventure, Diddy and Donkey run in a variety of collectibles and objects, some helpful, and some harmful. Many of these objects are listed below.

Barrels
The most common objects in Donkey Kong Country and its series are barrels. Many different barrels appear throughout this game, each having a different purpose and use. Below shows these uses on the barrels.

Levels
Donkey Kong Country features many levels in which the Kongs must successfully complete in order to reach the final boss, including boss levels. The levels are separated into worlds, such as the Kongo Jungle, and each world features five to six levels and one boss stage. Every non-boss level is home to five or less Bonus Levels, which can optionally be found to finish the game 100%, or to simply collect extra goodies such as Banana Bunches. Unlike in the Mario series, the player does not have to traverse a whole boss level to reach the boss. They simply apear in the boss battle. Every level also has its own theme, or "environment." For example, levels such as Barrel Cannon Canyon are marked as "Jungle" levels, as they take place in a jungle.

Note that the following table lists the levels in the original order on the SNES version of the game.

Playable Characters
The game features two playable characters who try to return the Banana Hoard. Below are these two characters and a description on them.

Supporting Characters
With the two playable to Kongs, there are also some non-playable apes who help them out in the game's special areas. The table below describes these helpers and names them.

Animal Buddies
The supporting Kongs are not the only ones to aid Donkey and Diddy in their quest; the wildlife also help. Each Animal Buddy is prisoner in a crate with their likeness on it. The Kongs can only use the Animal Buddies in certain levels, meaning that the Kongs leave their helpers once they exit a level. Each buddy has different abilities, as shown below.

Normal Enemies
As with all other Donkey Kong platformers, Donkey Kong Country features many different kinds of enemies, who try to defeat the Kongs throughout every level. Below shows the enemies' names, descriptions, and first and last level appearances.

Bosses
A boss is found at the end of every world and guards a portion of Donkey Kong's Banana Hoard. Each boss (excluding King K. Rool) is a bigger version of a generic enemy and requires more work to defeat. Below lists these bosses in order of appearance and gives a brief description on them.

Game Boy Color
The game was ported to the Game Boy Color in 2000. While it's a faithful conversion, there are still a few differences, some of which due to the Game Boy Color's limited capabilities. These include:


 * There are three different title screens.
 * Much like Donkey Kong Land, only one Kong appears at time. The only difference is there is an additional DK Barrel if there are two Kongs, unlike DK Land, which only has one Kong appearing without notice.
 * The Game Boy printer can be used to print some scrapbook photos.
 * The level Winky's Walkway has been extended with some more enemies and a different layout.
 * A new level called Necky Nutmare has been added in Chimp Caverns.
 * The Kongs do not ride the Animal Buddies; rather, they become them when jumping on the Animal Crates containing the Buddies.
 * Two mini-games have been added: Funky hosts a fishing game known as Funky's Fishing (which would be later reprized in the GBA port) and Cranky hosts a shooting game called Crosshair Cranky.
 * Two additional difficulties have been added: the first one removes DK Barrels and the other removes Star Barrels.
 * Most of the music and sound effects from Donkey Kong Land are reused, replacing the original themes from the Super Nintendo Entertainment System version.
 * The Warp Barrel in Mine Cart Carnage was removed.
 * A Select Screen resembling the Donkey Kong 64 one was added.
 * The game saves automatically after completing a level.
 * Candy's Save Point has been replaced by Candy's Challenge where Donkey and Diddy have to collect a golden Banana coin in each challenge of a world.
 * The credits roll while showing various screenshots instead of Donkey Kong's Treehouse.

Game Boy Advance
Another port of the game was made for the Game Boy Advance in 2003. It is a faithful conversion, even more so than the Game Boy Color version, since the Game Boy Advance's technical capabilities surpass that of the Super NES. Even so, the game features quite a few changes from the original. Some changes in this game include:


 * A "Time Attack" mode has been added, where Donkey and Diddy Kong must collect objects and complete the level in a certain amount of time.
 * Rockkrocs can now be defeated by Donkey Kong's Handslap move when they are curled up in a ball when the Stop and Go Barrels turn to the sign "STOP".
 * Some enemies come in more varieties of colors (Gnawties are blue, normal Kritters are purple, etc.)
 * When the heroes enter a Warp Barrel, they are sent into a short area that contains a group of bananas that spell out the word "WARP." In the original version of the game, as well as in the Game Boy Color version, they are simply sent to the end of the level, and not into this short area.
 * Some boss battles are slightly different: Queen B. now has several Zingers surrounding her when she gets hit and turns red, Really Gnawty makes stalactites fall from the ceiling when he jumps really high and far after being hit, Dumb Drum must have TNT Barrels thrown at it after the enemies are defeated, and the battle against Master Necky Snr. is against both him and Master Necky simultaneously.
 * After each boss, Cranky Kong comes out and compliments the Kongs on beating the boss while criticizing the bosses.
 * The game can be saved at any time or place, including halfway points in levels. With this, Candy's save areas are replaced with a dance studio, with different theme music.  Here, a dancing minigame can be played.
 * After meeting Funky (who also has different music) once, he can be summoned anytime on the world map.
 * The maps have been slightly redesigned. The world maps are also zoomed in more.
 * Starting from Vine Valley onwards, a few of the levels have been placed in a different order; for instance, Temple Tempest has become the sixth level in Vine Valley, rather than the fourth.
 * Instead of the Credits taking place in Donkey Kong's Treehouse, it takes place on Gangplank Galleon.
 * A new mode called "Hero Mode" has been added. In this mode, the player controls a yellow Diddy, who must complete every level without the help of Star Barrels or DK.
 * The game keeps track of the number of lives and bananas the Kongs have when saved, unlike in the original, which puts them back at five lives and zero bananas every time the game is reset.
 * The Barrel Cannons that send the Kongs to Bonus Levels are replaced by the Bonus Barrels used in the sequel.
 * The game has more sound effects and character voices particularly from Donkey Kong 64.
 * A scrapbook, similar to the one in the Game Boy Color version, was added, in which the Kongs have to collect photographs throughout the game in order to add pictures to the scrapbook.
 * The Two Player Contest option (while starting a new file) was removed. This option was removed in the remakes of its two sequels as well.

Development
The leadup to Donkey Kong Country's creation started in the summer of 1993. While visiting Rare as a part of a globe-travelling journey to find potential quality games in development, Tony Harman of Nintendo of America saw a Tech Demo showing an animated, computer-rendered boxer punching. Rare was experimenting with 3D Animation at the time as they found the then-popular digitization technique too restrictive. Impressed by the demo, Harman lobied for Nintendo to collaborate with Rare, and with the help of Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto, managed to convince them. Nintendo approached Rare with the mandate to make a game that would have "better graphics than Aladdin", presumably referring to the popular Sega Genesis game, which was lauded for its impressive graphics and animation. They recommended that it should star Donkey Kong, as they thought that the character and his universe were less explored than other Nintendo properties and that thus Rare could have greater creative freedom while making the game. Rare also received several millions worth of cutting-edge Silicon Graphics equipment, which was made possible due to Nintendo had forged a relationship with the company for the developement of the Ultra 64 (the Nintendo 64's prototype).

A team of 12 peoples was assembled for the project, which was the most Rare had assigned for a single game at the time. Game Designer Greg Mayles cited Super Mario Bros. 3 as his chief inspiration, saying that he wanted to imitate its structure while also providing smooth and flowing level designs that skilled players could navigate quickly. A team of developers was sent to the nearby Twycross Zoo to observe the movement of real gorillas, but found that the movement of real gorillas was not suited to the fast-paced platformer they wanted to make, and instead based Donkey Kong's movements on that of an horse. The Kremlings originated from another project Rare was developing at the same time, but were transplanted into the game as Rare found that they fitted Donkey Kong Country's asethetic perfectly. The developers also wanted the screen to be as "clutter-free" as possible, which lead to the creation of a "buddy" character so that the player could take more than one hit. Donkey Kong Jr. was first considered for the role, but he was changed into a separate character as Nintendo felt Rare's redesign looked too different.

Rare demoed an early version of the game at Nintendo's Kyoto HQ. Reception of the demo was mixed, with Gunpei Yokoi remarking that the game looked "too 3D". However, Shigeru Miyamoto approved of what was done with the project. He and his staff gave advices to Rare on how to improve the game, with one of the results being the implementation of the Hand Slap move a few weeks before completion.

Competition Cartridge
A specialized competition variant featuring an assortment of random levels and a point counter was manufactured for use in various video game tournaments held throughout 1995. After that, the few existing cartridges were sold in a Nintendo Power subscriber catalogue. Due to its rarity, this version is an expansive collector item.

Reaction and sales
At the time of its release, Donkey Kong Country was extremely acclaimed by critics and audiences alike. According to Gamespot, Donkey Kong Country has a critic score of 9.1, having over 85% from every critic. The game was also placed 39th in the 100th issue of Nintendo Power's "100 best Nintendo games of all time" in 1997 , and it was rated the 90th best game on a Nintendo system in their top 200 games list in 2006. Praise went to its graphics, music, and overall fun and addictive game-play.

Sales were more than expected, since the game was released at the peak of the 16-bit era. The game had an extremely successful first day at the stores, and sold 8.5 million copies worldwide, making it the second best selling game on the Super Nintendo, following Super Mario World. To date, it is the best selling Donkey Kong game and the best seller by Rare.

Although it won 1994's game of the year by Electronic Gaming Monthly, it was later placed on their top 10 overrated games, as well as on Gamespy's overrated games of all time list. It has mixed reactions today, but is still well-received by fans.

References to Other Games

 * Donkey Kong - Cranky Kong is said to be the Donkey Kong from this game who fought Mario in some of his own games. The Oil Drums from the first stage of this game were also featured in Donkey Kong Country at Oil Drum Alley. In addition, the intro of the game has Cranky Kong listening to and operating a phonogram that's playing the theme song for the original Donkey Kong arcade game in a background resembling the iron bars from the original arcade game before Donkey Kong drowns out the music with his boom box and proceeds to knock Cranky Kong out of the area, revealing that the setting is actually within the jungle, further implying Cranky Kong's connection to the original Donkey Kong.
 * Donkey Kong Jr. - Cranky is the original Donkey Kong, implying that the hero DK is DK Jr.



References in Later Games

 * Donkey Kong Land: The semi-sequel of Donkey Kong Country, which contains gameplay elements and music remixes from its prequel.
 * Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest: The direct sequel, which contains many gameplay elements from its predecessor. Also, in the Game Boy Advance remake, Diddy makes a reference to the first game in the intro, stating that he did not want to surrender the Banana Hoard to Kaptain K. Rool after all that he and Donkey Kong went through to get it last time. Additionally, Winky can be seen in the background of Cranky's Monkey Museum.
 * Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!: As with Donkey Kong Country 2, many gameplay elements are reused (including the return of being able to balance the Kongs on Steel Barrels, which is absent in Donkey Kong Country 2).
 * Conker's Pocket Tales: When Conker stands still for a moment, he starts playing a Game Boy. The music that is heard while he is playing is the title screen music of Donkey Kong Land, presuming Conker has the game.
 * Super Smash Bros. series: Barrel Cannons seen in Donkey Kong Country appear here. Also Kongo Jungle stages appear in the three games as Congo Jungle in the first Super Smash Bros. game, and Kongo Jungle in Super Smash Bros. Melee and remade in Melee Stages in Super Smash Bros. Brawl''.
 * Donkey Kong 64: Another instalment in the series with many similarities to Donkey Kong Country. It features the entire non-playable Kong cast, as well as another Jungle Hijinxs remix. In the Game Boy Color version, the Select Screen resembles the Donkey Kong 64 one.
 * New Super Mario Bros. Wii: Mario can pick up and throw barrels in this game. This ability may have been borrowed from Donkey Kong Country. Also, the Animal Buddy mechanics are used on Yoshi; he can only be used in certain levels and gets left behind when the level is cleared.

Beta Elements
Early previews video show minor differences, such as items in different spots, different level palettes and the Krusha and Klump enemies being invulnerable to attacks they are vulberable to in the final game.

Unused data still present on the cartridge include several sprites (including one enemy featured in the sequel), enemy palettes swaps and an early script which depicts Cranky Kong as a friendlier character.

Trivia

 * Although the Gnawties seen in-game are gray, the Gnawty on the game's boxart is blue. The species eventually became blue in Donkey Kong 64 and in the Game Boy Advance port of Donkey Kong Country.
 * This game has an adaptation in the Super Mario-Kun manga with some changes. Mario and Yoshi land in the Donkey Kong Country by mistake, and Cranky Kong asks to them help Donkey and Diddy in their task to find the bananas and stop King K. Rool.
 * In early releases, the giant bananas had the logo for Dole fruits on them. This was quickly replaced with the Nintendo logo.