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 creating a 3D effect throughout the game. It is the first game in the Donkey Kong Country series, with 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. The game stars Donkey Kong, along with his buddy, 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 more new elements. Donkey Kong Country was also released on the Wii's Virtual Console in 2006, being the same as the original version.

Storyline
King K. Rool has stolen Donkey Kong's precious Banana Hoard from his home on Donkey Kong Island. With the help of his friend, Diddy Kong, Donkey must chase K. Rool to his ship, the Gangplank Galleon, and get back his bananas.

Gameplay
The game introduces the "tag-team" system. Diddy and Donkey Kong follow each other and each have their own unique abilities. Diddy is faster and more agile than Donkey, however, he's not as strong as Donkey and have difficulty defeating stronger enemies such as Krushas. Donkey Kong is stronger and slower, as well as having his own unique move called Hand Slap. If one of the Kongs happens to be attacked, he will run away and can't be used. A Kong can be "resurrected" by finding a DK Barrel and smashing it. Losing both Kongs or falling in a bottomless pit will cause an Extra Life to be lost.

Special Areas
During their adventure, Donkey and Diddy are helped by the other members of the Kong clan. They are:
 * Cranky Kong helps by randomly giving hints. He also appears to give narration after the defeat of a boss in the Game Boy Advance version.
 * Candy Kong allows the player to save their progress. She also hosts a dance mini-game in the Game Boy Advance version.
 * Funky Kong lets the Kongs use his barrel jet, allowing them to visit worlds they have already completed. He also hosts a fishing mini-game in the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance version.

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

Levels
The "world" (Represented by a Hut) located before Kongo Jungle on the overworld map can not be accessed. The Kongs are shown to start off their journey by leaving this area and heading to Kongo Jungle.

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

Animal Buddies
The 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 apes leave their helpers once they leave a level. Each buddy has different abilities, as shown below.

Bosses
Each Boss is found at the end of a 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. They are, in order of appearance.

Port Differences
The game was ported to the Game Boy Color in 2000. While it's a faithful conversion, there are still a few differences:
 * There are three different title screens.
 * Much like Donkey Kong Land, only one Kong appears at time.
 * The Game Boy printer can be used.
 * The level "Winky's Walkway" was extended.
 * A new level called "Necky Nutmare" has been added in Chimp Caverns.
 * The Kongs don't ride the Animal Buddies; rather, they become them.
 * Two minigames have been added: Funky hosts a fishing game known as Funky's Fishing (which would be later reprised in the GBA port) and Cranky oversees a shooting game.
 * Two additional difficulties have been added: the first one removes DK Barrels and the second one removes Star Barrels.
 * Some of the music in Donkey Kong Land was reused.

Another port was made for the Game Boy Advance in 2003. The changes for this one include:
 * Candy hosts a dancing mini-game at Candy's Dance Studio.
 * A "Time Attack" mode has been added.
 * The Rockkroc enemy can now be defeated by using Donkey Kong's Handslap move.
 * Some enemies have different colors.
 * Some bosses were made stronger: Queen B. now has three Zingers surrounding her, Really Gnawty can make stalactites fall, Dumb Drum must have a TNT Barrel thrown at it, and the battle against Master Necky Snr. is against both him and Master Necky the younger simultaneously.
 * The game can be saved at any time on a map screen.
 * After meeting Funky once, he can be summoned anytime on the world map.
 * The maps have been redesigned.
 * Starting from Vine Valley onwards, a few of the levels have been placed in a different order; for instance, Temple Tempest became the sixth level in Vine Valley, rather than the fourth.
 * The credits took place in Donkey Kong's Treehouse in the original; they now take place on the Gangplank Galleon.
 * A new mode called "Videogame Hero" has been added. In this mode, the player controls a yellow-clad Diddy and will never encounter DK Barrels or Star Barrels.
 * The save also saves the number of lives.
 * The automatic barrels that sent players to bonus rooms were replaced by the Bonus Barrel used in the sequel.
 * The game had more voices.
 * A scrapbook was added, in which players had to collect Photographs throughout the game in order to add pictures to it.

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 9.3, having over 90% from every critic. 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.

The game was placed 39th in the 100th issue of Nintendo Power's "100 best Nintendo games of all time" in 1997 , and it was also rated the 90th best game on a Nintendo system in their top 200 games list in 2006.

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 claims to be the Donkey Kong in this game, he also makes mentions fighting Mario, and is seen in the final stage of this game in the opening scenes. The Oil Drums from the first stage were also featured in this game at Oil Drum Alley.
 *  Donkey Kong Jr.- If the above is true, Donkey Kong Junior is the Donkey Kong featured in this game.

References in Later Games

 * Donkey Kong Land: The semi-sequel, which contained gameplay elements from Donkey Kong Country, as well as remixes of some songs.
 * Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest: The direct sequel, which of course, contained 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 didn't want to surrender the Banana Hoard to K. Rool after all that he and Donkey Kong went through to get them last time. Also, a remix of the Jungle Hijinxs theme plays in the bonus stages, and Winky could 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 were reused (including the return of being able to balance the Kongs on steel barrels, which was absent in DKC2). Also, another Jungle Hijinxs remix can be heard at Wrinkly's Save Cave.
 * Conker's Pocket Tales: When Conker stands still for a moment, he will start playing a Game Boy. The music that is heard while he is playing is the title theme of DKC. This game came out in 1999, where the DKC remake for the Game Boy came out in 2000.
 * Super Smash Bros.: Donkey Kong appears as a playable character, and there's a selectable jungle themed stage, which contains a blasting barrel at the bottom.
 * Donkey Kong 64: Another installment in the series. It features the entire non-playable Kong cast, as well as another Jungle Hijinxs remix.
 * New Super Mario Bros. Wii: The animal buddy mechanics are used on the Yoshis, meaning that they could only be used in certain levels in that game. Also, barrels could be picked up and thrown.

Trivia

 * The Gnawty enemy is pictured as blue on the boxart while they were gray in-game. They eventually became blue in Donkey Kong 64 and the GBA port.
 * 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.