Wow, it’s retro time.

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest

I’m sure you didn’t see this coming at all did you? Yes, we are going back and doing some retro games for a little while. I haven’t done any of these in quite some time, so you will again get to see my thoughts on some of the older games out there. Here, we have one of the original DKC games that I ran across not long ago. Is it worth going back and finding a copy to play, or is this something that needs to be left in the past? Let us take a closer look and see shall we?


Gameplay

Donkey Kong Country 2 is the second installment in the series, so for those that have played the first game in the series, you already know what to expect here, but let me explain it for those that want an explanation. This is your basic super Nintendo platformer. You run from level to level trying to get to the end goal so that you can progress to the next level on the map. There are several worlds each with several levels for you to play through, as well as a few bonus levels that can be unlocked later. Yes, getting to the end of the level is the basic idea, but there are reasons to slow down a bit and not just rush to the end of the level. First, the obvious ones such as finding all the letters to spell KONG to get an extra life, then you need to find banana coins to be able to purchase hints, save, or move from area to area on the world map. Also, there are two more important things to find such as Kremlin Coins, and DK coins. Finding the Kremlin coins are what you use to be able to get to the area where bonus levels are located. You find these in random areas around the level in bonus areas or stuck to the end goal. Finding these bonus areas in the levels can be quite tricky at times, so if you want to get access to the bonus levels and such, then you are going to need to explore the levels very well to find all these coins. Then there are the DK coins that are even more hidden in levels. These are used for rank at the end of the game and for a bit of bragging rights of course. These are honestly a bit easier to keep track of than the Kremlin Coins, as there is a marker on the levels where you find these coins. This means you can find what levels you haven’t found them in much easier. This is a small complaint though that I have is that you have no idea what bonus levels and what Kremlin Coins you have found unless you just replay all the levels and check them all again to see if there are any that you missed. Missing just a few coins and getting to the end can be a tad frustrating as you have no idea where you missed them. The levels themselves, when you are playing normally are pretty fun, though there is of course that traditional trickiness that Donkey Kong games tend to have to them. The game does make you work for completion, but it is rarely unfair in most levels. There may be times of frustration, but progress normally isn’t that hard. However, there is one thing that I have to bring up, and it is something that plagues many snes games and games of this era and that is that while level progression and such is saved, your lives and banana coins are all deleted when you turn the game off. That means this game does somewhat punish you for taking a break, as you will lose all lives and coins you have last time you were playing. This can leave you at a big disadvantage if you are going to harder areas or need to save your game or get hints soon after starting. You are sometimes forced to replay older levels first to get these back before you can continue. This also relies on you even being able to do so, because if the flight center with Funky isn’t unlocked in the world you are in at the moment, then you are stuck there and have to tough it out. So yeah, if you have the time, play this game in a longer play session, as taking a break from it, actually is somewhat of a punishment. Other than this though, I would say most are going to have fun running and jumping in the levels as both Diddy and Dixie Kong. Diddy is your speedier and heavier character as his jumps are more normal, but he is faster. Dixie is more the floaty character as she is slower, but she can spin her hair to float more slowly to the ground. You need to pick and choose who you want to play with in particular situations. If you aren’t sure about your jumps, then Dixie is a better choice at times, but if you need speed and more control, then Diddy is a better character to use. Most of the game is about choosing who you want to play as in any given situation, as either choice works, but it is more up to personal preference and who you feel is best at the time. Allowing you this choice is rather nice as each character is unique and allows you a choice as you are playing. It would be different if they were both similar, but this control difference is rather nice and something that comes in handy quite often. So yeah, overall, I’m pretty happy with the gameplay, other than those small punishments for taking a break.


Story

The story of this game is fine, but nothing special really either. Basically, K Rool has come back and kidnapped Donkey Kong, and it is now up to Diddy and Dixie to save him with the help of your animal friends and other Kong’s as support. Not the most creative story around, but it does give you an excuse to use a new character and at least they did try with a story. There isn’t much in terms of progression of the story, but there is a twist or two in the end that do at least show you that K Rool doesn’t want you rescuing DK and that he is trying to get away as well. The other Kong’s give little cracks here and there about things happening around them, but you could pretty much leave them out in terms of story and you wouldn’t be missing too much. So yeah, I know this is a bit of a quick one, and you sometimes can’t expect that much sometimes from older games, but at least this one tries and I’ll give it that for sure.


Graphics

If you try and say that this game didn’t look great then and now then you would be kidding yourself. This game looks great, and has quite nice looks and details throughout the game that make it look like you are actually in jungles, swamps, and on old ships. The details of the characters are very well done, and the animations and movements fit rather well with everything as well. I don’t really think I saw any lag to be noticed around, and if there was, it was so minuscule that I didn’t even remember it. The enemies, your animal friends and all the side characters are designed just fine. Heh, it’s almost hard to tell you what is or isn’t good here, when honestly, there isn’t much that needs to be said on some of the things here. Most things in this game are damn near perfect when it comes to look. I know cutscenes are honestly at a minimum though, and that’s understandable. Still, most of the talking sections are just repeating animations for the side characters and simply the standing animations of the game sprites when in those cutscenes. Again, it’s simple, but hey, it does the job. So yeah, I would still say, this was one of the better areas of this game, as it is quite the looker, and makes use of the snes’ graphic capabilities quite well.


Sound

There is a reason that this game’s sound track often shows up in snes music playlists, because not only are they done so very very well, they have that memorable factor that I like to mention as well that music needs to have if it is going to be a long lasting favorite with me and others. This game scores very high on that scale. Yes, there are certain level music that are more preferred with people out there than others, but that doesn’t mean that you can just write off all the other music in the game. You are going to be humming some of these tracks for sure. Plus, I know that there isn’t voice acting in this game, and that the story and speech is done in text boxes, while the sounds are just monkey sounds, but hey, it works. This is one of those games that does tell it’s story through motion more than other games, and it honestly doesn’t require that you have speech to know what all is going on all the time. Most of it is pretty self-explanatory by both look and sound. I hope you like monkey sounds.


Control

It will take you a little bit to get used to the controls at first, so there is a small learning curve in the beginning when you play this game. However, it isn’t that difficult to get going after a while. You just have to learn how to control the characters to where you can pull off some of the trickier moves that they can pull off. Mastering Diddy’s rolling move is needed to either get hard to reach coins and bananas or to make getting through harder to get through areas, much easier. Also, learning how to use Dixie’s hovering move is something you will want to master rather quickly if you want you are a more cautious player. She is almost made for the player that doesn’t have as much faith in their jumps as a Diddy player would have. So yeah, I don’t see many people having much trouble with the controls, as most of them are just run and jump controls after all. You just need to make sure you know how to use each Kong’s specialties and controllability to get the most out of both characters.


Replay Value

The replayability is pretty good, though lacks in just one area that makes this game perfectly replayable. There are many levels to play through, and as I said, there are Kremlin Coins and DK coins to find in all the levels if you want to play extra levels or just have the bragging rights of collecting everything. However, remember I said that DK coins are easy to keep track of and Kremlin Coins are not. You are encouraged to replay the levels to find the coins you missed, but you have no idea which levels you may have missed those coins in, so you are going to be playing levels randomly trying to figure out which ones you missed coins in. This seems like a bit of a cheap way to extend gameplay by making you have to hunt randomly for the missing coins. Maybe it’s just me, but at least a dot or something on the levels would be handy you know? The levels are fun to play, so don’t get me wrong there, but just a small thing like that would have taken away some of the random replaying that seems to be required if you want to fully complete this game, one hundred percent.


Overall, I must say that I’m still quite impressed by DKC2, and do recommend that people go give it a try. Yes, the story is a bit lacking, even with the acting through mostly motion and emotions, and there are some iffy bits with the gameplay in that you are punished for taking breaks and coming back later. Still, when you get into the game and give it nice long play sessions, you are rewarded with a stable platformer with inventive level design and well done controls. I would say this is a game that is just as fun to play now as it was back in the day and would recommend those that want to try out some of the older Donkey Kong games, or just want a fun old school platformer to go pick this game up as it is worth it.


Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Donkey Kong Country 2 an eight point five out of ten.


Gameplay: 8
Story: 6
Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Control: 9
Replay Value: 9

Overall: 8.5