Donkey Kong Land Game by Nintendo/Rare Reviewed by Philip "Pocket Squirrel" Wesley Size: 4 megabits (512KB) Save: battery 3 slots Released: 1995 Works with: All Game Boy units except for the Micro. ESRB Rated: K-A Quick Opinion: Try it out first... **************************************************************************** Opening Snide Remarks: Donkey Kong Country was a huge game for the Super Nintendo. Rare and Nintendo thought it would be a great idea to try and use the Advance Computer Modeling (ACM) that was the highlight of Donkey Kong Country on the Nintendo Game Boy. Thus Donkey Kong Land was born into the world! So, is this game any good? **************************************************************************** Gameplay Description: Donkey Kong Country introduced a more "precision" based platform game to the world and Donkey Kong Land tries to emulate that pace on the Game Boy. You start the game as Donkey Kong and you go from point A to point B in various stages collecting bananas, Face Coins (Extra Lives), K O N G letters, and occasionally meeting animals friends, check points, and DK Barrels. The game play style has not changed too much from the Super Nintendo Donkey Kong Country in that there are barrels that shoot you from place to place, hidden bonus areas to find, some swimming areas, and bosses to battle. There are a few changes, for example: Every level in this game is brand new and there is even a few "construction" levels to get through. There are a few new enemies like flying pigs and there is a new save mechanic to contend with. You see, in Donkey Kong Country, collecting all the letters in a level earns you an extra life. In Donkey Kong Land, finding those letters allows you to save your progress. The levels are actually pretty challenging in comparison to Donkey Kong Country and part of this has to do more with the limitations of the Game Boy than actual level design. There are about 40 levels and a few bosses, although the bosses are not terribly exciting. The first boss you fight is a flying sting ray that moves from left to right while you try to jump on it's head. The game also has Super Game Boy functions which I would suggest checking out as it makes the game a little easier to play. In fact, this is a game that gets less challenging depending on what Game Boy unit you play it on. Liked: There are about 40 new levels in this game and a lot of interesting settings. The game play is pretty challenging and captures the precision spirit of the Donkey Kong Country series rather well. A few of the animal friends from Donkey Kong Country make a return, although they are limited severely. Hated: Having to find all of the K O N G letters in order to save your game is both challenging and very frustrating. There are some issues with the game design and graphics that make much of this game an exercise in frustration. The limited use of the animal friends loses all of the charm they had in previous Donkey Kong Country games. **************************************************************************** Graphics Description: The first time I played this game was on the Game Boy original with a magnifying attachment and -even then- it was pretty hard to see where your character begins and the backgrounds end. A large part of this game is leaps of faith and hoping that you see an enemy before you walk into them. On the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, you can make the sprites a different color from the background and this makes the game much easier. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong look fine and some of the backgrounds in this game are quite detailed. The scrolling backgrounds in the airship levels are impressive and the Super Game Boy color choices make sense. The Super Game Boy frame is a bit dull. The overall look of the game is messy though. We have some really great background, but no distinction between the characters, enemies, and those backgrounds. Adding a while border to them might have been a good idea and it is a shame that no one decided to do that. There is also a lot of sprite flicker due to the Game Boy's limited amount of line resolution. The game also has frame rate issues where sprites appear to be slow down drastically in areas and this can cause missed jumps and just general frustration. The game was made slightly more manageable on the Game Boy Pocket; but not by much. It tries to be pretty; but the enemy placement, slow down, flicker, and general clutter of the graphics tends to make it a lot less playable. The game play of a title should not suffer because of the graphics. Liked: Those backgrounds are cool. Hated: Everything on those backgrounds is difficult to see and it appears that no effort was made to fix this problem. **************************************************************************** Sound/Music Description: There are a few 8 bit remixes of some of the music from Donkey Kong Country and then there are a lot of really wonderful new compositions. The music in this game is top notch and a great example of how to properly use the sound chip in the Game Boy. When you pause the game, the music continues to play and this allows you to enjoy some of the really excellent music. I just wish the level of care and skill put into the music had seeped into the rest of the production of this game. The sound effects are appropriate and match the action on screen. Liked: The music is really excellent and I can pause the game to take in the two best parts of this game: The Backgrounds and the Music. Hated: The level of expertise poured into the music just makes the other flaws of this game extremely obvious. Unfortunately, you have to play through quite a few levels to get from the great songs to the amazing songs. **************************************************************************** Play Control/Game Design: The play control is pretty simplified, holding B makes you run and allows you to either roll or pick up barrels. The A button jumps and most of the time these work like they should. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong have a few subtle differences between them. Diddy can jump a little bit higher and farther, while Donkey Kong can take out enemies that Diddy can not even daze. There are parts where the graphics will cause slow down and your character will lose all forward momentum. This causes many frustrating deaths and I think the designers were aware of this problem and decided to use it as "challenge" when it is really just "tedium." The enemies are placed in a way that allows them to effectively blend into the background on many levels. This makes the game "cheap" instead of a legitimate challenge. Liked: Well, the buttons and physics occasionally work correctly. It is a decent challenge, although a cheap challenge. Hated: The game is not very fun because of the problems it has with graphics, physics, enemy placement, and slow down. **************************************************************************** Improve: I think the game would have benefited greatly from outlines to differentiate the foreground sprites from the background sprites. RIYL: Precision platformers like Donkey Kong Country or Rayman; but only if you can play this on a Super Game Boy or Game Boy Advance SP with a back light. Those are the only two units where the game is really visible. **************************************************************************** Final Words: I love the ideas presented and the music is excellent; but the other technical issues drag down what should be a fun, enjoyable game. This could really use some sort of reimagining on the the 3DS. The levels would be amazing if everything worked correctly on it. The airship levels and construction levels really need to return. This game was an interesting experiment at the time; but it should have spent a little more time in the lab before it was released. **************************************************************************** Score Gameplay: ** Graphics: ** Sound/Music: ***** Play Control/Game Design: *** Value: ** Star Total: 42% Personal Opinion Merit: 10% Add the Star Score and Merit Score together for the final % score. Final Score: 52% Letter Grade: D ****************************************************************************