Monday, August 8, 2011

Top 50 Video Games: Number 35


Mario had precision, Sonic had flash and speed, but there was never an old-school platformer series that had as much scenery porn as Donkey Kong Country. Every background just looked beautifully intricate.

See what I mean?
The peripherals were all there - The graphics, the music, the wildly varied enemies (particularly the bosses). The level design had lots of fun quirks (though I'm not sure exactly how 'fun' the quirk in the 'Stop n Go Station' was). It was easy to miss the fact that the actual platforming element of the game was nowhere near as polished as the rest of the game. The hit detection was horrific (which everyone chalked up to the faux-3D elements of the game), resulting in massive frustration later in the game when precise jumps were required everywhere.

Despite a couple of glaring flaws, Donkey Kong Country was a very enjoyable game. I've replayed it a lot over the years, and each time a different part of the game makes me smile and overlook everything else.

One of my favorite parts of the game, after you beat it, you get to see the names of all the little rodents you've been stomping into the ground for the last dozen hours

Other Notable Games in the Series: Strangely enough, even though I loved the first DKC, I never played the second or third games in the series. I've heard they're great and that I'm missing out, so I'll have to hunt them down. I also haven't played the new Donkey Kong Country Returns that came out on the Wii last year, but I heard that was pretty excellent, too.

Donkey Kong 64 isn't really in the series proper, but I suppose it counts. It wouldn't be on the list, anyway, because I really disliked it.

3 comments:

  1. I ripped through this game in about two weeks as a kid and loved it. But when I went to play it years later, I was bored. Had no real problems with it, just lost interest. And DKC2 bored me as well and I didn't finish it. It just seemed like more of the same.

    Now I still play The Lion King. Probably the best game with a Disney license.

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  2. I just made a long comment and your retarded blog robbed me of it, nib. Short version: Lion King isn't nearly the best Disney-licensed game, Beau. Aladdin? Rescue Rangers? The Scrooge McDuck one? Dude, pay more attention.

    I played DKC obsessively for a couple of months, beat it twice, then bored of it to the point where I didn't want to look at it again, ever.

    DKC was one of the first games to feature a completion percentage, which I love. It was also one of the first to feature a completion percentage of more than 100%, which irks the ever-loving crap out of me. I want to work toward 100% completion. If you're going to stop at some arbitrary number like 124.6%, tell me beforehand and don't call it a percentage. Ugh.

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  3. I like all those games you mention, with Duck Tales (aka the Scrooge McDuck one) being my favorite of the three. But I still like Lion King best.

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