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Scrawnto's Donkey Kong Country 2 (SNES)
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| [January 26, 2008 01:55:28 AM]
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GAMEPLAY
In the second play session I mostly came across more of the same but with slight variations on the theme. I worked through two more regions with very distinct themes. The first area had been a pirate ship. The next two were a volcano and a swamp respectively. Many areas also included animal helpers which could be ridden. These imbued me with new abilities such as flight or higher jumping.
I also had to fight bosses at the end of each region. While they were a nice change of pace and contributed to the themes of the region, they were rather predictable and not particularly difficult to beat.
DESIGN
One of Donkey Kong Country 2’s strong points is a cohesive style. Levels are very good at conveying an atmosphere. The levels inside of the volcano all have orangish hues. The music echoes like it might in a cave. In contrast, the swamp levels are composed with hues of greens with music infused with the sounds of chirping frogs. All of the music in the game is top notch and I actually find myself humming the tunes every once in a while.
The game also has several features which were innovative for the time. The game gives the player two characters to use. They each have slight variations to their abilities. Each also has the ability to pick up and throw the other across gaps. The level designs take advantage of these abilities well too.
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| [January 26, 2008 12:44:30 AM]
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SUMMARY
Donkey Kong Country 2 is a platforming game in which you take control of two monkey protagonists as they journey to rescue Donkey Kong from the evil Kaptain K. Rool and his Kremling minions.
GAMEPLAY
It is very easy to pick up Donkey Kong Country 2. The controls are fairly intuitive. I did, however, play the game on the Wii virtual console with a Gamecube controller, which is decidedly sub-optimal, but I can't fault the developers for this. There's no way they could have predicted the circumstances in which I played it.
Besides the minor button placement issues, which I was able to overcome readily my play experience was very positive. Gameplay is varied and well polished all around. At multiple points in every level there are miniature bonus rounds which can be entered through barrel cannons. These bonus rounds have various objectives such as collecting stars or destroying enemies. Afterwards the player is rewarded with a banana coin which can be used to pay for hints an tips from the protagonists family members.
The levels themselves also vary greatly. While most are standard platforming levels others include underwater levels and minecart rides. Enemies mostly follow reptilian or insect themes but they mostly have differing weaknesses and behaviors to keep the player on his toes.
The game was very fun. The gameplay has aged to an extent; the characters don't have a huge variety of abilities, but those they have are very well tuned. They can be used in different situations to achieve varied goals. The different jumping challenges are well put together. The spacings are just wide enough to pose a challenge,but there is still enough leeway that it doesn't become tedious. Besides this, most of the hardest platforming is optional, leading to bonus stages. There are also checkpoints placed at midway through the levels.
One area in which the game is lacking is narrative. It doesn't matter so much, as narrative would probably only pose a distraction from the excellent platforming gameplay.
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Scrawnto's Donkey Kong Country 2 (SNES)
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Current Status: Played occasionally
GameLog started on: Friday 25 January, 2008
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