Donkey Kong Country

Donkey Kong Country (Super Donkey Kong in Japan) is a game in the Donkey Kong series, and is the first Donkey Kong game for the SNES. It is developed by Rare. The Donkey Kong Country game managed to be a huge success to the Nintendo industry and was game of the year when it was first released. Donkey Kong Country also had a certificate of Players choice on the box arts a year later.

The game is considered by many Donkey Kong fans as the best game in the series, and would later spawn many sequels by Rare. Once Rare left Nintendo, Nintendo gave the rights of Donkey Kong to Paon, a second party developer who has so far currently made DK: King of Swing, it's sequel, and Donkey Kong Bongo Blast.

It was the first Donkey Kong game to feature Donkey Kong as a playable character. Donkey Kong was a top selling game and the first to use 3D pre-rendered graphics on a SNES game. Some magazines even said that it could compete against the newest PSX games.

Plot
On one rainy night Donkey Kong grew tired of guarding his large Banana Hoard so Diddy Kong offered to. When Donkey Kong went to bed a gang of Kremlings ambushed Diddy and locked him in a barrel. The next morning Donkey Kong woke up and discovered that his Banana Hoard in the cave was missing. He searched around and found Diddy in the barrel and broke him out. Both Kongs go on a quest to stop the Kremlings and their leader, King K. Rool to reclaim the Banana Hoard.

Gameplay


Donkey Kong Country is a sidescrolling platformer starring Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong as the playable characters. Their attacks consists of jumping and performing a rolling attack, though they can also pick up barrels and lodge them at their enemies, which includes the Kremlings and various others. If one character is attacked by an opponent, then they'll leave the screen and be replaced by the other character. If they both die (and if the player doesn't come in possession of another kong), then they'll have to start back at the checkpoint. If they lose all of their lives then they'll have to start the entire stage over.

One interesting feature that was added to this game and that was relatively new in concept was Bonus games. Those are special rooms where the player can earn extra points and lives. The innovative aspect of DKC is that the finding of bonus rooms count as a percentage in completing the game. The whole percentage for the game must be 101%, represented by an asterisk on the save screen (101*). In sequels of this game (DKC 2 and 3), the bonus rooms play a more important role; they allow access to hidden worlds, by collecting coins.

Other Media
A CG animated show of the same name was created and ran on Fox Family from 1997-2000.

Game Boy Advance
A mildly enhanced port was released to the Game Boy Advance. Notable differences:
 * Saving is possible anywhere rather than just at save points.
 * A prologue explaining the purpose of DK's quest is played prior to the start of the game, as well as an epilogue.
 * The Nintendo label on the giant bananas has been removed, and Cranky will give commentary after the boss is defeated.
 * The graphics and overall sound quality have been reduced. Some enemies have tweaked, usually higher pitched effects.
 * Candy and Funky now run bonus games, and Cranky's Cabin has been redesigned.
 * A multiplayer mode is possible, but on the Gamecube either player can play as DK or Diddy.
 * On the overhead map, a menu was added. In it, Funky can be summoned anytime on the map screen, get access to a scrapbook, save the game and view level stats.

Sequels

 * Donkey Kong Country 2
 * Donkey Kong Country 3
 * Donkey Kong 64
 * Donkey Kong Country Returns

Trivia

 * The large bananas that appear after a boss is defeated originally had the Dole logo on them, but were later replaced with Nintendo logos.