Sunday, August 18, 2013

Monkeyin' Around

As I mentioned in my last post, Donkey Kong Country may have been the first video game I have ever own myself and, now that I look back on it, was most likely the bud from which my love of platformers blossomed. Funnily enough, it was a game I really took for granted and didn't come to appreciate in the fullest until recently.

I beat the game once as a kid only to lazily replay it halfway through a couple of times in my college years and hadn't even touched its sequels until my recent run-through of the games over this past month. In fact, "platformer" was a genre I didn't really think about until the "retro indie platformer" boom of 2008-2010 which started with Braid (a game I have yet to finish and may appear on this blog in the long run) and was highlighted, for me at least, by Super Meat Boy and VVVVVV.

Sure, I'd play a Kirby game here and there, but most of my video game playing time was spent with World of Warcraft (and, before that, Warcraft III), Pokemon, Halo and other big-named console games. Granted, that's probably a huge generalization and I'm in no way trying to dis these series, but you get the picture. My video game taste started to mature into something more like it is today during my first few semesters at university, during which I modded my Wii, put together a gaming PC, and, alongside the aforementioned platformer boom, acquired the Mega Man Anniversary Collection.

Anyway, Donkey Kong.

Donkey Kong Country is very much a game of its time: a platformer starring campy, yet iconic, characters trying to return their small world to a comfortable status quo by jumping on the heads of equally memorable villains. Donkey Kong just wanted his damn bananas back from King K. Rool, a big baddie who, unfortunately, hasn't garnered the sort of popularity or number of game appearances similar villains, such as Bowser, Dr. Wily, and King DeDeDe, have (K. Rool for Smash 4!).

Both Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong are playable in the game and can be switched between on a whim. The duo must each die in order for the player to lose a life as well (that is, unless you end up sending both plummeting to their deaths at once). The heroes have their own distinct feels and playstyles with DK being heavier, but able to take out the games bulkier enemies while Diddy is lighter and faster than the game's namesake.

It's a game featuring your basic, platforming controls with "run" and "jump" buttons, but there are some cool technical things thrown into the mix for variety. Tapping the run button allows for a roll attack which, along with jumping on enemy heads, makes for a sort of strangely satisfying and bouncy "combat" that adds to the game's overall flow instead of hindering it the way combat does in some other platformers. Players can also roll off ledges and jump afterwards in order to give Diddy or DK a little more horizontal distance in the air.

There are a lot of things other than just controls which Donkey Kong Country did in order to make itself stand out among a myriad of platformers. Barrels, an iconic part of any Donkey Kong game, can be found throughout the game and come in a variety of types. Some can be picked up and used to demolish enemies or break walls to secret areas while others can be jumped into, blasting players to out of reach players or, more usually than not, other blast barrels. "Barrel segments" of various levels make for some real intense and unique platforming, especially when players are forced to time their shots into moving barrels while simultaneously dodging pesky flying enemies.

Our Kongs don't fight alone, though, and have five animal friends helping them take down K. Rool. Players can ride Rambi the Rhino in order to charge down enemies or break through walls to secret areas. Winky the Frog allows players to jump much higher and safely onto normal dangerous enemies' heads. Expresso the Ostrich's long legs let the Kongs evade low-to-the-ground enemies at high speeds and his small wings allow for gliding. Enguarde the Swordfish has tighter controls underwater than the Kongs do and also has the ability to stab aquatic foes, allowing the Kongs to attack underwater. Lastly is the Parrot, Squawks, who only appears as a baby in one level in order to carry a lantern in a dark cave. Squawks plays a larger role in the next few games.

Secrets and collectibles litter Donkey Kong Island, so much so that total completion of the game rewards the player with a 101% rather than a 100%. K-O-N-G letters in each level act as both a collectible and a way for players to earn a life if they find all four. Golden animal figurines can also be found, which open the way to bonus mini-games where players collect tinier golden figurines for extra lives as their animal friends when three of a kind are collected. As mentioned before, well placed barrels and animal companions will allow the player to find secret areas usually containing a short mini-game rewarding the players with a letter, extra lives, or animal figures.

These secrets and trinkets make up the "Collect-a-thon" aspect of Donkey Kong Country and really form the back-bone of the game, in my opinion. It's immensely satisfying to find one of these areas without a guide or any sort of help and they usually appear in order to reward the player for good gameplay and decision making (barrels and animals which let you find/reach many secret areas can be lost before the time is right due to poor platforming or collision with an enemy). There are also a number of boss battles in the game, but, aside from King K. Rool, they end up being pretty repetitive, uninteresting, and too short. Fortunately, this is fixed in later installments and they aren't without their charm (the boss theme, like most of the music in the game, is really good).

Well, this post already ended up much longer than expected, so I suppose I'll end here and make a shorter follow-up post on DKC2 and 3, which both largely keep the same formula, but build upon the already strong foundation in their own way. If you haven't give Dokney Kong Country a try, please do. The series could use some more love and it seems like DK may finally be making a bit of a comeback in a sea of Mario platformers.

I'd like to leave you with the theme to your encounter with King K. Rool, one of the more memorable parts of the game, if not the most memorable. The platforming in the game is solid throughout and each level provides unique challenge which slowly evolve as you progress through the game, but I'm always a sucker for a good boss fight.

    

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