Donkey Kong Land Retrospective

Not seen celebrating perhaps, was the wizened Cranky Kong – assured that the previous success of Donkey Kong Country was due to it’s mind blowing visuals having served little more than a distraction from an otherwise sub-par outing. Adding insult to injury, Cranky goads the duo into tracking down their banana horde a second time on an 8-bit system, confident that their initial success was little more than a fluke, and that gamers wouldn’t be fooled twice.

While the premise for Donkey Kong Land may be laughably dismissive, the title soon stifles laugher with genuine difficulty that even the most hardened DKC veterans will find challenging. One only has to step into the second level, Freezing Fun to struggle with reduced traction and iced pathways to discover that Donkey Kong Land is merciless from the beginning, with a slick difficulty spike that can only be rivaled by contemporary Country‘s Gorilla Glacier. Even rudimentary tasks like saving your progress was reserved for gamers made of stronger stuff, as Candy’s Save Point was nowhere to be found on Donkey Kong Island. Instead, players would be tasked with collecting each of the K-O-N-G letters in a level to save on completion – a requirement made utterly devious in later levels where certain letters will be hidden in bonus areas or well off the beaten path as your lives begin to dwindle.

Gamers who persevered found themselves ultimately rewarded with access to new portions of Donkey Kong Island, ranging from the bustling metropolis of Big Ape City to the perilous heights of Monkey Mountain that offered a passageway into the Chimpanzee Clouds. Each new area was home to a slew of fearsome foes including the aerodynamic swine Hogwash that would grapple with the Kong‘s sensibilities and fleeting sanity as they boarded girders suspended in the clouds – terrifying stuff to be sure! Taken out of their jungle element, these surreal sections provided entirely new strategies for players to take advantage of, and are directly responsible for some of the most intense, white-knuckle leaps of faith seen in any Donkey Kong title since.

Akin to its SNES counterpart, Donkey Kong Land reveled in excellent music that set the proper tone for each area; leaping through the clouds of Sky High Caper was appropriately whimsical and high-spirited, Tricky Temple brought with it an uncertain wariness coupled with an upbeat theme that encouraged exploration.
Hardly forgetting its roots, Donkey Kong Land also provided familiar stages with fitting music established in the original title; the canopies of Jungle Jaunt came alive with the sounds of Jungle Groove, several areas of Kremlantis were fortunate enough to earn their own chiptune rendition of Aquatic Ambiance and nautical areas like Riggin’ Rumble weren’t complete without the shanty melody of Gangplank Galleon.

While it can hardly be considered a straight port with all of its new fangled additions and innovations, Donkey Kong Land barely constitutes itself as an entirely new adventure as each level features a twinge of familiarity – and daresay nostalgia – that really makes it the best of both worlds.
If you loved the original Donkey Kong Country (for more than just the graphics as Cranky Kong will so adamantly entertain), and you’re looking for something in the same vein that can be used to treat your separation anxiety – look no further than this portable treat that Rare have disguised as more of the same, but so much more!