Donkey Kong Land

The Good
This Gameboy title "Donkey Kong Land", is a version specifically made for this platform. Note the title is not "Donkey Kong Country", but "-Land" instead. What you find inside this cartridge (it's a bright banana-yellow colour, by the way), is a kind of remix of different aspects of the Super NES titles and it's sequel. Players take control of Donkey and Diddy, and climb and roll through many different areas. The goal? Well, to take down King K. Rool once again.

How on earth could they compress the brilliantly animated and vivid-coloured world of the the "Country" games onto a Gameboy cart? Well, of course, the technical limitations on on this system are immense in comparison, but, you will be pleasantly surprised at just how well the Rare team captured the spirit and (almost) all of the fun of the original games. Firstly, I will make a note that this review is based on the original release, (not the Colour Gameboy game).

The first thing you see is fairly impressive, a title screen that really makes the absolute best use of the Gameboy's grey-scale palette. Donkey, Diddy and Rambi are presented in the full 3D light-modeled style that set the original "Country" so far above it's predecessors. Three save-slots are available, and right away, you're thrown into World One "Gangplank Galleon Ahoy!", (there are four in total: "Kremlantis", "Monkey Mountains and Chimpanzee Clouds", and finally "Big Ape City").

Now, unlike the Super NES game, the Gameboy only has one character on-screen at once, hitting SELECT switches your player. You still collect barrels marked with "DK" to refill your second-character, and you still collect hordes of bananas that, presumably King K. Rool has left scattered once again. Enemies in this game are a little tougher than on the consoles, and it's not uncommon that you miss-time a jump or fall victim to the screen-scrolling peculiarities that I noticed - you really do fall VERY quickly in this game, (from memory, it's faster than the screen scrolls).

Because of the such detailed environments, you can't help but notice just how jam-packed the screen is with detail, particularly in the jungle areas. In fact, it's so dense, that often you cannot even distinguish just what you need to be killing, collecting, or avoiding. This however, passes once you've moved into some of the later more sparse levels. The gameplay itself really is of the highest quality, and it flows very well for such a light-weight system as the Gameboy. The rolling and jumping fluidity that made "Country" such a fun game is transposed pretty well here, but admittedly, it does feel different. I believe that you jump higher than you do in the other games.

The great appeal in "Land" is it's completion system. Just beating the final boss does not equate to 100% completion. Those famous Donkey Kong secrets are still hidden away throughout every level - some in plain view, some are very subtle and quite impossible to find on your first time through. Rare has improved the replay value by doing this.

The Bad
Of all the platform-games on the Gameboy, this has got to be the first true innovator. Those looking for an extension of "Donkey Kong Country" should be quite happy with game. Just be aware of the various downgrades that were made in order to fit the game on. Every major aspect of game-design has been limited somehow here: the graphics the sound (music is brilliant, by the way), and the length are really much, more concise than any Super NES game - but only a fool would expect other wise.

The Bottom Line
I remember reading at the time in "Nintendo Magazine System" that the gameplay was actually improved from the console game. That seemed very impressive, and I'm afraid to say that I do not believe that to be true. However, this cartridge is not a cash-in, it's a great game in it's own right.

The Good
They say first impressions are everything... Well, not exactly. At first DKL impressed as a portentous wonder: I can't believe I'm playing Donkey Kong Country on my Game Boy!
The graphics are really good, not only I can tell everything from everything else but after a while it starts to look like the beautiful pre-rendered 3D sprites, animation and backgrounds of the original. I thought I was playing on Super Nintendo... Maybe an overstatement...
Though Rare made good use of the same Silicon Graphics tools they developed DKC on the SNES with, and according to lead programmer Paul Machacek, they even took advantage of Game Boy's "higher-than-NES" capabilities for handling sprites... Yes! apparently that was the case:
The Game Boy could do some things graphically better than its 8-bit older brother! He even claims that the game looks better on the original GB than on a Super GB (and that I can believe for sure, cuz you know, the Super GB colors suck!)

I took a moment to listen to the music and hum to the amazing David Wise iconic tunes - with even some new ones - ported into the cheapest sound hardware ever. The team was way into development of DKC2 for the Super NES when they started this sequel, and a sequel it is, that has 34 original levels in the familiar DKC universe setting but also new locations, new enemies and bosses; with great re-playability on behalf of the secret bonuses and the completion percentage system. All of which makes a fair game time for your money.
The game is so long that the cartridge even has some save files, finally putting to good use those damn Kong letters that now you need to collect in order to save (though at the same time it's kind of annoying when you can't because you haven't found one of the letters after finally beating a particularly difficult level).
But the most impressive part is how the characters - you can only see and control one at a time - feel while jumping and climbing, moving and rolling... It's not perfect. But I was expecting a floating, flickery, laggy mess... And there is some of that, definitely loses some of the kinetic energy the series is known for... But so many platformers get it wrong, and DKL got it right!
It even has some animal buddies! Is there anything Rare couldn't do back in those days? ...

The Bad
And then you begin to play and the issues of making a Game Boy follow-up for one of the most technically challenging games of the 16-bit era begin to appear.
At times DKL becomes borderline unplayable. The enemies appear suddenly out of nowhere, sometimes the game doesn't remember you collected a Kong barrel, resulting in cheap deaths; a simple fall into thin air could mean sudden death out of the system's short memory, the hit boxes are horrible... All of these ramp up the challenge in an already extremely difficult platformer. And I mean Hard!

The Bottom Line
Yes! This is not the original. But neither just a cheap port, this is its own game with its faults and merits and even some new interesting platforming ideas; I would have loved this as a child, the whole thing reeks of ambition like the feverish dream of a mad genius programmer. Apparently first impressions ARE everything and I'll be damned if this doesn't feel like a full DKC game on a Game Boy and again: isn't that freaking amazing!?

The Good
Donkey Kong Land is one of the first Game Boy games I ever played. Everything in this game melds almost seamlessly and has no low spots in the gameplay!

First off, the graphics. THE BEST GAME BOY GRAPHICS EVER ! Except for Game Boy Color games that is. Donkey, Diddy, and all the Kremlins look fantastic! Smooth, fluid animation moves these characters in the handheld history books! I've yet to see any other game on the original Game Boy to look this good and play smoothly. The backgrounds are awesome! Super detailed, very clear, and surprisingly expressive, I paused the game many times just to look at them!

Sound is obviously something that one wouldn't expect much from the Game Boy, but it's better than most. More exactly the music. I can't remember who did it, but it's by and large some of the best music ever composed for the system. The rest of the sound is made up of the usual beeps and such, but played with headphones, it's an extremely immersive experience. And I should point out, the music in the water levels is the best in the whole game!

The controls are very simple. A is jump, B is run and pick up stuff, select changes the characters, and start is pause. Simple intuitive, responsive, nuff said.

The gameplay is very addictive and is nothing but pure platforming action! No puzzles, no item hunts (except "KONG" which you need to save your game) and no annoying characters. Jumping on stuff hasn't been this fun since Super Mario Brothers! And it's fast! No waiting! Jump, swim, and ride birds all the way to the end! Plus the bosses are really cool. Especially that giant clam! And this is one of the few Game Boy games I know of that you can save your game. With three save slots! Very nice.

The Bad
Those "leaps of faith" tend to be VERY annoying in the city levels. And sometimes the characters blend with the background too well.

The Bottom Line
Get it! You'll love it! One of Rare's finest efforts. Plus it comes in a yellow cartridge! Add some color to that drab grey collection of cartridges!