My Top 5 Donkey Kong Country Animal Buddies!

Hey everyone and welcome back... Or if it is your first time here... Welcome to Hydra Gaming. Tonight I will be showing off my top 5 favorite Animal Buddies from the Donkey Kong Country series. I know originally I planned on doing a top 7, but honestly I think a top 5 is all I need. Please note that this list only encompasses the original three games on the Super Nintendo and not the Game Boy Advance ports or the newer Donkey Kong Country games on the Wii, 3DS, or Wii-U. My reason for this is largely due to the lack of Animal Buddies in Donkey Kong Country Returns and me having yet to actually play Tropical Freeze (currently being played through for the first time). So With that being said, let's get this mini countdown going!

Number 5: Ellie the Elephant

Ellie the Elephant is considered by many to be the replacement for Rambi in Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble. Ellie is also viewed by many to be very lackluster compared to the fan favorite rhino. Personally speaking I actually like Ellie a lot. I like that she has the ability to pull far away barrels to her which can save a world of headaches from happening. No, she is no Rambi, but I personally found her ability to shoot water to be quite useful in the levels where you can use it and overall one of the better abilities of all the animal buddies.

Number 4: Squawks the Parrot

Now I know a lot of you are probably wondering how I could rank Squawks the Parrot at number 4. After all, Squawks was in all three Donkey Kong Country games on the Super Nintendo with various abilities. In the first game he simply carried a light as Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong forged their way through dark caves. In Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Squawks lost the light and gained the ability to shoot nuts at enemies. Also featured in the second game was a purple Squawks that couldn't spit nuts, but rather guided Diddy and Dixie in a downward direction. Purple Squawks would gain the ability to fly in various directions and pick up and drop barrels on enemies in the third game in the series. Squawks plays a pretty major part in all three games and he is a lot of fun to play with to boot. Just watch out for his section in Animal Antics in Donkey Kong Country 2... That is probably one of if not the hardest parts of the series.

Number 3: Rambi the Rhino

Rambi, Rambi, Rambi. Easily the most iconic of the animal buddies, Rambi the Rhino was first seen in the first level of Donkey Kong Country. Rambi is one baaaaad Rhino whose capable of busting walls down, taking out the toughest of enemies, and even in Donkey Kong Country 2, charging full force clear through levels. Rambi for whatever reason was forced to take a back seat in Donkey Kong Country 3 to Ellie the Elephant in a move that irritated many fans. He did make it into the newer Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze though, so Rambi once again proves that he is the beast of the animal buddies. I love Rambi. He's a ton of fun to use and when you become him or ride him, you get that feeling that you are going to literally wreck anything you can in your path. 

Number 2: Enguarde the Swordfish

To those of you who personally know me, this should come as no surprise. For those who don't know me, Enguarde the Swordfish is essentially Rambi in the water. He can be seen in all three games and in all three of these games he makes water levels a ton easier. Enguarde is a great swimmer with the ability in the second and third games to charge through the water just like Rambi does on the land. Enguarde does have a major drawback. If he gets stranded on land he really doesn't go anywhere fast at all. Kind swims like a fish out of water... Also known as not good. Despite that though I love playing with Enguarde. It could be the fish lover in me but I just think that riding a massive swordfish and literally stabbing many fishlike enemies is one of the coolest things in the series.

Sooooooo.... There is one Animal Buddy left. One animal on my top 5 list. One animal that I can say I have had by the far the most fun with and probably have spent the most time playing with despite him not being in every game. So without further adeu....

Number 1: Squitter the Spider

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I give you Squitter the Spider. Squitter debuted in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest and was also in Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble. First of all check out the spider. He wears some pretty legit sneakers. That and his color is pretty freaking cool. So what can Squitter do? He can shoot webs at enemies and actually aim those webs in different directions. He can also use webs to create platforms wherever he wants. Even those webs he can guide in different directions. If you really want you can use Squitter to make a web highway throughout entire levels. For whatever reason Squitter and the other animal buddies besides Squawks and Rambi have been left out of the newer games which I have maintained as a big mistake. When I think of the Donkey Kong Country on SNES series, the first animal that comes to mind is Rambi, but then the best one I point at Squitter on many levels. 

Well there you have it. My top 5 Donkey Kong Country Animal Buddies. Stay tuned for lots more as always and I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving if I don't happen to get another blog up before then. The next blog will probably be a look at Super Mario Land on Game Boy!

The Kirby Series Episode V: Kirby's Avalanche

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Kirby series! Following the release of Kirby's Adventure on the NES, Kirby certainly took some time off from his traditional games. So far we've seen him as both a pinball and a golf ball. What else can Kirby become? We'll find that out later because in this spin-off game, Kirby takes no different forms and in fact you don't really control Kirby at all because this boys and girls is a puzzle game!

The game was co-developed by HAL Labratory, Compile, and Banpresto. It was released by Nintendo on February 1, 1995 and is the Western version of a game known as Super Puyo Puyo.

The story for this game is quite simple. King Dedede challenges the citizens of Dream Land to a tournament of a game called Avalanche or Ghost Trap (Ghost Trap in Europe). Kirby decides to take the challenge and battles his way through many of the series reoccurring characters to reach Dedede for a showdown at the Fountain of Dreams. Just some of the familiar faces Kirby will have to face includes Whispy Woods, Kracko, Meta Knight, and of course King Dedede. *Fun Fact: This is the first game where Meta Knight is actually called Meta Knight. In Kirby's Adventure you never learn his name.*

That's literally it for the story. It's a puzzle game what do you expect? Anyway this game is actually a lot of fun and the gameplay is simple. Two blobs will fall from the top of each player's screen. Once a player lines up four blobs in a row they will vanish and any blobs above them will fall into their place. If the four vanishing blobs happen to set off a chain reaction in which more blobs vanish, rocks will fall onto the other players screen. The rocks cause major issues and can only be cleared if four blobs are lined up while touching the rock. 

So the game does have a bit of strategy going for it and it also has it's fair share of luck as well I suppose. Between each round you will see a short conversation between Kirby and his opponents. This doesn't sound like a big deal, but this is the first time we actually see Kirby really talk to his enemies. We've seen him dance around them in previous games and what not, but in this game he almost comes off as sarcastic and kind of confrontational. Must be in the spirit of competition right? I mean how can Kirby be a mean little guy? Anyway... 

The graphics for this game are beautiful. Kirby's Avalanche was released later in the SNES's life and the graphics and sound for that matter show how far the creators were able to push the system. As with the other colored Kirby games, Avalanche is very bright and beautiful. The soundtrack consists of remixed versions of songs heard in both Kirby's Adventure and Kirby's Dream Course. The only original song is the panic music that is actually from the Eastern version of the game, Super Puyo Puyo. 

There really isn't too much more to say about this game. It's a great puzzle game that can get pretty intense especially when playing against friends. On a scale of 1 to 10 I can easily give it a solid 8. It does a ton of things right as a puzzle game while being basically a clone of it's Eastern counterpart with Kirby characters. *Another Fun Fact: There is another clone of Puyo Puyo out there. Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine released on the Sega Genesis.* 

Final Verdict: 8 out of 10. Kirby's Avalanche is a great take on a classic puzzle game... With a little bit of attitude!

As always thanks for reading. The Kirby Series will continue soon with Episode VI: Kirby's Dream Land 2 where Kirby returns to his roots on the Game Boy. My next blog though will be a quick top 5 list featuring my top 7 Donkey Kong Country Animal Buddies! Till next time... 

Disney's The Lion King Review

Hello everyone and welcome back to Hydra Gaming. Before we get started on reviewing The Lion King, I want to take a quick look back at Disney's and Nintendo's gaming past. For those of you who never played a classic Disney game, you are really missing out. The Nintendo Entertainment System brought some of the best Disney games that were ever seen to life such as Duck Tales and Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers. Countless other Disney games were also made with varying success such as Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, but the ones that in my books always played the best and felt the best were those that Capcom was involved in. Even The Little Mermaid on the NES I found to be a lot of fun. Sure some games were geared for younger crowds, but even those had their challenges. That's really something that I feel is lacking in Disney games of today, a challenge. Speaking of challenges, some of the most challenging Disney games I feel can be found on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Games such as Aladdin, The Magical Quest: Starring Mickey Mouse, and The Lion King all stand up today as great and often difficult games. Even Sega had a great exclusive Disney game in the form of Castle of Illusion: Starring Mickey Mouse. Out of all of those great games, one of them I find stands out as the most difficult and is certainly one of the best made, and that game ladies and gentlemen is The Lion King.

Before going any further, this review will be for the Super Nintendo version of the game. The game was also released on the Sega Genesis, Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, and Game Gear, but I will not be basing my review of the game off of those systems. So... The game was developed by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Interactive. It was released on the SNES on December 8th, 1994. The game follows the same plot as the movie which goes by the same name.

You start out playing as Simba, a young lion cub destined to be king. You run around the pride lands, get tossed around by monkeys and rhinos to the tune of "I Just Can't Wait to be King", explore the elephant graveyard to the tune of "Be Prepared", experience the stampede that thanks to you're own personal mistrust in you're evil uncle, Scar, and a herd of wildebeest, killed your father and caused you to run into a massive thorn forest. Be rescued by Timon and Pumbaa, grow up in the jungle, and return to Pride Rock to defeat you're now king evil uncle, Scar. Sounds simple right? Well for a Disney game, this is anything and I mean anything but easy.

Now that we have the plot out of the way let's look at the gameplay! The game is largely a platformer with a couple levels that stray a bit from the classic platform formula. The controls are I would say okay for the most part. There are several areas in the game where you have to make literally a split second move or face an instant death. Speaking of death, Simba does have a health bar that will deplete as enemies hit him... Unless he falls into the water, or hit's a random object like a tree branch while riding an ostrich, then he's just dead. Not much else to say really, it's a classic style game that for the most part handles well.

Graphically though this game looks like a movie. In fact Walt Disney Animators actually had a hand in creating the sprites and backgrounds for the game. Added to the movie looks is the movie sounds. As I mentioned earlier, if you couldn't figure it out, the game's music is actually remade music from the movie. So fans of the movie can certainly say they know the tunes I'm referring to. If you've lived under a rock and never have seen The Lion King, then go watch it. I don't know what else to tell you!

  

As you can see from the screenshot above, the game really is a very pretty one. 

Now for the big deal here... This game is very difficult, even on the easiest setting. However, the boss fights, or mostly lack there of are nothing to write home about. Basically jump on the hyena or whatever a few times. Later in the game when you grow up you gain the ability to claw enemies and bosses as well with your massive lion claws. Another ability that Simba, both young and old has is his roar which affects a variety of enemies. 

The real difficulty comes in the platforming and scenarios where you can be killed in one hit. I can't stress enough that this adds a great deal of difficulty because you have to be literally 100% perfect with certain jumps or you are d e a d.  Through all the difficulties though, defeating Scar is not really that difficult, but to get to him you need to do some perfect swinging and platforming. I found that harder than the actual fight against Scar.

Overall I give The Lion King a pretty solid 8 out of 10. The game is pretty well put together, but the sometimes awkward controls and seemingly impossible to survive jumps (till you actually survive one) hurts the game a tad, but it doesn't take much away as far as overall enjoyment is concerned. Other issues are again minor such as the length of the game. In my opinion it's a bit short, but the challenge more or less makes up for that. I would have also liked to have seen some between level text or something so that people who have never seen The Lion King can figure out what's going on in the game. 

Final Verdict: 8 out of 10. The Lion King on the SNES is a real challenge, but an enjoyable one with a few minor flaws and nothing more. 

Thank's for reading as always! The next blog will be a return to the Kirby Series in the form of Kirby's Avalance!

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron Review

Hello again everyone and welcome back to Hydra Gaming. People all over the country are going crazy over the final Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens trailer and it's safe to say the hype is real. All the buzz about the movie really made me want to play one of my all time favorite Star Wars games, Star Wars Rogue Squadron, on the Nintendo 64. In my opinion Rogue Squadron is one of the better Star Wars games.

Star Wars Rogue Squadron was co created by Factor 5 and LucasArts and released on the Nintendo 64 on December 7th, 1998. Before this game was released however, another Star Wars game had already rooted itself on the Nintendo 64, Star Wars: Shadow's of the Empire. While Shadows is a good and very challenging game I still find the very first level to be the most exciting. For those of you who have never played the game, I am talking about The Battle of Hoth. Piloting the Snowspeeder left me craving more and when Rogue Squadron myself was seen in stores, myself and many others got their wish... An entire game like that first mission in Shadows!

The game centers around the creation of the group known as Rogue Squadron, The leaders of this squadron are Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles and their objective is to defend the galaxy from the Empire. The game has 16 main missions and a few unlockable levels as well. The time period for you Star Wars fans of this game takes place pretty much through and in-between episodes V and VI and concludes after The Battle of Endor in episode VI. I'm not going to any further into the story as that is for you, the player, to discover and enjoy. Yes many reviews, myself included will go more into the story normally, buuuuuuuut I'm choosing not to do so for this review. 

In the game you will be able to pilot many of your favorite Rebel Alliance spacecraft. The ships that you can fly include the X-Wing, A-Wing, Y-Wing, Speeder (pretty much the Snowspeeders seen in The Battle of Hoth), and the new V-Wing. Each ship handles differently, has different setting for attacking, and secondary weapons. Also included in the game are a few unlockable ships as well. What those ships area and how you unlock them I'll leave up to you to figure out. All I can say is no two ships really even feel similar. For example the horrendous speed of the Y-Wing in my opinion is far and away okay on most missions given the sheer amount of hits it can take.Then you've got the V-Wing with it's insane boosters and rapid fire mode, At first you can only use certain ships per mission, but eventually you'll be pretty much able to use what you want when you want with the exception of missions involving AT-ATs as only the Speeder can take them down.

I'd have to say that the controls are pretty good in this game. First time players may find them a little odd, especially given that each craft handles a little differently, but once you are used to them they are actually pretty good. You can play the game in 3rd person (best), first person cockpit (causes a noticeable slow down), or first person. There are also times when the game will slow down a bit regardless of your view. Basically this is caused by the sheer amount of detail that they put into the game. When too much is happening at a time it slows down for a bit. I noticed this mostly on heavily populated levels, but again, it's not like it lasts long or anything. Now I am never one to say that graphics make the game, but the graphics in Rogue Squadron are simply put, awesome. I mentioned the detail that can sometimes cause slowdowns, well check this out.

See what I mean? There's so much going on here. You've got an extremely good looking X-Wing along with several TIE Bombers, a city in which you can see the doors and windows, the canyons off in the distance, people running on the ground, and even dirt roads. That's a ton of stuff going on given what the Nintendo 64 was capable of doing. Not to mention the fact that among all of what's on screen, the TIE bombers are also shooting lasers and often times dropping bombs as well. So much stuff, it's understandable that the game may slow a tick during it. It's not just during gameplay though that things look so gosh darn beautiful! 

Even selecting which level and craft you want to play/fly is a beautiful and detailed experience. Now if you've read any of my previous blogs you know I like music in video games and that I think music does a ton to help a game be something great. Here is no exception. From the moment you load this game up you are immersed in the Star Wars universe at the main menu thanks to the music. The classic Star Wars theme is of course in the game, but most of the music is new or remixed versions of songs you may have heard before in the Star Wars movies. The music will also often change slightly based on what's going on around you. When engaged in battles, the level's music will often shift. Other times, such as flying over the farm on Tatooine, will also cause the music to slightly change. It's such a small thing to have in the game, but it adds so much to it. I still remember the first time I played this game and I was wowed by the musical changes throughout that I would literally just fly around certain areas to hear the music. (Yeah when I was younger I would aimlessly fly around in this game when bored)

Speaking of sounds, the sound effects themselves are also extremely good. The lasers sound straight out of the movies, the explosions sounds like small explosions for the most part, there is a ton of speaking that can be heard in the game, which for a Nintendo 64 title, was not all that common, and surround sound allowed things like shooting down a TIE fighter to become as if the thing was passing you while it crashed. It all sounds brilliant, and hey it looks brilliant to boot too.

Now there is a ton of good to me seen in Rogue Squadron, but there are also a couple issues that I have with the game. One of them I've already mentioned, that being the random slowing down of the game. Another minor issue I have with this game is how it ranks you. The rankings are in the form of medals and they are bronze, silver, and gold as you may have expected, but the requirements for obtaining these medals are sometimes quite frustrating. Your completion time, enemies destroyed, friendly saves, bonuses collected, and accuracy determine which medal you receive. My biggest issue with this is the accuracy as I can't count how many times I've missed out on a gold medal by missing 1% accuracy. In a game where you have unlimited ammo and have many crafts that basically have a slow rapid fire, in my opinion having accuracy as a requirement to unlock things is just a little bit, well, unneeded. Honestly I love just firing as many shots as I can into a mass of TIE fighters as opposed to trying to focus on one and basically fire one laser at a time so I don't have to worry about my accuracy. I will say though that there are fewer satisfying things in the game than seeing this...

Other than that I really can't find much wrong with the game. Some people say that the lack of multiplayer is a huge problem. I disagree with this as yes it would have been great to fly alongside a friend, but given that the game has that slowing down issue, I feel that it would only cause that to become more frequent. Would a battle mode have been nice? Sure it would have been cool to be able to take your favorite Rebel Alliance crafts and pilot them against your friends in 4 player combat, but hey at least we have Star Fox 64's battle mode to pilot against eachother right???? RIGHT??? Sadly though that mode does not exist in this game, but the lack of it I don't think hurts the game at all. 

I am happy to say that I can give Star Wars: Rogue Squadron a 9 out of 10. The tiny issues of occasional slow downs and the frustration with the medal system are such minor things in the grand scheme of this game. If you are a Star Wars fan and have never played this game, I highly suggest you check it out. Don't have a Nintendo 64? Give Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3D a shot on PC then! 

Final Verdict: 9 out of 10!

Thanks as always for reading! Coming up next I will be taking a look at Disney's The Lion King for the Super Nintendo followed by returning to the Kirby Series for Episode V: Kirby's Avalanche!

Super Smash Bros Wii-U/3DS Wish List

Just a few days ago the voting ended for DLC characters for Super Smash Bros Wii-U/3DS. Today I'll be looking at a few characters that I would personally love to see in the game in addition to taking a quick look at the games they came from. Before getting into it, I want to welcome anyone who may be new to the blog who may have stumbled across it. This blog is a retro gaming blog normally, but today I am switching things up, so welcome all!

Super Smash Brothers started out as such a great, yet overall simple series. I'll eventually review the original game for the Nintendo 64, but think back to how simple it was. The roster consisted of what was considered Nintendo's greatest... Perhaps besides Jigglypuff... We can all surely remember that first time we picked Pikachu, Mario, Link or whoever and smacked Samus, DK, Ness, or whoever with a baseball bat that sent them flying to oblivion. How far we've come from that to Melee, to Brawl, to now. Smash Bros 4 as I like to call it is the first game in the series to offer downloadable content. Nintendo had a poll up for quite a while that asked fans who they'd like to see in Smash Bros. The results I'm sure are crazy! Rumors flew everywhere that characters from Nintendo and non Nintendo games were winning in the polls. Rumors folks and rumors alone to this point. At one point I heard Goku from Dragon Ball Z was in demand. Then it was Cloud from Final Fantasy VII, The list goes on and on. That being said, here is who I'd love to see in Super Smash Brothers Wii-U/3DS.

Geno

Geno is from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. The game is a Super Nintendo Game that was released towards the end of the system's life. When Smash Bros Brawl was being developed all signs pointed to Geno being in the game including a remixed version of the Forest Maze and possible coding on the disc pointing to Geno. For whatever reason, probably an issue between Nintendo and SquarEnix, Geno was not included in the game to the dismay of many fans. In Mario RPG Geno first met Mario in the Forest Maze after he took over a doll's body. It is later learned that Geno is actually a star that was sent to help Mario repair the broken star road. Mario RPG itself is a fantastic turn based RPG. Along the way you will meet all kinds of new and old enemies, new challenges, and frankly a whole new world as far as Mario is concerned. In face it is a world that has not been seen since this game.

Seriously though look at that map. Never in a Mario game has there been anything quite like it with the exception of this game of course. Mind you I've played through this game a ton of times, but even the unknowing eyes can tell that there is going to be quite the adventure with a volcano, sunken ship, tower, land in the clouds, a waterfall, pipes, cliffs, and Bowser's Keep with a massive friggen sword sticking out of it in plain sight for all to see! Without going too far into things this game offers some of the best graphics and music on the Super Nintendo. The gameplay is simply wonderful and it brings all the fun of a Mario game with a variety of RPG elements. 

If you've never played the game and own a Wii or Wii U, I suggest buying it on the virtual console. For those of you with a SNES. This is a must have game that will blow you away if you've never played it.

GENO FOR SMASH BROS 4!

Ridley

Yes yes yes, I've heard it all before. Ridley is too big to be in Smash Bros. Ridley is already a hazard on a level, he doesn't need to be a fighter too. Blah blah blah I say. Ridley is one of if not the most iconic characters in the Metroid series outside of Samus herself. Even if they made Ridley playable in certain modes i.e. Giant Smash, it would be so much better than him continuing to be a major villain that misses the boat in a game full mostly of heroes and....Pokemon. 

Ridley debuted in Metroid on the Nintendo Entertainment system. At the time Ridley was just a tad taller than Samus, so don't give me that he's huge crap. 

Anyway. The first Metroid game gave birth to both Samus and Ridley. It is a 2D shooter/platformer that sees Samus collecting upgrades as she hunts down every space pirate she can find on the planet Zebes. The music is pretty good for the NES and the game is overall a lot of fun to play. If you've played any of the classic Metroid games you can understand that the original is a lot of what you already know. For players who've only played the Metroid Prime series, I strongly urge you to check out the series roots. 

While Ridley was not all that special in the original game, he became quite a force in Super Metroid on the SNES. 

My Ridley. How you've grown... Ridley has been seen throughout the Metroid series. In fact the only games in the series that he doesn't appear in is Metroid II: Return of Samus, Metroid Prime Hunters and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. His attacks vary a bit from game to game and even in Super Smash Bros Brawl Ridley caused all kinds of trouble. This is one space pirate that has earned a spot in Super Smash Bros and for his size to be the sole reason he is not included is just sad to me. Well perhaps we can get this in if nothing else...

RIDLEY FOR SMASH BROS 4!!!

Simon Belmont

Personally speaking I think that Simon Belmont from Castlevania would be an extremely interesting addition to Smash Bros 4. His attacks could easily be centered around his whip and other items that can be found throughout Castlevania. For those of you who may have never played a classic Castlevania game... Well all I can say is boot up your 3DS or Wii U, get on the virtual console and download Castlevania or Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse or Super Castlevania IV. For a different experience that I personally think is underrated check out Castlevania II: Simon's quest.

Castlevania is a platformer that was released on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986. The story follows Simon Belmont in his quest through Dracula's castle, Castlevania, as he hunts down Dracula with the intent to kill the evil that reappears every 100 years. His primary weapon is a magic whip, but as the game progresses Simon will gain the use of various sub-weapons (however only one can be used at a time). The use of these sub-weapons depends on the number of hearts the player has collected. As the player uses the sub-weapons their heart count decreases. Basically hearts are a system of currency allowing Simon to use the sub-weapons. Anyway... 

The gameplay is fantastic, the soundtrack is nothing short of 8 bit epicness, and the graphics are certainly respectable. Another noteworthy thing about Castlevania, and the rest of the classic games in the series is that they are quite difficult the first time around. New players will certainly be knocked back to the start of the stage they are on on many an occasion. The Castlevania series has grown and evolved quite a bit since the release of Castlevania, but the original still holds up among the best in the series and one of the best platforming games ever made. 

SIMON BELMONT FOR SMASH BROS 4!!!!

King K. Rool

My number 1 most wanted character in Smash Bros 4 is the big baddie from the Donkey Kong Country series, King K. Rool. King K. Rool was a pain in Donkey Kong, Dixie Kong, Diddy Kong, and the rest of the Kong group for many years. He was the main protagonist in many Donkey Kong games, but was, along with the other Kremlings, excluded from Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze. In fact, he hasn't been seen outside of Mario Super Sluggers and trophies in Super Smash Bros Brawl and Smash Bros 4 since 2007. He's a character that through the years had many different attacks and abilities so getting him into Smash 4 should really be a no problem scenario. 

Donkey Kong Country is the game that introduced King K. Rool. The game itself I consider legendary and really got the SNES rolling in a way it had not been rolling before. Created by Rareware, Donkey Kong Country was released on the SNES in 1994. The plot of the game is incredibly simple. King K. Rool stole Donkey Kong's massive banana hoard. It is up to Donkey Kong and then newcomer Diddy Kong to try and gather the lost bananas. 

This platform game is literally loaded with secrets, bonus stages, incredible graphics, gameplay, and music, and just about everything else that you can think of that would make a platformer good. Back in 1994 the looks of the game were revolutionary and if you ask me they still stand up pretty well today. Players of this game will immerse themselves in a massive world full of danger and excitement. No two levels feel the same and certainly no two levels really play the same. Only one time will you experience a nice gentle romp through the jungle. The rest of the way will not be straight forward as there are barrels to launch out of, ropes and vines to climb and swing on, animals to ride, and a variety of bosses to combat. Of course at the end of the road is King K. Rool himself. The battle against K. Rool is in my opinion far more interesting and actually difficult than Bowser in Super Mario World or Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. 

He's also a kind of confused reptile. In Donkey Kong Country he's a king on a pirate ship. In Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest he takes the alias of Kaptain K. Rool, a pirate who resides in a castle. Kinda feel like those should be changed around a bit, but whatever. By the time Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble comes around he takes the alias of Baron K. Roolenstein. More recently he has returned to his kingly ways. King K. Rool is a character that I thought should have been playable in Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Super Smash Brothers Melee, but alas I have waited and hopefully that wait is nearing it's end...

KING K. ROOL FOR SMASH BROS 4!!!!

Well that concludes my little list of characters that I'd like to see in Super Smash Brothers Wii-U/3DS. I do have a few others such as Dixie Kong, Mallow, Skull Kid, and the Ice Climbers that I'd love to see in the game as well. As always thank you for reading and I hope to have more reviews coming in the very near future! Stay Tuned!!!!

The Kirby Series Episode IV: Kirby's Dream Course

Welcome to the long awaited episode IV of the Kirby Series. I apologize for my absence, but life tends to get the better of us from time to time right? Well today's blog will be a quick review of the first Kirby game to hit the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, "Kirby's Dream Course". The game was developed HAL Laboratory and was released on February 1st, 1995. Kirby's Dream Course is not a traditional Kirby game, but rather a wacky golf game. While not exactly my favorite game in the series, the game offers a good deal of fun. This was also the first 3D Kirby game in the series!

 

Before I start looking a bit deeper into the game I'm going to make a small disclaimer. I am not a fan at all of golf and outside of Mario Golf on Nintendo 64, I've never really gotten into a golf game so this review may be a tick biased, but I will try to be as fair as possible. 

In this game you shoot Kirby (in the form of a ball) into enemies to defeat them. Once the enemies are defeated a hole will appear and you'll want to shoot Kirby into said hole to finish the level. You do not have unlimited attempts to do this though. Kirby's health for whatever reason is represented by tomatoes (not even max tomatoes). Lose 4 tomatoes and you lose. The game sounds simple enough, but it is actually quite challenging, especially for a Kirby game. There is a tutorial that will do nothing but help new players get a handle on the controls and to practice a bit before really getting into the game.

Each of the 8 courses you will play on consist of 8 holes so there is plenty of golfing to go around. You can do some pretty cool stuff like bank Kirby off enemies and angle shots similar to billiard games. Kirby can also nab powerups from beating enemies. These powerups include freeze, hi-jump, ufo, wheel, spark, needle, parasol, and stone. The powerups all do different things, what those are I will leave for you to discover as to not spoil too much. The scoring system consists of the classic bronze, silver, and gold medals. The better your score, the better the medal.

Other than that there isn't really much to say about the gameplay. You keep on going through the many holes until you reach robo King Dedede.

The sounds of the game are pretty good overall. In fact there are quite a few sounds that you may recognize from Earthbound. The music in traditional Kirby fashion is largely upbeat and entertaining. Graphically this game is pretty respectable for Kirby's first appearance in 3D. It's bright, it's colorful, it's Kirby! It's also the only Kirby game with this type of view, which only adds to the uniqueness. 

Since I am not a big fan of golf, or even golf games in general I have a hard time giving this game more than a 6.5 out of 10. With that being said though. This game is very well put together and in an unbiased world I'd probably give this game somewhere between a 7.5 and an 8. It is a very good looking and good playing game, but to me, it just doesn't do it and that's okay. For me the biggest minus about this game is that it's a golf game, but considering what it is, it's easily one of the best in my eyes. 

Final Verdict: 6.5 out of 10. Kirby's Dream Course is another golf game that failed to keep my attention for very long. That being said it is easily one of the better golf game's I've played and is certainly worth checking out if you are into Kirby, golf, or I'd even say billiards. 

As always thanks for reading this blog and I hope you are enjoying the Kirby series and the rest of the blog. My next blog I am going to mix up a little bit. I'm going to be taking a look at something quite recent as it can potentially pertain to some classic characters. Recently the voting closed for Super Smash Brothers Wii U/3DS DLC characters. I'm going to look at a few of the characters that I'd like to see in the game and take a look at the games these characters come from. Till next time, may Adun be with you! 

Ice Climber Review

Tonight we'll be taking a look back at a game that many people had long forgotten prior to 2001 when the Ice Climbers, Popo and Nana, were thrown into Super Smash Brothers Melee. That game's name is Ice Climber!

Ice Climber is an arcade style vertical platformer that was developed by Nintendo and released on January 30th, 1985. The game was one of the launch titles of the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States. The game can be played by either one or two players and the objective of the game is to scale 32 frozen mountains while reclaiming stolen vegetables from a condor. 

In order to scal a mountain you'll need to make use of the Ice Climbers hammers. When playing solo you will control Popo and when playing two player, the second player will control Nana. Both characters play the same. If you jump and hit a block from underneath, you'll knock it out.

Once you scale the 9th level of each mountain you will be thrust into a bonus stage where you collect eggplants or other vegetables to nab bonus points.

There are a few types of ice blocks that the climbers will need to get around. The first is just a basic ice block that poses no threats and the climbers hold plenty of traction on them. The next is a square block of ice that the climbers cannot break through, so they need to go around them. The third and most challenging type is the hatching ice block which acts like a conveyor belt. Also standing in the way of the Ice Climbers are several enemies. The Topi will push out an ice block and fill a hole that the Ice Climbers make with their hammer.

The Topi

The next enemy is not confined to the floor of the mountain levels. It is a small mountain dwelling bird called the Nitpicker. This bird will swoop from side to side and travel between the levels of the mountain.

The Nitpicker

The last enemy, besides the condor, is the White Bear. This enemy appears only when the player takes too long to advance. Once he appears he will occasionally jump, causing an earthquake that ends with the screen moving up (part of the mountain crumbling?). If the Ice Climbers are too low and are dropped off screen, they die. 

The White Bear wears both sunglasses and a pink bathing suit...

I have had a decent amount of fun with this game. It is certainly far better to play this game with a friend in my opinion, but the single player still offers a good amount of arcade style fun. The biggest complaint I have with this game is the jump itself. In a game where you rely on jumping an incredible amount I often found myself frustrated as I put do the proper thing to jump and move to the right or left, but sometimes just wind up jumping straight up into the air. This hasn't resulted in many deaths for me, but it has been simply frustrating. The soundtrack isn't anything special, but you will get it stuck in your head as you hear the same music throughout the game. Graphics wise, the game is actually pretty impressive. Seriously, keep in mind when looking at the game that this was an NES launch title. Given that, the game actually looks pretty good!

Overall I'd give Ice Climber a 7 out of 10. Playing with 2 people is a ton of fun and the game is actually a very good arcade style vertical platformer. For a launch title, the game is actually quite visually appealing and even features a polar bear wearing sunglasses to add in some visual humor. The biggest downside to this game in my opinion is the occasional issue with the jumping and a soundtrack that just keeps on repeating over... and over.... and over...

Final verdict: 7 out of 10. Ice Climber is a fun 2 player game that was one of the first games on the NES and one that still can be quite the challenge to this day!

As always thank you for reading. Remember my ratings are by no means fact, but rather my opinion on the games I blog about. My next blog is going to actually be a blog about a Majora's Mask soundtrack remix that I have not been able to put down for over 2 years! More on that later though!

R.I.P. Satoru Iwata

Just a couple days ago the president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata tragically passed away from complications involving a bile duct tumor. I just want to take a few moments and look back at how much of an impact this man had on the gaming world. While he became the president of Nintendo in 2002, his impact on the games we know and love today started much earlier. Personally speaking I am especially thankful for Iwata helping to bring life to both the Kirby and Pokemon series. Had it not been for this man, the games of these two series as well as the Super Mario series and others may not be anywhere near what they are today.

All in all Mr. Iwata helped to make some of the best games that have ever existed. He did so with a basic, yet outstanding philosophy. As he once so brilliantly said "Video games are meant to be just one thing. Fun. Fun for everyone". That is a statement that I find to be 100% dead on accurate. Sadly the days of the majority of video games being purely for fun seem to be fading out quickly. Sure, for many people, the games that Iwata created are still heavily played, but less and less it seems like games are for fun and it's a sad thing to see. Today it feels more and more like games are becoming more and more competitive in nature and less and less as a means of relaxing fun. Iwata was a true gamer at heart and knew just how fun a video game should and really could be.

The loss of Satoru Iwata I feel also brings about a potential loss of future fun for gamers. If you take a look at the latest E3 lineup presented by Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, you'll see that only one of these companies focused on pure entertainment and fun this year. That company was Nintendo. Yes Sony has a slew of great games coming out and Microsoft has the whole backwards compatibility thing coming, but neither of those companies focused on the entertainment factor nearly as much as Nintendo lead by Iwata. Without Iwata at the helm a cloud of mystery has formed over the future of Nintendo. I hope the company will continue to focus on creating the most entertaining games it can and not get sucked into the whole graphics war and the battle of who can create the most emotional or violent game.

Thank you Satoru Iwata for everything that you've done for the world of video games. Thank you for always keeping the fans in mind and becoming a real icon in the industry. You literally made countless children's childhoods (including myself) something really special through your games. Had it not have been for you we may never have had Earthbound, the DS, the Wii, the Wii U, and other franchises of games that we have come to know and love. Age 55 is far to young for this sort of thing to happen and you will be deeply missed and never forgotten by gamers around the world.

The Kirby Series Episode III: Kirby's Pinball Land

Welcome to Episode III of the Kirby Series! Today I will be looking at the first non traditional Kirby game that came out. Completely breaking out of the mold of the prior two games is Kirby's Pinball Land on the Game Boy.

The game was developed by HAL Laboratory and released in 1993. It was the first spin off Kirby game and is still considered to be one of the better pinball games to be seen on any system. The game features three very different tables with the objective being simple. Defeat the boss on each stage and then defeat King Dedede. I'll take a dive into how this all works. 

This is the Wispy Woods table. When you start you will wind up in the center section. From there you can either drop down to the section below or reach the section above. If you fall through the bottom of the last section, you will possibly loose the ball. The ball can be saved however by pressing A at the right moment. As with most pinball games you only have 3 balls to work with, but extras can be earned by defeating bosses. If you reach the top section and find a warp star (in this case by defeating the enemies under the mushrooms and then shooting the ball around and to the top center of the screen) that will lead you to a boss battle.

Here Kirby takes a more traditional look as he battles against either Wispy Woods, Kracko, or Poppy Bros. Sr.. Each battle works differently, but since I'm focusing on Wispy I'll explain his boss battle here. You have to shoot Kirby into Wispy while avoiding falling apples and air blasts from Wispy that will send you hurling towards the warp star and back to the main table. In addition a Gordo will occasionally drop freezing one of your flippers for a short time. Defeat Wispy and you'll return to the table select screen where you can choose another table to play on. 

That is essentially the whole gameplay. There is a lot of stuff to find and figure out as you go and since this is not a walk through, I am not going to go any more into the gameplay than I already have. Graphically however, the game looks very nice on the Game Boy. There are a bunch of involved little things visually that brings a lot more fun into the game. For example...

The Kirby on the left appears to be thinking about what he had eaten. Also notice that Kirby apparently eats out of what looks like a dog bowl. Fun little things like that can be found throughout the game that just make it more visually fun and appealing. The sounds of the game are pretty much those that you would expect from a pinball game. Lots of bell like sounds, but also a large amount of sounds from previous Kirby games as well. In fact two of the three tables feature music from the original Kirby's Dream Land. Some call that lazy. I call that smart given the tables are modeled after the levels from the original Game Boy game. 

Perhaps the biggest draw to this game though is the fact that the high scores are actually saved. So that means you and your friends can compete in this game for high scores. Unlike the previous two installments of Kirby games, there is nothing to unlock, but no playthrough will in theory ever be the same. That gives this game (and other pinball games) a ton of replayability as the fun never truly comes to an end. I still find myself sticking this game into my Game Boy Advance SP or Super Game Boy and giving it a whirl. It is probably one of the hardest Kirby games as well to boot. I've only defeated King Dedede a few times and doing so was never an easy task. 

My final thoughts on Kirby's Pinball Land is that it is a game that really got overshadowed by Pokemon Pinball. Once that game came out, a lot of people were obviously drawn to it and Kirby's Pinball Land kind of fell to the wayside. Personally I think the two games are both very good, but I prefer Kirby. This is really a fun game that doesn't really get a lot of talk as the popularity of pinball is not what it was years ago. Still, if you have not given this game a spin I'd highly recommend it. It plays extremely smoothly for being a Game Boy game and is really a blast to play.

Final Verdict: 8 out of 10. Kirby's Pinball Land is a great spinoff of at the time, a great young franchise, that any fan of any pinball game will thoroughly enjoy! 

As always, thanks for reading! Stay tuned for my next blog coming soon as well as the next installment of the Kirby Series: Kirby's Dream Course for the Super Nintendo!  

In Defense of Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble

It has come to my attention that a lot of people for some reason or another think that this game right here sucks.

I'm not going to review this game right now, but I want to throw out some thoughts about the game as I've read and have seen on Youtube and Twitch people bashing this game. I do agree that out of the SNES trilogy of Donkey Kong games that 3 is the weakest. However, that does not mean the game sucks by any stretch. So here comes a little list of things I've seen against this game and why I think they're wrong...

1.) The graphics suck compared to the first 2 games.

Okay let's take a look at that shall we. 

 

Okay the image on the right is from Donkey Kong Country 3. The one on the left is from 2. All I can say is that yes, DKC 3 looks more cartoonish and the background of DKC 2 is much better looking than the one in DKC 3. That being said though, the graphics of DKC 3 look nowhere near bad. Cartoonish compared to the first two? Sure. Bad? No chance. DKC 3 I think still has some of the better graphics on the system despite not being "better" than the first two installments. Different yes! Bad no!

2.) The game is too easy.

While I do agree that this game could be the easiest of the three, I by no means agree that this game is "too easy". When comparing DKC 3 to DKC 2 it may seem like this game is very easy, but there are several levels that are more than problematic for one reason or another (I'll get into that in a minute). Compared to the first game, I'd say this game is perhaps slightly easier and I mean slightly if at all really. For example: The level "Poisonous Pipeline" sees the left and right directional buttons reversed only when the Kongs are swimming causing all kinds of confusion when trying to quickly jump out of water, dodge enemies, etc. Example 2.) "Lightning Look-out" sees players trying to dodge lightning that strikes pretty much anywhere on the screen. Not to mention there is water on this level and if you are in the water when the lightning strikes you're dead. Final example.) 

In "Rocket Rush you are forced to collect fuel as you travel down a canyon. If you touch the walls however you can die. During your decent you need to collect fuel or you die. Once you reach the bottom you rocket up a canyon dodging ledges and what not that if you touch you can die. If you don't die, but touch the wall chances are you won't have enough fuel to make it to the top... and you'll die.

Yes all three of these examples are late in the game, but there are plenty of other challenging levels throughout that keep things interesting. Sure the difficulty may not stay high for any long stretch of levels, but when it gets cranked up, it's cranked up. Also, this game features the toughest boss battles of the series. DKC 1's bosses were all pretty simplistic in how to defeat them (mostly jumping on them). DKC 2's bosses were a bit tougher, a bit longer, and featured more than one phase during battle. Another cool addition was the addition of a boss that you had to fight as an animal buddy. In DKC 3, with the exception of the first boss, the bosses can all cause some trouble. I'm looking at this guy in particular. 

Honestly Barbos (this guy^) gives me more trouble than the final boss in the game. So to say that this game is too easy is a bit ridiculous. I will say that the game tends to throw extra lives at you like they're nothing for like the first three worlds or so which makes the game feel more like a modern day side scroller (looks at New Super Mario Bros), but you will still find yourself dying a lot in this game (unless you're a pro at it of course).

3.) The animal buddies suck compared to the other games.

Okay let's take a look at the animal buddies from the three games. In Donkey Kong Country you have Rambi the rhino, Enguarde the swordfish, Expresso the ostrich, Winky the frog, and Squawks the parrot (in one level and only carries a light for you). The second game featured Rambi and Enguarde returning, Squitter the spider, Rattly the rattlesnake, and Squawks returned with the ability to shoot nuts at enemies. Glimmer the anglerfish and Clapper the seal both act as animal buddies that the Kongs do not ride or turn into but provide light in Glimmer's case and cools water in Clapper's. The third game features the return of Squitter, Enguarde, and Squawks. In addition to them, Ellie the elephant was brought in as a replacement for Rambi. Parry, a little bird, was added as a buddy that the Kongs can't ride or turn into, but can lead to an area to receive rewards.

DKC 3 features the return of Squitter, Enguarde, and Squawks. Those three animal buddies alone make the lineup of animal buddies pretty impressive as it was in DKC 2. Yes, they removed Rambi in what amounts to a stupid move, but Ellie is far from useless and the rest of the animals are all still really good! You can't possibly tell me that Rattly or Winky or even Expresso are better than Ellie. You can't tell me that the purple Squawks on DKC 3 that doesn't shoot nuts, but rather picks up barrels and drops them is worse than the purple Squawks of DCK 2 that literally just floats in a downward direction. Yes the loss of Rambi hurt. There was no reason they couldn't have just replaced Rattly with Rambi, but they didn't So while the loss of Rambi sucks, the animal buddies as a whole are right on par with the other games and certainly do not suck.

4.) The story sucks

Tell me which of the Donkey Kong Country games had a good story then? The first game's story was that King K. Rool stole a horde of bananas. There was no mention of the story throughout the game unless you beat a boss and regained a giant banana. DKC 2's plot was that Donkey Kong was kidnapped, but you didn't see any story until you actually reach Kaptain K. Rool. This game is pretty much the same. Diddy Kong and Donkey Kong are both kidnapped by Baron K. Roolenstein and outside of 1 boss that actually talks a bit, there is no mention of any story until you free the Kongs. So the story is not in your face... IT DOES NOT NEED TO BE! All three of these games operate in a way that there does not need to be a story being told as you go. The difficulty increases, the levels get more dangerous, you get the feeling that you are approaching ultimate victory. That's the story here. Just because it is not scrolling up the screen or being spoken does not mean it's not there. If you say this story sucks than the other two game's stories suck as well and ya know what? The story is probably the last thing that people play Donkey Kong Country for.

5.) Rare didn't care about this game.

This is a statement that is simply stupid. People say this game was rushed out. Remember folks, Donkey Kong Country 2 came out 1 year after the first. So to say that Rare rushed this game out and that's why it "sucks" doesn't make much sense considering the greatness that is 2. Did Rare put as much effort into this game as the other 2? Probably not as evidenced by the steps back in the backgrounds, overall charm, soundtrack, and difficulty in finding collectibles, etc. which are far easier to find all of in this game than either of the first two. Despite Rare not putting their best effort into the game, to say that Rare didn't care about this game is just silly. The Nintendo 64 was becoming a big deal (it was even in DKC 3) and the Super Nintendo's popularity was dropping so it's not all that surprising that Rare did not come out with a game that topped the previous two. However to say that Rare didn't care and this was a last attempt to milk the series is a little ridiculous.

6.) Kiddie Kong Sucks

Yes he does. However...

This guy was not much better in Donkey Kong Country. Seriously people give Kiddie Kong so much crap for being slow, not being able to jump real far, and being a slow climber that they don't even realize that these are all the same exact things that held Donkey Kong down in the first game. The biggest differences between the two is how they hold barrels (DK above his head, Kiddie in front of him) and their special ability sort to speak. In the first game Donkey Kong can slap the ground to uncover hidden bananas, lives, and defeat some enemies. Kiddie Kong in DKC 3 is able to perform a water skip jump which proves to be very valuable and while controlling Dixie, can be used as a means of uncovering hidden items or as a steel barrel that Dixie can jump on and ride.  In fact, I think the only thing that DK has over Kiddie is looks. I mean seriously, Kiddie looks extremely silly in comparison to any of the other Kongs in the Kong Klan.

So while he looks stupid, no he does not "suck" especially if you compare him to Donkey Kong. There is far more you can do with Kiddie.

7.) The trade sequence and banana birds suck

Okay I give Rare some credit for trying to add stuff into the game to spice things up a bit. I do. The trading sequence that takes place in this game revolves around a family of bears who you trade items to in return for other items or banana birds. Other than that it serves zero purpose. If you are not trying to 100% the game you can easily ignore it as there is no requirement to do it other than that. The same thing goes for the banana birds that are normally released from their crystal prison if the Kongs can basically play a game of Simon with the X,Y,A, and B buttons. All things considered the trading and banana birds are probably the worst parts of the game. They really probably are and that's not a horrible thing. Rare tried to do something different and while it works for the most part, it just isn't that fun to get an item from one bear and transfer it to another. At least the banana birds offer some kind of memory challenge. Still. To say a whole game sucks because of what amounts to optional content is really not a great claim at all.

Those are seven common complaints that I have seen about this game. In my honest opinion the game still does a whole lot more right than it does wrong. To say this game outright sucks is basically silly when the above complaints are the common ones. The game still flows wonderfully, the characters are still different and fun to play, and the controls are still excellent. Yes the graphics are cartoonish, but they're still really good. The soundtrack may not be as epic as either of the other games, but it too still has some good high points. Overall, yes I'd say that DKC 3 is the weakest of the three games, but not by much at all despite it coming out at the end of the SNES era. I'll eventually do an actual review of this game to bring more highlights of this game to light, so stay tuned for that.

As always, thank you all for reading! My next blog with be the third installment in the Kirby series: Kirby's Pinball Land!