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!
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