Disney Gaming Part 2

    Greetings everyone! I am excited to say that Capcom has announced that they will be releasing several of their classic Disney games on PC, Xbox One, and PS4. Included in the pack will be classic NES games that go by the names of Duck Tales, Duck Tales 2, Chip N' Dale Rescue Rangers, Chip N' Dale Rescue Rangers 2, Darkwing Duck, and Tale Spin. Needless to say that as both a Disney nut and a huge gamer that I am beyond hyped for this pack to come out. Some of the new features will include a rewind feature, time attack, and a boss rush mode. The games are not being remade into HD remakes, but they will look a lot crisper than they did on the NES. So with that major announcement I figure now is the perfect time to look at a few more of Disney's past video games.

    The 16-bit era seemed to be a hotbed for classic Disney movies to be remade into games. The Jungle book is no exception to this as the game was released on the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis. Today I'll be looking quickly at the SNES version while keeping in mind that the Sega version is a little different. Growing up, The Jungle Book was one of my favorite Disney movies. I loved the characters, the music, the animation, all of it. So how did the SNES game hold up compared to the movie? As was the case with a handful of Disney games, so so. The levels are all beautiful and bright, the plot for the most part follows along with the movie, the music is great with some of the most popular songs from the movie present in 16-bit form, and Mowgli gets to pelt monkeys and other enemies with bananas all day long. Sounds pretty good to me. As you explore the jungle you'll run across the villains of the movie such as Kaa the python. The boss battles are not overly difficult once you figure out the patterns, but are intimidating nonetheless.

    So the biggest question is how does the game play? As Mowgli you can do a variety of things ranging from jumping to climbing to swinging to throwing various vegetation. There is a lot of platforming in the jungle and this game strives at making that platforming more of a chore than it ever needed to be. Personally, I love a good challenge. If I didn't I wouldn't pride myself on being able to plow through Donkey Kong Country games, however the challenge in this game is the controls from start to finish which is very frustrating. Mowgli feels more like Dumbo as each jump just feels very floaty which makes landing where you want to land difficult. This wouldn't be a problem if there wasn't usually some kind of enemy right next to you when landing. Often times getting hit is unavoidable when these situations arise (often). Honestly, the controls I feel are the low point of the game. There are other issues, one of them being that Mowgli seems way too big and takes up way too much of the screen that add more challenge, but not in a frustrating way like the controls. That being said, the camera being so close to Mowgli causes you to take leaps of faith that don't always pan out well at all.

    The Jungle Book was the last animated film that Walt Disney worked on. Twenty seven years after the release of that movie, the game was released and did a so so job at recreating the magic. The music and visuals are great, but the bad controls really put a damper on it alongside the other smaller issues the game has. Honestly, try it out on the Sega, it just feels a bit better than on the SNES.

    Let us take a trip back in time briefly. We arrive in a year where a company known as Sega had unleashed it's brand new 16-bit console, the Sega Genesis. In doing so Sega took the opportunity to showcase the power it's new system had over the aging Nintendo Entertainment System. One of the games that Sega showcased is a game known as Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse!

    The plot of the game is simple enough. Minnie is captured by an evil wizard and it is up to Mickey to brave the massive Castle of Illusion to rescue the girl he will never marry (despite there being plenty of Mickey and Minnie wedding products out there.... a thought for another time and place). As Mickey progresses through the five "rooms" of the castle he runs into all kinds of enemies and environments that all look beautiful on the Sega. Just a couple off the top of my head are a creepy forest and the equivalent of a toy box. The attention to detail in this game for when it was released is outstanding. Everything looks simply great. Strangely enough it would be Mickey Mouse and not Mario or Sonic or anybody else that would have a game where his facial expressions would change with virtually any given situation. This was something virtually unheard of at the time and it would be Disney's Mickey who really had the first successful venture with this. Yes Sonic can look annoyed and other characters have obviously had facial expressions, but none as vibrant and detailed as Mickey's. 

    So enough about the graphics as I've said time and time again that graphics don't make a game good. Sound wise, the game does pretty well. Considering I'm not the biggest fan of a lot of music on the Sega, I feel like Castle of Illusion did a pretty good job at capturing the feel for the various areas of the castle. Gameplay wise I have to ask this. Why in God's name did they not copy the gameplay in this game for Fantasia?! There is nothing overly difficult platforming wise, but if there was, the controls in this game would have allowed for it to be done in a very efficient way. Mickey can jump on and throw apples at enemies which is a nice combo to have in a game like this. Another awesome gameplay moment is in the Toy Box area where Mickey literally flips the level and you play on the ceiling versus the floor. That was mind blowing to me the first time I saw it and if it wasn't already easy to tell, it became easy to tell why this game was used to showcase the Sega. 

    The only downside to this game is the length. The game is nowhere near as challenging as some of the other Disney games that are out there and it is only five stages long. It really left me wanting more, but for what the game is, I think it is a must play and was really the first game to give Mickey a spotlight he deserved. 

    While the Sega Genesis had what I would call Mickey's first masterpiece of a game, the Nintendo Entertainment System had a masterpiece with another character. Of all the character's in Disney's bad at the time it would be Scrooge McDuck that would star in what I consider one of the best Disney games of all time.

    Where oh where do I begin with Duck Tales? I guess I can start with the downsides and just get them out of the way. After careful thinking I found one thing wrong with this game. It is too short. Much like Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, the game left me wanting more. Not in that way where I felt there wasn't enough content though. It left me feeling that way the same way Pokemon Red Version left me wanting more as a kid. Basically what I'm saying is I love this game and simply wished it was longer so I could play more. Outside of that, this is an NES game that does pretty much everything right.

    Now onto a little bit about this game. For those of you who do not know anything about Duck Tales, it was originally a T.V. show starring the richest duck in the world, Scrooge McDuck as he ventures the world in search of more riches. Along the way he endangers his nephews and friends, but in the end it all works out. The game is no different. plot wise. You set out to collect a bunch of riches over five very different areas of the world... or moon... Along the way Scrooge runs into various characters from the popular T.V. show. So the game actually does follow the show pretty well.

    For an NES game, this game simply looks great. The colors are bright and clear, the characters all look great and easy to see and differentiate, and best of all, it looks like a cartoon. The first time I played this game I was honestly impressed with just how beautiful it looked. Keep in mind that that is coming from someone who grew up with the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64. For an 8-bit game, this certainly looks like one of the better ones I've ever seen. So Duck Tales totally checks out good in the graphics department.

    Sound wise the game does not disappoint. I figured that out not even three seconds into the game as the Duck Tales T.V. theme plays in an 8-bit rendition as the main menu music. That got my head bobbing and instantly wanting to dive in.... or go watch Duck Tales... The rest of the in game sounds are clear and fun. There' really no sound that got on my nerves here at all. So the game gets a pass on two of the three things that I think make an outstanding game. Lastly is the game play. Unlike other platformers such as Super Mario Brothers, Scrooge is unable to simply jump on his enemies. Instead he must use his cane as a pogo-stick and literally drive it into the skulls of his enemies. Sounds dark right, well it's of course done in a rated G way. Platforming with the pogo-cane is a lot of fun and there really is no gripes about having to land perfectly or anything like that. In addition to running and jumping and pogoing, Scrooge can climb and discover all kinds of hidden chests that contain all kinds of treasures. 

   

     Enough can't be said about this game in this blog. Eventually I will be doing a full review on this game as it really is, in my opinion anyway, one of the best in the NES library as a whole. This game has remained so popular that it is going to be a part of the package of classic NES games that Capcom will soon be releasing on the PC, Xbox One, and PS4. In addition the game saw a full HD remake in 2013 across multiple consoles. In this remake the original cast from the show provides voice overs for all the characters. It's a pretty fun remake that I suggest checking out, but certainly find a way to play the original first if you can. It is one of the best Disney games that has ever been made and that's a pretty impressive thing given the sheer number that has come out since then. 

    So how will I be following up one of the best Disney games of all time on this list? Well today I'm not. Duck Tales is such a high mark in Disney gaming that I can't bring myself to follow it up with a bad game. Same can be said for Castle of Illusion. Two of the best Disney games ever made wound up on the NES and Sega Genesis. Yes, the Super Nintendo and other platforms have great games too, but I have yet to play another Disney game that left me wanting more the way that both Castle of Illusion and Duck Tales did. That being said, my next blog will be a return to my thoughts on the Donkey Kong Country games. There I will be taking a look at the Game Boy Advance remakes of the original trilogy.

    Surprise! Coming down the pipe is something a little different. This blog will actually have a special guest author. This guy is has been a friend on mine for many years and has agreed to share some of his thoughts and what not on some games as well. He is actually an author and his work can be found at Winged Hussar Publishing. When the time comes he will surely introduce himself and give you guys more details on who he is and about his books. For now though feel free to click the link above and check out his work as well as the rest of what Winged Hussar Publishing does. They're a great company and from what I have seen have a great group of books that are certainly worth checking out.  As always thanks for reading!

   

    

    

Donkey Kong Country: The End of an Era

    Greetings everyone in my last blog I took a look at the first four Donkey Kong Country titles (including the Donkey Kong Land games on Game Boy). I took some time to reflect on what my first impressions were on the games many years ago and my feelings on them now. My last blog made it pretty clear that I do love the first two games on the Super Nintendo with the second game being one of my all time favorites. As far as the Game Boy games went, I had a bit more of a mixed bag of feelings. I really enjoyed the originality of the first game and the new level layouts of the second, but both games were hampered by a bad camera. Following the success of Donkey Kong Country 2, it seemed that more would undoubtedly be on the way.

    Now we've come to one of the more controversial titles in the series. For some reason, a lot of people are critical of this game. I for one, have my little gripes about it, but I am by no means against it. When the game first came out the Nintendo 64 was the hot item. Most of the people, including David Wise who composed the music for the first two games had moved onto other projects for the new system. With that being the case, there was no chance for a game just like Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2. When I got my hands on the game I was immediately impressed as I was thrown into a somewhat open world map that leads to the individual worlds containing the levels. I thought it was a real cool jump from the normal maps. I found the banana birds to be kind of frustrating later in the game as the game of Simon got a bit out of control (for those who don't know you have to follow a pattern of button inputs to unlock a banana bird). As soon as the first level started I noticed that neither Kiddy Kong nor Dixie Kong move at the pace that Diddy moved at and Dixie just felt slower too. The game's pace seemed slowed which I wasn't a big fan at the time of, but now am actually okay with. It's almost like there are now three gears of Donkey Kong Country. In fact, I feel like more recent installments in the series are closer to this game's pace than any of the others, but more on that later. 

    Overall I felt and still feel that I got the full Donkey Kong Country experience. The levels are still beautiful, the gameplay is still solid, the music is not as good as previous games, but still overall very good for the Super Nintendo. This was actually the first game in the SNES trilogy that I beat. Looking back at it though, I'm not sure how that is the fact. I find this game now to be more difficult than the first game, so I'm not really sure how or why I was able to put K.Roolenstein down before either of his prior existences. I mean I literally just played through this game again for what has to be over a hundred times now and still died a fair amount at the end (stupid lightning). One thing I noticed more so now than when I was younger is the difficulty scaling. In DKC2 you hit a point where the difficulty really cranked up. I like to think of that level as Bramble Scramble in world 4, but Hornet Hole which sits two levels prior is a challenge as well. Either way from that point on the game just got harder and harder. The first game had a similar difficulty curve, but it had more of a gradual increase in difficulty. In this game though I feel like the difficulty is all over the place. You'll literally go from frustration on one level to beating the next level without taking a hit. It can throw a player off his or her game for sure, but the easier levels feel almost like little rewards... That is until the next level...

    For me, Donkey Kong Country 3 is an acceptable end to the SNES series. The game came out and was still very impressive in a time where most people had already abandoned their SNES systems for the Nintendo 64. This game does get a ton of flack for being what it is, but I don't think it's really justified. Is it as good as the previous two? No. However, this was a new team at the helm. The old guard from Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Country 2 were gone. That much is evident, but just because it is different does not mean that it's bad. The sad thing is that at the time nobody, including myself. knew that this would be the end of Rareware making Donkey Kong Country games for home consoles. Today I still do play this game a lot. Sure it may not be as much as the first two games, but it still sees a good amount of playtime and much like the other two games I'm still learning and having a great time with it. So should this be the first Donkey Kong Country game someone plays? Probably not with one catch since the first two are in my opinion, better games, but still this game is a great game that fans of the series should try and first timers should give it a try as well! What's the catch you ask? Well for those who have played either Donkey Kong Country Returns or Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, this game is probably closer to those two than either of the first games in terms of speed. 

 While Donkey Kong Country 3 caused and still causes a stir as to how good it is, I've made a discovery. It's a discovery that should be one that the majority of people agree with. Regardless what everyone thinks of the SNES game, Donkey Kong Land 3 is the best of the series. Just like Donkey Kong Land 2, my experience with this game is somewhat limited as I picked it up at the same time as Land 2. My first impressions on the game is that it was another attempt at porting the SNES game to the Game Boy. Then I got into it a little bit and noticed that the levels were actually not the same and that some of the boss fights had been changed up a lot. I was pretty happy about this as it was a sort of nod to the first Donkey Kong Land. Still not expecting much though I kept playing and I started to realize that this might just be the best Donkey Kong Land game. Go figure. The most controversial game in the Donkey Kong Country series ends up, I think, being the best in the Donkey Kong Land games. 

    The gameplay is the best of the three games. That being said, the biggest issue remains the camera. 

    As you can see there is actually a good deal of space for things to be on the screen this time around. It made trying to run through the game significantly easier than the first and even second games. Speaking of looks, this game looks great on all of the Game Boy systems, including the Super Game Boy. All of the SNES level's gimmicks are there as is the case in the second game, which is totally fine with me. Having only played through this game once,

    I can't really talk too much about it as far as how I felt about it back when I first got it versus now. I doubt my opinion will have changed much. I can say however that this game is a really, really good game on the Game Boy. Yes it has it's camera issues, but other than that I can't find a whole lot wrong with the game given the system it was made for. If you are a fan of Donkey Kong Country or if you are a fan of platformers, I'd say give this game a shot. Honestly if you are interested in playing the Donkey Kong Land games, I would start here. It is by far the best one and will end up being more rewarding than the previous two. Playing them in reverse order will certainly give you an idea of just how far Rareware came from Donkey Kong Land 1 to 3. In the end I can honestly say that for Game Boy Games, the Donkey Kong Land games are actually pretty good games. Keep in mind I said for Game Boy games. They have glaring issues that are present in so many games on the handheld, but look and play better than most. It's just a shame Rareware couldn't figure out a way around such terrible screen crunch.

    An interesting note on this game is that a remake of the game would come out on the Game Boy Color, but only in Japan. This Game Boy Color exclusive is the best way to experience the game as it has it's own beautiful color scheme. Again, it was only released in Japan. However one Donkey Kong Country game did reach the Game Boy Color in North America.

    

    Donkey Kong Country on Game Boy Color is actually one of the more recent Donkey Kong Country games I introduced myself to. Knowing what a master piece Donkey Kong Country is on the SNES, I'm not going to lie, I was a bit excited. That being said it was a nervous excitement thanks to my overall experience with the Donkey Kong Land games being just so-so. Overall I wasn't expecting all that much, and what I got was kind of a mixed bag. On one hand the game looks very impressive yet again, the Game Boy. Granted this time it was the Game Boy Color. I was also happy to hear the original soundtrack reproduced for the handheld. Perhaps the thing that made me happiest was the the lives were kept off screen just like on the SNES. I feel like this opened up the screen a bit more which cured a bit of the screen crunch the land games were plagued with. At the same time, the gameplay is pretty sloppy and the camera is constantly panning all over the place. For whatever reason the enemies are all darkly colored which on some levels can cause issues as seen below where the Kritter's feet are easy to see, but the body gets lost in the background. 

    I do see why they made this game on the Game Boy Color. Personally I think it's great that those people who could not get there hands on a SNES had the opportunity to somewhat experience the game. Given the success of the three classic games and considering Donkey Kong 64 was a thing, it was a nice nod to the past. Do I think it is one that is a must play on Game Boy Color? No I do not. I think that fans of the series should enjoy it if they can get around it's flaws, but I can see how this game, much like the Land games would cause new players frustration. The key here is to remember that it is a port that has it's flaws. Since I got this game right around the same time as Donkey Kong Land 2 and 3 my opinion on it has not changed much. Personally I think there is a better port out there for handheld devices.

    With that being said, that is the end of the Rareware era as we all knew it as far as the Donkey Kong universe was concerned. Following the Game Boy Color remake of Donkey Kong Country as well as Diddy Kong Racing and Donkey Kong 64, Rareware would never make another Donkey Kong game for home consoles. The company was purchased by Microsoft back in 2002 which led to the cancellation of a much anticipated Donkey Kong Racing and put serious doubt on Rareware being able to create any other games for Nintendo. As luck would have it though, Microsoft did not and still really does not have it's hands in the handheld market so Rare was able to continue making games for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS for a few years after it was purchased. In that time Rare would crank out a few remakes and make a few new games as well for Nintendo. Along with Diddy Kong Racing, the three Donkey Kong Country games would see a remake and those three remakes today are the source of debate, sadness, happiness, and a sense of what if. Thank you as always for reading. My next blog will be a short break from Donkey Kong and I'll take a look at some more classic Disney games in celebration of Capcom preparing to release a bunch of these games on Steam!

Donkey Kong Country: The Original Four

    It is no secret that I am a massive fan of the Donkey Kong Country series of games. It will be no surprise that one day I will have reviewed them all on this blog. I have spent a lot of time since my last blog making a blog that holds just my thoughts on all of the games in the Donkey Kong Country series leading up to Retro Studios's Tropical Freeze on Wii U. Upon completing that blog I realized that it is super long and nobody is going to want to read such a lengthy blog, so I've decided to post it in installments. These are my thoughts upon playing these games for the first time and what I think of them now. The Donkey Kong Country series greatly opened my eyes to gaming and the awesomeness that certain games contain by looking deeper than what they appear to be. I hope you enjoy these blogs and if you haven't tried these games, perhaps you'll be wanting to try them out or if you have already, revisit them.

 2014 marked the 20th anniversary of Donkey Kong Country. The game that started it all. The first time we got to see Donkey Kong really doing more than throwing barrels at a guy in overalls. The first time we'd see not as a villain, but as a hero. The first time we would ever see the character as the legend that he is now. My first experience with Donkey Kong Country was not my first experience with the franchise. Nonetheless, the game really blew me away. I can remember a young me grinding away at the first mine cart level, the first real challenge I encountered in the game. From there on I realized that I was in for one crazy game. I distinctly remember a few feeling while playing. Anytime I was without Diddy Kong I felt like I needed to slow it down a bit. Not because Donkey was just slower than Diddy or that I knew that one more hit would be the end, but for whatever reason and to this day, I just felt more comfortable with the smaller and faster guy. I remember the feelings of accomplishment each time I saw the characters do their level complete dance on stage. There was no high score or achievements and that was totally fine. I can remember finding an animal buddy and feeling a sense of security that I had a powerhouse at my disposal, only to see it run away the moment I got hit causing a wave of stress to hit me. Despite my love for the game and the challenge it brought, it would not be the first I finished. Despite not finishing it first, the game is my second favorite in the whole series. 

    Today I can beat this game in under an hour. That being said, it is still a blast for me. I never find myself getting bored and every time I play though, something new happens. Either I die in a random way or I find a new way to fly through a level. Whatever I'm doing in this game, I'm having fun and that is what matters most in a game. Many of people have risen up against this game and it's sequels. Why? I honestly couldn't tell you. Some say that the game is too challenging for what it is. Others say the graphics have not held up. Whelp personally I think those people are wrong on both fronts. First of all why does a 16 bit systems graphics have to hold up to the Wii U or Switch? Last of all, why is a games challenge now an issue? Pretty sure a game by the name of Shadow of the Colossus would like a word with anyone complaining about a game being too hard.  If you have lived under a rock and never given the original Donkey Kong Country a try. Believe the hype, not the haters whom have recently risen against this series. Remember this is a Super Nintendo game and for it's time, it looks brilliant and plays better than most platformers today.

    My first experience with Donkey Kong Land was actually from playing it at a friend's on my original Game Boy. My first impression was along the line of. "Wow, no matter how I adjust the contrast I just can't see.". 

That was my reaction the first time playing. It was a headache. Other than not being able to see, the camera was way too zoomed in and me being used to Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2, ran into unseen enemies constantly. Seriously though, take a look at the image above. Even now it is difficult to really see DK on the screen. I was finally reintroduced to the game a couple years ago when I picked it up at a flea market. I got it just to have it, but with it looking like this on the Super Game Boy...

I was able to do far more with the game. I'd say the best system to play this on is the Game Boy Advance SP though. Moving on... This game I was surprised to see was not a port of Donkey Kong Country. Rather the game was filled with all new levels and enemies which was nice to see. It was also cool to see there be a bit of a story with Cranky egging the Kongs on to do the adventure on the colorless Game Boy. That being said the camera is still horrendous and the gameplay is slippery and leaps of faith occur almost constantly. If you are a fan of Donkey Kong Country, try it out, but do not expect the same experience as the original SNES game. If you are new to the series do not start here as it can be a big turn off. Still though, this game did a lot of cool original things that would be forgotten or expanded on as more Donkey Kong Land games came out.

    Where oh where do I begin here? If you've lived under a rock reading this site at all, you may have missed that Donkey Kong Country 2 is one of, if not my favorite games of all time. That being said it was my first experience with a Donkey Kong game and it was the second title I got for my Super Nintendo (not counting the Super Game Boy here). This game beat me up, chewed me up, spat me out, and was nothing short of a battle. That being said it was the most entertaining and fun battle I've even played. This was the first Donkey Kong Country game I played, and it was the last one of the original trilogy that I actually beat. There were so many levels in the game that threw a young me for a loop. Bramble Scramble, Red Hot Ride, and Animal Antics are just three names that come to mind as the banes of my young gaming career's existence. So what can I say about the game. The music, gameplay, graphics, mood, speed, and virtually anything else I can think of is brilliantly done. I felt that way then, and I still feel that way today. So many little things about this game have always stood out for me that are just so creative and fun. As an example, the honey in levels such as Hornet Hole that stick the Kongs to the wall or floor is a prime example of something the young me simply did not see coming. The bosses, while not overly difficult, were so much stronger and better than the original game that I hadn't played yet. That being said it was a disappointment for me to experience the first game's boss battles after having beaten a few of this game's. 

    Outside of nit picking tiny, tiny things such as one last level before the showdown with K.Rool being awkwardly placed, I have never really been able to find anything wrong with this game. Sure a couple of the levels some may call a bit unfair ( Web Woods, and Animal Antics are two I hear people rage about constantly), and the true final battle with K. Rool isn't anything overly exciting (which after what happens following the first fight with him, it's not all that surprising), and I'll even list that some say the lack of DK as a playable character hurts the game. I can't really agree with any of the complaints. Sure there are brutal levels, but they are by no means unfair or unbeatable. Yes the final battle is basically one more round of the first fight but to not give away what happens at the end of said first fight I'll just say Rareware was more than justified doing it the way they did. Lastly, I think DK in this game would have hurt more than helped. Diddy and Dixie are designed in such a way that enables a real high pace in any direction. DK and for that sake Kiddy Kong from DKC3 would have drastically changed the game with their slower pace and larger bodies. Not to mention if Dixie were omitted, the helicopter hair spin would have been lost and if Diddy was omitted, the game would have as much speed only as the first. If you've never tried it. Do yourself a favor and do! That being said be prepared for a game that will increase in difficulty at a regular pace. By the time you reach the half way point, the game jumps into a higher gear and never really comes down. 

    My experience with Donkey Kong Country 2 is what got me into gaming as I am today. Before that the majority of my gaming was on the Game Boy. This game catapulted my interest in gaming and I still play it almost constantly. Nowadays I can beat the game without the use of shortcuts or warps in a little over an hour. I've still got a lot to learn about all the tricks of the game, but finding different glitches and shortcuts has been a fun experience, but playing the game straight through with no shortcuts or glitches is just great fun. Rare and Nintendo struck gold here in a way I think they never fully struck again.

    So with Donkey Kong Country 2 being my favorite in the series, I was interested to see how I'd feel about Donkey Kong Land 2. Sadly young me never had a chance to play this game as I was not old enough to visit Funkoland and grab a game. So a few years ago I picked this game up at a flea market. Remembering my first experience with the Donkey Kong Land part of the series I was not expecting much. In the end I wound up getting a little more than I expected. The game does not feature all new levels and enemies like the first game. Instead, to my surprise I found myself in a somewhat of a port of Donkey Kong Country 2. The levels have all the same names, but the layouts are all different, but the gimmicks are all the same. It was quite weird to see levels like Red Hot Ride that had given me problems as a kid suddenly be completely different. That being said though, the level didn't give me near as many problems this time around. I never played this on my original Game Boy. I never really felt the need to, especially since I feared that the same visual issues would exist in this game as the first. 

    That being said, you can clearly see that I was wrong with that. Rare corrected the visual issues by lightening up the backgrounds and shrinking some of the sprites. Still though, I think the game looks awesome for a Game Boy Game. Despite it's looks though the camera, while not as bad as the first game, is still a bit of a mess and leaps of faith are still a plenty. Despite that issue, I still really enjoyed a different take on the SNES game here. It was sort of refreshing really to have Diddy and Dixie in what felt like a different adventure while still being the same kinda. 

    By no means is this an amazing game, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I did the first Donkey Kong Land, but wish it had more originality like the first game did. The level layouts are different which is great and the boss battles are changed up a bit, which again is good, but that's about the end of the positives. I would have loved to have seen some of the baddies from the original Donkey Kong Land return in this game to kind of separate the series and further solidify these games as pseudo-sequels. Also as much as I love the DKC2 soundtrack, I was sad to hear that only a few of the tracks actually made the transition to the Game Boy. That's a shame because the ones that did make the jump actually sound really cool. In conclusion, if you are a fan of the Donkey Kong Country games, check this game out. If you are a big fan of the Diddy and Dixie combo of Kongs, check it out for a newish adventure. If you can deal with the camera issues and plan jumps accordingly this game can be enjoyable, but I personally do not suggest newcomers starting off with this game. Play the SNES version or even the Game Boy Advance version (will discuss later) first before trying to tackle this game.

    So that is my take on the first four games in the Donkey Kong Country series of games. The second game on the Super Nintendo is really what jump started my entire gaming career. Kicking it into full throttle mode. Donkey Kong Country is the one that started it all in what I would call a barrel of monkeys good time. Donkey Kong Land is a game with some real cool ideas, but a game severely hampered by a just awful camera. Finally Donkey Kong Land 2 is an improvement in some spots on the original in regards to the camera, but a step back on the amount of originality. Looking at the timeline, Donkey Kong Country 2 marked the peak of the mountain for Rareware and Nintendo's work on series in my honest and humble opinion. Looking back at the first time I encountered these games I could only imagine what else Rareware had in store. Sadly young me was blissfully unaware that Donkey Kong Country 2 would be the last real masterpiece in the series. Two other monsters lay in wait in the future. One took the Rareware team into Nintendo's next big console, and the other.... is a discussion for another blog... My next blog will be part 2 of this Donkey Kong Country reflection and opinion blogs. I'll be thinking about my experiences playing Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble, as well as Donkey Kong Land 3, and Donkey Kong Country on the Game Boy Color. As always. Thanks for reading!

Diddy Kong Racing vs Mario Kart 64

    Hello everyone and welcome back. Today I'm going to be taking a look at two games that are both similar and yet very different from one another. Those two games judging from the title of this blog would be Diddy Kong Racing and Mario Kart 64. Both of these games came out for the Nintendo 64, but it was Mario Kart 64 that was the first of these games to hit the store shelves. Both of these racing games are very good, but it is Mario Kart 64 that garners by far more attention. Personally I contribute much of that to the name. Mario of course is Nintendo's mascot while at the time Diddy Kong had only seen himself as the lead hero in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. Mario is obviously the more familiar name, so it's no surprise to me that many people gravitate towards Mario Kart for that reason alone. That being said there is a lot to look at with both of these games and depending on how you look at things, one is not always better than the other.

 

    On the surface these games are very similar. Both are kart racers that see the players battling it out on the track by collecting powerups and racing to victory. Both games feature eight racers per race and a default roster of eight characters (Diddy Kong Racing has a total of ten characters thanks to two unlockables). One was made based off the massive success of it's previous installment on a previous system and the other was originally slated as a sequel to the NES game R.C. Pro-Am. Not hard to tell which one is based off the success of it's predecessor, but it is not a well known fact that Diddy Kong Racing came to be out of a Pro-Am sequel after Rare had to delay Banjo Kazooie. So the fact that both of these games have some kind of history (not directly in Diddy Kong Racing's case) and that the roster is similar in size about sums up the similarities. 

    When you go to a party and there is a Nintendo 64 in the room, Mario Kart 64 is usually near by. That is not always the case for Diddy Kong Racing and here is my thoughts on why. Mario Kart 64 is a very easy to pick up and play game. The courses aren't especially difficult (except for a few), the characters are all well known, and the game's battle mode is actually quite good (something that can't be said about recent Mario Kart games). It's a user friendly pickup and have a blast game. Anyone who can at least keep pace in the race has a chance to win thanks to last lap, race breaking items such as stars that cause your speed to increase and make you invulnerable, and lightning bolts that shrink and slow down all the other racers on the track. Of course first place is not even safe thanks to the introduction of the infamous blue shell. Yes Mario Kart 64 can get real dirty, but that helps to make it such a great party game. You can be head and shoulders above everyone else as a driver, but a well timed item could see you in big trouble late in a race. In Diddy Kong Racing though, the odds of that happening are much less.

    The way the item system works in this game is that players need to hit three of the same colored balloon to fully upgrade a weapon. For example. Pop a red balloon and you'll have a missile. Pop a second and that missile upgrades to a homing missile. Pop a third red balloon in a row and that missile becomes ten non-homing missiles. That being said, the items, even when fully upgraded, are not all that game breaking. There are no major items like stars or lightning to really screw with other players from afar. It's just as safe to be in the lead as it is near last place. You are able to get the same items, which is really not the case in Mario Kart 64 when getting a star in first place simply does not happen. So in Diddy Kong Racing, the name of the race really is skill. That's not to say that it doesn't take skill to win at Mario Kart 64, but again, there is no aid from weapons. Another thing in Diddy Kong Racing that is kind of a call back to Super Mario Kart are bananas. In Super Mario Kart you needed to collect coins in order to reach max speed. In Diddy Kong Racing bananas serve the same purpose. Coins however, do not appear in Mario Kart 64 and you can hit max speed from the race start. 

    As I mentioned earlier, Mario Kart 64 has a very familiar cast to gamers and even non gamers alike. All of the characters in this game have had at least one major title that they have been involved in and one both of the mega stars of the Super Nintendo era are in play in Mario and D.K.. It's also easy to take a guess at what the different weight classes are. You can probably guess that Bowser, D.K. and Wario are heavy weights and that Mario and Luigi are middle weights and that Toad is tiny. Compare this to Diddy Kong Racing's roster and you'll probably quickly realize why Mario Kart 64's is more appealing.

    Taking a quick glance, Diddy Kong himself is the only really recognizable character when the game came out. Krunch, the Kremling on Diddy's right I would venture to guess was also recognizable from the Donkey Kong Country trilogy despite Krunch not being an actual character in the series. That being said, there are a couple more now well known characters that are in this game. Conker, the star of Conkey's Bad Fur Day actually made his debut in Diddy Kong Racing on the lower left part of the screen. Banjo from the then delayed Banjo Kazooie is also playable and stands on the top right of the screen. The rest of the characters are fresh new faces and outside of a DS remake of the game, have not been seen since. Originally, Timber the tiger was supposed to have the lead role in the game, but Nintendo suggested that Rare go with a more familiar character, thus Diddy Kong entered and became the star of the game. So the roster was not something that Diddy Kong Racing really had going for it popularity wise, but it still featured heavyweights, middleweights, and lightweights. It also had a kind of grey area in Bumper, the badger looking character next to Banjo, who is more of a middle/heavyweight. 

    Based on the rosters and items, many people call Mario Kart 64 the better of the two games and it is the more popular of the two. As I mentioned earlier, the game can usually be found at a party where a Nintendo 64 exists. Beyond the pick up and easily have a chance at winning if not by skill then by luck, does Mario Kart 64 beat out Diddy Kong Racing? If you look beneath the surface of both games you might be in for a surprise. Both are racing games, both can be challenging, and both offer very different experiences. 

    Mario Kart 64 in all it's simplicity is mostly just a racing game. You race through the Mushroom, Flower, Star, and Special Cups with three different motor sizes as well as a mirror mode where the tracks are flipped around. Each motor size increases the speed of your cart and the difficulty of the computer racers. 150cc races tend to be hectic and a bit of luck is usually needed to come out on top, especially if another human player is in the race. There is also a Time Trial mode where you can race without opponents and see how quickly you can make it through a race. You can also race "ghosts" in this mode (the ghost is the current best time on the track). Lastly there is the battle mode which is available for 2-4 players. In this mode players battle it out and the player with the last balloons wins. That is a quick overview as to what Mario Kart 64 is. As a single player game, it's a lot of fun, but once you've unlocked mirror mode, there really isn't much else to do besides practice the tracks for future multiplayer experiences. Graphically the game isn't bad by any means and the soundtrack is a lot of fun

    Diddy Kong Racing on the other hand is quite complicated in comparison. The game has two default modes, Adventure Mode and Tracks. In Tracks you can race any of the tracks, battles, or trophy races that you have visited in Adventure Mode. Speaking of Adventure Mode... Yes, Diddy Kong Racing actually has a story. Wizpig has invaded Timber Island and enslaved some of it's inhabitants. In a panic, Timber calls on Diddy Kong to race and help save the island. It sounds silly, but it actually works quite well. I'm not going to go into too much detail here about the Adventure Mode, but I'll outline it to give you a better understanding. There are 5 worlds consisting of 4 tracks. To get to a world you'll need to travel the overworld of Timber's Island. Upon completing the four tracks you will race on of the island's enslaved inhabitants in a boss battle style race, Once you defeat it, you'll be challenged to go back through the four tracks again and collect eight silver coins and win each respective race. After that you will need to face off against the inhabitant again, although it will be much tougher. Once you beat it a second time you will free it from Wizpig's grasp and a traditional trophy race will open up for the world that has a similar point system to Mario Kart 64. In this trophy race though, the computer opponents are much more difficult. Also hidden somewhere in each world is a key that will open a secret level. These levels are not races, but rather levels that are similar to Mario Kart 64's battle mode, or a pseudo battle/collectathon hybrid. Upon completing the four secret stages you'll be able to reach the final world and rid Timber Island of Wizpig for good. Along the way you'll explore a somewhat open world, race a genie, and switch between the three vehicles the game has to offer. Yes, three vehicles.

    Unlike Mario Kart 64 you are not confined to kart racing. Diddy Kong Racing offers races in cars, planes, and hovercraft. Each vehicle is very different from the others. For example. Lightweights in the plane and car are able to get up to speed and turn corners better than any other class. However, in the hovercraft lightweights will almost come to a stop when turning. Heavyweights act almost as lightweights in the hovercraft. The plane is able to perform tricks and the up and down axis is inverted in a similar fashion to Star Fox. The car is well, a car. It handles similarly to a cart in Mario Kart. So in order to really get good at this game you need to be able to easily tackle all three vehicles and what makes them unique.  

    Upon completing Adventure Mode, you'll be invited to play Adventure Mode Two. This is similar to Adventure Mode but all the tracks are flipped around. You'll also be able to race a secret character in Tracks mode. In addition to that secret character, there is one more to find as well so that brings the roster to ten characters. For a lot of people though, all of this does not necessarily make one game better than another. Sure one is more complex, but for many people, graphics seem to make it or break it.

    Before I go into detail as to why I like the way each of these games look I want to say that I don't think either of them look bad by any stretch, but I do believe one has held up better against time. The image above is from Diddy Kong Racing. The game showed the power that the Nintendo 64 had as Rare once again busts out bright vibrant colors, and plenty of environment on screen. For a racing game on the sixty four bit system, the game is beautifully bright and full. This is really shown off as you race through towns, caves, bays, windmills, etc, etc, etc. 

    The above picture is from Mario Kart 64. Here the colors are not as bright and vibrant, but the attention to detail is there, but for a game that came out earlier, it appears less. Take a look at the trees and backgrounds here versus the above picture. They just do not pop as much as in Diddy Kong Racing. That being said though, Mario Kart 64 is the older game. There are plenty of awesome looking tracks to behold, but for me personally Diddy Kong Racing graphically has held up better over time.

    If anyone who knows me is reading this then you probably know that I love music in games. So I have to throw this in there. When it comes to the two games soundtracks I put them both on a similar level. Both have great tracks. They really do. That being said, my favorite video game music composer, David Wise, did the music for Diddy Kong Racing. Wise struck gold again with this game as I think Diddy Kong Racing has a slight edge in music. This isn't so much due to a head to head with Mario Kart's tracks so much as it is the variety. Keep in mind that Diddy Kong Racing is not just a racing game, so there is music that extends out of the tracks including character dialogue, overworld themes, and even boss music.

    So the grand question which one of these racing games is the better? For me it's really, really tough to tell. Both have their upsides and downsides. Since I do not have a large friend circle, I would give the nod to Diddy Kong Racing for the following reasons. Mario Kart 64 I have always felt is best played as a multiplayer game. While I love multiplayer Diddy Kong Racing, it just, for whatever reason, does not bring out the intense friendship ending chaos that Mario Kart is so well known for. I feel like this is partially due to the item selection and ability to never really be out of a race unless you mess up big time. In addition, I love the variety of the car, hovercraft, and plane. It breaks up the monotony of having to race the same way race in and race out. Having the heavyweights get the ability to do some tight turning in the hovercraft was a great touch and something that would appear in later Mario Kart games once kart customization was introduced. The real thing though that tips the hand in Diddy's favor for me though is the Adventure Mode. The story, while simple, is actually a lot of fun to play through. Yes, the silver coin challenges can be frustrating, but having the mode gives a sense of accomplishment that simply isn't in Mario Kart 64. Sure you can collect all the gold trophies, but you can do that in Diddy Kong Racing as well. Honestly, I wish that more racing games came out with something like this. Granted, nowadays the internet takes care of not having many friends, but still, I'm sure solo players like myself would love more of this style racing game that allows them to do more than just race for trophies. 

    In the end, both of these games really are incredible and in my opinion, both are must have games for anyone who has a Nintendo 64. Without a doubt Mario Kart 64 is the go to to play with friends, but for those times when nobody is around or if you and a friend want a more skilled based racing experience, but still have some fun items and stage gimmicks, Diddy Kong Racing takes point. For solo play, Diddy Kong Racing is my go to. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!