When we think about classic platform titles of the early 90’s that appeared during the 16-bit era of gaming one of the few names that instantly comes to mind is Donkey Kong Country. For those who do not know Donkey Kong Country was developed by Rare and published by Nintendo when it was initially released in November 1994. Donkey Kong Country was the first major game within the series to appear on a home based console during the 90’s. While Donkey Kong had first became very popular on the NES similar to characters such Mario & Link during the 80’s it seemed like the Country series stood out more. Donkey Kong Country had realistic characters sprites and a basic plot which involved a bunch of bananas being stolen by Kremlings. Players have to compete various stages while encountering numerous adversaries while controlling Donkey or Diddy Kong as they progress through 40 different levels within the game. One of the coolest features that Donkey Kong Country had was the multiplayer co-op mode which was similar to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 & 3 where one player got to be Sonic and other was Tails. The co-op two player mode in some ways made Donkey Kong Country better than older Mario games from the 80’s and Super Mario World to a degree as far as gameplay is concerned.
As far as overall success is concerned Donkey Kong Country managed to sell over 9.3 million units worldwide and ended up becoming the third best selling game for the Super NES during the 90’s. In fact, Donkey Kong Country ended up becoming the third best selling game for Nintendo’s 16-bit console while being surpassed by Super Mario World & Super Mario All-Stars. Donkey Kong Country was a title that spawned two SNES sequels which were both released between ’95-’96 and were largely successful as well. Despite, its release approximately 24 years ago Donkey Kong Country is a game worth playing for those who never had a chance to do so. As a 2D platformer Donkey Kong Country looked like it was ahead of its time following its release in 1994.
Gaming Hearts Collection 