Donkey Kong Country port unchanged
In the style of Mario Advance
When Donkey Kong Country snuck onto a recent Nintendo release schedule, we weren't 100 per cent sure it was a port of the GBA game. After all, Nintendo has been failing to name its first party Cube projects distinctively. F-Zero, anyone? But according to IGN today it's very much confirmed that DKC is a GBA port of the SNES classic.
Well, we say classic. These days, DKC is something of an oddity. At the time, Rare's Silicon Graphics-based ACM (advanced computer modelling) visuals were groundbreaking for the system, and the game sold tons purely on that basis.
Gameplay-wise, it was a largely solid platformer, but it was one of the shortest we've ever played. Although it took several weekends of gaming (this was before we got paid to do it you understand) to clear every level and find every secret room to get that fabled 101 per cent rating on the save screen, you could actually finish the entire thing in roughly an hour - in fact, Cranky Kong would taunt you from the end credits, claiming to offer something exciting if you could do it in under an hour with one life. We never found out what it was.
But anyway, much as we like the idea of playing through it again, we reckon Nintendo should just stick both DKC and Diddy Kong's Quest on the same cart. Not that they will - they are making a couple of changes, adding a couple of multiplayer mini-games (Mario Advance syndrome) and a mid-level save feature (why?), but the sum total of bonuses for completists will be detailed stats and artwork. Artwork - tsk! Nobody cares, chaps. Nobody.