The one and only monkey.

After Super Mario World it was time to look at another great game with a famous monkey.
I am ofcourse talking about Monkey Donkey Kong. Which was originally named Monkey Kong but after a miscommunication over the phone was named Donkey Kong. Nowadays most people would recognize Donkey Kong Country, because of the Wii version. But i'm not talking about the new one. Im talking about the original Super NES game, good old: Donkey Kong Country.

 

Donkey Kong Country was made in 1994 by the famous game company Rare that also brought you Battletoads and Killer Instinct. On the Nintendo 64 they made the famous GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie. When Microsoft bought Rare, they made Viva Pinata for the 360 and PC.

You might still remember the old NES game named Donkey Kong, when Mario was still called 'Jumpman' and was not a plumber but a carpenter. When you turn on your Super NES the first thing you see is Donkey Kong , but very old. You actually play as Donkey Kong Jr. the old man is his 8-bit grandpa. You can play as either Donkey Kong Jr. or as Diddy Kong which is his nephew.

As far as the story goes, King K. Rool, an evil Crocodile, stole every banana of his precious hoard. He and Diddy Kong are doing everything they can to get those bananas back. The bananas have been scattered all around DK Island and they won't stop until they have every banana back. On your quest trough DK Island, you'll run into some problems. Every level is packed with enemies, which are all King K. Rool's minions. The levels are not only packed with enemies like wasps, beavers and crocodiles. There are also bananas all over the place.

 As you can see, you move through the levels like a map, similar to Mario games. Everytime you beat a level, the next one appears, until all levels are completed, the very last level of each map is a boss. When every level is beaten you walk to the next map. The male purple monkey takes you to previous maps by plane. The girl is your save point, these are mostly just before the boss battle which is really helpful. The first bosses are very easy though. 

At the very beginning you start with both characters, Donkey and Diddy Kong. Both Kongs have their own special moves, Where Donkey can do a roll which kills enemies, Diddy can do a cartwheel. Donkey can also pound the ground which reveals secret objects in the ground. Diddy Kong is faster in movement and can jump higher and further, you will mostly play with Diddy because of this.

Bananas are equal to the Mario coins, once you reach 100 bananas you gain an extra life. Unlike Mario these are extremely easy to find and theres atleast 100 in every level. Sometimes there are secret rooms that have about 100 in 'em. At the first boss i had about 9 / 10 lifes. But collecting bananas isn't everything. You also have 4 hidden letters, sometimes hard to reach, sometimes just in front of you, these 4 hidden letters spell KONG. If you get all the 4 letters, you gain an extra life. There are also balloons hidden in the levels. 3 colours, Red, Green and Blue.

Red = 1 life
Green = 2 lifes
Blue = 3 lifes. The blue balloon is very rare.

The main goal of every level is to reach the end. But there's alot of enemies that want to take you down. There are crocodiles, wasps, beavers etc. One does not simply walk into a DK level. Luckily these monsters have a very standard patern. They just walk back and forth, Wasps just fly in half circles, you can easily time your jump to kill them or slip past them, that is in the first couple of levels. The enemies get harder every level, the enemies are recycled alot but with different colours so it doens't get boring. You can't actually jump on wasps unless you are mounting an enemy (I will tell you about that later) or when using a weapon. The weapon of the Kongs are barrels. You can pick 'em up and throw 'em at your enemy, when you hit them they die. There's a couple of different types of barrels.

The DK barrels are there to revive your lost partner. When you lose Donkey or Diddy Kong, you just have to hit one of those DK barrels and he's back. There is mostly 1 DK barrel in each level. You also have Checkpoint Barrels which speaks for itself. Though the barrels that are the most fun are the barrels that can launch you. There are barrels that shoot you automaticly up on a ledge or to another barrel that shoots you further down the level. There are also barrels pointed to the sky, these are mostly 'portals' to mini-games, which mostly are just places where you can collect bananas.

But next to the not moving barrels, there is also , ofcourse, the moving barrels. These barrels follow a patern and you will have to time your shot, if you miss, you die. They don't just move up and down, no!, they move from side to side, they spin 360 degrees while moving! It is sometimes very hard to time your shots, this makes the game fun and challenging. This was very new at the time and this was one of the aspects that made this game it is today.

Also assisting Donkey Kong at times are various 'animal buddies' (Rambi the rhino, Expresso the ostrich, Enguarde the swordfish, Winky the frog, and Squawks the parrot), each with their own unique abilities.I like the Frog because of i'ts high jumps, i hate the swordfish, i find it hard to control. The rhino is useful too, it can crush enemies by charging them.

Conclusion: This game is still a nice game to play once in a while, it has a very high replay value. The graphics look good for the time and the gameplay is just perfect. And the game isn't even that easy, some levels like the stop & go station are still a pain in the ass. I don't really know how i should rate it , 10 or 9 . you decide!

 This was MrBunni, see you next time.

MrBunni Out.

It's a good day for Gaming

Today was a good day to play some oldschool games.,

I decided it was time to play some old games. And when I say old, I mean 1993 old.

I decided to take out the old Super NES and play some Super Mario World.

This game came out just one year after Super Mario Brothers 3 on the Nes, which had very nice graphics in comparison to the first Mario. But sorry SMB3, you have been surpassed. You are no longer 'THE' Mario game everyone is talking about. About everything is better in SMW.  Clothing looks better, face looks more detailed, and character animations have been improved. Mario was the face of the NES, and with this game Mario was expanding his kingdom. The SNES was his new country, ready to be conquered.

But i'ts not just the graphics that made this game what it is. Because of the jump to the SNES there were suddenly 4 buttons to use. Instead of the A and B button, there is also the Y and X button. X and Y both run, B does a regular jump and the A button did something that you were not able to do on the NES versions. You could do a 'Spinning Jump' this was something we (as gamers) had not seen before. The regular jump did everything it has always done. Kill those goomba's and Koopa Troopa's. But with this jump you could make Koopa's disappear or even bounce off of various objects like Big Boo's and the green poison bubbles in Ghost Houses.

Basicly, the 4 buttons was a nice improvement over the 2 basic ones. The controls are just as perfect on SMB, absolutely no flaws, just perfect control of Mario to kick some Goomba butt.

The storyline is basicly about Bowser kidnapping the Princess. Mario will do anything to get her back. He is willing to go from Yoshi's Island to the Valley of Bowser and everything in between. Before reaching Bowser himself, there's 7 family members of Bowser that want to make Mario's life miserable. You'll have to beat Iggy, Morton, Lemmy, Ludwig, Roy, Wendy and Larry first. These are all bosses hiding in castles on your way to Bowser's Valley. You basicly beat them if you jump on their heads 3 times or let them burn in lava.

But don't worry, you are not alone. They decided to add a GREEN PLAYABLE DINOSAUR!! To ride on Yoshi the dinosaur is extremely helpful and i'ts just amazing to mount a dinosaur which basicly becomes your friend. He's there to help you fight Bowser and his minions. Yoshi eats almost every enemy in the game, but does he only eat the enemies? No! If Yoshi eats a Red Koopa he shoots 3 fireballs, when he eats a green one, he shoots the green shell and if Yoshi eats a blue shell he is able to FLY. By tapping the B button you can easily fly through the whole level. There's even 3 colored yoshi's Red, Blue and Yellow Yoshi which all have their own special ability.

There are alot of different zones in SMW, you start at Yoshi's house. From here you go to Donut Plains, to Soda Lake, Cheese Bridge, Cookie Mountain, Forest of Illusion, Chocolate Island and at the very end there is the 'Valley of Bowser' which has a very catchy rockish song. Because of these new area's theres also new enemies. There is Super Koopa that can fly. Monty Mole's that jump out of the ground. Eeries, which are very annoying dinosaur ghost. Rip Van Fish that is just taking a nap, but when Mario swims by he sets off in hot pursuit. Rex' which are dinosaurs, just like Mini-Rhino's and Dino Rhino's. Mini-Rhino's actually spit fire. Wiggler is a caterpillar that lives in the forest, normally Wiggler is very quiet, but once jumped on he turns red and gets extremely angry. Magikoopa is a wizard that shoots strange flashes of lights that turns blocks into enemies. When a Sumo Brother stamps its foot, lightning strikes, and turns whatever it hits into a sea of flames. Chargin' Chucks , probably one of the most annoying enemies of the whole game, always going after you jumping all around playing football. They are the main cause of losing your Yoshi. They are mostly found just before the finish of the game.

Sound Quality in this game has been improved greatly. They replaced the 8-bit beeps from the NES and turned it into 16-bit music. Every level has a catchy song and these songs actually don't get annoying after hearing them for a while. I mean, who does not know the Mario songs.

Basicly Super Mario World is one of the best, if not the best, Mario game i've ever played. I'm giving it a 10 because there is simply nothing bad to say about this game.

This was MrBunni, I'll see you next time.

MrBunni out.