Changes for the Donkey Kong Country Game Boy Advance Trilogy

In the mid 1990s, Nintendo and Rareware came out with a trio of amazing games: the Donkey Kong Country trilogy, which were among the masterpieces released later in the Super NES' life. They held my interest, as well as those of many other players, with lots of stages to explore and secrets to find as well as the rather impressive graphics and sound. All three games were later ported to the Game Boy Advance, but rather than being the same old games from nearly a decade earlier, Rare decided to give them a ton of new and altered features while at the same time keeping the basic game play the same as it ever was. So what changes were made to these games? Here is a list featuring changes that all or most of the hand held versions of the games have..

1. You can now save anywhere by simply pressing the Start button on a map screen and selecting the Save option. As such, the save points in the SNES version have been eliminated.

2. Any extra lives that you collect are now saved. For example, if you had 25 lives the last time you saved and quit, you would still have 25 lives when you returned.

3. New mini games have been added. In Donkey Kong Country, they are Funky's Fishing, where you must catch a certain amount of specific types of fish within the time limit; and Candy's Dance Studio, in which you must press the buttons as they appear on screen in order to dance as best as you can. For Donkey Kong Country 2, we have Expresso Racing, where you race against three other ostriches to try and reach first place; and Funky's challenges, where you take on a series of tasks aboard his helicopter. In Donkey Kong Country 3, there is Cranky's Dojo, in which the elderly ape must defend himself from porcupines; Swanky's Dash, where you pick up stars while running through a pipe, and some rather tough vehicle challenges from Funky.

4. Some of the stages are presented in a different order than they were in the original versions.

5. Bosses have new or more difficult strategies. When you reach the Necky's Revenge battle in Donkey Kong Country, you will be fighting two vultures instead of one!

6. New songs have been added in some spots or, in the case of Donkey Kong Country 3, the entire game. As such, some tunes have been removed altogether.

7. The graphics look brighter and, while still good for Game Boy Advance games, they are nowhere near as impressive as their 16-bit counterparts.

8. The music also sounds somewhat worse than before, but on a hand held system, perhaps that is to be expected.

9. New opening cut scenes were added to the first two games. In Donkey Kong Country 3, no introduction sequence was present.

10. There are new endings to the first two games, while in the last game, some changes were made to the existing end sequences instead.

11. The first two games have new collectible items, such as photographs and gold feathers, that help contribute to your overall percentage.

12. Also in the first two games, you can now keep track of how many bonus areas you have found in each stage.

13. When you enter a bonus area in the first game, a screen with the stage's objective pops up, comparable with the later games.

14. Lots of new dialog have been added, much of which have to do with the games' new features.

15. In the third game, a new world called Pacifica, with six all new stages, becomes accessible about midway through the game.

16. Once you have visited Funky's Flights the first time, you will be able to call for a ride from the pause menu. This makes backtracking to get extra lives or find bonus areas much easier.

17. There are a lot of new voices and sound effects, many of which are more cartoon-like than in the 16-bit versions.

18. In some cases, the controls are a little less tight than they were before. Also, some moves, such as Dixie and Kiddy's team toss, have been made worse.

19. When you beat a boss, Cranky comments about the battle and warns you of the perils lying ahead.

20. In the first game, you can enter new button sequences to unlock features such as a sound test. The other two games have new cheat codes that can be entered to access some secrets.

21. Except for the third game, every game has a time attack mode that challenges you to complete the stage as quickly as possible.

22. Some tougher modes can be unlocked, and in these modes, DK and midpoint barrels disappear.

23. The screens with the Rare and Nintendo logos are different. Consequently, the sequences of Cranky playing his phonograph and Dixie and Kiddy riding a bouncing Rare logo have been taken out.

24. The character parades in the first two games are a little different. In the third game, it is not present at all for unexplained reasons.

These changes are perhaps the most significant of those featured in the Game Boy Advance versions of the Donkey Kong Country trilogy. Many other, smaller alterations were also made in the process of porting these classics to the venerable hand held system. Personally, I feel that the changes altered the games for the better in some ways and for the worse in others. Many of the new mini games and stages are fun, and having more things to collect adds to the replay value. On the other hand, the new endings are a bit worse than the original ones, the controls do not function quite as well as before, and the third game in particular, while still pretty decent, suffered from the highest amount of meddling with the old formula, perhaps so it could be rushed out before Nintendo could retire the Game Boy Advance. As a whole, however, the games are still pretty good on the Game Boy Advance and are worth checking out even if you are a fan of the SNES versions. You may discover for yourself that some of the changes listed above might make the games better, or worse, than before.