SNES Game Review - Donkey Kong Country

Donkey Kong Country was Donkey Kong's first foray into the world of platforming. It was also notable in that it represented the first use of 3-D-rendered graphics in a game, an aspect which was heavily (and successfully) advertised in its marketing. Developed by Rare and licensed by Nintendo, Donkey Kong Country sold over 8 million copies after its release in 1994. Its popularity led to 2 sequels, an animated TV show, and even a snack food.
The premise of the game is simple. King K. Rool, king of the reptilian Kremlings, has stolen all of the bananas from Donkey Kong's private stash. Donkey Kong does what any sensible simian would do: Grab his nephew, Diddy, and search his home island high and low for the crocodilian thief.
The graphics of Donkey Kong Country were, at the time, revolutionary -- never before had so much detail been crammed into characters in a console game. By placing 3-D character models over vibrant, atmospheric backgrounds, a level of graphical flare never before seen was brought to the SNES. Rare had made a gamble in putting such effort into the graphics -- the hardware used to render the in-game graphics cost them nearly all of their capital. The gamble paid off -- Donkey Kong Country went on to become one of the SNES's top sellers, due in no small part to these graphical innovations. The amazingly detailed character models look right in place against the game's many well-crafted backgrounds. The environments that Donkey Kong travels through are lush and varied, from dank ocean depths to snowy mountaintops. Donkey Kong Country is definitely a treat for the eyes.
Donkey Kong Country has a fantastic musical score. Rhythmic drum beats used in the jungle levels Ambient, soothing sounds in the water levels. Frantic trumpeting in the fast-paced mine cart levels. The list goes on. The sound effects are nothing special - mostly limited to animal sounds and explosions. They do get the job done, though, and fit the gameplay quite well.
Donkey Kong Country presents a pretty decent challenge; you will die at some point. However, there are virtually no levels where you'll get stuck for more than a few lives. The controls take some getting used to, but are spot on -- if you die, you know it's your fault. The level design is varied to the point where you'll never face the same challenge twice, and generally ramps up at a fairly consistent pace. An interesting element of the game is that quite a few levels have gimmicks: fun, quirky, or absurd elements present in only that level. These range from a stage focused on outrunning octopi to a stage where the lights periodically go out and the player is forced to operate on memory for a second or two. These elements not only add to the replay value of the game, but are just plain fun to encounter and overcome.
Overall, Donkey Kong Country is a great game. Vibrant, detailed graphics, a lovely musical composition, and incredible level design all come together to form one of the SNES's masterpieces. This game easily scores a 5 out of 5.