Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Old-school"

Nostalgia is a powerful thing. There are some game series' that I buy solely because they still give me the same buzz now as they did 10, 15, even 20 years ago. Mario and Megaman spring to mind.

Donkey Kong Country the series was relatively short lived. Three games were made, all for the SNES and they all garnered the same reaction from me.

I loved the music. I loved the look. And the gameplay frustrated me to hell at times.

Donkey Kong should never have been a platform character. He is a lumbering oaf. He plods up and down, frequently not doing what I want because he just isn't as fleet of foot and jump as Mario or Sonic, or as versatile as Samus.

And amazingly, Retro Studios has managed to recreate the clumsy, meat fisted DK of old almost perfectly. He infuriates me now as much as he did back in the day.
Thankfully, good level design and a steady difficulty level mean that, just like the DKC games, I was enjoying myself. Who cares if Mario would have made that jump? Much like Megaman, who always overcomes his inability to shoot upwards, the reward comes from the feeling of achievement, after beating a tough section.

The game is easy on the eye too, and the soundtrack (while not as breathtaking as the SNES games) is decent, with a good deal of old school rehashes.

So there you go. One of video games' more annoying characters, rescued once again by quality design, and enough of a balance between new and old that it should please fans as well as new comers.

Good game.