Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (SNES - 1995)

Yesterday was my birthday. That means a lot of the games I loved as a kid that were released in November are celebrating 20 to 30 year anniversaries. It's hard to think about, but I'll wax nostalgic regardless. I spoke pretty highly of 1994's Donkey Kong Country. Its sequel, released only a year later, is immeasurably better.

"I'm not afraid to admit it, Diddy m'boy. Even I'm wrong occasionally. You're as big a hero as they come. You must take after me and Donkey. Well Done!"

~Cranky Kong

I don't need to tell you a thoughtful, charming story about my childhood to preface this game. Now that I'm thinking about it, I probably didn't have to tell thoughtful, charming stories to preface any of the games I've reviewed so far. Thus far, I've reviewed some of the greatest retro staples that belong in everyone's library. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest should be on top of that stack.

I'm not suggesting that, on its own, it's a bigger deal than Super Mario Bros. 3, or deserves higher praise than Super Mario 64. Don't ever think that my reviews have any kind of curve, or that a game with an 8.7 score simply has more value than a game with an 8.6 score. None of this is relative, and at the very best, we'll get a vague idea of the kinds of games that I think are worthy of playing.

I'll review bad games too, someday, I promise.

That said, Diddy's Kong Quest (as opposed to Diddy Kong's Quest, which is incorrect) is a great game. It takes everything Rare learned about the shortcomings of Donkey Kong Country and cooks it into one of the most polished Super Nintendo games.

[wps_icon icon="gamepad" background="#3366cc" color="#fff" size="32" padding="10" radius="0"]Gameplay: 10/10

Like Donkey Kong Country, Diddy's Kong Quest is a 2D sidescrolling platformer where you control some monkeys. You traverse through each stage seeking out hidden secrets, collecting bananas, and jumping on crocodile people. This time though, you don't play as the titular Donkey Kong - you take on the role of his sidekick from the first game, Diddy Kong. Joining you his Diddy's overpowered ladyfriend, Dixie Kong (no relation).

Another difference is that Diddy and Dixie Kong have new items to collect. In Donkey Kong Country, you had bananas where every 100 gave you a free life, balloons that granted you a free life, and letters that spell out KONG. Spelling out KONG would, say it with me, give you a free life. There were also animal tokens which would grant you a bonus level when you collect three of the same animals, in which you would, dare I say, get extra lives. Donkey Kong Country expected you to die a lot.

In Diddy's Kong Quest, we eschew the animal tokens, but there are coins to hunt down. There are the reasonably plentiful banana coins which you use to pay for hints, save your game, and play bonus games. Every stage has a hidden DK Video Game Hero coin (more on this later). Each secret bonus stage rewards you with a Kremkoin, which can be used to unlock the last few final stages.

The movement and controls are pretty similar to Donkey Kong Country, but the controls are tighter and a little less slippery. Most notable, Dixie Kong is able to helicopter her ponytail, allowing her to glide around while descending. It nearly makes her overpowered.

There are handfuls of other mechanics, both new and old, as you traverse the game, but nothing complicated enough that a player can't figure things out while in the moment.

The level design is greatly improved over the original Donkey Kong Country - stages tend to be larger and more varied. While many stages are still linear, there are also sprawling mazes, vertically scrolling levels, and neat little gimmicks that keep the gameplay fresh and memorable.

For example, there is a stage where you ride a roller coaster while racing lizard pirates through a theme park at night, a stage where you need to out-climb the rising tide to prevent being bit by a lurking piranha, and a stage where you navigate through a bee-hive while being chased by a giant bee. Not every stage has a standout gimmick (which is not a problem) but there is definitely a lot of fun variety that keeps you on your prehensile toes.

[wps_icon icon="book" background="#3366cc" color="#fff" size="32" padding="10" radius="0"]Story: 10/10

Donkey Kong has been kidnapped by King. K. Rool, the big bad from the first Donkey Kong Country, and it's up to Diddy and his new bae to rescue the prime ape. Instead of adventuring across Donkey Kong Island, Diddy and Dixie are trekking over Crocodile Isle - the overall motif is that you are in dangerous territory compared to the first game. You're just the sidekick and his ladyfriend, and you don't know what sorts of traps and terrors will try to get in your way.

A nice touch is that the very first stage is on the Gangplank Galleon, the ship where you fought King K. Rool in the first game. It just immediately makes you feel like this new adventure is a whole new leap for our heroic monkeys.

This is actually a pretty big theme of the game and something that makes it stand out. Donkey Kong Country was known for breaking the fourth wall, mostly thanks to Cranky Kong. If you remember, Cranky was the original Donkey Kong from the arcade games in the early 80s, and our modern-day Donkey Kong is his grandson. Cranky would constantly shit on modern-day gameplay and graphics while reminiscing of better times where games were simple and less convoluted. In Diddy's Kong Quest, Cranky negs Diddy and Dixie about how they are barely heroes, and how they have a long way to go to become remarkable video game heroes.

Once you beat the game, Cranky will even rate you on a pedestal with other video game heroes based on the number of DK Video Game Hero coins you've found in the game. Get them all, and you'll even stand higher than Super Mario himself.

It's fucking great.

Just... play this game. You don't need me to tell you.

[wps_icon icon="picture-o" background="#3366cc" color="#fff" size="32" padding="10" radius="0"]Visuals: 9.5/10

Donkey Kong Country had pretty, pre-rendered visuals. They were developed on expensive supercomputers normally used for rendering movie visuals and then converted to 16-bit sprites. The Super Nintendo has hardware limitations, preventing it from displaying a lot of colors, and we're still talking about old-school television resolutions. Donkey Kong Country's visuals stood out, and at times, worked really well, and you could definitely appreciate the work that went into it. That said, it wasn't perfect, and it was a little gimmicky.

Diddy's Kong Quest uses the same approach but fine-tunes everything. The end result looks much less like a tech demo and more like a polished work of art. It's not perfect, but you can tell they weren't trying too hard. Because of this, the game actually looks better and presents itself better than the first.

There's a lot of little details that immediately hit you on the very first stage. The ship is rocking gently in the ocean. You hear wooden ship-bits creak. The sea stretches out behind you and clouds drift by above. Defeating bad guys cause them to topple off the ship into the foreground, causing a little splash a few moments later. These early ship stages definitely show off the game's visuals - most level set pieces aren't as complex later on. It's as if the game were saying "Look what we can do - but after you ogle my pixels we want you to focus on how good the game is." I honestly don't mind this approach - it's not like later levels are a copout. The entire game looks good, and generally, everything is more aesthetic than the first in the series.

[wps_icon icon="music" background="#3366cc" color="#fff" size="32" padding="10" radius="0"]Audio: 10/10

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest has some of the best music from the Super Nintendo's generation. The soundtrack was composed by David Wise, who also contributed to Donkey Kong Country. Each piece fits the level perfectly, and there is so much variety. You'll hear genres ranging from hip hop to disco to big band. Drake sampled one of the tracks in If You're Reading This It's Too Late.

It's rare that we know the names of video game music composers. We know Koji Kondo (famous for Mario, Zelda, and other Nintendo staples), we know Grant Kirkhope (famous for Banjo-Kazooie and GoldenEye 007), Yoko Shimomura (Final Fantasy), and Jun Senoue (Sonic Adventure). David Wise is among these hall of fame legends.

Sidenote: look up the video games you love, and figure out who composed the music. They deserve credit and likely have more great stuff for you to discover.

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest has some great tunes. I would normally post a few videos to showcase some of the music, but I think it would be more interesting to share a great remix album that David Wise actually had a role in. OverClocked ReMix is a community of talented musicians who remix video game music. They produced an entire album for Diddy's Kong Quest, and David Wise AND Grant Kirkhope contributed to it.

In fact, check out everything on OverClocked ReMix, it's one of the finest communities on the Internet.

Okay, and also listen to some of the tracks directly from the game: