Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest

"Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong-Quest" is one of those exciting games that keeps you tapping buttons from childhood to adulthood. This game is even slightly better than its fantastic predecessor.

The plot goes far beyond banana theft this time. Now, it's Donkey Kong who has been stolen by K. Rool (now reinvented as a pirate, Kaptain K. Rool), meaning that Diddy Kong has to go rescue him. Along for the ride is Dixie Kong, Diddy's blond girlfriend who has a unique ability: she can hover like a helicopter in the air by twirling her ponytail around very fast.

DKC2 is filled with fun challenges, amazing and well-realized characters, and a more in-depth adventure than the first game had. Travel through a pirate ship, a volcano, a bayou, an evil amusement park, a haunted forest, a creepy castle, and K. Rool's wicked flying fortress (The Flying Krock). My personal favorite is the forest (Gloomy Gulch), while my favorite level is in the amusement park, the breakneck-paced Rickety Race. Meet new animal friends like Squitter the Spider.

Above all, rescue Donkey from K. Rool's sinister clutches in this dazzlingly fun adventure for the ages.

Long ago, I remember jumping for joy when I saw the commercial for this game as a little kid. I couldn't wait to play it. And it turned out to be my all-time favorite game for the SNES.

This was the darkest game in the series, and it shows. Right off the bat, Diddy and Dixie are dropped off on the Kremlings home world, Crocodile Isle. Its entire dangerous landscape is a stark contrast to DK Island, like the active volcano Crocodile Cauldron, the broken-down theme park Krazy Kremland, to K. Rools ominous looking Keep at the peak of the island.

There were some great new characters introduced, most prominently Diddy's girlfriend Dixie Kong, who makes a splash with her always helpful hover ability. We also got new animal buddies with unique abilities, like Squitter the spiders web shooting to attack enemies and create steppingstones and Rattley's the rattlesnakes charged jumping.

There is a more exotic and wide range of level themes, like pirate ship decks, volcanoes, swamps, ice caverns, and castle interiors. Plus, there were new items introduced, like the invincibility barrel, crates, plus and minus barrels in roller coaster levels. The difficulty was increased by the necessity of collecting every bonus Kremcoin to access the final battle against Kaptain K. Rool in the Lost World and truly beat the game. Plus, there's a hidden DK coin on every level needed to achieve a full 102% success. It's challenging, but that's what made it more fun and appealing than the original for me.

There were more difficult gimmicky levels, like Windy Well with its wind currents, Slime Climb involving the relentless and invincible piranha Snapjaw pursuing you. The bosses were a lot tougher, like King Zing with his stinger being his only weak point, Kudgel with his ground shaking jumps, and rounding them out is Kaptain K. Rool himself with his projectile dodging focused battle.

But best of all was the amazing soundtrack that marked David Wise's peak. From Welcome to Crocodile Isle with its deep and ominous organ chimes and drumbeats that hammers home you're on K. Rools turf now, to the intense and dark techno final boss theme Crocodile Cacophony, and the ever popular Stickerbush Symphony, which was arguably Wise's greatest work with the soft, peaceful, and soothing piano notes and violin strokes that will put your mind at ease.

Even today, the game is an absolute blast to play, especially for retrogamers looking to take a nice trip down memory lane. So, try it out on the Nintendo Switch if you like.

The original "Donkey Kong Country" game was such a success that it pretty much usurped Mario on the SNES console for the title of "best side-scrolling adventure". This sequel, "Diddy's Kong Quest", however, manages to even improve upon the gameplay of its predecessor and make for an even better gaming experience.

There are two main reasons why this game is better than the original:

1. The level designs manage to be even more interesting. Not that the levels in "DK1" were bad, by any means, but they are just more interesting in this effort. When I think back to the iconic levels in this series, I'm usually thinking of ones from this game.

2. Dixie Kong is a better playable character than Donkey Kong. The main trouble with the DK/Diddy combo of part one is that DK is such a sluggish character. He "gets the job done", but only passably for a game that requires so much jumping. In that game, Diddy is the much better character. In part two, though, the Diddy/Dixie combination are pretty much equals. Diddy is still a bit more agile and nimble to work with, but the hair of Dixie (used for flying and throwing) makes her very valuable as well.

The only reason I can't give this game the full five stars? It doesn't let you save after every level. I know, I know...gamers weren't used to that feature like they are now. But it still doesn't make it any better (at least for me). After about the second stage, the levels in this game get quite difficult. Difficult to the point of the gamer feeling a real accomplishment after completing a level (which of course is the point!). Yet, there is a clunky system of gathering coins in order to save (and even then it is only after you reach the "save point" in each stage). You may have to beat 3- 4 VERY difficult stages (often with only a few lives to work with) in order to save your progress. I don't care what the "times" were like...that makes for more frustration and less fun.

Overall, though, "Diddy's Kong Quest" manages to slide in slightly ahead of its predecessor (no easy feat). I always had a bit more fun playing this game than the first one.

This is another of my favorite video games of all time. Of course, after the phenomenal high swinging success of the first game a sequel was inevitable and this game followed up well. Personally, I think the game is equal to its predecessor but I kind of like it a bit more due to a few improvements it has, which is why I rank the game a little high on my personal ranking list.

There isn't a whole lot I can say as the game isn't really that different from the first which is fine by me as it goes with the old saying, "if it's not broke don't fix it." It has the same graphical presentation and gameplay, but the sequel has a few additions and improvements that showcase how this truly is a new chapter. Really like the Will Vinton like character models, their liveliness and humor, one of my favorite moments is seeing Diddy be box or Dixie rock on the guitar every time they clear a level, yeah, those victories I accomplished made me want to that also.

For one thing the game has more of the swashbuckling adventure theme as we see our simian hero and heroine fighting against Pirates, which is cool as I like Pirate adventures and the pulp adventure stories that have to do with long ago hidden treasure. The music is also still great there are still memorable tracks as it this time has the swashbuckling theme and there is also still the relaxation feel to them to take the frustration off but also a few more relaxation tracks to add on.

Gameplay is still the same, with the same control, some of the same animals to ride but some new ones like a spider wearing Nike or Reebok shoes and shoots out deadly webs. You still have the different themed levels which each have different challenges my personal favorite is the amusement park level and stages as I always love amusement parks there is just also so much you can do in those places. The design of the stages and levels I feel is an improvement, you still have the linear point A to B romp but they don't make it a straight path this time as its slightly nonlinear or at least seems that way. And of course, they are all not without those secrets, there are probably still a few I have yet to uncover.

It still has the medium hard difficulty which is fine by me as I honestly wouldn't want it any other way, but like I said that's just me being a veteran of the platform action genre. This doesn't put me off because it's still fair and manageable.

Despite a change in character as Donkey Kong isn't around this time, in fact he's the person in peril to rescue. But I didn't mind as it's expected in franchise sequel where the main character/s from the previous film don't always come back because their story is over and also the title of the franchise is "Donkey Kong Country" where it's not solely about Donkey Kong but more the world he inhabits. Also, the addition of a new character/s help in keeping the franchise fresh but also mean new opportunities to utilize and new stories to explore.

Really like the new character Dixie Kong, makes sense that Diddy would have a girlfriend which is fair as Donkey Kong has Candy Kong. Diddy and Dixie are like a lot of anamorphic duo dynamic couples like Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Buster and Babs Bunny, etc.

Anyway, really like the new edition Dixie as her main thing is having her hair which is as long as "Sailor Moon" being her primary weapon. I know it's so daft, hair as a weapon but I love that as it's a non cliche weapon, the only other time I've seen hair as a weapon was in the NES game "Kabuki Quantum Fighter" (game I reviewed). How the heck here hair can be a lethal weapon is anyone guess, may 'be her strands have superhuman strength. But with this hair she can use it as a helicopter propeller to slow her descent and to help get from point A to B. But also use it as an attack weapon to club away enemies but also pick up barrels with her hair, yeah not kidding. This makes her good with offense as her throws have a long distance.

Donkey Kong's Country just got a lot bigger with this sequel.

Rating: 4 stars.

As good as the first one, and certainly superior to the follow up. The game has more depth to it, with the addition of "Hero" coins and the "Lost World". The one criticism I could make is the music. Despite the game being made in 1995, the music sounds more like it's from 1985!