Donkey Kong Country (1994)

DONKEY KONG DIARIES 007: REPTILE RUMBLE

You may have read all these entries in the Donkey Kong Diaries with a pretty boilerplate question: Is Alex any good at Donkey Kong Country?

Yes. I am good at Donkey Kong Country.

I don’t bring this up to brag but to bring up how when you are “good” at a game or when the challenge disappears, the fun can often disappear with it. If you have kids, you may know what I mean. I have four children, one for every playable character in the original Rare DKC series. I have played Tic Tac Toe with all four of my children. I love my kids, but I hate playing Tic Tac Toe. I know exactly which square to put my X or O every single turn. There is no more playful consideration or curious defeat. Just dead-eyed optimal X/O placement in the name of parenting.

Now Donkey Kong Country is quite a bit more complicated than Tic Tac Toe, but the point remains. There are many proper video games that I “got gud” at and lost interest in. Even genuinely excellent games like Hades lost their luster when I got skilled enough that the Pact of Punishment wasn’t stopping me from killing my father, the devil.*

So now a new question may enter your mind. This new question is exciting and given the context, maybe it feels a little perverse: Does Alex actually enjoy playing Donkey Kong Country anymore?

Yes. And the reason I do even though the challenge is gone is because of the game design on display in Reptile Rumble.

Now Reptile Rumble is not going to top anybody’s “Best Levels in the Donkey Kong Country Series” list. It isn’t even one of the top ten levels in DKC 1. But it is encouraging for the player as it signals two design philosophies that will remain throughout the rest of the game. I call these philosophies “Variety is the Spice of Games” and “Bumpy Difficulty is Ideal for Pacing”.

No, I do not have formal game design training.

Variety is the Spice of Games

While I don’t have any formal training in game design, I have made plenty of levels in Super Mario Maker 1 and 2. If you are unfamiliar, those are games for the Wii U, 3DS, and Switch where you can, uh, make Mario. If you grew up drawing Mario levels in chalk on the sidewalk in front of your house as I did, these games are a dream come true. When designing levels in Super Mario Maker, you are given the option to change the levels’ theme.

For example, you can make your level a ghost house in the style of Super Mario World.

Or you can make your level an airship in the style of Super Mario Bros 3.

Heck, if you’re feeling silly, you can even make your level a snow level in the style of Super Mario Bros 1 even though there were no snow levels in Super Mario Bros 1!

This is genuinely really fun! But if all you do to change your level from a New Super Mario Bros U Desert level to a Super Mario World Forest level is toggle the theme, the results will feel hollow.

The only thing that is changing is the aesthetic. The look is different, sure, but the level as a whole is the same. Mario will make the same jumps, be able to get the same power-ups, stomp the same enemies, etc.

This is something I really appreciate about Donkey Kong Country’s implementation of its themes. While there are all the obvious aesthetic differences in the caves like stalagmites and stalactites and rock columns (and an ethereal score from David Wise which will be discussed in the next DKD), Reptile Rumble shows how caves as an environment are designed differently from jungles.

The jungle stages offer this wide-open natural setting. There is never a ceiling to the jungle levels, and there is often no floor. You look down in the jungle levels of DKC and there is an abyss below the treetops you’re leaping between. Reptile Rumble introduces you to the caves which are the opposite. There is an almost constant rocky floor accompanied by a stone ceiling. The ceiling sometimes is so low that Donkey and Diddy must crawl to make it to the next section of the cave.

While this level does mimic the claustrophobia of an actual cave by confining you, you may wonder how this makes for interesting platforming when you aren’t jumping between platforms. The answer is bouncing Kritters. The bouncing Kritters force you to navigate these tight spaces carefully as they skip around. But the level gives you an opportunity to even the playing field by scattering spring-like tires all throughout the level.

The result is a level that feels nothing like the previous two levels. It’s cramped and jumpy compared to the last level’s open rope-swinging escapades. And Coral Capers, the next level, is nothing like any of the levels that precede it. Donkey Kong Country doesn’t have endless variety, but it does utilize its different styles of traversal, different environments, different enemies, etc. to make you feel like you are constantly doing something new. This is why it is important that DKC practices its second design philosophy.

Bumpy Difficulty is Ideal for Pacing

Ropey Rampage (the second level) is harder than Jungle Hijinxs (the first level). This is pretty well agreed upon. However, the difficulty level gets murky after that. I can say confidently that Platform Perils (the last non-boss level in DKC) is harder than pretty much everything that came before it, but it isn’t a straight line to the most difficult level in the game. Often there is a bunny hop in difficulty which allows for a more natural pacing to the game. Reptile Rumble is the perfect example of this.

Let’s break down some difficulty numbers. You must jump 2 chasms in Jungle Hijinxs (1st level), at least 9 chasms in Ropey Rampage (2nd level), and then only 2 chasms in Reptile Rumble (3rd level). There are 15 enemies in Jungle Hinjinxs, 24 enemies in Ropey Rampage, and 24 in Reptile Rumble. However, 7 of the 24 enemies in Reptile Rumble are Slippas, the snake enemy that is trounced by even the slightest jumps. There are 2 DK barrels (the item that gives you a simian partner) in Jungle Hijinxs and Ropey Rampage while there are 3 in Reptile Rumble.

I could continue going through cold numbers, but I think the point has been made. Reptile Rumble, the 3rd level, is an easier level than Ropey Rampage, the 2nd level. The number of enemies and tight confines make it a bit more difficult than Jungle Hijinxs, but Reptile Rumble is not a hard level by any metric. I think this is good.

If every stage was suffering through a more and more grueling gauntlet, I would quit. That doesn’t sound like a game to me. That sounds like weightlifting. Donkey Kong Country wisely pulls back on difficulty from time to time. It does this to great effect when introducing a new environment. This way you can soak in the new music, art, and enemies instead of constantly being on guard.

A reason that DKC still resonates with players is despite its silliness and conventional genre, it is a game that knows it is a work of art. It invites you to appreciate it, and clearly, I think there is a lot to be appreciated. If the game was constantly getting harder, you wouldn’t have opportunities to stop and cherish it.

I feel like I could say a lot more about why I think a straight increase in difficulty is not better than a bumpy path, but this is already the longest entry of the DKD so I’ll save more of a discussion on this for later.

In Conclusion!

Playing Donkey Kong Country has become muscle memory for me. My fingers press the inputs seemingly without a conscious thought entering my 32-year-old mind. However, I still love it. I love it for the reasons I listed above. I love it for the reasons I’ve listed before. I love it for the reasons I’ll list in future entries of the Donkey Kong Diaries. Yes, I am good at the game. Yes, the challenge is gone. Regardless of the answer to those questions, I still think there is so much fun to be had in Donkey Kong Country.

Maybe a final question has entered your mind. This question is more sinister than the ones that came before: What about games that Alex is bad at? Does he like any of those?

No. They are all bad and poorly designed, and I hate them.

*I loved Hades, but do not expect a follow-up series to the Donkey Kong Diaries called “the Hades Handbook”

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DONKEY KONG DIARIES 006: CRANKY KONG, HIS CABIN, AND HIS THEME

Note: I will not be going into Cranky’s lore for this entry, but it is important to know that Cranky is the original Donkey Kong and that the Donkey Kong you play as in Donkey Kong Country is Cranky’s grandson. Here is a clip of Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid finding this out.

Don(key Kong) Rickles was a beloved insult comic. If you are unfamiliar with insult comedy, it is where you insult someone, uh, to be funny. Maybe the appeal of this is lost on you, but I always found Rickles’ comedy to be about the silliness of ego. It reveals the truth of how silly it is for you to think you’re better than me. How funny it would be if I thought I was better than you. This is perhaps best remembered by his Rabbi who wrote an obituary for Rickles. The obit closes “the world has not only lost someone who made us laugh; it will have lost someone who saw people the way we aspire to be seen: flawed but resilient, and all, ultimately, the same.”

Cranky Kong is also a beloved insult comic. If you go to visit him at his cabin, you’ll hear plenty of jabs. To Donkey Kong, he may say “Donkey Kong, I've seen enough! That tie-- turn it off!” He may say about you, the player, that “you wouldn't know a good game if you were in it!” He even derides the very game that he is in by saying things like “Look!...look at this!... as I rock, my beard swings! Waste of frames in my opinion!” Cranky has a lot of dialogue for a character in a SNES game so you may not hear those exact slights, but you will hear him cast some aspersions.

DKC does go out of its way to show that Cranky isn’t all bad. He says “You’ve made an old man proud” when you beat the game and that you’re “nearly as good as I used to be” when you complete the game. However, let’s not delude ourselves. Cranky is cranky. Unlike Rickles, Cranky Kong is not playing a rude character. Cranky Kong is a rude character.

In my opinion, the final word in that last sentence is the critical one. Cranky is a character. I think we can laugh at Cranky because we are in on the joke with the developers. Cranky is coming from this skewed nostalgia that the game doesn’t feel the need to comment on because of how ridiculous he sounds. Cranky sees his kidnapping of Pauline back in the original Donkey Kong as heroics to be emulated. Cranky thinks games have been getting worse since the original Donkey Kong. Cranky doesn’t like all the colors in DKC and prefers shades of grey.

Cranky is a character that the game implicitly tells you to laugh at. Maybe you know someone who reminds you of Cranky. The game implicitly is telling you to laugh at them too. After all, DKC teaches us that it is laughable when someone acts this way. The game shows Cranky’s hubris as absurd. This even extends to the look of his cabin.

Cranky’s cabin is pretty ramshackle and unremarkable. But there are three little details I like as they build into Cranky’s entertaining, arrogant curmudgeon character. First off, he literally is sitting in a rocking chair on his front porch. Rare showed amazing restraint by not including a line for Cranky where he tells you to get off his lawn. Second, Cranky keeps the giant banana you get when you beat a boss outside the cabin. He’s showing off the one he has, but you’ll get several throughout your journey. Finally, he has a red Nintendo logo hung lopsided above his door. Maybe this is a sign from his time in the original Donkey Kong games, but that was a long time ago as the disrepair seems to indicate.

So is that my take?

Cranky is old and pathetic, haha, point and laugh?

I mean that’s not NOT my point. I do think these things about Cranky were included to be funny and to poke fun at the retro gaming elitists. It’s nice that the game includes this depiction as nearly 30 years after DKC’s release, DKC now has its own retro gaming elitists who complain about games today. These people are Cranky now, and yes, you can laugh at them.

I would feel bad though if I closed out without exploring the fact that Cranky is more than his complaints. He gives you tips on how to navigate the game, how to beat enemies, and how to find bonus rooms. He does occasionally offer you words of support. And although his nostalgia is viewed as goofy, the game does highlight one thing it also appreciates about the original Donkey Kong.

Whenever you visit Cranky Kong, you get to hear David Wise’s musical arrangement titled “Cranky’s Theme”. It is the same tune you hear Cranky cranking out of his gramophone during the game’s title sequence. This arrangement features Wise’s signature instrumental pass-offs as a clarinet and piano take turns playing a singular melody. These instruments are backed by what sounds to be a xylophone, a bass, and eventually a synthesizer. It’s a wonderful little song, but it isn’t Wise’s. The song is a playful recreation of the original Donkey Kong’s opening theme.

This song was written by Yukio Kaneoka who was a sound engineer at Nintendo. He did everything noise related from sound effects to composing to even designing the audio processing unit for the Famicom. He also wrote the iconic Mario Bros arcade theme. The last game Kaneoka worked on was F-Zero in 1990. I tried to find out what happened to him after that, but the trail went cold. Why?

If the man wants privacy, of course, he can have privacy. It just seems to me that we have almost no information on Kaneoka because Nintendo and other companies of that era didn’t credit their staff properly. If you were making a video game in 1991, wouldn’t you want the guy who made the Mario Bros arcade theme to work on it? Heck, I would like that in 2023! But there is so little information on Kaneoka that I don’t know if the man is still alive.

I’ve been a Nintendo game appreciator my entire life, and I had never even heard Kaneoka’s name until a couple of days ago. While I find Cranky’s self-aggrandizing nostalgia to be silly, I admit that he is right about this song’s elegance. Yukio Kaneoka’s work deserves to be heard, and his name deserves to be remembered. And if that makes me a nostalgic fool, then call me Cranky Kong.

Now get off my lawn!!

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DONKEY KONG DIARIES 005: ROPEY RAMPAGE

I don’t like Andor.

I’ve tried watching it twice now, and both times I couldn’t get through the first two episodes. I sat on this post for awhile thinking “do I really want to put out into the world that I don’t like this beloved show?” I’m not saying it is bad. Frankly, I’ve heard enough people rave about it that I can say it is probably good. But based off the first couple episodes, it just isn’t for me.

Maybe the show changes from those first couple episodes I didn’t enjoy, but I’ve taken them as a warning of the kind of show that will follow. A show that if it stays on that trajectory, then it will remain “not for me”

Of course, this isn’t a series of essays about “pre-original trilogy Star Wars”. That would be my other series- The Jar Jar Journals. This is the Donkey Kong Diaries. I bring up Andor to explore how it is good to acknowledge when something isn’t for you. Sometimes we get caught in the psychological trap of believing if we don’t like something, it is therefore bad. Speaking personally, the idea that something can be objectively bad can stem from the amount of frustration one has to sit through.

So if you are frustrated by the difficulty of Ropey Rampage, Donkey Kong Country just might not be for you.

I say this not to be cruel or to withhold Donkey Kong, a guy whom I think rocks, from you. I say this to spare you the frustration of playing a game that get progressively more difficult until you reach its (delightful) credits. I want you to have fun. For some people, the game is just too challenging to be fun.

Ropey Rampage, Donkey Kong Country’s second level, does attempt to warn you of the demanding journey ahead in 3 ways.

Arduous Aesthetics

Donkey Kong Country reuses 13 different environment styles across its 41 levels. I’m sure there are technical, creative, and budgetary reasons that we don’t get a brand spanking new environment every level, but I don’t notice it too much as there are differences even within the environmental styles. The previous level, Jungle Hijinxs, takes place on a bright and sunny day in the Jungle terrain. Ropey Rampage also takes place in the Jungle. However, Ropey Rampage features Donkey and Diddy trekking through a night time storm. There is no umbrella animal companion to protect you from the elements. There is no flash light power up to guide you through the dark. DKC tells the player that some walks aren’t during the bright midday. Some necessary walks are during a midnight tempest. The visuals are functioning as a warning of the difficulties that await you, but they also reflect the change in challenge we see in the rest of the level.

Trying Terrain

Jungle Hijinxs has two necessary chasm leaps. One is from an elevated level, so if you forget to jump but are running, you will still land on the platform below. Ropey Rampage has 9 necessary jumps. And that is the minimum number of jumps that you would make if you are intimately familiar with this level. You will most likely make more than double that number of jumps going from still ropes to tree tops, tree tops to swinging rope, swinging ropes to bouncing off a kremling’s head to tree tops… all over bottomless death pits! There are more enemies in Ropey Rampage as well. There are 24 enemies in Ropey Rampage compared to Jungle Hinjinxs’ measly 15 enemies. The enemies are tougher as well as Ropey Rampage introduces zingers, the spiky bees who you cannot jump on. In every way, Ropey Rampage is exponentially more difficult than Jungle Hijinxs.

The Real Challenge

I still haven’t mentioned that DKC has two difficulty levels. The second difficulty level isn’t found in an option in a menu but instead is communicated through its menus. When Donkey Kong hovers over a level on the lower level select screen, the level may end its title with an exclamation mark. The exclamation mark is the game’s way of telling you if you’ve found everything there is to find in that level that it counts toward completion. The game even shows you your completion percentage every time you start your file back up. Donkey Kong Country is pushing you not just to beat it, but to complete it. DKC’s first difficulty level is to beat it. However, the game prompts you to engage with its harder difficulty level- to complete it.

What do you need to do to complete a level of Donkey Kong Country?

You need to find all the bonus rooms.

Maybe you remember the bonus rooms in Jungle Hijinxs. Both bonus rooms you will run into by design as long as you uncrate Rambi the Rhino. They feel more like a change in the pace of the level than proper secrets.

The bonus rooms in Ropey Rampage aren’t of that ilk. Instead, one bonus room is accessible through a barely visible barrel peaking out of a bottomless death pit while the other is accessible through a barrel that isn’t even on screen while taking the normal path. Instead it hides far below the treetops you are jumping between. It is very unlikely that you would find either of these bonus rooms if you’re just trying to get to the end of the level. You only find them when you go from adventurer to investigator.

The Value of Difficulty

Ropey Rampage is nowhere near the most difficult level in the game. As I said, if Ropey Rampage is too hard for you, maybe just opt out of playing DKC and just read these. Sometimes things just aren’t for you.

My first memory of a DKC game was playing Diddy’s Kong Quest at a FuncoLand as a child. Two of the teen employees were trying and failing to beat a level in Krazy Kremland. I was watching as they struggled life after life. I asked in a small voice if I could try. I beat the level after a few tries. One of them turned to my mom who had brought me to FuncoLand and told her “your son is gifted”.

I don’t really think I am gifted. Donkey Kong Country was built for a person like me. There are other renowned games that just don’t speak to me. For example, I just do not understand the appeal of the Witcher 3 which is one of the most acclaimed games of the PS4/Xbox One/Wii U generation. Friends have told me that I don’t like it because of the difficulty, but I just don’t think it is designed with my brain in mind.

I think it is good to remember this when we face frustrations in video games and in life. Sometimes resistance is our warning of the trials ahead. It can be our opportunity to reflect upon the task at hand and judge if it is really something we want to invest our time in. It’s okay if the answer to that question is no- even if loudmouths say otherwise.

I say all this so tomorrow you don’t listen to Cranky when he tells you that you just need to ‘git gud’ while whacking you on the head.

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DONKEY KONG DIARIES 004: DK ISLAND SWING

If you ask your neighborhood Donkey Kong zealot who the Stampers are, they probably will not know that they are the founders of Rare and the directors of Donkey Kong Country. But if you even begin to mention David Wise, they will begin shouting “Dude, Aquatic Ambience!” Or “Bro, Stickerbrush Symphony!” Maybe their fanatical response says to you that this is some sort of cult for millennial meatheads. However, I am here to tell you “Guys! Grassland Groove!”

Also, I want to tell you that they are right. I believe that DKC has many defining traits, but none so pronounced and enduring as David Wise’s eclectic musical score. There is perhaps no song in the DKC soundtrack that proves this as well as DK Island Swing.

DK Island Swing is made up of three sections. Wise said in a 2013 Super Marcato Bros podcast appearance that this is because he originally wrote the three sections as three songs. Wise was under the impression that the pieces would be presented by Rare Ware to Nintendo as a part of a tech demo. However, Wise was asked by Rare to combine these three tracks into one for their presentation. You might think that such a request would create something dissonant, but in Wise’s hands, the song has become one of Donkey Kong’s major musical themes.

Let’s actually break this song down.

Wild Debut

When the song starts, you are greeted with a simple albeit energetic beating drumbeat along with the sound of an insect chirping and a tropical bird’s mating call. The ambient sounds of a jungle are brought into the beat. Ambience in video games is something that has been focused on more and more in recent times. Ambience is the natural feeling of a space. Ambience is how the sound of the waves crashing on the beach in Animal Crossing: New Horizons really drives home the peace of fishing. Ambience is how the sound of the wind rustling the trees in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild makes you feel like you are in a breezy forest. It’s the cabs honking and distant sirens in Grand Theft Auto making you feel like you are in a real city.

I believe what is happening at the beginning of DK Island Swing is a step further than ambience. As the drumbeat becomes more complex adding in what my untrained ear hears as a woodblock and a hi-hat, the ambient noises fade away. It is as if the ambient sounds create a song that lives in Donkey Kong’s head and we are invited into that conversion. When that conversion from noise to notes is completed, we enter into the swing.

The Swingin’ Segment

Bass enters the song with a very simple plucking pattern. When the bass begins to repeat the pattern, a synth joins in and adds a sense of intrigue. Before we can sit with that too long, the bass breaks free from its pattern and begins a starring role. Before we can sit with that too long, a piano plays along for a measure before trilling into a harpsichord playing the main theme. At this point, you’ve been playing the level for a full minute as the song builds nonstop- never resting on an idea too long. Also, Wise is pulling some sound engineering banana-nanigans here because the SNES had 8 dedicated sound channels, but as the theme continues, you hear two more distinct-sounding horns. If you’ve been keeping track of the instruments in this song that my ear recognizes, we’re at 11 instruments. I assume there is some channel sharing here which is technically interesting, but more importantly you’re feeling this big band coming out of this tiny soundchip. You were expecting to play in the jungle, but now you are dancing in a New Orleans jazz bar- sweat just pouring down your back. This song moves in such a delightfully unexpected way, but it isn’t finished.

Ethereal Eventide

A warning horn blows out at a minute and 25 seconds to let the other party animals know that night is falling. The sounds shift into something more mysterious, tense, and dangerous. The seriousness of DK’s journey dwells among you as the song comes to its close. Instruments drops out until the song fades away…

Until you hit 2 minutes and 46 seconds and the second movement starts up again.

Aura and Aftermath

Despite three very different sounding movements that were originally written as separate songs, I love how this song comes together. It feels like you are watching a montage of Donkey and Diddy’s exploits. You hear the pounding jungle adventures. You hear the silliness and fun. You hear the perils that await them. After these three songs were rearranged into one, they feel like they are all in service to a nine-ish second theme that starts a minute and five seconds into the song and only plays twice. Everything before that feels like (exciting) build-up, and everything after that feels like (spooky) tear-down. That nine-ish second theme is this song's legacy.

David Wise used those nine-ish seconds again in DKC 2’s Token Tango

Grant Kirkhope used those nine-ish seconds again in Donkey Kong 64’s Jungle Japes

The whole song gets a new arrangement by Hirokazu Ando for Super Smash Bros' Congo Jungle.

By my count, we have an arrangement of DK Island Swing showing up in 45 different games, in 36 different arrangements, done by 12 different composers with no signs of stopping any time soon.

And you want to know what is perhaps the wildest about this? This is nowhere near one of the most celebrated of Wise’s tracks. But maybe the next time your neighborhood meathead millennial shouts “GANG-PLANK GALLEON”, you can respond “DK ISLAND SWING!!!”

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DONKEY KONG DIARIES 003: JUNGLE HIJINXS

I could go on a rant about it, but people use the term “Grammar Nazi” because they hate Nazis, not because they love grammar. Yea, I don’t know why the level is called Jungle Hijinxs either. They kept the name in both the GBC and GBA versions of the game.

Look, we don’t play Donkey Kong Country to learn. We play Donkey Kong Country to have a good time. The only word we need to know how to spell is KONG!

Jungle (sigh) Hijinxs is the first level in Donkey Kong Country. First levels in platformers like DKC carry the heavy burden of essentially explaining the game. Not every gameplay mechanic or theme should be present in the first level, but the basics of the game need to be taught to the player. We don’t play DKC to learn, but we do have a good time while the game secretly teaches us. This is where level design enters the conversation. And like everything gaming-wise, it is easiest to explain by talking about Mario.

In the first level of Super Mario Bros, you come across a chicken nugget and a ceiling of blocks. Maybe the chicken nugget’s angry eyebrows aren’t enough to convince you that the chicken nugget wants to murder you, and you spend your very first life in Mario dying to the chicken nugget. That’s okay! You start with three lives, and the start of that game is generous with lives. In your second life, you are a bit wiser, and you jump over the chicken nugget. However, the ceiling of blocks sends you right back down to defeat that same chicken nugget. This teaches you two things-

1. That when you are little Mario, you can’t break the blocks.
2. If you jump on a chicken nugget, you smoosh it.

Now maybe you even jumped and hit the question mark block or maybe hitting the first bricky block piqued your interest, and you decide to hit that question mark block. Regardless, if you hit the question mark block, a mushroom will pop out. There is a pipe up ahead that will redirect the mushroom towards you. You might be afraid of the mushroom because of your experience with the chicken nugget. But you can’t run backwards. The screen won’t follow you backwards. If you try to jump to avoid the mushroom, the blocks will send you back down. With experience, you can avoid the mushroom, but you will most likely touch the mushroom. This teaches you that mushrooms make you grow. You’ve now learned three lessons about how Super Mario Bros works while just running off instinct. That is smart level design for a first level trying to teach you how to play.

Jungle Hinjinxs is full of smart decisions like this. Let me name a few.

The first thing that happens is Donkey Kong bursts forth from his treehouse. This teaches you that the treehouse is a space that DK can be in. Should you re-enter the treehouse to see what is going on, you are treated to a lot of nice context for DK, can play around with a bouncy tire, and collect an extra life.

You may even try to enter the cave under DK’s treehouse after you realize there are enterable areas. This is where DK’s banana horde should be and DK will respond to the empty cave by sorrowfully shaking his head. You’re getting even more context for DK and now for the adventure you are about to embark on.

Like with Super Mario Bros, DK will naturally walk into an enemy. However, there are no chicken nuggets in Donkey Kong Country. This is an enemy known as a gnawty. DKC gives you options as to how to handle this enemy, but the game forces you to handle the enemy as the gnawty is in your way. You can either jump or roll to avoid/beat the gnawty.

You next will come across a barrel with the DK initials on the outside. It is shaking, and you hear the sounds of some kind of primate stuck inside. All of this is to get you to take the time to click and see which button will release Diddy from the barrel. However, if you already figured out how to run and are missing these sensory clues, you will automatically pick up the barrel by holding the run button. However, you might not realize that you need to throw it…

When you next come across a gnawty, you will likely jump because you did the first time or because you are now holding a barrel and can’t roll. This time you’ll land on a platform above the gnawty. If you are holding the barrel, you may accidentally smash the barrel into a green kritter, another enemy. This teaches you another way to dispose of enemies and how to free your primate partner. Also, you will see a shiny gold K which introduces level-specific collectibles.

If you instead try to click the roll button again, you will throw the barrel and beat the gnawty. This teaches you yet another way to beat enemies and free Diddy.

This level is chock full of enough little lessons to fill up a school day, but let me tell you about my favorite one.

You will later come across a crate with a picture of a rhino’s head on the outside, much like the barrel with DK’s initials. However, this box cannot be picked up. Theoretically, you could make it to this point without learning how to jump, but the crate will only be destroyed once you jump on it. Once you do, you’ll begin riding Rambi, one of your animal companions. Rambi is imposing like, uh, all charging rhinos. When he lands after a jump, the whole screen shakes. Despite this, you might not assume that Rambi can break down walls. That is why one of Rambi’s first obstacles is a crevasse to be leapt. If you are running, Rambi will naturally run into a destructible wall on the other side of the crevasse. You will from here enter a bonus room full of bananas. If you learn the lesson that Rambi can destroy walls, the very next wall outside the bonus room is destructible and leads to a second bonus room, this one with a mini-game! The game is teaching you and rewarding you with each new moment.

Shortly after the ride with Rambi, you get a final lesson, but not one taught by level design, but one that is taught by sheer splendor. When you reach the end of the level, the sun sets off in the distance. The background, foreground, and your playable simian all darken with nightfall. It’s serene. You learn that Donkey and Diddy’s adventure is a little closer to the real world than Mario. Despite all of Super Mario’s level design, I can’t think of a single time in 35 years that you could play as Mario while the sun sets. DK did that almost 30 years ago.

Good game design teaches you without you even realizing you’re learning. DKC is a physics professor laying on a bed of nails while you and your classmates cheer and make TikTok reels... I assume this is a thing that happens at school now.

You may be saying “Alex, MrAlexGeo, GeorgeyPoorgey, the GeorgeMeister, Doctor Kong- the music of the Donkey Kong Country series is iconic, and you didn’t talk about it once. What sort of banana-nanigans (the DK way of waying shenanigans) is this?” Well dear reader, I’ll tell you what sort of banana-nanigans this is. Most of the songs on this soundtrack get reused on multiple levels. Rather than highlighting them every time, I’m going to give these melodies a diary entry of their own. David Wise’s wonderful musical score will get plenty of exploration in the Donkey Kong Diaries. Any Donkey Kong Country retrospectives that forget Wise’s work are hijinxs I want no part of.

What?

I said it with an S?

Oh no. I, uh, I have to go.

My Other Entries in the DKD

DONKEY KONG DIARIES 002- LEVEL SELECT SCREENS

Throughout this series of essays I’ve dubbed “The Donkey Kong Diaries”, I will describe why I believe that DKC is an excellent series that should be given to any aliens that visit our planet to show that we are good-natured and care about our banana hordes. “But that’s just your opinion man” totally applies. In order to keep this from devolving into me just pounding my chest and hollering like DK, I will use objective facts to help explain why I hold my subjective belief that the Donkey Kong Country series should be shown to the aliens before we show them the Mona Lisa. Here is an example of what I mean.

Objectively speaking, Donkey Kong Country and its sequels have level select screens.

Subjectively speaking, level select screens are good and the Donkey Kong Country series has especially good level select screens.

Maybe you disagree with my subjective conclusion, but I’d like to explain why I think the way I do. Here are three objective facts that lead me to my subjective conclusion that DKC will end the cold war between us and the aliens of Enceladus.

1. Objectively speaking, Donkey Kong Country has a level select screen for its level select screen. When you start a new file in Donkey Kong Country and finish picking the requisite options, you will be taken to a screen where you view the titular island “Donkey Kong Country”, canonically known as Donkey Kong Island or Kong Isle. From here you can pick out an unlocked terrain that houses challenges for Donkey and Diddy. I’ll differentiate between these two tiers of level select screens moving forward by calling them upper and lower level select screens. Subjectively speaking, I love this upper level select screen. Of course it accomplishes the tasks of any good level selection screen. It creates a natural pacing that the player controls. It helps categorize the levels by terrain and organize the levels by rough difficulty. This is just the nature of level select screens. Super Mario Bros 3’s and Super Mario World’s level selection screens accomplish all of this as well. But something those games don’t do that Donkey Kong Country does is create a cohesive world. Donkey Kong Country’s upper level select screen accomplishes this feeling by showing us the entire island. You can get excited about the cliffside factory or the icy alps or the dark forest. And when you eventually get to those spaces, it doesn’t feel like a random level. It feels like you’re on a road trip and you exited the monkey residential area and entered the Kremling industrial area. The world feels like it makes sense, and I thank the upper level select screen for that.

2. Objectively speaking, Donkey Kong Island’s upper level select screen is also a colossal sculpture in the shape of Donkey Kong’s head. To be more specific, Donkey Kong Island is shaped like the head of the Donkey Kong who appears in Donkey Kong Country and not the head of the Donkey Kong who appears in DKC. Subjectively speaking, Donkey Kong Island being shaped like this Donkey Kong’s head creates an air of importance to what we are doing. As we discussed yesterday, Donkey Kong is not really an icon upon the release of DKC. Sure, the original Donkey Kong arcade cabinet was very popular, but that was a different Donkey Kong. That Donkey Kong didn’t have a heavy brow but a smooth forward. That Donkey Kong didn’t have a famous smile but instead had a constant frown. And perhaps most critically, that Donkey Kong was a villain, while this Donkey Kong is a hero. I see there being only three options as to how the island was sculpted in such a manner. The animals of the island sculpted it to look like that, God in their infinite wisdom shaped the island to look that way, or DK himself carved the island. Only in the least likely of the three scenarios is DK not a beloved, possibly divine hero.

Maybe this whole line of thinking seems silly to you but remember- Super Mario Galaxy 2 has Mario riding around on a miniature planet shaped like his head. According to an Iwata Asks, having Mario ride around on a spaceship planet of his own head was important. You might think I’m ridiculous, but do you think that way about Yoshiaki Koizumi?

Didn’t think so!

1. Objectively speaking, Donkey Kong Country’s lower level select screen reflects the levels you will play. It is certainly subjective how reflective you find the level select screen of the actual levels, but… Subjectively speaking, I find the details on the level select screen to be perfectly descriptive of what is going on in each level. Want to play the level where you start at DK’s house? Click the level on DK’s house. Want to play the cave level? Click the level on the cave. Want to play the water level? I don’t think I need to tell you where to click. I love Super Mario Bros 3 as much as the next person, but can you tell me the level’s core mechanic based on the map?

If you can, you’re a better man (woman or non-binary folk) than me! I love Mario 3, but I wish I knew which level had the angry sun just by looking at the overworld map. I want to have Mario bounce around in the Kuribo’s shoe, but I don’t want to go on google and search “Uh, which level is that green shoe in?” In Donkey Kong Country, you just look at the map and see.

All of these objective components do lead me to my subjective conclusion, but I’d like to highlight a final subjective factor. We’ll be coming back to this subjective matter a lot throughout these diary entries- David Wise’s music here just absolutely rocks.

I have sat and listened to this song for over an hour today and am not even slightly sick of it. I think it would be fair to call this song muzak/elevator music, but I think that fits the vibe the game is going for. You’re waiting on the elevator with your next floor being an action-packed level of DKC. You can really hear David Wise working within the confines of the SNES on this track titled “Simian Segue”. You have a jazzy piano trilling, a rhythmic shaker shaking, a funky horn blowing- they’re all just jamming out together albeit in midi form. And while the song is relatively short, there is enough playful variation that you get lost in the track. This is nowhere near Wise’s best work on the soundtrack or series, but he makes a meal out of what is essentially a menu.

Objective greatness is a fallacy. You can believe the Mona Lisa is a trash painting, and “that’s just your opinion, man”, but that is also fine. You can believe that, and you’re not, objectively speaking, wrong. I see this menu and hear this menu, and I just get excited. I’m excited to stomp Kremlings. I’m excited to ride minecarts. I’m excited to shake my butt to some groovy tunes. And I think you might feel the same way.

I definitely think the aliens will agree with me.

My Other Entries in the DKD

DONKEY KONG DIARIES 001- DKC BOX AND TITLE SEQUENCE

Imagine it is November 18th, 1994. Of course, it is not November 18th, 1994. It is March 1st, 2023. And you are certainly reading this at a future date. Maybe it is June 28th, 2158. I bet you’re freaked out if it is! Regardless of what day it is when you read this, I do know that you are not reading this on November 18th, 1994 so you must employ some level of imagination. I invite you to use your highest level of imagination.

It is November 18th, 1994. You just picked up Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo, and you have no idea what to expect. Donkey Kong as a franchise is distinguished yet dormant. Sure, Donkey Kong, the arcade cabinet, is in every pizza parlor your layabout uncle frequents, but it is being ignored as teens instead gather around Super Street Fighter II with quarters sweatily grasped- mentally reciting combos.

What had Donkey Kong done for me lately? Teach his despicable child math? That was 11 years ago! Who was Donkey Kong now? You didn’t expect Donkey Kong to stay the same. You knew he, like all of God’s creations, would change. But who had he become? You read the back of the box.

That didn’t clear up anything. You're not excited about “32 megs” or “battery-backed memory”. You don’t really even understand what all of that means. All you know is that Donkey Kong wears a red tie now. Does Donkey Kong work a 9-5 office job now? Does he take a minecart to work? Your dad pulls in front of the house, noticing your concerned expression.

“That is the one you wanted, right?” He asks with some concern of his own. He had just spent $55 of his own hard-earned cash, and now you had the gall to look concerned! I mean you are concerned, but you tell dad “Yea! Donkey Kong rules!” Does Donkey Kong rule? You don’t know. Mario rules, but he wasn’t pals with Donkey Kong. At least you didn’t think they were pals. Mario did invite Donkey Kong Jr. to come racing just two years ago. Maybe they buried the hatchet.

You hear dad’s door shut and wake up from your lore stupor. You quickly follow him inside. He tells you that he’s going to get lunch ready for you and you could play until then. Your mouth automatically responds “okay” while your feet carry you down- down into the basement depths. You turn on a floor light and the Hitachi TV. You haphazardly open up the box for Donkey Kong Country. You notice the instruction manual, but the time for foreplay is over. It is time to see what Donkey Kong Country is really all about. You’ll look at the instruction manual later.

You eject Mortal Kombat II from the bricky console, tossing the cartridge on the floor. Then, gingerly, you press the new DKC cartridge into the SNES’ slot. You exhale. It is the moment of truth. You slide the Power switch into the “On” position.

The iconic red construction girders are there, but now there is an old ape playing a gramophone. The song the ape plays as he twists the gramophone's crank is the classic title theme music to the home console version of Donkey Kong. It is a little melancholic, but not despairing. The old ape is tapping his foot along with the tune so it isn’t like the song is especially mournful, but this isn’t what the box promised. Yea, the ape (which you’ll soon learn is named Cranky Kong and then later learn is the original Donkey Kong) is in 3D, but you wouldn’t call a monkey tapping their toes in front of a black background “The most amazing 3D”. And the song is fine, but it certainly isn’t “incredible sound”. If anything, the song has the bits and boops that video games were moving away from. It didn’t compare to Megaman or Street Fighter or, heck, even vanilla Mario had better tunes. For the smallest moment, disappointment sets in.

Suddenly the beat changes. The gramophone is crushed by a boombox. A gorilla with a red necktie starts swinging from the ceiling. What is happening? Drums kick in and the music transitions into something vibrant, defiant, and new. The black backdrop fades and a bright jungle with moving clouds appears. This new Donkey Kong begins to dance and it isn’t a tapping of his toes. His whole body is moving. He’s alive in a way you’ve never seen a video games character live before. And although he wears a tie, he seems to have thrown his worry away. He’s liberated.

You’re still basking in the glow when a TNT barrel is tossed into your line of sight. An explosion occurs but the music keeps jamming. The title pops on the screen. Donkey Kong had in fact changed. He is a party dude who doesn’t care about nostalgia. He’s a friend of the young and an enemy of the old. He likes good music- like legitimately good music. You don’t know if you’ll like Donkey Kong Country, but you are certain that you like this new Donkey Kong.

It is no longer November 18th, 1994. It is now. Post-The Fablemans Seth Rogen is Donkey Kong. It may seem odd to think that Nintendo’s Donkey Kong was a mystery to gamers. When DK reappeared after an 11-year hiatus, he was no longer your father’s Donkey Kong. He was quite literally a different character. He represented the counterculture. He was exciting. He had a new look and a new sound that video game enjoyers couldn’t find elsewhere. And I believe, regardless of if you are reading this on March 1st, 2023 or June 28th, 2158- I believe that DKC offers something special. I look forward to highlighting that for you over the next…

Over 100 levels? That’s, uh, just a lie. There are like 40 levels. I figure this will take me about two months. Join me again tomorrow as we discuss… stage selection screens? Oh man, this is gunna take awhile.

My Other Entries in the DKD

A wonderful thing happened a year ago. I got promoted. I went from hourly to salary. I went from Night Audit to Night Manager.* It really did feel special and a small part of me believed it would be the end of my troubles. Maybe, I thought for the briefest of moments- maybe this is the end of my difficulties...

But then I had more difficulties! Specifically, I began to feel very creatively uninvolved. I had hoped to write 52 reviews this last year. I wrote less than half that. I used to have a podcast where I talked about Pokemon, and I was working on pixel art for my game. I was now doing none of that. I was a salaryman. I didn't have time for video games. I had suits to wear!

I would try to write, but instead I was deleting posts, unsure of my opinions. My perspective is my perspective after all, and I didn't want to disregard someone else's. I really felt uncertain about so much of what I like about video games that the only posts that survived were me saying stuff like "Diddy Kong for Mayor" or "Cranky is my homeboy". One of the only things I felt really certain about was DKC rules.

Which brings me to this project.

Tomorrow I will begin a new creative endeavor- The Donkey Kong Diaries!

Every day (that I remember) I will be writing a little Donkey Kong Country diary entry beginning with DKC1. Yes, we'll go level by level through the game, but I'm planning on going even more granular than that. Let's talk about menus. Let's talk about the Title Sequence. Let's talk about Funky Kong lore.

I'll begin this on March 1st and will do my best to update my DK Diary every day. If people seem to respond to the entries on DKC1, you know I'd love to keep this journal going through Tropical Freeze!

To reiterate- The Donkey Kong Diaries will begin on March 1st. I hope you'll tune in to read it. Your feedback would be as valuable to me as a cave full of bananas.

*I did get promoted after becoming Night Manager to Housekeeping Manager. If things go the way I am hoping then in a couple weeks I'll be Food and Beverage Manager. Working at a private club is weird and no one should do it and I recommend it to everyone.